Storytelling For Influence: Takeaways From IDEO University’s Storytelling Course
Last year I asked an inspiring mentor…“what do you wish someone had told you early in your design career?”
Without hesitation, he offered a single piece of advice.
“get the ability to communicate a compelling story”
Those words echoed in my mind long after our conversation ended and I signed up for ‘Storytelling for influence’, a 5 week online course created by IDEO University.
IDEO’s storytelling course emphasises the importance of storytelling in business and how it can help companies connect with customers, build their brand, and communicate their vision.
So why is storytelling important?
Did you know that there’s actual cold, hard science behind how storytelling works? Apparently, narrative sticks in our brain, moves us, and increases empathy.
The science of storytelling shows that our human urge to understand others is because of survival. Storytelling can manipulate the human brain to produce intense emotions.
Storytelling can…
1. Move us; MRI scan machines(functional magnetic resonance imaging) show that certain language (e.g. descriptive and figurative) lights up neurological regions in our brains that incite action and movement.
2. Increase empathy; psychologists and neurologists have found that stories stimulate the parts of the brain that helps us intuit others’ thoughts and emotions.
3. Help us remember; when we hear powerful and emotional stories, our brain often releases dopamine. Dopamine helps us remember the experience with greater accuracy.
4. Encourage cooperation; our brain produces oxytocin after listening to a character-driven story. Oxytocin has been shown to help motivate us toward cooperation.
In short, stories can move, mobilise, & motivate people toward change & action.
The storytelling process
As I fully understood the power of storytelling (it made perfect sense why that mentor told me what he told me) I also became familiar with the storytelling process that you adopt in the course.
1. Write a brief for yourself
2. Build storytelling prototypes & gather feedback
3. Iterate to design for impact
Developing a brief for yourself
A storytelling brief is an action plan that clarifies who you’re talking to, what they care about, and what you’re trying to achieve.
You can write a brief for yourself by asking a few simple questions.
1. Who’s my audience?
2. What does my audience care about?
3. What am I trying to achieve, really?
4. What is my story really about, what’s the big idea?
Building storytelling prototypes
After you’ve written yourself a solid plan, you’re ready to create storytelling prototypes.
This may seem like a lot of work, but the truth is that storytelling prototypes can be something so simple like a written rough draft in your phone notes. Other examples can be a voice memo of your initial ideas, a rough visual storyboard or an outline created by post-its.
Gathering feedback
It’s now time to gather feedback. In the course we learned 4 questions to help you gather insightful feedback.
These 4 questions are..
1. What was most memorable?
2. What do you have questions about?
3. What motivated or moved you?
4. What was the big idea, in your opinion?
Write each piece of feedback on a post-it and then place it near the part of the story it refers to.
Iterating for impact
The last step in the process is to experiment with what works.
You might need to restructure certain main points, change the language used, add more context to certain bits or maybe you need to add some visuals. It’s all about making your points hit home so that your story can be as impactful as it can be.
Choosing a medium
The course is also talking about including call-to-actions and choosing the right medium based on the content, what you’re trying to achieve and who your audience is. Consider that people learn in different ways (e.g. hearing, seeing or doing) so I’ll give you some examples I could think of below…
- An interactive website
- A deck presentation
- An experience
- A physical space / physical prototype
- A blog or a book
- Audio e.g. podcast
- 10 second video e.g. TikTok
- 30 second video e.g. Instagram Reel
- 1h video e.g. a movie
My top 3 key takeaways…
1. Always start by creating your own blueprint (you wouldn’t start building a house without a plan — and neither should you tell a story without a proper brief. I’m sure you’ve heard the saying ‘’If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail’).
2. Play with structure. Move things around.
3. Iterate, iterate, iterate. Use clever questions to get insightful feedback.
Do I recommend this course?
I really do. Shortly after taking the course I facilitated a big presentation & workshop and I found it 10x times easier to plan and lead, thanks to the framework I learned with IDEO.
Storytelling tactics
I also wanted to share some additional things I’ve learned about storytelling outside of the course (mainly from the books The Science of Storytelling and Made to stick).
1. Always include characters. Us humans love characters and can often relate when wants and needs of the character contradicts.
2. Humans love meaningful goals.
3. Humans love character flaws.
4. Include plots in your story. A good story makes us wonder who a character really is.
5. Use simple inclusive language. Normal over formal.
6. Use examples, analogies and metaphors. To get your point across.
7. Include curiosity gaps. A compelling hint, leaving enough unanswered to pique interest and draw people in.
