Recently I used the world’s oldest form of communication to perform civilization’s second oldest and common task. As many times before, both personally and professionally, I tried to harness this ageless method, the power and hard-wired command of “story” to create evocative communication – in this case to eulogize my own father.
As you might suspect, it was an emotional experience. But as his eldest child, it was one I had long expected to face amid his declining health. I knew to appropriately honor my own father under the watchful eyes of my mother, sibling, family and friends would be an exercise (as it would be for most people) that tested my emotional poise. Under such strain it was hard to know beforehand exactly what to say, but I knew reflexively how exactly I was going to say it – I would tell a story.
My use of story for this one time purpose was common. In fact, one of the most (and there are many) remarkable facets of the story form is its adaptability to a multitude of applications. In this case, I called on it as part of an ancient practice, but story readily supports communication needs old, new and everywhere in between: A lecture from Plato, a Hemmingway narrative, the screenplay from the Hunger Games, a detailed (emoji driven) text or even a Billy Joel ballad. All are different from the others in communication type or intent and yet they are identical in relying on the story form to make them take shape.
At WordWrite, we have been tireless advocates for the story form as the vehicle to drive a range of marketing and business communication strategies. Even as new digitally inspired forms have evolved, we are struck by how much that is “new” about the way we communicate is also so “old.” So what makes stories resilient and adaptable in the first place? It’s two things, primarily.
First, story largely (but not exclusively) works in a linear fashion. It organizes communicative elements in an order that allows us to readily understand what came first and how it may have influenced what follows. Obviously, we can all point to examples in certain communications (especially in artistic types of communication) where non-linear stories have been told. But even in the commonly used flashback or flash forward motifs, we still recognize that a new story element is being introduced to create context – which is the primary value of a linear story in the first place.
Second, story almost always lends itself to our hard-wired need to understand something with a beginning, middle and an end. By doing so, the communication then becomes attached to more than our mere thoughts. It becomes entrenched in our biology. It emerges as the rhythm we, the so-called “smartest” animal in the kingdom, subsequently grunt and snort to facilitate our own survival on the third rock from the sun.
That’s why with a new marketing year upon us and endlessly splintering styles of marketing and business communication styles being deployed for ever more narrow aims, we want you to pause. You and your staff, supervisor, clients and others may spend much time and exhaust a lot of brain “bandwidth” this year in seeking the next communication breakthrough. Might I suggest it has already been found and has been there all along. The humble story.
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John Durante is the marketing services director for WordWrite Communications. He can be reached at john.durante@wordwritepr.com.
