Power of storytelling in leadership

The human mind can understand one idea/element at a time, so apt form of presentation is crucial, writes Harish C Rijhwani

I stood in the boardroom, my feet stuck to the ground while I held my hands clasped before my chest. On my left, the flat-screen monitor was lit with words and sentences dancing in every nook and corner of the slide. I had seven years of experience, and my task was straightforward: Get investment approval from the Business Unit (BU) Head and the Client Partner for a solution I had conceptualised.

After being allotted five minutes, I started my pitch and diligently continued orating every word written on the slide. “For the upcoming regulatory changes, we should create a new service around Development, collaborating with product companies. Next, we should create a service around automated testing and BI reporting.” As my monologue continued into the third minute, the BU Head raised his right hand, interrupting my dialogue.

His eyes moved from corner to corner as he read through my alphabet-packed slide, and he bluntly said, “You come here unprepared, and tell me, You want to do this, You want to do that?”

The words pierced my heart like a dagger as I stood there with my feet trembling as I gripped the back of a revolving chair. “Nothing doing; you will do only two things, the first and third point listed on the slide,” he concluded as his voice echoed in the boardroom.

The Client Partner rubbed salt into my invisible wounds as he interjected, saying, “Yes, and we already pursue the other points all year round; we need not waste our time on that.”

I stood there speechless, contemplating how the discussion could be so short and brutal but realising I was genuinely underprepared.

The curse of knowledge

Any guesses about what possibly went wrong? Let’s re-look at the situation above and consider a few elements to answer this question. To explain the problem, let me tell you a story from the book “Made to Stick – By the Heath brothers”. A study was done by Elizabeth Newton in 1990 in which a group of people would tap common songs while singing them in their minds. Another group was supposed to guess the songs from the tapping sound.

At first, it sounds easy, but out of 120 songs, only three songs were guessed correctly. In a gist, this is “The Curse of Knowledge!” We might find a concept/example/idea easy to understand, but how we convey it to others matters most because everything might sound gibberish to the audience.

Now, if we go back to the earlier slide I was talking about, it was jam-packed with content, which might work when sharing a reading deck, but in the above scenario, it would be challenging. In reality, the human mind can understand one idea/element at a time, and here I was, dumping idea after idea on one slide. Second, how I shared the areas of investment did not create an impact, as the messaging was unclear.

Incorporating storytelling

What if I had a clear and intriguing tagline, “Beat the Regulatory Clock!”. The catchphrase is like the story’s starting point and can generate questions like, “Why is it important to beat the regulatory clock?” or “How will we beat the regulatory clock?”

The tagline is like a movie title, using which one can generate interest in the audience. Storytelling can be used when creating a pitch, sharing ideas, case studies, or even corporate training. In general, below are some concepts to consider while making your storyline.

Keep it short and simple: In the famous movie Bawarchi, there is a beautiful quote: “It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple. - by Rabindranath Tagore.” The best example to explain this is a remote control. Compare the old television remote with forty buttons to the simplistic yet effective Firetv remote with around ten buttons. In conclusion, one doesn’t need so many buttons.

Know your audience: If one performs a play, one would ideally want to know the general demographics of the theatre audience as it can help prepare/tweak the play positively. In the same way, in the above example we discussed, I was unprepared for the questions I received when asking for funding.

Show don’t tell: In writing, the concept of show don’t tell helps make the narrative vivid. Similarly, in today’s day and age, where almost everything is driven by tech, mere words will not sell a concept. Hence, showing a proof of concept or a prototype related to your idea/solution is essential in closing a deal.

Data is vital, but what is even more important is how we convey our message. It is crucial to grab the audience’s attention and maintain it by generating curiosity, and all this should be done via a story.

(The author has written a book '9 to 5 Cubicle Tales')