The key theme of all the readings for this week involved using storytelling to effectively convey an idea. Squirrel Inc. focused on the important elements and structure a narrative must have to be truly effective using an allegorical story of a rising-star executive squirrel, Diana, and her struggles to implement a change within the Squirrel Inc. corporation. Each chapter details a different component: the first focuses on the qualities a story must have, the second focuses on how to effectively tell the story. Chapter three gets into part two of the book, which describes seven different types of organizational narratives (listed in slightly more detail on pg. 47):
- Those which ignite action
- Those which share knowledge
- Those which get people working together
- Those which lead people into the future
- Those which neutralize bad news
- Those which communicate who you (the storyteller) are
- Those which transmit values
The next few chapters provide examples of a few of these; the rest of the book seems to continue in a similar fashion.
Chapters 10 and 11 of Neuro Web Design take these storytelling-as-communication principles and apply them to a web design situation, including some details from a cognitive science perspective. Storytelling is the default mode of communication for humans, and this is evidenced in successful web sites and design. Weinschenk encourages designers to include storytelling in web sites with a variety of media (images, video, etc.) because the human brain easily “chunks” information when it is delivered in a story format by subconsciously condensing it into images. The next chapter explores the social network and its various incarnations of online success.
Made to Stick seems to also be focusing on the idea of planting an idea in someone’s head via narrative. The Heath brothers bring up several urban legend examples which circulate frequently throughout society as happening to “a friend of a friend” and examine the qualities which make those ideas “sticky.” The later chapter provided specific examples of everyday storytelling which resulted in some sort of positive effect: both the story of the nurse saving the baby despite incorrect normal readings from monitoring machines and the story of the Xerox repairmen talking shop serve to teach a lesson while providing inspiration and empathy, respectively. The Jared from Subway story identifies an advertising campaign successful because it provided both of these qualities.
While I was reading, a passage in Squirrel Inc. jumped out at me:
“So the listeners create their own story?”
“Right. The listeners start crafting a new story in their own minds. They start to invent the change idea afresh. It becomes their own idea adapted to their own differing situations. And of course we all love our own ideas.”
“How do you make this happen?”
“You strip the story of details that are unrelated to the change idea. You tell the story in a simplified way so that there’s nothing to distract the listeners.”
My train of thought immediately took me back to last summer’s hit film Inception. I scoured YouTube for a clip of the particular scenes I thought of, to no avail; however, I did find a pdf of the film’s script online, with relevant lines (descriptions of inception, mostly from Eames) on pages 42, 57-61. The film’s description of inception—planting an idea in its simplest form in another’s mind via a complex created dream world, making the individual believe he himself has come up with the idea—resonated here with me, echoing again a few pages later in Squirrel Inc. when the bartender stresses the importance of a happy, positive ending to the story. The film itself was in a way about storytelling, with the characters dealing with the target’s resistance in a more physical manner (manifestations of subconscious which populate the dream world).
Another much more somber example which came to mind as I was reading Made to Stick is the Wikileaks leak from last semester regarding the Iraq war. The discussion of how to get across ideas using images instead of numbers hit home with me; I had read some of the new data re: the deaths in Iraq, but the one thing which truly impacted me was the data mapped via Google maps, which really speaks for itself.
My chief critiques of the readings stem a little bit from this film parallel, which I identified early and therefore remained in the back of my mind throughout the rest of the reading. While I will readily attest to the effectiveness of storytelling (I feel somewhat biased based on my academic interests and experiences), I don’t see how it could work in every situation, especially in a more corporate setting.
No comments:
Post a Comment