Since the time of cave paintings, storytelling has been a way of transmitting knowledge. Those portraits of hunting scenes, engraved in stone, for example, were how individuals reported their daily lives and passed on their experiences to other members of their groups, before the invention of writing.
Stories stimulate our imagination and touch our emotional side. It's no surprise that the resource has been widely used for millennia in the children's world, as it has the ability to teach in a fluid and natural way.
Knowing all this, training and development professionals are increasingly adopting the storytelling technique in the content of their classes. Whether in video, text or even gamification, stories have become more present, as an important resource in people development.
Therefore, in this post we will show you seven practical tips for you to adopt storytelling in your training. As a bonus, you can also see, in a simple way, how to build a good script. Good reading!
After all, what is storytelling?
As we have already said, this technique has existed since the emergence of humanity. However, the concept of storytelling, in a structured way, came from advertising, at the beginning of the 20th century, as a way of connecting brands to consumers.
The heart of the matter is to arouse interest, through emotion. It's telling and enchanting with stories that are relevant to the viewer, so that they absorb some kind of lesson from that. A good story teaches, it helps people learn from the experience of a character, for example.
Storytelling persists to this day, and has even been improved, as it deals with the imagination, linked to senses such as vision, hearing and smell.
7 tips on how to develop storytelling
Now, you may be wondering: OK, I understand, but how do you apply storytelling in training? A frequently used resource in the storytelling structure is the hero’s journey.
This is a very useful tool, which places the protagonist of a story as someone who has difficulties, seeks a solution and prospers in the end. In fact, the process is much longer than that, but in this article we will focus on tips for building storytelling.
Once again, the focus should be on emotion. Engage employees through stories that describe pain, feelings and emotions. Try to connect the audience, so that they identify with your goals and the solution that the story is reporting.
- Build on patterns and archetypes that facilitate the construction of your story;
- Link your story to the most appropriate format for the situation (it could be a video, an infographic, an article or even gamification);
- Insert elements of conflict and/or tension into your stories, as these are situations that humanize and connect with the public;
- Build a story that affects the senses, especially the visual sense, so that the message is more easily captured;
- Cadence the rhythm of your story, according to moments of tension, triumph, good humor and drama;
- Expose the fears and flaws of both the company and roles, again to humanize the elements of the story;
- Ensure that your story has a solid beginning, middle and end, so that the audience also connects with the consistency and clarity of the message.
[Bonus] Creating your script
Remember the hero's journey? This is a subject that yields a complete article here on the blog, but here, we will give you some tips on how to introduce you to creating scripts for your stories in corporate training.
First, you must think, based on some metaphor, fable or archetype, some type of setting (or settings) for the course of your story. It could be the company itself, an external meeting situation or commercial negotiation, for example.
Next, you need to list who the main characters, secondary characters and even the villains of your story will be. With this, already format what the desires, desires, pains and their influence on the plot will be.
Finally, elaborate on how the actions of these individuals can have good or bad consequences for the central character, bringing, throughout the story, lessons, knowledge and tips for improving day-to-day work.
Want to know more about it? Contact a specialist at Take 5!
