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.

quot;A way of seeing is
also a way of not seeing.quot; 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, quot;like fish in
the Ocean,quot; 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