Matthew Dicks: evaluation

Transcript context

…We'll leave that breadcrumb but I love that point. Okay, so let's transition to helping people in business learn all these skills, and translate them to becoming better in their work. And maybe actually to add some stakes, what benefits do people get/what problems do they run into if they aren't great at storytelling versus if they learn the skill, and can implement it at work? What happens, what good things come out of that? Well, if you don't tell stories as part of your business, whether you're looking for investment, or speaking to your people, or speaking to customers, or clients, anything, if you're not telling stories, the good news is, you're just like everybody else. The bad news is, you're mediocre just like everybody else. You're in a lane that everyone else is in, which means that you're going to be forgettable. I often say most communication in business is round white and flavorless intentionally so because a lot of people are afraid to stand out. When I try to get people to tell stories, everyone loves the word storytelling in business. It's a huge buzzword. They love to think of themselves as storytellers, but when they come to me, they don't really want to be storytellers because to be a storyteller means you have to separate yourself from the herd, and in their mind that risks them getting picked off, getting picked off by some predator. But the alternative is, you're in the herd, which means you're forgettable. How many times have you gone to a conference, listened to someone speak, and by the time you're pulling into the driveway you really can't remember anything that they said? My wife and I actually attended an educational conference recently. She's a teacher, I'm a teacher. There was a bunch of speakers. The first person came out with his childhood lunchbox, put it on a table, and told a story about how his parents had nothing while he was growing up. And yet they somehow kept him in new shoes, and a new backpack every year, and sent him to school with a lunch every day, and how much it meant to him, and how as an educator today he thinks about every single kid in his class like he was, a kid who had nothing except for all of his parents' hopes and dreams. I'll never forget that story. It was a story. It was a story of vulnerability, and humor and meaning. There was another person who spoke, a sort of executive we'll say, and he did a great job in terms of being fluent, and presenting ideas, and speaking well, and speaking confidently. And 15 minutes after the conference I said to my wife who is a teacher and understands storytelling because we do it together. I said, "What'd you think?" She said, "Well, I'm never going to forget that guy with the lunchbox." I said, "I will not either." I said, "What'd you think about the other guy?" And she goes, "He was great." I said, "So what did he say?" Five teen minutes after, and she went, "I actually can't tell you a single thing he said." This is a woman who's a teacher, and invested in storytelling and communication. Her impression was, he was fluent, he was amusing, he said some numbers, he said some things that seemed to mean something. But it was all forgotten because that's what happens if we don't speak in story. Our minds are not designed to remember a pie chart, or facts, or statistics, or platitudes, or ideas that are not attached to imagery. forgotten because that's what happens if we don't speak in story. Our minds are not designed to remember a pie chart, or facts, or statistics, or platitudes, or ideas that are not attached to imagery. So the risk you take if you're not telling stories is that you will be forgotten, 100% you will be forgotten.…

Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.