The Art of Storytelling

Midday, Tuesday 4th March 2025

Welcome and thank you very much for taking the time to be curious about and engage with this workshop.

Over the course of the next hour we are going to dig a little deeper into how we construct and tell stories, giving you all the chance, in a safe and relaxed environment, to identify your preferred storytelling style. And to explore new ones.

Housekeeping

A wee bit of housekeeping...will have you on mute but please do interact as much as possible, pop questions into the chat as we go along and there will be some breakout room activities and a poll so bear with me as I work the technology. All slides and output will be shared with you post session and the plan is that this story will be wrapped up by 1pm.

Introductions

Name

Role

Last story you consumed

GLS Intro first.

Now it is an interactive workshop so lets start off with everyone just introducing themselves to the group please. Name, role and last story you consumed please?

We are all storytelling creatures.

They are our way of constructing meaning and they are the primary way that we create our sense of self.

Stories and storytelling can engage our imaginations, heal our wounded souls, bring people together in community, enable us to make sense of the world (even momentarily!), invoke adventure and bring passion into our lives. Grand claims maybe but we have been telling stories since the dawn of civilization.

Stories allow us to tap into our own self limiting beliefs (for example, I can't sing) and they are the primary way that we create our sense of self.

We are continually asking ourselves, during the course of our own internal dialogue...

What is the story of me that people need to know?

For example, the innocuous question of how are you today? How much detail do I go into? How much do I want to share? Is this information safe? Do I have the energy to go into this? Was this asked for a genuine answer or superficial? Etcereta etcetera.

This is a fabulous book, written by a former colleague of mine at Ashridge Business School, Geoff Mead.

storytelling cannot be done to or at people.
It can only be done with people.

It is the difference between involvement and commitment. In a meal of eggs and bacon, the chicken is involved but the pig is committed.

Information informs

Argument persuades

Stories evoke

And here is the cool bit; the stories that we tell are fateful.

“It is only by telling our story out loud, that we change our relationship with it.”

A story can have been percolating in our minds for years, decades even but it is not until you tell it out, that you feel the words resonating through your body as you vocalise them, that something shifts in you and the story itself. And it does not matter how many times you tell that story, your relationship with it alters every single time.

Time for us all to practice telling stories

I'll go first. In no more, or less, than 1 minute I am now going to tell you the story of my shoes.

Right shoe off and model story telling for exactly one minute. Might need to embed a timer?

Fact

So that was the factual tale of the shoes I am wearing today.

Now it's over to you

By the wonders of technology, we will now send you to breakout rooms

Fact

Into pairs

1 minute each

The story of the shoes you are wearing today

Be visual, show the shoe to your partner on camera.

We will give you 2 minutes exactly. A word of advice? let it flow.

How was that?

Encourage responses, either in chat or better still on camera.

Fiction

So now I am going tell you another 1 minute story about my shoes, only this time it is Fictional.

So that was the Fictional tale of the shoes I am wearing today. Or was it?

Now it's over to you. Same process as previously and in the same pairs; exactly one minute each to tell the Fictional story of the shoes you are wearing.

Word of advice here? You're in a safe place, have fun with it.

Fiction

Into pairs

1 minute each

The story of the shoes you are wearing today

How was that?

Fantasy

So now I am going tell my final 1 minute story about my shoes, only this time it is a Fantastical story.

So that was the Fantastical tale of the shoes I am wearing today.

Now it's over to you. Same process as previously and in the same pairs; exactly one minute each to tell the Fantastical story of the shoes you are wearing.

Word of advice here? Discard any lingering self limiting beliefs and go for it!

Fantasy

Into pairs

1 minute each

The story of the shoes you are wearing today

Well done!

That is not easy, it is not usually in our working week but it does show how much information you can convey, when under pressure, in a very compressed timeframe.

Hopefully, above all else you enjoyed it. If you did, it will have shown in your storytelling.

Reflections?

Pop them in the chat or better still hands up and we'll hear them.

Our preferences

Reflecting on what you just did…

Our preferences

Which style of story do you prefer to tell?

Google Poll:

Which style of story do you refer to Tell?

The stories you prefer to consume

Google Poll:

Which style of story do you refer to Consume?

I have done this and seen it done many, many times and in a very unscientific way, what we always see is that:

Prefer to consume

Tellers of fact tend to prefer to consume fiction

Tellers of fiction tend to prefer to consume fantasy

Tellers of fantasy tend to prefer to consume fact.

Again, I emphasise that is a non-scientific set of findings.

The MCR Story

[GLS On Camera]

We are the custodians of our own stories but we also have a collective responsibility as storytellers for the MCR story.

We have seen some fabulous work recently from Sharon, Melodie, Caroline and many others around our Culture and Strategy going forward. Well we, all, need to be the proud custodians and narrators of that story. And as we tell it, in its myriad of guises and forms, it will alter, it will live and it will only stick if we tell it out loud. Again and again.

Whenever we talk about stories that involve organisational strategy, we have to firmly ensconce ourselves in the realm of telling Fictional stories. Why? Because by its very nature any story of the future has to be a work of fiction.

Now I'm going to pause here and alight on that word Fiction. It may be jarring to some of you, it even be making you feel uncomfortable. I would merely ask that you sit with that uncomfortableness and uncertainty.

I would also venture to suggest that your dislike of the word Fiction arises because it is very closely affiliated with lying. But the two things are different. Very different.

Telling the MCR Story

So you can do it for shoes, lets do it for MCR. I invite you to pair up again, after this session, and practice telling the MCR story of the next stage of our existence. Our next chapter.

I'm being deliberately vague because I want to let in all that nuance, all that variety, all that passion.

The next chapter of our MCR story

Start with 1 minute, in pairs.

Then try 2 minutes

Add in extra people

We tell different stories in many different ways

Don't you wonder sometimes...

The David Bowie fans amongst you will have already recognised that lyric. It's from Sound & Vision, from 1977's Low album.

I am now going to play you a version of it that will be unlike any you have heard before.

But before we do that, some numbers for you:

9:31: number of minutes this last for

164: the numbers of musicians involved, including the creative driving force behind the whole thing, Beck

62: the audience members

2: Revolving stages. Beck is going one way, the audience the other.

3 weeks: rehearsal time, in a warehouse in the Nevada desert.

36: the number of cameras capturing it, allowing you to see and hear the performance from any viewpoint.

1: number of takes and performances. A true one off.

Why? To see what was possible.

So if you could now cue up the video, via the hyperlink and we will all press play at the same time (when I go to the next slide).

Please leave your camera on, put your Headphones in/on, Do Not Disturb on, notifications paused, door shut, maybe even curtains drawn/blinds down, as I give you...

The gift of Sound & Vision

Think about...

What story did you see, hear and feel being told?

Thank you

END