As someone who works in Excel everyday and prides myself on an ability to crunch any numbers or run any analysis, creating a “story” and selling that to an audience doesn’t come naturally. For me, I’d rather use a line graph or bar chart and let that do the convincing. But if Brandon Smith taught me anything, it’s that using a story works for persuasion.

So I came across an article written a few months ago in HBR by Harrison Monarth (author of The Confident Speaker and Breakthrough Communication) where he writes about the power of storytelling as a strategic business tool. An example he uses to illustrate the power of storytelling is from the latest Super Bowl commercials for Budweiser. In one advertising study looking at the effectiveness of ads based on content or structure, a researcher at Johns Hopkins noted “regardless of the content of the ad, the structure of that content predicted its success.” So I’m thinking: it’s not what you say, but how you say it? Monarth concludes by writing “A story can go where quantitative analysis is denied admission: our hearts. Data can persuade people, but it doesn’t inspire them to act; to do that, you need to wrap your vision in a story that fires the imagination and stirs the soul.”

Working in the healthcare industry, I found it particularly interesting when Monarth notes an example of how patients change their behavior for the better based on stories their physicians tell them, rather than presenting the data.

Does anyone have specific examples of storytelling in a presentation to actually change behavior or implement a proposal? I’d love to use these tactics, but am still a little skeptical my company’s executives could be moved to action by a story vs. data. What works in your industry?