The Art of the Storyteller

Increase credibility with anecdotes

by Ann Wylie, president, Wylie Communications Inc.

Here's yet another reason to illustrate your most important ideas through storytelling: Storytelling builds credibility.

It's counterintuitive but true: In anecdotal research, people say they believe information more readily if it's portrayed in story form than through statistics, according to Peg Neuhauser's Corporate Legends and Lore.

The professional communicators and managers who attend the storytelling seminars I present have come up with several hypotheses for those results. For one thing, they speculate, readers can connect with the people in stories. That's what academicians call the Peer Principal of Persuasion: If it worked for Joe, it will probably work for me.

For another, they theorize, our sophisticated audiences have become cynical about numbers. They've read how politicians can manipulate statistics to support whatever point they want to make. So they've adopted Mark Twain's attitude about numbers: "There are three kinds of lies — lies, damn lies and statistics."

They probably also subscribe to the view of Anonymous, who said: "It is now proven beyond doubt that smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics."

Need more techniques for using storytelling — "the most powerful form of human communication" in your very next piece? Check out Ann's workshops and learning tools.

About the author

Ann Wylie runs a company called Wylie Communications Inc. Ann works with communicators who want to reach more readers and with organizations that want to get the word out. To learn more about her training, consulting or writing and editing services, call Ann at 816/997-8753 or e-mail her at ann@wyliecomm.com. Get a FREE subscription to Ann's e-mail newsletter at http://www.wyliecomm.com/newsletter_signup.shtml.

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