Story-telling is wider and wider recognized as one of the key competencies of a modern manager. With new technologies invading our brains, there is a severe and ruthless competition for brain space, attention and processing capacity whenever we receive information. It is the ancient and yet most efficient art of story-telling that captivates the minds, mesmerizes the eyes and reaches the hearts of the listeners that comes to the fore nowadays.
The first event of the IE HR Club was organizing the story-telling dinner at the Mood restaurant on Monday earlier this week. The instructions were simple: think of a story of a mind-wrecking success or a spectacular failure and come and tell it to the other participants in an engaging manner. I should say we genuinely enjoyed the variety of stories that the IE students and alumni brought to the table (literally!!! as the food was nice!). We spent three hours in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, sharing life experiences of each other. Interestingly enough, even though it was an option, nobody picked a borrowed or a fictitious story, and that surely had added to the overall feeling of the evening. Some were very personal, and the emotions behind those were true and intense.
Each one of the participants will receive an individual feedback, which will be an aggregated report compiled from the inputs of everyone else. The observations commonly shared around the table are that there is a dire need in upping the game on the art of story-telling in IE, and there definitely has been a lot of learning in the event. Gary Stewart, the Executive Director of the Venture Lab, has concluded the event with his personal story and several pieces of advice to the participants:
- Timing and Rhythm are key (attention span is short, time your story right)
- Start with a hook (like a movie trailer)
- Empathy (make it feel genuine)
Since there is a lot of interest, we would be willing to listen to your event suggestions or comments on the topic.
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