This is the ‘Win with Stories’ newsletter. Every week I send an email with a message wrapped in a short story. I also share one actionable tip and a few content recommendations to help you enhance your business storytelling skills.
Want to read this email in your browser or want to share a link with someone else? Click here.
Why I ask all founders and leaders to write a TED-style talk
Prof Harari delivered his TED talk ‘Why Humans Run The World’ some seven years ago. The Israeli history professor does not come across as someone who has a joke up his sleeve. Yet, his talk about the evolution is humankind has some funny moments.
He said, ”If you go to a Chimpanzee and ask him to give bananas in return of currency, he would ask ‘What do you think I am? A human?’”
The talk taught me and millions others that it is not our physical or mental prowess that makes humans the dominant species on the planet. We are dominant because of our ability to coordinate with each other at a scale animals never can.
Prof. Harari revealed that our ability to collectively believe in stories(or myth or fiction) is what makes us special. Most things that make us human, from currency to companies, are legal myths. Success of religions is because of the same innate ability.
The talk was a lightbulb moment for me. I realised how collective myths dominate every aspect of our lives.
That brings me to founders, leaders and even professionals. While working with them in my ‘Founder’s Storytelling’ one-on-one coaching program, I ask them to write a TED-style talk.
Many C-suite executives and founders would rather wrestle a Lion than spend a few minutes staring at a blank page.
But the point of the exercise is to help mentees find their singular message or idea on which either their leadership or brand is built on. Just like how Harari’s belief that humans are storytelling animals forms the basis of his book ‘Sapiens’ and a lot of his other work.
Once you arrive at the singular message, its supporting arguments in the form of data or stories, you are no longer selling your company or yourself. You are then selling an ‘Idea worth spreading’, and when you do that it automatically pushes your brand forward.
ONE Communication Tip For Today:
A simple exercise of writing your TED talk titles can help you identify your belief on which your brand or business is based on.
Start off by writing your ‘I believe…’ statements. The only caveat here is that these statements should also make sense for your brand, company or business.
For instance ‘I believe cycling is a great way to explore the world around you’ does not help The Story Co as much as ‘I believe that jargons and complicated language are killing our communication’. Get the drift?
So two steps:
- Write at least 20 ‘I believe…’ statements
- From those now identify or arrive at a minimum of 10 TED talk titles.
Some prompts or thought starters to write TED talk titles lie in some of the famous talks of all time.
- The power of vulnerability
- Looks aren’t everything. Believe me, I am a model
- Your body language may shape who you are
- The power of introverts
- How to make stress your friend
- Do schools kill creativity?
You can use any of these titles as a prompt and try to come up with your own, for instance:
- The power of ….
- ….. that you believe in isn’t true
- How to fix …….
Give this exercise a try, it’s immensely helpful and brings a lot of clarity in communication. Feel free to send me your potential TED talk titles, and I’ll be happy to share feedback.
A few things you can read today.
After the first article for Mint Lounge, I had the opportunity to write many more for the magazine. Today, let me share some of the articles I wrote for them.
- The Bruised Beauty of Mullaitivu(I consider this my first travel journalism article)
- Salvador, the Culinary Portal to Africa
- The Festival of Fights
- Ghost stories of Ometepe
That’s it from me this week. Tell me one thing that will make you share this newsletter with friends and colleagues 🙂
If it’s already share-worthy, then please forward this to your network right away. Let’s all win with stories.
If you received this email from someone, and like what you read, then you need to hit this link.
