Storytelling is thought to be an effective way of accomplishing this. Daniel Pink explores a storytelling model know as the Pixar Pitch, in his book "To Sell is Human" . The Pixar Pitch is a technique used by Pixar Animation Studios, in movies such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo. Pixar has produced 13 feature films that together have grossed nearly $8 Billion. The company has won 26 Academy Awards for these films including 6 Best Animated Film Awards.
There are probably a number of interrelated reasons for Pixar's success, but no one will discount the stories themselves. Pixar story artists claim that each story has the same narrative composition – a storytelling structure that involves a six part sequence:
1. Once upon a time there was …2. Every day …
3. One day …
4. Because of that …
5. As a result …
6. Until finally …
Take, for example, the plot of Finding Nemo:
1. Once upon a time there was a widowed fish, named Marlin, who was extremely protective of his only son, Nemo.
2. Every day Marlin warned Nemo of the ocean’s dangers and insisted he stay close to home.
3. One day Nemo rebels against his father’s warnings and swims into the open water.
4. Because of that he gets captured by a diver and ends up in a dentist's fish tank in Sydney Australia.
5. As a result Marlin sets off to find Nemo, enlisting the help of other sea creatures along the way.
6. Until finally Marlin and Nemo are reunited and discover if you truly love someone you have to set them free.
This six-sequence template is both appealing and subtle. It allows the story teller to take advantage of the persuasiveness and impactful way to relay a moral or tenet.
In learning environments, like the ones I work in on a weekly basis, stories are used to illustrate a point and complement learning content.
Here's a (true) story I tell in diversity and inclusion workshops:
Once upon a time there was a man living on the street in a bustling business district. Everyday he sat in front of the same office building asking passersby for their spare change. One day, a top executive who worked in that office building offered the homeless man a job in the company mail room. Because of that the man was able to get off the streets and show his talents and abilities to decision makers within the company. As a result, the man quickly moved up in the organization, because even though he had fallen on hard times, he had once been a highly admired and successful businessman. Until finally, he was able to show everyone who passed by and ignored him when he was living on the street that you can't judge a book by it's cover and everyone deserved a second chance.
I also encourage learners and facilitators to use this same approach to facilitate problem solving and creative thinking. A pre-K Board of Directors was asked how they might address issues in early education using the six sentence template. They came up with something like this:
1. Once upon a time there was an education crisis in schools across North America.
2. Every day large percentages of children were not achieving proficiency in vital literacy skills to the point that some in our community even doubted whether they ever could.
3. One day administrators parents and teachers in one town developed a simple curriculum of what children had to know to be ready for school and they agreed on what each of their roles would be to get the children ready.
4. Because of that early childhood educators and parents became better at helping kids get ready for kindergarten.
5. As a result this community saw a great improvement in literacy and test score and shared their proven system with others
6. Until finally every child in America received the pre-school prep they needed regardless of socio-economic background.
The holiday season, when friends and family are gathered, is a great time to practice story telling. It's a compelling way to help people see a point of view rather than insisting or arguing what they should think, feel, or believe. If your work requires you to influence others, negotiate terms, sell something, solve problems, or motivate others, storytelling could be the missing tool in your toolkit.
