Can you learn to be a storyteller?

We enrolled in IDEO’s ‘Storytelling for Influence’ online course to find out

Last week, the Cypha team sat down for our first e-lesson in storytelling. Developed by IDEO, the course is designed to help individuals create impact in the workplace using storytelling techniques. By committing around 4-5 hours a week you can reap the benefits of:

• A flexible skill set to help you create impact through your story.
• A course toolkit that captures important insights from the course.
• A completed story that you can share with others.
• Feedback from experienced designers and a community of like-minded learners and
• A Certificate of Completion to post to your professional network (based on completion of course requirements)

Why are we doing this?

From the Dreamtime to modern-day digital marketing, humans have been connecting through stories and storytelling techniques. Studies have proven, that our brains are far more engaged, moved and motivated by storytelling than the cold, hard facts; and that we retain more information about a brand or product when we hear powerful and emotional stories–due to the dopamine our brain releases when listening.

As a team, we understand the value of storytelling. After all, it’s what connects us to our humanity. We want to improve our storytelling abilities. That’s where IDEO comes in.

“Stories can move, mobilise, and motivate people toward change and action.”

Getting Started

To begin, our instructor Jenn Maer discussed the science of storytelling and outlined what makes a good story. She says a good story is personal, human-centered and motivating.

It was then time to begin our first assignment, which was to choose our theme. A ‘theme’ is what frames a story throughout the course. IDEO provided three themes and an option to choose your own. We decided to go with one of their themes, ‘My time to shine’. Which was described as:

“Talking about yourself is hard. You don’t want to sound too boastful or too bashful. You have to strike the right balance—and fast. Think of it as an elevator pitch for you to demonstrate your abilities. You have your boss or manager’s attention for thirty seconds (or until you reach the top floor). Where do you start? What main points do you need to make?”

From this, we chose our topic. Our topic is the story we want to tell, and the challenge we want to solve. Whilst there are plenty of topics we could have chosen, we settled on one that related to Cypha’s business objectives.

We want to tell a story about our organisation so that we can grow the business in line with our core values.

There are three lessons to complete, and a final project. Stay tuned as we track our progress and reflect on the course. Let us know if you’ve completed an IDEO course before, how did you go?