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You need a story to displace a story. Metaphors and stories are far more potent (alas) than ideas; they are also easier to remember and more fun to read. Ideas come and go, stories stay.

There are two ways to persuade people. The first is by using conventional rhetoric, which is what most executives are trained in. It's an intellectual process, and in the business world it usually consists of a PowerPoint presentation... The other way to persuade people - and ultimately a much more powerful way - is by uniting an idea with an emotion. The best way to do that is by telling a compelling story. In a story, you not only weave a lot of information into the telling but you also arouse your listener's emotions and energy.

The most effective way people can change a story is to view it through any of three new lenses, which are all alternatives to seeing the world from the victim perspective. With the reverse lens, for example, people ask themselves, "What would the other person in this conflict say and in what ways might that be true?" With the long lens they ask, "How will I most likely view this situation in six months?" With the wide lens they ask themselves, "Regardless of the outcome of this issue, how can I grow and learn from it?" Each of these lenses can help people intentionally cultivate more positive emotions.

Thou shalt not' might reach the head, but it takes 'Once upon a time' to reach the heart.

People need something familiar to relate to in order to gain a sense of comfort with the new, the strange. Creative ideas take the facts, feelings and everyday fictions we all share and find new ways to connect them. By making the new and strange seem familiar, you not only establish an opening for your audience to interpret your idea, you create a backdrop against which the edge of your idea will shine.

In describing something new, something beyond most people’s vision, you need to create a mental map for them to follow you and your idea to its successful conclusion. The art of making a mental map is to hook your audience with what they know and then explain what they don’t know. Start with a construct that everyone is familiar with and add to it.

So how do you create a construct for something that people have never come across before? Make up a new word. It cuts through the clutter and gives everyone a new word that they can agree on. If we called [something familiar] we would probably find that a lot of people have their own notions of what [that word] means.

In all great storylines, the author creates a problem, and then solves a problem.

The test of a good story isn't its respon­sibility to the facts as much as its ability to provide a satisfying explanation of events.

If strategy is indeed an invention – just one story about the future among many – then it is always contestable. Leaders must therefore persuade others of the compelling wisdom and superiority of the story they have chosen. They must, in fact, make the story seductive; in selling their strategy, they must, to put it bluntly, treat employees like ‘lovers’ instead of ‘prostitutes.’

It’s not easy to entice people into sharing an image of the future. After all, strategies in most industries today call on people to commit to something new and different, to step away from the security of what has worked in the past. This is never an easy sell, even for the most seasoned leaders. Like venturing into a new relationship, persuading others to share your vision works best when you issue an invitation instead of a command.

Rather than attempt to manage behavior with reasons or rewards, we’ll be more effective if we manage the ideas that drive behavior. As one experiment has shown, an idea can change not just how we think, but how we feel. Subjects were shown a picture of a woman crying and brain scans showed enhanced activity in the emotion-generating amygdala. But when the researchers changed the subjects’ view by telling them she was crying tears of joy because it was her wedding day, the activity decreased.

Because a story is not an argument, it doesn’t summon up reason in defense. Stories ask only that we entertain them, and when we do, we rehearse the view of the world they embody. If we fnd it more attractive or a better ft with our experience, we adopt it. Because stories are experiences, they address both the intellect and emotions that drive our decision-making.

Sociologists have found that the stories in our culture most effective at mobilizing people in support of a mission are about changing to overcome an obstacle and realizing a better future as a result. When it comes to business, the story we tell should be about people coming together to change their behavior to create the greatest company ever.

While people will quickly pick up on our story and take it as their own, they’ll also pick up on any duplicity or distrust. We are bad liars, but good detectors of lying. We really need to believe the story we tell, so that all of our decisions and actions will be aligned. That’s the only way it will be convincing and drive the behavior we need.

Psychologist Jerome Bruner contends that individual learning requires the construction of a mental model of reality to make meaning of our lives. In Actual Minds, PossibleWorlds (Harvard University Press, 1987), he suggested that there were two complementary ways of building such models. The first is the narrative method, or the telling of stories, and the second is the paradigmatic method, or the formation of logical arguments and conceptual frameworks. To learn to manage better, we need to employ both.

Without conceptual frameworks, we easily become addicted to “war stories” and overloaded with vicarious experiences. Unable to distinguish what is relevant to our individual situations, we may simply stumble from fad to fad, mindlessly copying someone else’s best practices.Without narrative, on the other hand, we cut ourselves off from the past, our only database.

Good stories have three components: a strong beginning, a strong end, and a point of tension. Most people confuse stories with situations. They’ll tell about a situation: X happened, Y happened, Z happened. But a good story takes Y, the middle part of the story, and creates tension or conflict where the reader or the audience is drawn into the story, what’s going to happen next.

There are at least four important stories that all companies should have in their portfolio. The first is the “who am I?” story—you know, how did we get started? The second is the “vision” story, the “where are we going in the future?” This may or may not be connected to the “who are we?” story. A third is the “apology and recovery” story. In any long-term relationship, there is inevitably going to be transgression. But it is remarkable to see how few companies have thought through what a transgression is for them and how they might respond to it. The final type of story that becomes really important for corporations to have in their bank is the “personal” story: what are the personal stories that are being incubated and cultivated within the organization? This is a very different type of story. This shines a light on people rather than the organization.

What you want to remember is that every single time you tell a story, you have a goal. Why hide it? People see that you’re hiding something, and they don’t trust you. You need to have your intention clear before you go into the room. You have to be congruent. Make sure your feet, tongue, heart, and wallet are going in the same direction, because before you speak the first word, they know that. Then you ask yourself, who’s the person I’m talking to? ...You have to look at them as an audience. Give them an experience. Let them feel it. Then embed the analytics and data.