So she settled down and dug up several related stories for her resume before going to the interview. Sure enough, she used them in the interview because she made full preparations and was successfully hired by the interview company. This made her realize for the first time that telling a good story has such great utility.
This girl is Gao Lin, the CEO of Coach Company. She and her husband Lin Hongbo established a set of perfect, professional, practical and interesting story thinking training methods, and created a very popular online course, which successfully helped tens of thousands of students find their own story power. My husband and I wrote and published this book, The Power of Stories, which tells how to build the power of stories and tell good stories to help people's lives.
0 1. Stories are more convincing than facts and can improve trust.
Byron, a famous English poet, once walked in the street and saw a sign hanging in front of a blind man, which read: "I was blind since childhood and begged in the street." But passers-by seemed to pass by in a hurry, and after a long time, there was still no dime in the broken basin in the blind man's hand to beg. Byron stepped forward and added: "Spring has come, but I can't see her."
A word aroused people's sympathy, and passers-by lend a helping hand in succession. "I was blind from childhood and begged in the street" is true, but it is far less convincing and touching than the story "Spring has come, but I can't see her".
Byron skillfully helped the beggar blind man with a short story with only one sentence.
A friend's face is blind and he can't recognize anyone. Others say he is lofty and doesn't talk much when he meets acquaintances. How can he prove that he is face blind? He said that once, my father came back from a business trip in other places and just entered the house. He said to his father seriously, who are you? How did you get in? Why do you have the key to my house? Only in this way can everyone believe that he is really face-blind.
A simple story made him prove himself and gain the trust of others.
02. A good story needs three standards and six elements.
A good story should be clear and arouse the curiosity and resonance of the audience.
For example, at a round table meeting of the China-US Chamber of Commerce, the problem of overcapacity was discussed. A speaker talked about the problem of cement overcapacity: "If I tell you how many tons of cement we have, you have no idea. Let me put it this way: if excess cement is used to build a highway, then this road can go around the earth four times. "
In addition to the above three criteria, a good story has six elements: people, background, conflict, climax, dialogue and ending.
Story characters, characters are the soul of the story, and the implanted characters should let the audience find common ground, have a sense of substitution, and it is easier to identify with the characters. In terms of characterization, it is necessary to clarify the role, so that the characters have a high degree of recognition and impress the audience.
Background includes time, place, relationship between people and contradictory information. The background paves the way for the next plot development, and it is necessary to prepare for the next plot development without making a long speech.
Conflict is something in the story that prevents you from achieving your goals or poses a threat to yourself. Conflict is often the process of choosing story characters, and it is also the embodiment of the values of story characters.
The climax is the process that the story characters overcome obstacles and solve problems. Dialogue is not necessary, but it is usually the crowning touch of the story.
The ending is the end of the story, a summary of the theme of the story, or a suggestion for action, and an explanation to the audience. Metaphorically speaking, the ending is equivalent to wrapping our gifts and tying a beautiful ribbon to make them perfectly presented.
Knowing the three standards and six elements of a good story, how can we use the story to help us solve problems in life and work?
03. The workplace is unreasonable, tell more stories.
In social or job interviews, you can let others know who you are through the following three stories.
Tell the story of "I am awesome ...", what problems have you encountered in the past and how you solved them, so as to show your ability and gain recognition from the outside world. Analyze your thoughts and choices with the story of "Why I ……" and introduce your values and internal motivation to others. Use the story of "My Change ……" to let others know about you now and your growth process from the past to the present.
Introducing yourself with the above three stories can make people know you, remember you, agree with you, trust you and choose you better.
On the occasion of debriefing, telling stories and doing debriefing can help you have more chances to get a promotion and a raise.
When reporting, many people tend to take the wrong cognition that "the boss only cares about the result", and only talk about the conclusion and not the process when reporting; The report is full of dry figures, charts or conclusions.
Such a report, the boss's needs are met, but you may not be able to get the boss's approval.
In fact, work report is not only to help leaders make decisions, but also an opportunity for subordinates to show their strength.
If you just use the report to make a report, you can let the leaders see the results, but your ability, value and potential can't be shown in the report, so how can you get the boss's approval?
If you add a story to the report, which focuses on the boss's needs and pain points, and uses the story to explain what difficulties and challenges you encountered in the process of doing the project, how you responded and overcame them, and finally achieved your goal, so that the boss can not only see your ability, but also recognize your potential, so why worry about not getting a promotion and salary increase?
In the sales situation, telling a good story can help you get close to customers.
First of all, you can talk about "three stresses" and build trust with customers.
"Three stresses" means telling three stories: a personal short story about "who am I"; A story about "my company"; The story about "Why I did this job".
Telling these three stories well can let others know and trust you and your company, and let customers know what help and value your work can bring to them. Established trust, virtually laid the foundation for the transaction.
Then tell a "someone else's" story, let the customer find the demand and buy it. The theme of this story is "How to help your customers succeed".
This story consists of four parts:
1, tell a case similar to the customer's current situation, so as to draw in the customer relationship, make the customer interested in continuing to listen, and easily resonate with the customer;
2. Set a trigger event, the status quo of the characters in the story will be changed, which may lead to bad results, and will cause the characters in the story to be worried, sad, anxious and afraid.
3. The story characters get corresponding help and are given carbon in the snow, which solves the problem and reduces or avoids the bad results that would have happened.
Finally, tell customers how your product or service can help them solve their problems and change their lives as in the story. It is natural for customers to find their own needs for your products in empathy with the story characters, and then buy them.
There is a saying in the insurance industry: "Whoever can tell stories best will do insurance best."
Telling a good story and making the most difficult sale easy is the charm of the story.
There are countless wonderful uses of storytelling in life, from story picture books that help us to be enlightened from childhood to bibles that accompany many parishioners all their lives, all of which use stories to tell the philosophy of life, making the truth easier for more people to understand and be familiar with.
Stories can be applied to many fields, consciously practicing storytelling, cultivating our storytelling ability, and telling stories well at critical moments are helpful to our lives.
When you look at the world from a new perspective with story thinking and understand the world, you will find another self who can find extraordinary in the ordinary!