A to Z of Business Storytelling -12

Logic

Most of the genre of business storytelling falls under the category of persuasive speech. The sequence of a persuasive speech is to start with inspiring the audience, convince them and finally call for an action. Call for an action could be anything like to accept the new organization structure, be ready for new age digital strategy or follow the compliance process etc.

The way you present your persuasive message depends on who your listeners are and what attitudes they hold towards your subject. The audience may be Agreeable, Apathetic, Hostile, Uninformed and Mixed.

Changing people’s mind is difficult. They already have rational view of what you plan to speak. As a business storyteller , it is your onus to make them believe what you say. To convince the audience, you must provide evidence, outside sources that provide proof to your arguments.

Some of the questions that linger in the minds of the left brainers in the audience:-

• Why should I listen to this session?
• The emotional stories are ok. But not sure if I have to do anything?
• Arguments seems to be great. But has anyone else tried this earlier?
• Guess other options would also work out better? Why this specific solution?

While few people are persuaded by logic, few people are persuaded using emotion as a tool. While some of the audience are right brained people who would focus on emotions, the rest of them would be left brained people who would always look for logic, information and other data points. Many a times corporate audience would be left brained people who always look for rationale rather than emotion. Hence logic plays a vital role in business storytelling.

How do we ensure logic in the business storytelling? Following are the ways:-

Problem / Solution — State the problem and present your solution. While doing so, explain why it is the best possible solution. You also need to let the audience know how to execute the solution. For example if the current issue is that lack of preparation for meetings affect the overall productivity, you may suggest a customized checklist. You can also tell them how to use it before every meeting by all key people.

Proposition to Proof —Come out with your proposition that would be followed by proofs to support it. For example, if your organization is planning to go for digital transformation, there are multiple options regarding the execution framework. You can say that a “Pilot Project” approach would be the most suited approach for the organization. You can continue with strong reasons why this approach would work out and finally conclude with an appeal for the Pilot Project based approach.

Comparative Advantage — You as the business storyteller may state the problem statement and come out with multiple options. For each option, you may list down the advantages and disadvantages. Finally you may explain why your choice has more advantages and fewer disadvantage than others.

Word of Caution

People are generally branded as right brainers (who love emotions and stories) and left brainers (who look for logic, information and data points) based on their dominant behavior. What it means is that a right brainer may too look for logic and a left brainer may look for emotions. This flip can happen anytime, depending on the mood and surroundings and context. Hence, be sure to have the right blend of logic and emotions as you speak.

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