Why storytelling is more trustworthy than presenting data | Karen Eber | TEDxPurdueU

Maria walked into the elevator at work, went to press the button when her phone fell out of her hand, bounced off the floor and fell straight through that small opening between the elevator on the floor and she realized it wasn't just her phone, but it was a phone wallet that had her driver's license her credit card her whole life she went to the reception to talk to Ray the security guard Ray was very happy to see her Maria is one of the few people who actually stops and greets him every day, in fact, she is one of those people who knows your birthday, your favorite food and your last vacation, not because she is strange, she simply likes people and likes them to feel seen, she tells Ray what happened and he said at least it will cost him. $500 to get her phone back and he goes to get a quote while she returns to her desk 20 minutes later he calls her and tells her Maria.

She was looking at the inspection certificate in the elevator. You're actually due for your annual inspection next month. I'm going to go ahead and call today and we can get her phone back and it won't cost you anything the same day this happened. I read an article about the CEO of Charles Schwab. Walter was injured and is directly describing his career in college going to his last exam hoping to pass it when the professor asks a question what is the name of the person who cleans this room and failed the exam? he had seen her but had never met her before her name was Dotty and that day he made a promise to always know the Dotties in his life because both Walter and Maria understand this power of helping people feel seen, especially as leaders .

I used that story when he worked at General Electric. I was responsible for shaping the culture. and a company of 90,000 employees in one hundred and fifty countries and I found that stories were a great way to connect with people and make them think about what I would do in this situation if I had known or who are the Dotties I need to know. In my life I found that no matter what people's gender, their generation or their geography in the world, stories resonated and worked, but in my work with leaders I also found that they tend to be allergic to telling stories, they are not sure where count them. find them or they're not sure how to tell them or they think they have to present

data

because there's just no room to tell stories and that's where I want to focus today because

storytelling

and

data

isn't really this or it's a In the end, they actually create this powerful ballad that connects you to information differently to understand how we first have to understand what happens neurologically when you are listening to a story and data, whether you are at a conference or in a meeting.

Small parts of your brain are activated. We are in a game. Broca's area, this is where you process information and is also the reason why you tend to forget 50% immediately after hearing it. When you hear a story, your whole brain starts. to illuminate each of your lobes will light up as your senses and emotions are activated. Since I talked about a phone falling and hitting the ground with a thud, your occipital and temporal lobes light up as if you were actually watching that phone fall. and hearing it hit with the thud, there's this term neural coupling that says that as a listener, your brain will light up exactly like mine as a storyteller, mirror this activity as if you were actually experiencing these things.

The narration gives you this artificial reality if I talk to You like to walk in the snow and with each step the snow crunches under my shoes and big wet flakes fall on my cheeks. Your brains now light up as if you are walking on snow and experiencing these things. That's why you can sit down. in an action movie and you don't move but your heart races as if you were the star on the screen because this neural coupling makes your brain light up as if you were having that activity. As you listen to the story, you automatically gain empathy for the narrator.

The

more

empathy you experience, the

more

oxytocin will be released in your brain. Oxytocin is the chemical that makes you feel good. And the more oxytocin you have, the more

trustworthy

you will see the speaker. This is my

storytelling

is such a critical skill for a leader because the very act of telling a story makes people trust you more as you start to hear the data, some different things happen, there are some misconceptions that you need to understand and The first is that data does not change our behavior, emotions: if data changed our behavior, we would all sleep eight hours. and exercise and floss daily and drink eight glasses of water, but that's not how we really decide.

Neuroscientists have studied decision making and it begins in our amygdala. This is our emotional epicenter where we have the ability to experience emotions and it is here on a subconscious level. where we begin to decide, we make decisions to seek pleasure or avoid risks, all before we realize it, the moment we realize it, when it comes to the conscious level, we begin to apply rationalization and logic, reason why we think we are making these rationally based decisions without realizing that they were already decided in our subconscious Antonio Damasio is a neuroscientist who began studying patients who had damaged Sarah Magdala in their full functioning in every way except not They could experience emotions and, as a result, could not make decisions. something as simple as I go this way or this way they were unable to do it because they couldn't experience emotions.

These were people who had great success before they had the serum damaged in Tula and now they couldn't complete any of their projects. their careers suffered great successes, all because they were unable to experience emotions in which we decided another misconception of data, data never speaks for itself. Our brain loves to anticipate, and as we anticipate, we fill in the gaps of what we are seeing or hearing with our own knowledge. and experience and our own bias, which means my understanding of the data will differ from yours and it will differ from yours because we will all have our own interpretation if there is no way to guide us now.

I'm not suggesting that data is bad and story is good, both play a key role and I understand how you have to look at what makes a story great. It will answer three questions: the first is what is the context, meaning what is the environment, who is involved, why should I even do it? Does it matter what the conflict is? Where is that moment when everything changes and what is the result? Where is it different? What is the conclusion? A good story also has three attributes: The first is that it will build and release tension, because our brains love to anticipate a A good story builds tension by making you wonder what will happen next.

A good story keeps you going and frees you by sharing something unexpected and doing it again and again throughout the story. A great story also builds an idea that helps you see. something that you can no longer unsee and that leaves you changed because stories really leave you changed and a great story communicates value Stanford has researched one of the best ways to shape organizational culture and it is storytelling because it will demonstrate what What you value and encourage or what you don't value and what you discourage When you start writing your power ballad, most people want to start with the data they want to delve into because we often have tons of data, but there is a common mistake we make when we do.

I was working with a CEO, she came to me to prepare for her annual company-wide meeting, she had 45 slides of data for a 45 minute presentation, a recipe for a boring and unforgettable talk and this is what she comes with most people armed. All this data and they try to sort it out without a big picture and then they get lost. We actually put the data aside and I asked him what is the problem that you're trying to solve, what do you want people to think and feel differently and what do you want people to do differently.

At the end of this, that's where you start with data and storytelling. You create this framework to guide the way through the story and data. In her case, she wants the company to be hers. to be able to enter new markets to remain competitive, she ended up telling a story about her daughter, who is a gymnast, who is competing for a scholarship and had to learn new routines with increasing difficulty to be competitive, this is one of your options, do you tell someone? story over the data itself or tell a parallel story where you draw story points to reinforce the data as you begin this ballad, this melody and the harmony of the data and the narrative come together in a way that will stay with you for a long time. after Brianna. was a college advisor and was asked to present to her college leadership when she realized that a large population of students with autism were not graduating, she came to see me because her leaders kept saying: present the data, focus on the data, but she felt like a university student.

The officials already had the data. She was trying to figure out how to help connect with them, so we worked together. This helped him tell Michelle's story. Michelle was a straight student in high school who dreamed of going to college. Michelle was also a student with autism who was terrified about how she would cope with the changes of college, her worst fears came true and her first phone call with her advisor when he asked her questions like where do you see yourself in five years and what they are. her career aspirations questions that are difficult for anyone except a person with autism having to respond to crippling verbal she hung up the phone she was ready to give up and tell her parents sat down with her and helped her write an email to the counselor she.

She told him that she was a student with autism, which was very difficult for her to share because she felt there was a stigma associated with her just sharing it. She told him that she preferred to communicate in writing. If he could send her questions in advance, she would. She was able to send him answers before getting on the phone to have a different conversation, he followed her lead and within a few weeks they found all these things they have in common, like a love for Japanese anime after three semesters. Michelle is a straight: a student thriving in college at this point Breanna starts sharing some of the data that less than 20% of students with autism graduate and it's not because they can't handle the coursework, it's because they can't they can understand it. how to navigate college exactly what an advisor is supposed to help you do that over the course of your life the earning potential of someone with a college degree over a high school degree is a million dollars, which is a large amount but for a person with autism who wants to be able to live independently of their family, it changes their life.

She closed by saying that our whole passion and purpose is to help people be the best they can be to help them succeed, but as soon as we are giving our best service by applying this one-size-fits-all approach and letting people fall behind, we can and We should do better, there are more Michelles out there and I know this because Michelle is my daughter and in that moment that jaw in the room and someone even wiped away their tears because she had done it, she had connected them to the information differently, she had them helped them see something they couldn't unsee, could have done it with just data maybe, but the thing is they already had the data they had?

I don't have a reason not to overlook the data this time, that's the power of storytelling and the data came together, it comes together this way to help generate ideas, help you see things you can't unsee, help to communicate what is valued and help take advantage. in that emotional way that we all decide as we go, shaping each other's passion and purpose as leaders, don't just use data, use stories and don't wait for the perfect story, take your stories and make them perfect, thank you.