This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Stories That Stick" by Kindra Hall. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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How do you collect stories that will wow your audience? How do you choose the right story for the appropriate situation?
Stories aren’t useful if you’re not telling them to the right people at the right time. Stories That Stick by Kindra Hall has stellar advice for choosing the best stories for your audience so you can get your point across.
Below you’ll learn how collecting stories can be an easy process if you just know where to look.
How to Know What Story to Tell
According to Hall, the trick is finding the right story at the right time for the right purpose. She explains that to collect stories, you should be clear on the message you want to communicate and then find the story that most effectively articulates that message.
As you’re deciding what story to tell, Hall recommends considering the following questions:
- Who’s the story for?
- How do you want the story to change them?
For example, if you’re speaking to an audience of potential investors and you want them to feel confident about investing in your vision, tell your founder’s story. Help them see the resilience of the person behind the product. Or, if you’re speaking to customers and you want them to see that they are part of a global movement, tell a purpose story—connect them to the deeper meaning of your company.
(Shortform note: Implicit in Hall’s argument is the assumption that stories are tools for good. However, stories can also have a dark side: Leaders and organizations can use stories to manipulate people and push them toward extremism. As you craft your own stories, consider their potential impact on their intended audience.)
How to Collect Stories
Hall argues that to effectively use stories to address the challenges facing your company, you need a stockpile of stories to choose from. Telling a compelling story, she explains, relies on having a bank of stories at your disposal and then pulling out the perfect story at the perfect moment. She recommends starting to build your story bank right away.
(Shortform note: Building your story bank doesn’t have to be a solitary project. Storytelling For Good, a storytelling consulting firm, suggests that team members work together to create systems and structures to collect and organize their stories. The firm says that after identifying a way to archive your stories, you should create a shared taxonomy that will allow you to label and organize all your content and ensure that the database is open, accessible, and searchable by things like keyword, author, date, or place.)
If you think this sounds intimidating, you’re not alone. According to Hall, many people go through life believing that they don’t have any stories to tell or that their stories aren’t worth hearing. Hall adamantly disagrees and emphasizes that everyone has stories worth sharing.
(Shortform note: Some experts argue that it’s especially important to share stories from marginalized communities, which are frequently underrepresented in the media. This lack of representation has the potential to lead to stereotypes and unconscious bias in society at large, which can further reinforce the idea some people’s stories aren’t worth sharing. Sharing stories from marginalized communities may interrupt this cycle.)
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Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Kindra Hall's "Stories That Stick" at Shortform.
Here's what you'll find in our full Stories That Stick summary:
- Why stories are probably the answer to most of your business problems
- How to harness the power of storytelling to connect with your audience
- How to integrate storytelling into your marketing strategy
