Joyce Hostyn discusses how storytelling can be used to influence people and effect change. She outlines three aspects of story - listening, thinking, and telling. For listening, she recommends practicing empathy, seeking to understand others, and assuming good intentions. For thinking, she discusses how stories can be used to think through problems and perspectives. For telling, she emphasizes using emotional language and visual elements to craft stories that create experiences and evoke responses in others. The overall message is that stories are powerful ways to communicate and reframing issues, as people prefer stories over facts alone.

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

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

5. 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

6. problem with facts
power of story
using story to effect change

7. but before I start, I have a
confession to make

8. I’m not a natural born
storyteller

9. can’t draw

10. BUT

11. I believe powerfully

12. in the power of story

13. in visual thinking

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

15. have never bothered cost
justifying usability

16. nevertheless

17. I’ve built successful experience
design teams

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

19. What I’ve learned
from my experience

20. You can use stories

21. and visual thinking

22. to influence people

23. and effect change

24. 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

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

26. but first

27. 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)

28. three brain
theory

29. we need to rethink a few
assumptions

30. 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

31. in other words, our
assumption that people are
rational

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

33. We have three brains

34. unconscious
mind controls
95% of
behaviour

35. Lizard brain

36. fight
flight
freeze

37. can’t distinguish
imagined reality from
actuality

40. Is it
safe?

41. Mammal brain
emotions
memories
habits

44. tacit or embodied (know-how)

45. confidence is built on the experience of
success

46. 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

47. Human brain
reasons
rationalizes

48. became
prized during
age of
enlightenment

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

51. mammal brain makes
decisions

52. human brain rationalizes
them

54. we buy on emotion and justify
with fact

55. 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?

56. logic
emotions,
memories, habits

57. We think our
models of the world
are reality

58. Meet Harry
example from Roger Martin, The Opposable Mind

59. Bill

60. Sally

61. 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.

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

63. 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.

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

65. 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.

66. quot;A way of
seeing is also a
way of not
seeing.quot;
Kenneth Burke

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

68. our reality illusion is in
place

69. and our experiences will
tend to reinforce our
initial stance

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

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

72. we make
sense of the
world
through
stories

73. story is the emotional
experience

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

75. Just the facts,
mam

76. 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.

77. 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

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

80. Facts are
meaningless
without a
contextual
story

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

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

83. .
AP
AP

84. 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

85. 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?

86. Fact is not
dialog

87. 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

88. using facts kicks
in the
confirmation
bias

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

90. three aspects of story
Listening
Thinking
Telling

91. Listening for
stories

92. WHO
is your who?

93. Conversations at the water cooler

94. use the 5 whys to get to
the real story

95. Collect and capture stories

96. 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

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

98. 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

99. learn to see
the
stories
around
you

100. Thinking with
stories

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

105. use stories
to think

106. Telling stories

107. 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
•

108. 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

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

110. People prefer not to
trust you

111. ambitious, greedy,
inexperienced, dumb

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

114. 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

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

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

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

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

119. 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”

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

121. 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

122. 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

123. authenticity

124. hope

125. emotional
connection

126. visual

127. stories
let gut feeling
talk to gut
feeling

128. if what we see is a
representation of reality

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

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

131. tell stories
to
connect

132. 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

133. we
are all
storytellers

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

136. battle between
two wolves

137. the one you feed

138. which one are you
feeding?

139. what stories
are you telling
to yourself,
about
yourself?

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

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

142. NOT other people

143. A hint

144. judgment
fear of

145. failure
fear of

146. status
preoccupation with

147. uncertainty
fear of

148. unpredictability
aversion to

149. choosing
fear of

150. 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?

151. To effect change

152. you need to take charge of
your story

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

154. 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

155. 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

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

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

160. emotion &
imagination can
rewire our
brains

161. from victim (acted on)

162. they would never let
us

163. nobody around here
could ever do that

164. there’s no point in
even trying

165. that’s not possible

166. to hero (actor)

167. I will

168. I can’t

169. I believe

170. I choose

171. I choose not

172. I have a
dream
Martin Luther
King Jr.

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

174. 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.

175. based on assumptions

176. the bedrock of your
worldview

177. that you’re not aware you’re
making

178. you have no control over your
story

179. 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?

180. As long as you’re making
assumptions…

181. why not make assumptions
that make you more powerful
and effective

182. knowing

183. who you are

184. what you want to do

185. what you believe in

186. what you aspire to

187. Invent your
future reality

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

189. Paint a vivid picture of your
future story

190. rich with emotion & visuals

191. tell your future story to
others

192. create a new language

193. vision
gap
reality

194. 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

195. gives you

196. courage

197. focus

198. energy

199. and you WILL effect
change if you

200. believe it

201. are authentic

202. persistent

203. and live it

204. learn to see

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

206. yourself

207. others

208. the whole system

209. seek to understand

210. the language that binds you

211. how the situation occurs to
you & others

212. stories you tell yourself

213. stories you tell others

214. stories you tell ABOUT
others

215. EMBRACE
the dark side

216. not being picked a captain of
the school patrol

217. boss from hell

218. discovering I’m not a key
employee

219. start telling
stories

220. be yourself

221. with passion

222. using stories

223. to effect change

224. in yourself

225. your organization

226. your community

227. the world

228. because it’s all
invented