Great storytelling in business requires three critical elements: an authentic story rooted in fact; a fluent storyteller, and a commitment to continually read the audience to evolve the story and ensure that communication is happening.
A great story also requires a hero or heroes and every great story has at least one. But that hero must be involved in an authentic quest to give the story the kind of meaning that resonates with us long after we’ve seen, heard or experienced the tale.
In our work developing our proprietary StoryCrafting process, we’ve researched literally hundreds of great stories to identify the critical elements that prove the importance of these three elements.
One of the most fascinating aspects of great stories is that we as humans tend to tell and retell the same storylines over and over again. At the same time, the variety of stories built upon common elements is breathtaking. Each day, if we’re aware, we can find a gem just about anywhere.
Let’s take a real-life case in point: the story of Dr. Maurice Hilleman, eloquently shared in this May 7, 2013 profile by New York Times reporter Richard Conniff, A Forgotten Pioneer of Vaccines. Conniff’s writing masterfully sets the stage:
“We live in an epidemiological bubble and are for the most part blissfully unaware of it. Diseases that were routine hazards of childhood for many Americans living today now seem like ancient history. And while every mother could once identify measles in a heartbeat, now even the best hospitals have to call in their eldest staff members to ask: ‘Is this what we think it is?’
To a remarkable extent, we owe our well-being, and in many cases our lives, to the work of one man and to events that happened 50 years ago this spring. . .”
A half century ago, Dr. Hilleman’s daughter Jerl Lynn was sick with the mumps, and he, as a researcher at Merck pharmaceuticals, collected the mumps strain from her throat and began that night to seek a better way to prevent mumps. His quest led him to devise what’s today known as the M.M.R., the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine given to 95 percent of all American children.
To quote Conniff: “It was by no means his only contribution. At Dr. Hilleman’s death in 2005, other researchers credited him with having saved more lives than any other scientist in the 20th century. Over his career, he devised or substantially improved more than 25 vaccines, including 9 of the 14 now routinely recommended for children.
“ ‘One person did that!’ said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, a longtime friend of Dr. Hilleman’s and now director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. ‘Truly amazing.’ ”
I won’t spoil the rest of the story because Conniff shares it so beautifully in his own work. I encourage you instead to read it, and when you do, to consider certain aspects that will illuminate the power of authentic stories fluently told:
Joseph Campbell, in his seminal work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, distilled all story narratives to a formula – a quest. In Campbell’s research, he found common stories across time, culture and geography. In these stories, a hero faced a problem, went on a quest, discovered an answer or solution to the problem and returned to his family, society or world with the solution and thus, became the hero.
As Conniff points out in his story, few people may know Dr. Hilleman today. But they would certainly understand his story: a parent worried for the safety of his daughter, who commits then and there to dedicate his skills to eradicate the threat to the safety of his children and countless others.
Like all great hero quests, Hilleman’s was an adventure, marked with pitfalls and humor. For example, Dr. Hilleman, though an academic with a Ph.D. in microbiology, had a sailor’s vocabulary, according to Conniff, and freely shared his command of salty language when evaluating scientific topics.
More tragically, he and his reputation were sullied in 1998 when the British medical journal Lancet published a study alleging the M.M.R. vaccine caused autism. Though the study was later refuted and the author of the questionable study had his right to practice medicine stripped by British authorities, as Conniff puts it, “Dr. Hilleman, who might reasonably have been expected to win a Nobel Prize, got hate mail and death threats instead.”
Sadly, Dr. Hilleman died in 2005, before he was formally vindicated.
Finally, like all authentic heroes, Dr. Hilleman went on his quest not for himself only, but to serve a larger goal. To quote Conniff: “In this country, the strain that Dr. Hilleman collected from his daughter that night in 1963 has reduced the incidence of mumps to fewer than 1,000 cases a year, from 186,000. Characteristically, he named it not for himself but for his daughter.”
Dr. Hilleman’s story is an authentic journey with the best kind of hero – unlikely – at its center. Unfortunately, until Conniff came along, it seems Dr. Hilleman’s work didn’t benefit from a truly fluent storyteller, someone who could see the humanity and personal side of the quest that led one man to such great achievements.
It makes Dr. Hilleman’s story one of the most compelling that we’ve seen in quite some time – and one that should provide anyone interested in powerful business stories with great food for thought in employing storytelling to share their great, untold stories.
What do you make of Dr. Hilleman’s achievements and the seeming lack of cultural awareness of what he accomplished? Are there other great stories that you believe are worthy of a fluent storyteller to share their quest? Leave your thoughts in the comments below and thanks for reading.
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Paul Furiga is president and CEO of WordWrite Communications. You can find him on Twitter @paulfuriga.
