1137: Humanity Beats Cool - Business Storytelling Techniques (10/30)
Stories Mean Business - Nick Warren
English - October 25, 2022 04:00 - 5 minutes - 4.67 MBMarketing Business Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
It's time to talk about our favourite Christmas movie.
Yesterday, we heard that the first commandment of storytelling is to make people care ... and saw how Andrew Stanton did that with a 22nd century trash compactor.
He made Wall•E like us.
This matters, because we humans are generally selfish, self-obsessed creatures. Evolution made us that way.
We pay more attention to stories and situations that seem to be about us.
Which brings us to Die Hard.
In 1988, John McClane exploded into cinemas. Played by Bruce Willis and his vest, he was the Ghost Of Christmas I-Don't-Give-A-YipeeKayAyyy.
I was 17 at the time, and I loved him. Cool. Funny. Fearless. Exactly who I wanted to be ... but wasn't.
Yes friends, John McClane and I had little in common aside from our stylishly retreating hairlines.
And yet ...
When he ran across the glass strewn floor of Nakatomi Plaza ... I FELT HIS PAIN. The whole audience winced and writhed.
Because we had become him.
It didn't matter that he was impossibly cool, or that few of us have sprinted over broken glass. Everyone has cut themselves. Everyone has struggled with family. Everyone has been shaded by someone with impossibly good diction.
And so, the human side of the story calls out to us and draws us in.
Psychologists call this transportation, the ability of great stories to pulls us into the story world ... to trigger real physical changes in our body and brain.
So what's the takeaway?
Whatever business story you are telling, start by finding the humanity, then use it to build a bridge to your audience.
Nick
Notes:
Aside from Alan Rickman's final fall and Bonnie Bedelia's hair, Die Hard totally stands up.
This is Business Storytelling essay 10/30. Please SHARE this this follow me to get the whole series.
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