Stories allow a person to feel and see the information as well as factually understand it. Because you ‘hear’ the information factually, visually and emotionally, it is more likely to be imprinted on your brain in a way that it sticks with you longer, with very little effort on your part.
The learning derived from a well-told story, be it in any way, formal or informal, is more likely to be remembered and for far longer than the learning derived from the list of statistical facts and figures.
In coaching, we can harness the power of stories to tap into the leaders’ emotions to overcome their predisposed notions and paradigms. Telling the right story makes the job as a coach, facilitating leadership change, a lot easier. While our listeners won’t always agree with us when they empathize with the story’s characters they are much more likely to listen – and to challenge their own thinking. And changing people’s thinking so that they change their behavior lies at the core of enterprise coaching!
As motioned in an Indian proverb:
“Tell me a fact, and I may learn something. Tell me a truth, and I might believe. Tell me a theory and I will see if it works. Tell me a story, and It may live in my heart forever.”
Once there was a wise old man and a smart little boy. The boy was driven by a single desire – to expose the wise old man as a fool. The smart boy had a plan. He had captured a small and very fragile bird in the forest. With the bird cupped in his hands, the boy’s scheme was to approach the old man and ask him, “Old man, what do I have in my hands?” to which the wise old man would reply, “You have a bird, my son.”
Then the boy would ask, “Old man, is the bird alive or is it dead?” If the old man replied that the bird was dead, the smart boy would open his hands and allow the bird to fly off back into the forest. But if the old man replied that the bird was alive, the smart boy would crush the bird inside his cupped hands, and crush it, and crush it, until at last, the bird dies. Then the boy would open his hands and say, “See, old man, the bird is dead!”
And so as the story goes, the smart boy went to the old man and he said, as planned, “Old man, what do I have in my hands?”
The old man replied, “You have a bird, my son.”
“Old man”, the boy than said, his voice dripping with disdain, “is the bird alive or is it dead?”
Whereupon the old man looked at the boy with his kindly old eyes and replied, “the answer is in your hands, my son.”
In the end, it is all a question of a story and the answer is in your hands. If you want to become a better coach, apply storytelling in your coaching.