Empathy in Corporate Storytelling

Mi Gente,

I had the opportunity to interview on the IdeaTellers Podcast to one of the world leaders on Corporate Storytelling. I was so honored, (actually, a little starstruck too) when she agreed to be interviewed by me.

Her name is Patti Sanchez . Patti is the Co Author and Author, respectively, of these two indispensable books in an inspiring leader’s bookcase:

Illuminate: Ignite Changes Through Speeches, Stories, Ceremonies and Symbols and Presenting Virtually: Communicate and Connect with Online Audiences.

This episode is especially useful if your organization needs, or is about to go through changes (organizational restructuring, new marketing campaigns, reinforcement of culture, creating communities, or even starting a movement), these two books will give you the guide you need to create not only your message, but also the empathy, confidence and charisma you’re going to need to lead and present your vision to the world.

I’ll be embedding links to the podcast to make it easier for you to download or simply click play and listen in whatever device and platform of your liking. As usual, I’d appreciate it A LOT 😉 if you comment and if the article resonated with you, please share, so it can resonate with others (I know, it's a shameless plug, but it helps me know for certain whether or not my content is making any impact).

In the meantime, enjoy!

Patti Sanchez The Inspiring Comms Guru 

IdeaTellers (I): In “Presenting Virtually” You covered from the empathy side of things to organizing your thoughts, to communicate the message, to creating the message, to the delivery as well. How to think so thoroughly to create the book, please.

Patti Sanchez (P): I am nothing if not thorough and methodical. I always want to give people the complete toolkit so that they can be successful on their own. And that's why I organized the book the way that I did following a workflow.

I wanted everyone to feel like they had a guide at their side. You know, not the sage on the stage who is helping them through every step.

I: We see you giving the readers a very personal and empathetic treatment, so they gain confidence in telling their story. Would you agree with that?

P: Yes, it's one of the hallmarks of the way I work and the way I try to live as a human being is to practice empathy and to teach empathy, because I think it is the foundation for. Effective communication. I think it's the foundation for effective collaboration. I think it just makes life and work better when people understand and respect other people.

I: What would be your concept about what a story is?

P: Well, a lot of people talk about storytelling. Every TV show I watch, even the home design shows, they say, oh, I'm going to tell a story with this design. And I love that. Yet it's different than the way I think about story to me. Story is three things:

• A skill
• A structure
• A strategy 

And I say most importantly, especially for business leaders for people in organizations that are trying to achieve their goals. Story is a way to help you achieve your goals, a way to help people understand what your organization is about, what you're trying to do and align them with that.

I: You even tell us how to present whether it's a pitch or a presentation in a linear way. You tell us how to do it in a way that is going to keep the audience there. Would you like to tell us a little bit about that, please?

P: It's hard to keep the audience there particularly in a virtual presentation, right? Because we have so many distractions around us, and we can have other windows open on our desktops if we're audience members. So, the speaker has to draw that audience in keep them interested; really grab them by the lapels, make them pay attention (but not just make them want to pay attention).

That requires storytelling to make your content more interesting, to take the audience on a journey so that they're not only thinking, but they're feeling too. And that makes them more likely to stay engaged.

I: Would you say that there should be some continuity in the way we present ideas?

P: You need to organize your thoughts before you communicate them. A lot of times people get frustrated when an audience doesn't walk away understanding the right thing, or they just didn't get it.

I fault the speaker for that, because it's your job as a communicator to organize your thoughts in a way that will make sense to your audience. That's the table stakes. That's the bare minimum for communicating well, and it's logic.

Point "A" leads to point "B" leads to point "C", and story gives you a logical structure as well to organize information by because every story, a good one that doesn't wander and confuse your audience has a beginning, a middle and an end.

The Hero, The Challenge and The Value

P: In that beginning, you set up a challenge, which is just like in any great story a hero faces. The audience is your hero. Then you explain in the middle: How to help your audience overcome that challenge?

And in the end, you want to summarize. What do they get? What is the ultimate value or outcome that they will achieve when they do things your way?

So, it all comes down to a point having a clear point that you want to get across to your audience and that you want them to embrace.

Venture Stage

I: And would you like to tell us about the concept of Venture Stage, please?

P: It was a really amazing process to write Illuminate and to study the kinds of changes that businesses go through and individuals. And what I found in all of the case studies that I read in the research that I did is that change has a structure to it that everybody experiences it the same way. This venture scape of change that follows a story structure. And it actually breaks down into 5 stages:

Dream

So, in the beginning of the process of change, it starts when you communicate your vision or your dream. That's the dream stage. That is where you're articulating the future that you want to create, but your audience is not ready yet to embrace that future.

Leap

You have to pry their fingers off the status quo, make them want to go into that future with you. You need to convince them to leap into that future with them with you. How you communicate makes all the difference in whether they do say "yes" to help you or not.

Fight

If you're very persuasive in your case [about] why that future is so great for them and how it's going to reward them for the risk that they're taking, then they enter the middle stage.  That is when the real change starts to take hold as people are trying to actually execute on your vision, but they encounter obstacles and challenges, and they have to battle them, and you use story and face the journey to help people believe that they're capable of overcoming those and as they do conquer each obstacle

Climb

They [move] a little closer to your goal, as they're making progress and small wins on the path to realizing your vision.

Arrive

That's where you realize your goal, or maybe you fall short a little bit of it, but that's the time to acknowledge the process that everyone went through and to tell stories about what you experienced and what you learned, so that you can internalize that learning, before you go on to your next change effort.

The Heart in the Decisions

P: We like to believe that we make decisions in our heads, but we actually make decisions in our heart first, and then we rationalize them in our heads. So, you have to be able to intuit what people need, and give THAT to them; which takes empathy as well to want to help people succeed to want them to find their own reasons to embrace your change.

And that also takes strategy.

It takes strategic thinking, to know where you want to go, where you need to move your audience to, how you want to communicate to achieve the objective you want to achieve.

I: What would you tell to that new leader, that new manager, that founder, who is trying to convey their idea and they don't know that they can do it through story and they don't know how?

P: Sometimes, especially if you're starting something new, like starting a business, you also need to know what you stand for.

You need to find your own purpose and values so that you can really clarify, put a fine point on what you offer to people and story can help you to look back on, your career, your previous experience and write down some stories about pivotal moments when, you made a really important decision or you made a big change in your life. And what motivated you to do that? What value were you trying to uphold or achieve? And for instance, for me, a few times it’s empathy.