We'd all like to learn how to win friends and influence people.
That's just the nature of being human.
So how do we do it? Well, according to Annette Simmons, author of Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact, we become master storytellers because stories can create immediate changes in people's attitudes and their actions.
Whether we're aiming to persuade, motivate, or inspire others, we can use stories to get the results we want.
Simmons identifies these six types of stories: Who-I-Am Stories - We use these types of stories to earn the right to influence the person we are talking to.
Why-I-Am Here Stories - We use these types of stories to defuse the listener's fears of being exploited.
Teaching Stories - Instead of offering advice, we use a story to create a shared experience and the listener learns from this shared experience.
Vision Stories - These stories help shrink obstacles for the listener, so he feels he CAN get what he wants.
Values-in-Action Stories - Values mean different things to different people.
Use these stories to illustrate in action what the value means.
I-Know-What-You-Are-Thinking Stories - Use these stories to validate the listener's suspicions and then dispel them, without sounding defensive.
Through engaging anecdotes, examples, and step-by-step exercises, Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins can help anyone tap into the amazing power of storytelling.
Title:Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact Author: Annette Simmons Publication Date: May 2, 2007 Price: $22.
00 / $26.
95 Canada Pages: 240 ISBN: 0-8144-0914-8 ISBN-13: 978-0-8144-0914-5