Neuroscience of storytelling and why the human brain loves it
Humans think in stories. Not in data. We aspire to be rational, but 80% of our decisions are irrational. We are driven by emotions and not by logic. It requires a lot of willpower to drive decisions based on logic. It is like swimming against the tide. It is hard.
In the new economy, companies claim their decision making is driven by insights from data analytics but ultimate decisions are based on biases, emotions and fears. That is utterly human.
So it is important to learn the art of story telling.
Storytelling in the world of chaos
We need a lot of information to take a logical decision. When a group of people is involved in making a decision, they all take a safe side of consensus. It means they are rationally listing down the pros and cons to make it sound like a well thought out decision collectively taken. That removes the risk of blame game.
Imagine, we do not have much information. What will our decisions be based on? It works on instinct. Many top notch investors and employers say that their investing and hiring decisions are ultimately driven by instinct than by logic. We all should know that there are lot of unknown unknowns in any game. Things we do not know that exist at all in the game. We call it the blindspots.
In a volatile high-speed fast growth world, chaos is what we see. It is more chaotic when we do not have the attention and time to comprehend the mountains of real-time data piling up to be analyzed for extracting insights. Humanly impossible. Can the machines do it? If they can, will humans act on it?
Storytelling becomes more relevant during chaos.
Discovering your storytelling skills
Converting facts and logic into stories make it more marketable. Stories are easily comprehended than analytical presentations. Our brain chooses the path of least resistance. Make it easy for your audience to understand what you are trying to say by adding metaphors they relate to and emotionally connecting stories. As a leader, the more stories you tell, the more you are communicating effectively.