Step by Step

Every day a new buzzword appears in the world of project management. One of the words that we are hearing lately is “storytelling”. 
 
Storytelling is not something new or innovative, it has been used for years in commercial and marketing departments. At the project management level we are finding that storytelling offers a new way to connect, engage and motivate our audience. 
 
Robert McKee, an award-winning writer and director, explained in a Harvard Business review “executives can engage listeners on a whole new level if they toss their PowerPoint slides and learn to tell good stories instead.” 
 
From my point of view, we are far from throwing away the most used tool in our meetings, but we can include the art of storytelling in our toolbox. 
 
Some of the key benefits to including the art of storytelling in our presentations are:

• Building empathy with the audience
• Engaging emotions
• Making our ideas “cling like ivy”
• Helping us to get the buy-in from our stakeholders
• Our meeting attendees will remember a story more than data, or a “5 Why’s” slide 

 
However, while storytelling can spice things up, it doesn’t take the place of some of our other existing skills:

• Storytelling will not necessarily make us better leaders
• Stories are not anecdotes
• Stories are not a counterfeit of reality
• We don’t need to dramatize our story. 

 
Try to remember the last meeting or conference that you attended. Was it engaging? Were you motivated and inspired? Or were you just checking the e-mails on your computer?  
 
And what happens when you are the chairman or speaker? Are the attendees engaged? Are they listening? Do they remember the information that you presented?  
 
Reflect on your skill-set. Give it some thought. Maybe now is the moment to learn a new tool! 

First of all, this is not mine, this is not my phrase, my rule or my belief…I heard once, someone told me…it has a history, and here I will share with you.

More than ten years ago, I arrived at my first remunerated job in IT. Big company, big office, big team.

Do you remember your first day in an office? Year after year, project after project, the situation is the same, the recruiter manager or de project manager walks around the office and you are presented to a lot of people.

Your new team, your new family, all of those people that from this day you will share your knowledge your happiness, your stress, more than eight hours day with same people, sometimes will be easy, sometimes a challenge.

One of those first days, after connecting the computer, check the connections, check the first emails, lunchtime arrived. I turned around, I’ve checked that nobody was in their desks, and nobody asked me to go with them to the lunch room.

I’ve checked again, and I see a guy, I stopped few minutes to think, yes! It’s him, he is in my team. I walked until his desk, smiled and said, “Did you have lunch? Or do you want to join me?” his answer was…I didn’t come here to make friends.

I was shocked, without words, this guy was so rude.

Two or three years after, walking around a library I saw this book:

• Yo no he venido aquí para hacer amigos, desventuras de un consultor IT – Jaime Miranda

There is no English version of this book, but I tried to literally translate the title:

• I didn’t come here to make friends, memories of an IT consultant (or something like this)

I bought it, I read it, and I laugh too much.

Was this rude guy the author of the book? No, he wasn’t.

Maybe the rude guy read the book before me, maybe the rude guy continue working in the same company, maybe the rude guy ten years ago didn’t have knowledge about the importance of networking in 2016.