Communication Is More Than Storytelling

I confess that I find myself unimpressed with the recent trend that encourages people who work in communication fields to describe themselves primarily as storytellers.

Wedding photographers boast that their job is to express the story of the couple. Marketing directors wax poetically about “telling your brand’s story.” People who make a living speaking at TED-type events describe themselves as “Husband. Father. Storyteller.” in their LinkedIn bios.

And if this is you, I don’t mean to step on your toes! Stories are a beautiful, illustrative means of engaging your audience.

But I do think that they are just one part of the wholistic art of communication.

First, let’s talk about why stories are so compelling.

Fundamentally, stories are effective because people receive them on their own terms. When someone tells you a story, you’re going to filter it through your own lens of experience, beliefs, and knowledge. You can’t help but put yourself in the storyteller’s shoes. You know what it feels like to experience pain, embarrassment, or excitement and you’re able to share in their emotions as you listen. As a result, you are both disarmed of any misgivings, and experience a greater degree of trust in the person from whom you are hearing.

Stories establish credibility. As a communicator, there is no more valuable currency.

However, besides the obvious that maybe I really don’t care to know the fictional corporate origin story of Chuck E. Cheese, it should be clear that story alone, is not always sufficient to establish purpose.

At its core, communication is the art of conveying a message from one party to another. In some cases, the story can be a message unto itself. Think of the story of Icarus or biblical parables. Adding a heavy-handed explanation of a story’s lesson sometimes diminishes its impact. I think most of us would agree that thinly-veiled political statements shoehorned into movies cheapen or degrade the artform itself.

But I would contend that the inverse can also be true: the art-ification of marketing and public speaking also risks muddling the value proposition of your product or idea. Sometimes, storytelling should be fused with compelling reason and cold hard facts to drive the point home.

Communication is both an art, and a science. Becoming a truly great communicator, requires mastery of both parts. There is beauty in the variety, subtlety, and expression but there are also universal principles and repeatable formulas to successfully convey a message to an audience. And I think that the more you understand one, the more you begin to understand the other.

Becoming a storyteller, is a worthy goal, but I don’t believe that it is the pinnacle of communication.

I think we can, and should aim higher: convey meaning to your audience, and use stories as a tool to that end.

Takeaway: Storytelling is a powerful tool of a communicator—perhaps his/her most important one, but it would be a mistake to treat it as the ultimate goal.

My name is Brent and I like to talk about ideas and the way that we share them. Thank you so much for reading!

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