Fact or Fiction.

Data dumps, death by power point, graphs and spread sheets ad nausea and the telling signs of drooping eyelids. All signs the presentation isn't working, no matter how important or how interesting the information may be to you. Today we are inundated with data at such a pace that retention of the data is causing anxiety and people not retaining anything as they spiral into data overload. Yet if you asked people how much they remember from childhood stories read to them by their parents, consensus would see most recite large chunks of stories told 20 or 30 years ago. So why can't we remember last week's power point presentation?

Story telling is not new in the corporate world but it is gaining credence as psychology gets more involved and over the last few decades has shown stories have more power over the mind. Especially when it concerns changing attitudes, values and beliefs through story telling persuasion. Fiction may be stranger than fact but we want to believe the story more than we want to believe the data.

Psychologists are pointing out the potency of a good story, showing how absorbed we can become and how much we drop our guard. As opposed to always having our arms crossed when assaulted with raw data and information. The compelling story weaved around company values, people or products is driving today's market leaders such as Apple, Facebook and Google. Once upon a time a young Harvard student decided to get back at being dumped by his girl friend and changed online connections forever. Once upon a time two young men decided to change the face of the personal computer from their garage. Once upon a time two young men decided to change the way we searched out information by just asking the right question. Each one of those stories continues to this day and no matter the complexities of the information involved, people stay engaged because of the story.

The psychologists tell us that fiction works to alter the way we process data and information and the more involved we are in the story line the more absorbed we are in the information. This total engagement, scientists tell us, can also lead to detecting fewer falsehoods in story lines and this is the part that concerns many in the corporate world. For a listener that concern should only be raised if the story teller has no credibility and the "expert" in the title has no real CV to back it up.

I know from the stories I tell, if a salient point needs to get to an audience I make sure to weave the information in such a way as to touch them personally and make the story as relevant as possible to their situation. Story telling is a powerful, persuasive art form that if used for the "forces of good", can transform the ordinary to the extraordinary. That's what we remember when we hear "once upon a time".