The more I learn about writing stories, the more I realize just how many ways story concepts can be applied to business. Last month I completed Tom Sawyer's class — Storytelling: How To Write Stories That Will Grab And Hold Your Audience.
Most of the concepts covered in class can be found in Tom's book, Fiction Writing Demystified. Although, in Tom's class you receive his insightful feedback and encouragement to take your writing to the next level.
Most business executives are unconscious to this story truth — The experiences you create, trump the stories you tell. More on that later...
So how can story concepts awaken you and sharpen your business skills? Let’s take a look:
Creativity: Tom describes several plot devices: Clock (a deadline), McGuffin (object of great value), the Penny-Drop (moment of realization, usually for a detective). There’s also the Meet-Cute (boy meets girl in a cute way) along with other design patterns. In business you are applauded for using clichés (best practices). Let’s imagine you are a software designer who uses the model-view-controller design pattern for a software product. If you spend an additional three weeks putting a special twist on the pattern so it’s not the same ol’ dull design, is your boss going to promote you? Not likely. And yet, that’s what writer’s are expected to do. Avoid the clichés.
In the meet-cute plot device, the writer should be familiar with most of the meet-cute scenes in other stories so he can put a special spin on his scene. A scene that’s fresh and invites curiousity. Give me the same thing, only different. A challenging way to think, still it keeps your creative edge sharp and quick.
Creating Customer Experiences: The creative sword you carry now helps you look at customer experiences through the eyes of story. You work at an artistic level. Using story concepts, you create positive customer surprises and recover from reversals (for example, the product that disappointed your largest customer).
In one of Tom’s class exercises, I wrote about a character — She’s a brilliant investment banker. Although, in the draft of my story she was unable to see through an investment scam run by a con artist. Well, if you were watching this movie you would probably say to yourself, “That doesn’t make sense. She should see through this. I can.” Movies create a fictional world. If you’re lucky — or talented enough — to grab an audience’s attention, avoid introducing incongruent elements that wrest your viewers from the fictional world you’ve created. When someone is ripped from a glorious fictional world, it’s like listening to a beautiful song on a vinyl record, only to hear the record player’s needle screech across the record.
Back to the principle I mentioned at the start — The experiences you create, trump the stories you tell.
Three months ago I bought a web-based class from a project management company. The company is still trying to figure out how to deliver the class on a web server. If you can’t stand up a web server in a couple days, you probably shouldn’t be in the business. Here’s the truly incongruent part. I’ve seen the president of the company give speeches to hundreds of people about the importance of being agile and responding to change. Can you hear the fictional world this guy built screeching to a halt and the music stopping?
It takes thousands of hours to hone your presentation skills and ideas to the point people want to listen to you. Protect your investment. Make sure the experiences you create match the stories you tell.