About a month ago while I was reading How to Tell Great Business Stories
by Nick Morgan I gleaned some ideas worth sharing. People love to hear stories, and it’s a way to engage others. To write compelling stories, there are a few things that you need to know.
3 Parts of a Story
- Situation
- Complication
- Resolution
5 Basic Types of Stories
- The Quest: We have talked about the Quest many times on this blog. It’s the hero’s journey. Many movies follow the formula for the hero’s journey, where the hero reluctantly goes on a quest to achieve a goal. The hero achieves the goal and returns home to celebrate and teach what he has learned from the experience. In a business context, an example is someone is tasked with finding the solution to a difficult problem in the workplace. The person may be reluctant, because he doesn’t have the proper training and information, and views that as a barrier. However, he does what he always does when faced with a new task, and that is to gather all the information that he can to get up to speed. By being diligent, determined and working tirelessly, he gets assistance from other divisions, and ultimately finds the solution. Examples of this type of story are Gilgamesh and The Odyssey.
- Stranger in a Strange Land: The hero in a Strange Land story is thrown into a new environment where she doesn’t understand the culture, custom, and language. It is akin to “achieving knowledge, understanding, or competence in this strange new place. The essential component of this type of story is achieving mastery.” An example of this story type is Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.
- Rags to Riches: “In Rags to Riches stories the hero begins in a state of privation, and, by luck or hard work or some combination thereof wins, security and wealth. Think Annie, Citizen Kane, and in the Bible, the story of David, a shepherd chosen by God to become a great king, is a classic example.” In this story type, you have an ordinary person achieving something extraordinary. “The emotions involved in Rags to Riches stories are hunger, greed, loneliness, and alienation.” The author suggests that this story works well with small companies that are trying to grow.
- Revenge: People will fight harder to lose something than to acquire something. In revenge stories, the hero loses everything or nearly everything. It’s alarming in The Count of Monte Cristo, the lengths Edmond Dantès, the Count will go to exact revenge on those who wronged him. The hero is angry and villain has an evil intention. This could be a David and Goliath story. In business, you have a small company working very hard to acquire a much larger company.
- Love Story: In love stories, some end happily ever after while other don’t – think Casablanca and Romeo and Juliet. The author suggests that mergers, acquisitions and partnerships are potential love stories.
In How to Tell Great Business Stories by Nick Morgan, the author does an excellent job of demonstrating how to structure each type of story. I recommend How to Tell Great Business Stories by Nick Morgan. It is a short book and an easy read. Please provide your comments in the box below. Book links are affiliate links.