Story Telling, an Engineering Leaders Superpower

Learn the core steps of great story telling and use them to influence and attract

Introduction

Recently, I got the opportunity to attend a training course aptly titled ‘Telling it like TED’. The course focus was on arming attendees with the tools and techniques used by the greatest ‘Ted Talkers’ of all time.

In this article I’ll be focusing on what makes a good story (for context, a good TED talk contains at least 3x stories!) I’m using this article both to share and spread the learnings I took away, but also as a way of collating my thoughts and memories to help me better embed this learning and give me something to refer back to in the future.

Photo by S O C I A L . C U T on Unsplash

Why Tell Stories?

It’s estimated the average person hears or reads over 100,000 words a day. The question we should therefore be asking is - how is my message going to be the one that get’s someones attention and sticks around long enough to create meaning for that person and the change or impact I’m hoping for?

The answer - Telling a well structured story that uses sensory language to switch your listeners brains on, lifts them into your story and creates memories that are more likely to stick.

A story isn’t the right answer to every type of communication though. If you spent all day telling stories, you’d over complicate simple messages and waste a lot of time. Picture a firehose to put out a candle. As an Engineering Leader that spends the majority of their time delivering through others and galvanising people behind a strategy, story telling is one of the most effective ways to win over ‘hearts and minds’ and connect with people in ways not possible with basic data and presentations.

What makes a good story?

At their very basic level, all stories have a start, a middle and an end. The great thing about a personal story is that you’re able to decide how to frame it, where it starts and where it ends to portray the message you want to land. Life is complicated - the stories you hear are never as simple as they’re told. The person telling them has removed the noise, the bits that aren’t relevant to the message they’re sharing. They emphasise the parts they found most interesting or important and in doing so craft their story in the way they want it to be heard.

Mastering the art of storytelling involves skillfully crafting narratives that strip away the superfluous, leaving only the core elements. This ability to paint a vivid mental picture for your audience, where what you envision is precisely what they perceive, is the essence of exceptional storytelling.

When you’re telling a story, your audience automatically turn the words you’re saying into images, sounds and smells. Their brains activate their senses to try and make sense of the words you’re broadcasting. The more you’re able to fill these senses with your observations, the more likely your audience will share your story cognitively and the more memorable and impactful your story will be. Even now, as you’re reading this article, without realising I bet you’re translating these words into imagery in your minds and framing them in a way that makes sense to you and your context.

Story Structure

Freytag’s Pyramid - Dramatic Structures

Freytag’s Pyramid outlines the structure of a good story which follows a ‘story triangle’:

• An exposition

• Rising action leading to…

• A turning point (Climax)

• Falling action leading to…

• A Resolution

This triangle hangs together based on your stories purpose. Let’s demonstrate this with an example:

Purpose:

Express the power of innovation and risk taking, where opportunities can arise from unexpected places.

Exposition:

In a bustling London tech startup, a dedicated developer named Alex discovers an old abandoned project called "Project Casper."

Rising Action:

While exploring the project's code, Alex finds an algorithm that could drastically improve their current product. But integrating it poses risks and could potentially destabilise everything her and her team have built.

Climax:

During a critical product demo with investors, Alex decides to implement the new algorithm live. The system falters, causing panic.

Falling Action:

However, after some subtle tweaks things stabilise, showcasing incredible efficiency and capabilities, far beyond what the existing product could do and winning over investors.

Resolution:

The successful demo leads to major investment. "Project Casper" revolutionises the industry, and Alex is hailed as a visionary in the tech world.

Ok so maybe life isn’t quite this simple - but as a story we set the scene, we capture interest with rising action, we hit a critical point where the story could take a turn (climax), we break the suspense with ‘falling action’ and then end with a resolution of the story.

In the The Leader's Guide to Storytelling, Stephen Denning shares that the best stories are:

• True

• Positive (in the sense of an outcome)

• Minimal (don’t get lost in the complexity of your story)

• Paint a before and after contrast

When crafting a story that follows the story triangle, it’s good to check against the Stephen Denning criteria to ensure you’re following the triangle, but not losing the key aspects of a good story along the way.

Patterns of influence

So you’ve crafted a good story. You’ve navigated the triangle all whilst ensuring you’re being truthful, speaking from the heart and from a place of passion, focusing on the most important elements and sharing a contrast. How do you land this with your team effectively?

“It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.”

Based on surveying TED talk audience members, Van Edwards found that people rated speakers comparably on charisma, credibility and intelligence whether they watched talks with sound — or on mute. In other words - the way you portray yourself has as much an impact on how you’re judged as the words you use. 

To improve how you’re portrayed, play close attention to where your hands are. Let your hands do the talking!

Some basic hand gestures that can add volume to the words you’re saying are:

• Hands facing down, with a lowering action - Calming

• Hands open and wide but low - Open

• Hands pointing - Direct

• Hands high and body exposed - Emphasising, Highlighting

• Hand on chin - Reflective, Thinking

Throughout your story, you should expect to switch between these different gestures to emphasise your words. Don’t stay in a single mode or you’ll blunt your hand gesture tool and it’ll lose its impact. Your hand gestures and movements should support and amplify the words you’re saying.

Be conversational, drop the script and speak from the heart. There’s nothing wrong with having a script, but use it as prompts for your story so you follow the right path rather than using it word for word to make your point. Include vocal variety, don’t be monotoned or your words will quickly become background noise. People pay more attention when surprised and exposed to variety - don’t allow your words to become wallpaper.

Finally - Remember to Smile - studies show it makes you appear smarter!

So - when to deploy the masterful skill of storytelling?

If you are doing Technical troubleshooting? Use analysis.

If you’re discussing Financial Reporting? Write a concise report.

Delivering Technical Training? Share a how to guide or a demo.

Chairing a Legal/Compliance meeting? Use a brief.

However if you’re joining a new team, leading team building activities, pitching a new idea, leading change in an organisation, providing mentoring or coaching or launching a new strategy - story telling should be a strong feature and continue to repeat throughout the process.

Speaking from personal experience, there are stories great leaders have told me 10+ years ago that I can still draw on to this day. They’ve left an imprint in my mind that is impossible to shake and thus has a subtle but essential effect on the decisions I take day to day as a result. I’m absolutely sure that at the time this was their goal, and it worked exceptionally well.

One example was during the launch of a new Engineering Strategy. The leader stood in front of her team, vulnerable and exposed sharing the history of the team she had developed and the mistakes of the past. She expressed how the decisions taken were right at the time, but wouldn’t work for the future. She outlined in vivid detail the team she wanted to build, the changes that would need to be made, how it would feel to work in that team, what they’d go on to do as a group and the lasting impact they’d leave if they joined her and committed to leaning in fully. She outlined the hard yards that would be ahead, but that the pay off would be worth the effort.

She spoke from the heart, didn't follow a script but instead allowed her passion to shine through. It was impossible not to listen and not to feel galvanised by the opportunity ahead.

Turn Your Next Workday into a Storytelling Masterclass

A well told story has the power to change the world. Now, it's your turn to bring this skill into your everyday work. Tomorrow, when you step into your work day, challenge yourself: Where can you replace a dry update with a compelling story?

Every interaction is a chance to practice, use storytelling to make your message resonate. Share your experiences, weave in vivid details, and watch as your words create impact. How will you tell your story tomorrow? What difference will it make?

“Talking can transform minds, which can transform behaviours, which can transform institutions.”

Sheryl Sandberg