Best Story Wins: Storytelling for Business Success

Whether presenting at a conference or “firing off a quick email,” spinning narratives is key to business success, according to this intermittently useful guide. Life coach Edwards (The Tao of Bowie) argues that attempts to persuade colleagues and associates using reason often fail because they prompt counterarguments and, if perceived as coercive, can motivate listeners to reassert their autonomy by rejecting the idea. By comparison, storytelling constitutes a more subtle way to get one’s point across. A six-step process for crafting effective narratives encourages readers to establish a connection with one’s audience, identify a desirable goal, detail obstacles to achieving that goal, explain why one’s proposal is the best solution, and describe how the solution will transform lives. Though Edwards aims to make the advice broadly applicable, the examples focus on presenting to business associates and will be most helpful for those pitching potential investors, rather than, for example, marketing to consumers. Edwards sometimes resorts to dubious reasoning, as when he suggests without evidence that the power of stories derives from invoking nostalgia for childhood story time. Still, there are some solid tips recommending that readers structure stories as a “hero’s journey,” with the audience positioned as the hero, and useful warnings that ginning up narrative mystery may work in movies but is merely “annoying” in corporate settings. This will help readers nail their next work presentation. (June)