Storytelling seems to be the stuff that mermaid tears and unicorn dreams are made of but there is an innate link between storytelling and the human condition as it relates to the work place and beyond. As I read this article, I couldn’t help but think of Tim, the Tool Man Taylor, and the deep conversations that he would have with his half-faced neighbor, Wilson. Tim, who could be quite dense in his relationships at home and at work, would talk to Wilson about his troubles. The neighbor would always recount a story in order to get Tim to realize the error in his ways. How did Wilson convey information successfully and incite Tim to action? Read more to find out why the mind has evolved in such a way that stories make much more sense to us as humans than mere facts and data.

This article discusses the evolutionary adaptations of the human mind through the lens of storytelling and how these specializations help us today in the workplace and beyond. The brain and the way we think – the mind – is considered an organ that is subject to evolution just as other organs. The evolution and natural selection of better acclimated minds that understand and construct stories allowed us to survive better than our predecessors.

Since, it is supposed that, we began communicating by using glances, gestures, and basic sounds, this became the groundwork for emphatic storytelling. As we incorporated language with the gestures, the information exchanged became much more intelligible and memorable than mere facts. As a simple example: imagine a leader of a tribe calmly, without gesture or intonation, says: “at 1,500 feet north-west, there is a tribe that wants to kill us and take our land.” He conveyed the correct information but did not rouse his compatriots to action, he did not gesture where the enemies were, and he gave no context as to what type of people they were about to battle and why anyone should care. All of this is conveyed through gesture, intonation, and emotion – all aspects of storytelling.

Think pigs in a blanket: without an attractive vessel of flaky buttery goodness, lukewarm mini hotdogs dislodged from a vacuum-sealed plastic bag aren’t very enticing but, nonetheless, an integral part of the all-American snack favorite. Similarly, important numbers, facts, and data sets mean very little to the vast majority of those we may come into contact with throughout our careers without giving them a reason to digest this information. We must find tactful ways to wrap these bits of knowledge into descriptive, savory, and meaningful anecdotes in order for people to enjoy and successfully consume the pairing.

Favorite Excerpts:
“To weave a good story, the storyteller needs to develop the capability to construct fairly complicated inner representations of goals, intentions, and emotional states of real or fictional characters”

“empathy and the ability to understand ‘other points of view’ are necessary for the working of our narrative mind”

ToM – “Theory of Mind” is that we know and acknowledge that other people have their own minds. We can also step into their shoes, empathize, react, and step successfully out of those shoes in the end. This is also used to create metarepresentations. Metarepresentations occur when we imagine five different scenarios before going into a tough meeting with someone. This is the human mind’s way of telling stories to itself in order to prepare for upcoming unpleasant situations and has served our species well for evolutionary purposes.

A successful company should be one that focuses on creating environments where there is a community of storytelling that allows for collaboration and recombination of skill sets and new ways to solve problems.

Real world examples:
Novartis restructured its building in Basel so that the work of each individual could be watched, talked about, and replicated. They called this a “knowledge campus” and guess how the information was transmitted: through authentic communication and storytelling – not through static, out of context presentations.

Pixar built their existing offices around the notion of information exchange through storytelling focused on collaborative efforts and recombination of ideas and backgrounds.

Yang, Chulguen (Charlie). “Telling Tales At Work: An Evolutionary Explanation.” Business Communication Quarterly 76.2 (2013): 132-154. Business Source Complete. Web. 14 June 2014.

Thank you in advance for humoring my metaphors.

http://web.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.emory.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=6&sid=d017ff20-1bf6-4bdb-9641-493eb889fb0d%40sessionmgr111&hid=119