The tussle beween George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin formed the tragic event and its truth. Based on all the evidence, the prosecutor and the defense attorney each created and told a different story about the evidence to prompt
jury members to accept their individual interpretations. The verdict hinged on the stories the attorneys narrated.
Few, if any of us, tell stories under the adversarial conditions of a trial. But we do tell stories in presentations about our businesses, products, and services. And the best stories contain key elements that trial attorneys and we can't compromise on. For example:
1. Stories need to be plausible, and as truthful, as we can make them.
Audiences have good noses for people who tamper with truthfulness. They can smell them like bloodhounds. And if your stuff is on the Internet somewhere, your truthfulness or lack thereof, is out there for all to see. And it's out there forever.
2. Stories should ring emotional chimes among our audiences. They need to feel something when they hear the stories we tell. When they do, they'll more likely connect with us and what we offer them.
3. Make sure your stories are easy to understand. This makes them easy to remember, to repeat, to share, to Tweet, etc. These qualities give our stories life long after we've finished telling or writing them.
4. Appeal to the multiple senses of your listeners. Some listeners are more visually oriented to information; others are more aurally attuned; still others connect more kinetically with incoming info. Paint verbal pictures that accommodate all three kinds of listeners.
5. Include a call to action. The point of good stories is to change listener's minds about something and ultimately to change their behaviors. That's why it makes sense to give them something new to behave about. A call to action does that.
Because we, like attorneys, create stories with words, it's worth remembering that words are abstractions--one step removed from realities--not the actual realities themselves. Hence, the need to relate our stories as close to realities as we can with plenty of sensory qualifications.
