Influence through
storytelling
Joyce Hostyn
Senior Director, Experience Design
Open Text

amount of evidence of
sabotage or treason
against Japanese-American
citizens

The very fact that no sabotage has taken
place is a disturbing and confirming
indication that such action will be taken.
General John DeWitt,WWII

problem with facts
power of story
using story to effect change

but before I start, I have a
confession to make

I’m not a natural born
storyteller

can’t draw

BUT

I believe powerfully

in the power of story

in visual thinking

I have never given a single
presentation on “why we need
to do experience design”

have never bothered cost
justifying usability

nevertheless

I’ve built successful experience
design teams

and I’m on a mission to effect
change through storytelling &
design

What I’ve learned
from my experience

You can use stories

and visual thinking

to influence people

and effect change

A health worker in Zambia, was
struggling to find a solution for treating
malaria. In this tiny and remote rural
town, the health worker logged on to
the Web site of the U.S.’s Center for
Disease Control and Prevention and
got an answer. [The World Bank]
doesn’t have its know-how and
expertise organized so that someone
like the health worker in Zambia can
have access to it.
But just imagine
if it did
Stephen Denning

What I’ll cover
Three brain theory
Some basics of storytelling
The art of possibility

but first

Draw your life
2 wants
(hopes for
future)
4 you
(reactions to idea
of engaging
people) current
people 1 reality
3(important
(parts that
to your
stand out)
life)

three brain
theory

we need to rethink a few
assumptions

the assumptions being
Our model of the world is reality
We are aware of what we do
We know why we do what we do
We remember things as they really
happened

in other words, our
assumption that people are
rational

recent brain research
tells us
unconscious mind controls up to 95% of behavior

We have three brains

unconscious
mind controls
95% of
behaviour

Lizard brain

fight
flight
freeze

can’t distinguish
imagined reality from
actuality

Is it
safe?

Mammal brain
emotions
memories
habits

tacit or embodied (know-how)

confidence is built on the experience of
success

When we leap to a decision or have a
hunch, our unconscious is... sifting
through the situation in front of us,
throwing out all that is irrelevant while we
zero in on what really matters.
Malcom Gladwell, Blink

Human brain
reasons
rationalizes

became
prized during
age of
enlightenment

explicit or theoretical
(know-why)
10 steps for organizational change
4 components for a balanced scorecard

mammal brain makes
decisions

human brain rationalizes
them

we buy on emotion and justify
with fact

They come to act
like rewards, and
salad of the rest of the
perfectly brain adapts itself
grilled to predict and
woodsy-
woodsy- acquire them… It’s
flavored a proxy for the
calamari reward to come.
Read Montague
Why Choose This Book?

logic
emotions,
memories, habits

We think our
models of the world
are reality

Meet Harry
example from Roger Martin, The Opposable Mind

Bill

Sally

I really like Innovate
Corporation. It’s
been an innovative
leader for a long
time. But I’m
coming under
increasing pressure
and have to make
trade-offs.

Customers value
leadership and
innovation.
Customers are
feeling intense
cost pressure.

Customers will
stick with us if we
continue to
innovate and lead.
Customers will
migrate away
from us due to
cost concerns
and our
pricing.

Innovation and
leadership are the
most critical
avenues to pursue.
We’ve got to
get our costs
down so we
can be price
competitive.

I really like Innovate
Corporation. It’s
been an innovative
leader for a long
time. But I’m
coming under
increasing pressure
and have to make
trade-offs.

\"A way of
seeing is also a
way of not
seeing.\"
Kenneth Burke

We often don't
see what’s
before our
eyes.
We see our
concept of
what reality
should be…
…what we
expect to see.

our reality illusion is in
place

and our experiences will
tend to reinforce our
initial stance

as we weave those
experiences into the story
that already exists in our
minds

Rarely pausing to consciously
inspect the state & activity of
our unconscious mind

we make
sense of the
world
through
stories

story is the emotional
experience

the insight, the wisdom, the
thing one has come to say

Just the facts,
mam

Too often communicating like this
• 981 people died in alcohol-related crashes in 2000
• Out of 420 pedestrian fatalities, 38 per cent of those
tested for alcohol had been drinking, and most of
these had BACs over 0.08.
• Almost nine out of every 10 people killed in alcohol-
related collisions (87.4 per cent) were in or on the
drinking driver's vehicle (i.e. drivers/operators or
passengers).
• Almost nine out of every 10 drivers killed in alcohol-
related collisions (87.5 per cent) were male.
• Over half (56 per cent) of the drivers killed in single-
vehicle crashes tested positive for alcohol, compared
to only 20 per cent of those killed in multiple-vehicle
crashes.

Expecting listeners to accept the facts
Everyone knows the
You pulled those
media exaggerates
numbers out of
thin air
That’s actually
not a lot

Instead of telling stories
http://www.texasdwi.org/jacqui.html

Facts are
meaningless
without a
contextual
story

War is evil. It’s always evil. It represents a
massive human failure and never truly
resolves anything.

Evil exists in the world.
If left unchecked, it can spread like a deadly
disease.

.
AP
AP

We are all capable of believing things which we
know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally
twisting
proved wrong, impudently
the facts so as to show that we
were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on
this process for an indefinite time: the only
check on it is that sooner or later a false belief
bumps up against solid reality, usually on a
battlefield.
George Orwell

Facts are, \"like
fish in the
Ocean,\" that we
may only happen
to catch a few,
only an
indication of
what is below
the surface.
E. H. Carr
What is History?

Fact is not
dialog

Faced with the choice between changing
one's mind and proving there's no need
to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the
proof.
John Kenneth Galbraith

using facts kicks
in the
confirmation
bias

People don't
need new facts.
They need a new
story.
Annette Simmons
The Story Factor

three aspects of story
Listening
Thinking
Telling

Listening for
stories

WHO
is your who?

Conversations at the water cooler

use the 5 whys to get to
the real story

Collect and capture stories

Using emotional words
frustrated elated angry exhausted awed timid disappointed
stressed excited joyous confident nervous
kindness honored
depressed fearful shocked friendship hopeful relaxed proud despondent
happy
courageous accepted disgusted embarrassed amused
surprise worried unhappy
jealous close pity remorse sad
appreciated distant
respect

Practice empathy, seek to understand
first, and assume the best motives in
others

Who needs to change?
Map their current ecosystem
Wants
Motivators
Influencers
Environment/context
Tell a story of why they don’t want to
change from their perspective

learn to see
the
stories
around
you

Thinking with
stories

http://www.reason.com/images/07cf533ddb1d06350cf1ddb5942ef5ad.jpg

use stories
to think

Telling stories

Draw a timeline of
Key dates
•
Incidents
•
Experiences that shaped you
•
Trials and turning points that tested you
•
Stories of childhood, family, school, loves
•
Development of political views
•

OMG new mom,
new city, no job China
nephew
not a boss from acquired trip
1962
arrives
nurse hell (again)
Joan
farm
garden
bound
new boss
passed over Sasha not a key Disney new
prof from (again)
school patrol arrives employee pitch boss
hell

six story types
Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins, Annette Simmons

People prefer not to
trust you

ambitious, greedy,
inexperienced, dumb

who I am
break through the worst case stories they tell
themselves about you
with a story that builds faith in you

Mine your timeline for stories
HavenTree
OMG pregnant,
new city, no job
nephew
not a boss from acquired again
1962
arrives
nurse hell
Joan
farm
garden
bound
boss laid
passed over Sasha Disney
prof from not a key China off
school patrol arrives pitch
hell employee trip

why I am here
exposes what’s in it for you
or people tend to make up ‘rat’ reasons

teaching
combine what with how
less about what you want than how you want it done
“What would <insert person here> do?”

vision
what’s in it for them
so they can imagine the payoff in the future

values in action
about doing the right thing
values create culture and culture creates values

I know what you’re thinking
we don’t come into a room with open minds, we already
have a narrative in our head: “this is bullshit”
brings an issue into the open and reframes it
“I felt exactly the way you feel now”

good stories
create an experience in
images that evokes an
emotional response

Carter's
confidence,
energy and
intensely
emotional
delivery make
her talks
themselves a
force of nature
Guy Kawasaki on
passion
Majora Carter’s TED talk

To provide food for
her family, Sufiya
worked all day in her
muddy yard making
bamboo stools.Yet
somehow her hard
work was unable to
life her family out of
Why?
poverty.
curiosity
Muhammad Yunus
pioneer of the microcredit
movement

authenticity

hope

emotional
connection

visual

stories
let gut feeling
talk to gut
feeling

if what we see is a
representation of reality

stories are one of the most
effective ways in which we
communicate our view of
reality to others

transporting people to different
points of view
reframing what facts
mean to them

tell stories
to
connect

People don't believe what you
tell them
They rarely believe what you show them
They often believe what their friends tell them
They always believe what they tell themselves
What leaders do: they give people stories
they can tell themselves
Stories about the future and about
change
Seth Godin,Tribes

we
are all
storytellers

Who needs to change?
Create a story that speaks to the
person you want to change

battle between
two wolves

the one you feed

which one are you
feeding?

what stories
are you telling
to yourself,
about
yourself?

Be careful how you interpret the world; it
is like that.
Erich Heller, British philosopher

What’s the biggest
thing stopping you
from effecting
change?

NOT other people

A hint

judgment
fear of

failure
fear of

status
preoccupation with

uncertainty
fear of

unpredictability
aversion to

choosing
fear of

All of us construct narratives about
ourselves – where we’ve come from,
where we’re going. The kinds of stories
we tell make an enormous difference in
how well we cope with change.
Hermina Ibarra and Kent Lineback,What’s Your Story?

To effect change

you need to take charge of
your story

because it’s the only story you
truly have control over

the art of
possibility
The most important story you will ever tell
author your own
about yourself is the story you tell to yourself.
hero’s journey

your
To be authentic is literally to be
own author... to discover your native
energies and desires, and then find your
way of acting on them.
Warren Bennis, An Invented Life

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/padmeleiajaina/Wallpapers/Luke%20Wallpaper2%20copy.jpg

Kathy Sierra
http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/02/the_users_journ.html

emotion &
imagination can
rewire our
brains

from victim (acted on)

they would never let
us

nobody around here
could ever do that

there’s no point in
even trying

that’s not possible

to hero (actor)

I will

I can’t

I believe

I choose

I choose not

I have a
dream
Martin Luther
King Jr.

Everyone thinks of
changing the world,
but no one thinks
of changing himself.
Leo Tolstoy

If you keep doing
what you’ve
always done…
The most important story you will ever tell
about yourself is the story you tell to yourself.

based on assumptions

the bedrock of your
worldview

that you’re not aware you’re
making

you have no control over your
story

Are your beliefs and
values helping take
your story where you
Beliefs and values are not inherited or coded in
the genes. They are assumptions about life.
want to go?

As long as you’re making
assumptions…

why not make assumptions
that make you more powerful
and effective

knowing

who you are

what you want to do

what you believe in

what you aspire to

Invent your
future reality

Expand your WANTS into a
vision of your future reality
• Keywords of desired future or change you
want to implement
• Elements
• Language
• Results
• Influencers

Paint a vivid picture of your
future story

rich with emotion & visuals

tell your future story to
others

create a new language

vision
gap
reality

you to do things, you're got to
To get
create a purpose and a story so
compelling that you are moved to make
those corrections in your life, and make
them for good.
Geoffrey M. Bellman
Getting Things Done When You Are Not in Charge

gives you

courage

focus

energy

and you WILL effect
change if you

believe it

are authentic

persistent

and live it

learn to see

The real
voyage of
discovery
consists not in
making new
landscapes but
in having new
eyes.
Marcel Proust

yourself

others

the whole system

seek to understand

the language that binds you

how the situation occurs to
you & others

stories you tell yourself

stories you tell others

stories you tell ABOUT
others

EMBRACE
the dark side

not being picked a captain of
the school patrol

boss from hell

discovering I’m not a key
employee

start telling
stories

be yourself

with passion

using stories

to effect change

in yourself

your organization

your community

the world

because it’s all
invented