Issue: Boring content that is just that… boring or dry.
Solution: Stories to the rescue.
Remembrance Day in Canada is a day to honour the veterans who fought in the different wars Canada has been involved in. As the history geek I am, I know a lot about many of them. So when the city library organized an activity where volunteer veterans would be available to chat with the public for 20 mins slots, I was there for sure.
One was a parachute officer.
– Do I care about parachutes? no.
– Have I ever parachute-jumped? no.
– Will I ever? no if I can avoid it.
But the emotion and his eyes telling me how he landed in occupied France, how he got tangled in the parachute, how he felt the German bullets passing him by centimeters got me obsessed with parachutes for the following 2 months. Not only that, when I found myself in a hard moment of my life a bit later, I would go back to that story and draw from its wisdom to get myself out of my hole.
Why are stories important?
Stories are powerful because:
- they convey emotion,
- they create connections,
- they relate to real life,
- and they create a connection with the narrator.
Boring content training turned memorable through stories example:
A few months ago I was in a training session about provincial legislation changes (not very exciting). The facilitator told the story about how she went to enforce said legislation to a workplace and the owner and 2 other big men chased her out waving their machetes and yelling obscenities. I laughed out loud, because she even acted a bit up the scene and I totally felt that I was there witnessing it all! She aroused emotion in us: suspense, drama, amusement… and she had our entire attention from that point and the content actually stuck well in all of our heads – because we were warmed up by a story that sparked emotion in us.
You don’t have to re-act dramatic experiences or dodge enemy bullets to use stories as a learning tool. The stories don’t even have to be true or yours. Use hypothetical examples, scenarios, or ask your audience for their stories (real or invented). If a learner can come up with a story or a scenario about anything you are trying to teach, that means they understood it well and will have high chances of sticking in their long term memory.
We are wired for storytelling!
Think of our cavepeople ancestors: we evolved to who we are today as a society by gathering around the fire and exchanging stories of how we cooked the mammoth or tied a new kind of arrow.
Think of today’s workplace employees. What do they do when they have a moment free? Go to the closest table to gather and share stories. About football, children, weekend plans… you name it.
Take Action:
Be intentional about including stories as learning tools for connection, adding the emotion factor with your audiences, and retention purposes.
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Alternatively, download our free Engagement Toolkit, which includes stories, and also many other tools for turning dry content into a lot more relevant and engaging learning experiences.