What’s Your Story? A worksheet for developing …Try telling your story in a series of 140...

© Aaron Templer LLC Page ! of !1 12Storytelling WorkbookColorado Medical Society Spring Conference 2014

Colorado Medical Society 2014 Spring Conference © Aaron Templer LLC""

What’s Your Story? A worksheet for developing stories that engage and move

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“More and more, success is won by creating compelling stories that have the power to move people to action. Simply put, if you can’t tell it, you can’t sell it.” Peter Guber

Storytelling is a craft. Effective leaders understand the power of stories and like other leadership skills, powerful stories require thought and are created with intention. This workbook will help you process your story from an idea that’s meaningful to you into something meaningful to those you wish to motivate.

The Element Questions to ask

1. The pressing issue. In one sentence, describe the issue you’re tackling.

• Is your idea focused enough to create a clear message?

• Is this a political issue?• Is it a personal change issue? • How can you describe it

succinctly so that a person outside of this profession or industry can understand it?

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3. Your vision for the future. Describe the change that your compelling alternative will bring about.

• Is there a compelling alternative vision that will convince the audience to go through your change process?

• How do you make it clear enough that they can see it in their mind’s eye?

4. My intended change agents. Describe the people in the audience that your story is intended to reach and move.

• Who are the people you need to help you move your efforts forward?

• Have you described them specifically enough that you know where you can find them, what matters to them and why they should care?

2. Why the issue requires change. Describe the reason people should pay attention to your story.

• How can you describe this issue in an urgent enough way for people to want to change?

• How can you describe it in an important enough way for people to re-prioritize things in their lives?

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6. How they will benefit. Describe two rewards that your change agents will receive from making your proposed change.

• Have you described benefits for a person in my audience, specifically?

• Not their society, not their work environment, not their organization—them personally.

• How does change make their lives easier?

• How will this change help them achieve their goals?

7. Others involved in the change. List other groups that have a stake in the outcome.

• Have you considered the broad landscape of stakeholders?

• Can you anticipate the supporters and adversaries?

• Who might benefit from helping your change agents?

• Who will benefit by placing roadblocks?

5. Why my change agents are reluctant to change. Empathize with their existing biases and context.

• Who are their bosses? • What do they need to deliver to

them? • What are their investments—

financial, emotional, time-based—that keep them from letting go of their bias?

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9. How you want your change agents to feel. Describe the emotions that your change agents will experience during and after hearing your story.

• Will they be moved to tears? • Mad at something or someone? • So excited that they can no

longer sit still and must act?

10. What you want your change agents to do. Describe what your change agents will do after hearing your story.

• Are you specific in your desired outcome so that anyone can leave the story with a sense of direction?

• Can they do it—is it reasonable to expect?

• Can you simplify the expectation? Do they need help?

• Is it too hard? Too easy? • Will it bring about the change

you described above?

8. Your personal truth. Describe why you’re most authentic person to lead this change and tell this story.

• How has your personal story brought you to this place to lead this change?

• Why are you the right person? • Why should someone listen to

you? • Would you want to listen to

yourself?

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The Element Things to consider

11. The type of story you’ll tell. "☐ The Hero’s Journey A person is reluctantly called to action through a transformational event, meets a mentor, faces severe obstacles, almost turns back, but emerges from the other side better and wiser.

☐ Stranger In A Strange Land A person has been dropped into a new place, has to learn the norms, language, and/or rules. Some unfriendly locals provide severe challenges until s/he finds balance between their values and his/her own.

☐ Rags To Riches An everyday person beats the odds and takes on a well-established institution with some new technology or good ol’ fashioned elbow grease to find success.

☐ The Love Story Two people meet and one is out of the other’s league/class/group/accepted norms. They pursue their love anyway, are forced apart or one hurts the other, but there is forgiveness or reconciliation, and they get back together.

☐ The Tale Of Revenge A person works hard, is morally centered and, in general, does the right thing. Wrong things happen to him or her despite staying on the right path. Awakened to the reality that good isn’t always returned, the person finds peace through payback.

• Do you need to motivate your change agents to work hard and persevere?

• Will they face hardships? • Is there a degree of the

unknown which they need to be motivated to face?

• Are there new skills and knowledge that your change agents need to acquire?

• A certain learning curve that you need to motivate them to tackle?

• New rules that are better than the old ones that will require some effort to adopt?

• Is the end goal of your change some kind of financial success?

• Are your change agents motivated by financial freedom, either personally or by way of an increased budget?

• Does your change involve new partnerships, alliances, or mergers?

• Will they need to romance potential parters to buy into their vision?

• Do they need to prepare for the bumpy road of new relationships?

• Are your change agents facing a familiar foe or competitor that they see as playing dirty?

• Have they been wronged by an entity that works against their value system and now that entity is standing in their way?

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11. The source of your story. "1. A personal anecdote.

2. A famous story that inspires.

3. A famous story that is a good metaphor.

4. A true story that serves as a good illustration of your mission.

1. Within the industry, specialty, etc.

2. From a different industry, specialty, etc.

• Is your own story inspiring enough?

• Can you tell it with humility? • Will your change agents see

themselves in your shoes? • Is it broad enough to carry the

mission?

• Are enough people familiar with it for it to resonate?

• Does it have mass appeal?

• Are enough people familiar with it for it to resonate?

• Are there multiple interpretations of the metaphor?

• Will the metaphor be effective enough to carry through your mission?

• Is the central character of the story controversial and/or distracting?

• Is it a true success story? • Has the success been

sustained? • Is it broad enough to address

the key areas of your mission?

• Is your industry, specialty, etc. open to cross-pollinating ideas?

• Will they be distracted by questions of relevance?

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The Element What to consider

11. The structure of your story. "1. The main character (hero) and what s/he wants.

2. The villain.

3. The context.

1. Where it takes place."2. When it takes place.

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4. The action."

5. The result.

Make your character come alive. Give him/her a name, a personality and some interesting habits or clothes. Make him or her likable: make them root for your hero and what s/he’s trying to achieve.

A person, organization, or even a process that’s getting in the way of your character getting what s/he wants. Be sure to give them a personality as well. Something to root against.

This is critical and often skipped over. What are the economic conditions? Is it cold or humid? Was it difficult economic times or a period of excessiveness? Was the bubble building or had it burst? A time of exponential change or entrenched standards?

What happens in a few steps? Highlight the most important points to move your story forward and keep it engaging; discard the rest.

Give your change agents a payoff. A good ending leads the mind to its own defeat: Great stories have endings that are inevitable in the minds of your audience but it happen in an unusual way. "This is when you reward your audience for engaging in a something that isn’t what they thought they were there for.

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The rules of the listener. "Make them care. They must have an emotional and rooting interest in your characters and the challenges they face."Make the ordinary extraordinary. Everyday lives and work seem ordinary to most. Make them matter again: connect your change agents to something larger."Stick to the goal. It’s hard enough to buy into a goal that your audience hasn’t created on their own. Don’t make them do it more than once. Make your one goal overtly clear."Connect with their humanity. Companies, organizations and communities all have names and faces that your audience can identify with; use those attributes to connect the audience with your topic."Keep illustrating the conflict. Wining is all about overcoming conflict and everyone wants to win."Show, don’t tell. Don’t say there was a full moon out. Tell the audience that your character was so delightful that you thought she’d charm the full moon’s reflection off the surface of the still autumn lake."Practice. An audience’s time is valuable, so demonstrate that you appreciate this by rehearsing, preferably in front of others, before you stand in front of them.

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Some other things to try "Tweet it. Try telling your story in a series of 140 character tweets. It’s a fun way to serialize your story while honing your ability to cut out the unnecessary."Try it the Pixar way. Storytellers at Pixar are among the best in the world. They have developed a formula for storytelling that they use to “sell” their ideas. Try putting your story into their format, or use it to structure your story.""

Once upon a time there was _____________

Every day _____________

One day _____________

Because of that _____________

Because of that _____________

Until finally _____________

"Up goer your story. Can you tell your story using only the 1,000 most commonly used words in the english language? It’s a great way to challenge your assumptions about lingo, acronyms and other idioms that may seem perfectly natural to you but leave your audience scratching their heads. You can try it here:"http://splasho.com/upgoer5/"By the way, Up Goer Five is from a cartoon in an online strip called xkcd where the artist painstakingly explained a rocket ship with the one thousand most commonly used words. If he can do it, you can do it:"http://xkcd.com/1133/

Context and introduction to character and villain

Action

Result

http://splasho.com/upgoer5/

http://xkcd.com/1133/

http://splasho.com/upgoer5/

http://xkcd.com/1133/

"


More on the hero’s journey "Here’s a nice graphic to help you craft the elements of the most common of story types.

"Kurt Vonnegut’s Shape of Stories "If you’re curious about how one of our greatest storytelling minds, Kurt Vonnegut, sees stories, here’s a graphic that illustrates it. He explains it in a very entertaining talk on YouTube. Just Google “Kurt Vonnegut On The Shape of Stories.”

Images ""Brain on story: http://www.matteoduo.com/storytelling-human-brain/Petroglyph: https://flic.kr/p/56Ay4NWatching a blank screen: https://www.flickr.com/photos/toasty/1125019024/sizes/lEBook Reader: https://flic.kr/p/8dGf4M"""

The Hero’s Journey from The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler. ©2007 Christopher VoglerKurt Vonnegut Shapes of Stories, modified from visual.ly user David Yang: http://visual.ly/kurt-vonnegut-shapes-stories

© Aaron Templer LLC AppendixStorytelling WorkbookColorado Medical Society Spring Conference 2014

http://www.matteoduo.com/storytelling-human-brain/

https://flic.kr/p/56Ay4N

https://www.flickr.com/photos/toasty/1125019024/sizes/l

http://visual.ly

http://visual.ly/kurt-vonnegut-shapes-stories

What’s Your Story? A worksheet for developing …Try telling your story in a series of 140...

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