Storytelling is the most human and most intrinsic skill all of us have. Yet, it is often misused and it fails to connect with people because of lack of authenticity.
As a student and practitioner of data-driven and authentic storytelling, this newsletter brings you my learnings. Fun and real. And short. This week, I have 3 shorts and a poem.
Short 1:
Imagine, I tell you this- "I used a multi-tuned tool to process a starch resource." What am I even saying?
Translated to simple English, it means, I used a fork to eat a potato.
Simplicity is one of the best gifts for authentic storytelling. One of my key lessons, working on data-driven narratives over the last few years at Kahaniyah. Yet, jargons and obfuscations often keep us from getting there.
One way is to do a quick readability check (Flesch Kincaid Readability score) which gives an indication of how readable the text is. Lesser the score, more readable the text. Scores less than 10 are considered good for general business audience.
So next time we try to use storytelling at work, let's check for simplicity?
(P.S. This tested 7 on readability score.)
Short 2:
In the movie, The Big Short, (based on the book by Michael Lewis), the celebrated chef, Anthony Bourdain, explains Collateralized Debt Obligation in a highly "fishy" way:)
"OK, I'm a chef on a Sunday afternoon, setting the menu at a big restaurant. I ordered my fish on Friday, which is the mortgage bond that Michael Burry shorted. But some of the fresh fish doesn't sell. I don't know why. So, what am I going to do? Throw all this unsold fish, which is the BBB level of the bond, in the garbage, and take the loss? No way. Being the crafty and morally onerous chef that I am, whatever crappy levels of the bond I don't sell, I throw into a seafood stew. See, it's not old fish. It's a whole new thing! And the best part is, they're eating 3-day-old halibut. *That* is a CDO."
He used a metaphor to explain an esoteric concept. Does it work? Metaphors help connect with a story, through a known context. So next time we are explaining a complex idea, let's test the metaphor power?
One tip: keep the metaphor simple and visual and continue the connect between metaphor and your story throughout, not dropping it midway
Short 3:
Aswath Damodaran, noted valuation expert and professor, says in his book, Narrative and Numbers, that the valuation of the company is driven by the story you believe about it.
We have all seen countless examples where the narrative and the numbers do not match. Case in point. Theranos. Over $9bn in valuation till it started falling apart. Is it all only understood post-facto?
Through our work on storytelling at Kahaniyah, one of our key learnings is that the story is like the leading indicator of the company. If the story breaks, over time, that shows up, in the financials, in the loss of customer trust and more. But when you are within a system and tasked with communicating the story of the company, how do you do this? It gets murky.
One simple storytelling method I use is to look at the voice of the story. Say Red Riding Hood’s story from the Wolf’s voice. Mahabharata from Draupadi’s voice. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni did that brilliantly in Palace of Illusions. Imagine telling the company's story from the customers' point of view. Removes a lot of what we call “purple prose” in writing. (Too-good-to-be-true statements in business parlance).
Possible to also adopt for businesses to avoid unreal illusions?
Short 4:
Just sharing a poem I wrote for you. Because, sometimes, satire, says it all
The Pop-up Marketplace
A new din in the corner,
Breathless, you pause.
Cardboard cartons dancing
At the pop-up marketplace!
What will you buy today?
Designations decked up
In priceless crystals,
Buzzwords weighed by
A kg of likes and shares,
What will you sell today?
Hide your hurt hour,
Sell your soul hour,
Ppt version 49 hour,
Watch the watch hour,
What’s your hour today?
Remember the day they
Offered Ideas and Dreams,
A dozen for a Rupee?
No return policy, too. Pricey!
Who would buy that day?
So the pop-up Marketplace.
Popped back with stories new.
Everyone but a buyer
Everyone but a seller
What’s your story today?
If you liked the shorts, do sign up for my newsletter for more on authentic and fun storytelling, with a healthy dose of data.