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To persuade, you have

to communicate your idea

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in a way that’s engaging,

compelling, and relevant

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to others.

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This is where

storytelling comes in.

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In a recent PWC survey,

hundreds of CEOs

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named storytelling as one of

the most important business

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skills of the 21st century.

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Master storytellers know that

facts and numbers by themselves

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don’t persuade anybody to think

differently or take action.

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Dan Kahneman won the Nobel

Prize for economics for his work

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on decision making.

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And he said, “Nobody ever made

a decision because of a number.”

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The philosopher

Alasdair MacIntyre

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said human beings were

storytelling animals who

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used their stories to

distinguish wrong from right.

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In short, people need

stories to make decisions.

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What this means for

business is that anybody who

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needs to motivate others to

make a decision and act on it,

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CEOs, entrepreneurs,

military leaders,

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anybody who needs to work

with and through others,

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needs to know how

to tell a story.

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Stories are the

basis for action.

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You might be thinking,

but I’m a business person.

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I’m interested in facts.

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Sure, but there

are lots of facts.

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Your job is to get

others to focus

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on the right facts

in the right way

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and to feel excited

about your idea

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for dealing with those facts.

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Effective leaders,

like Steve Jobs,

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use stories to position

facts as a springboard

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to set the stage for

the adventure that’s

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about to happen.

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Those leaders set the

scene for a challenge

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and get others engaged right

from the start in tackling it.

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As you develop your

storytelling skills,

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you will turn your listeners

into not only supporters

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of your idea but passionate

advocates who will

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partner with you throughout the

journey from idea to execution.

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So how do you tell a good story?

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There’s a lot to learn from

Hollywood, where pitching ideas

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have been honed to a fine art.

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When the well-known director

David Lynch pitched his idea

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to ABC in 1999 for the TV

show Mulholland Drive, he

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and his partner Tony

Krantz told a story.

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They met with the

producer, Steve Tau,

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at his office in Hollywood.

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While Lynch was drinking

coffee, Krantz led off.

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Darkness.

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Distant sounds of

freeway traffic.

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Then the closer sound of a car.

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Its headlights illuminate an

oleander bush and the limbs

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of a eucalyptus tree.

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Then the headlights turn.

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A street sign is

suddenly brightly lit.

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The words on the sign

read Mulholland Drive.

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The car moves under

the sign as it turns,

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and the words fall

again into darkness.

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Krantz pauses, then continues.

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The car is a black

Cadillac limousine.

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The driver stops and pulls a gun

on a beautiful brunette sitting

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behind him.

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Seconds later, another car races

around the corner and slams

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into the limo.

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The woman staggers

out of the wreckage

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and weaves down the

hill into Hollywood.

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Lynch picks up from

here, describing

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how the woman, Rita,

wanders into a parking lot

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and discovers $125,000

in cash in her handbag.

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She’s lost her

memory in the crash,

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and does not even

remember who she is.

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Another woman, Betty,

appears at this point

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and takes Rita up

to an apartment.

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The two women start to

piece together the situation

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as in other parts of the

city, police officers

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and two shady-looking

men separately

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start looking for Rita.

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Lynch stopped here

and lit a cigarette.

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He stared at his feet.

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“What happens next?”

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Tau said.

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“You have to buy the pitch for

me to tell you,” Lynch replied.

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ABC bought the pitch.

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Usually, a pilot sells for a

few hundred thousand dollars,

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but the Mulholland Drive

pitch fetched $4.5 million.

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After the meeting,

Steve Tau said,

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“It was the best kind of

pitch, the kind where you’re

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on the edge of your seat.”

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Krantz and Lynch told

a really good story,

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and it paid off to the

tune of $4.5 million.

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Let’s step back for a

minute and take a close look

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at how the Mulholland Drive

pitch was constructed.

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Just about all

storytelling frameworks

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go back over 2,000 years

to ancient Greece, back

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to the philosopher Aristotle.

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Aristotle said a story has three

parts, or acts, a beginning,

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a middle, and an end.

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Simple.

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The beginning

creates the context.

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And as the novelist

Kurt Vonnegut said,

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the beginning should

be as close as

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possible to the

end of the story.

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Notice how Krantz

and Lynch begin.

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Right away, you

know you’re in LA.

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Two women are trying to figure

out where $125,000 came from.

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And two men are looking

for one of the women.

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In a minute or two, you can

tell where this story is going

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and how it might end.

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You’re also eager to hear more.

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All great stories, Star

Wars, Lord of the Rings,

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the Wizard of Oz,

start in this way.

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Luke Skywalker’s aunt and uncle

are killed and Luke rockets off

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with Obi Wan.

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Bilbo Baggins leaves his

comfortable life in the Shire

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and heads off on a long journey.

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Dorothy is whisked up

into the sky by a tornado,

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leaving her boring life at

home and finding herself

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far from Kansas among strange

creatures like the Tin

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Man and the Cowardly Lion.

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The middle is about an action

or event that raises a question

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or creates tension.

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In the story that

Krantz and Lynch told,

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there are questions about the

$125,000 and the scary men

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looking for the women.

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In The Lord of the Rings,

you wonder why and where

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Bilbo is going.

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In a similar way,

in The Wizard of Oz

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you wonder how Dorothy will

get back home to Kansas.

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The end of a story

answers the question

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or resolves the tension.

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You can imagine how

the Lynch and Krantz

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story will answer the questions

raised in the beginning.

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In Star Wars, Luke

destroys the Death Star.

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In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy

kills the wicked witch

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and unmasks the wizard.

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Now, how do you take this

basic beginning, middle, end

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structure and make

it simple enough

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to use it every day at work?

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Think of the way the

movie-making folks at Pixar do.

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They say every successful

film has the same structure.

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Once upon a time, blank.

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Every day, blank.

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One day, blank.

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Because of that, blank.

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Until finally, blank.

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Notice how this simple

template captures the wisdom

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that centuries of storytellers

have passed down to us.

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Beginning, once upon a time.

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Every day, middle.

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One day, because of that.

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End, until finally.

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