The New Bedtime Story: The Power of Storytelling

We are all trying to maneuver our collective way through COVID-19. We’re all scared, writing our wills, hoping this will not be a premature good-bye to our loved ones, and praying we get through this. And we are looking for leaders to guide us.

Enter Governor Andrew Cuomo.

He is my leader, and I don’t even live in New York. What is particularly impressive about Governor Cuomo is his gift of gab. Yes, he’s longwinded and often repetitive, but there’s something about his speech patterns in the now that are calming, and almost sedative. I never miss his briefings. I particularly love his storytelling ability, which is an essential quality for business communication.

When I’m coaching executives and subject matter experts (SMEs), I work on storytelling techniques because we learn best when we engage the mind’s eye. There’s a maxim in communication: “It’s not what you say, it’s what they hear”
If we want people to “hear,” really hear what we say, we must fold in a story.

A story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. A story can lock in your selling points. A story can win you business. A story can motivate your team.

That’s why Cuomo’s “Matilda’s Rules” is effective. Governor Cuomo’s mother is now elderly and living alone. The entire Cuomo family misses seeing her, but are trying to distance themselves. Despite that, Andrew’s brother, Chris Cuomo, has visited Matilda several times, even while we’re in lock down. The governor finally had enough. He developed a rule sheet of dos and don’ts and named it Matilda’s Rules.

Because we have been told so many stories about Matilda, about growing up in her household. We relate to Matilda and her rules have more resonance for us. On top of that, we have a picture in our mind of the rules because the rules have a name. We see a picture in our mind because the rules have been humanized through storytelling.

To help us calm now, Gov. Cuomo talks about missing Sunday dinners with his family. The entire family. Matilda, the siblings, the spouses, the grandchildren. All usually gather for Sunday spaghetti and meatballs. Not now. He recently shared a poignant story about the time he was a newly divorced father and still wanted to carry on with the tradition of making spaghetti and meatballs for his kids for Sunday dinner. Not a cook, he went to Whole Foods to buy meatballs and spaghetti sauce,. He put a pot on the stove, boiled the water, and poured in a box of spaghetti noodles. The kids would arrive and he would pretend he made the whole meal. His kids didn’t buy the dream, and they didn’t like the food. They went out for Chinese.

This little story humanizes Andrew Cuomo. It shows that even with the best intentions, things don’t always work out. And that when they don’t, we can all accept what went wrong, and change the course. On the surface, this was just a charming story he told to seem more “folksy,” but underneath, it was an acknowledgment that early mistakes may have been made in this unfamiliar way we’re all living, but we can still make adjustments—and enjoy our dinner.

Stories keep us engaged. I look forward to Gov. Cuomo’s briefings because keeps me engaged and he also calms me down, which is another one of the “services” he is “selling” right now.

Developing short stories to describe your services and products will go a long way to helping you win business and maybe win some friends along the way.

Sleep well, everyone. We’ll get through this with stories.

Get more exciting communication tips in Loud and Clear by Karen Berg. Read more here: https://tinyurl.com/wm2tod4