In the first two installments of this story-telling series (Part I and Part II), we explored how to use story telling to amp up your ability to inspire, influence, and teach. We ended off with an example of how to use stories to:
- Grab the audience’s attention when starting off a presentation
- Provide a Simple Case Study to Catalyze Discussion and Discovery-Based Learning
- Create a “Behavioral Vision”
- Create Mini-Learning Modules
In this installment, we will explore how to use a cousin of stories—analogies—to make ideas more understandable and “sticky.”
Characteristics of Sticky Ideas
In their outstanding book Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath identify 6 characteristics of “Sticky Ideas.” A sticky idea is one that creates an immediate visceral impact and leaves a lasting impression.
To illustrate the concept, the brothers Heath use the “guy wakes up in the bathtub filled with ice water after bringing a beautiful woman home from a bar, calls 911 and is told he is probably a victim of kidney harvesting” urban legend as an example of a sticky story.
The Heaths identify six characteristics of “sticky ideas”:
- Simplicity
- Unexpectedness
- Concreteness
- Credibility
- Emotions
- Stories
Why Analogies Are So “Sticky”
The power of analogies comes from their simplicity and concreteness, and sometimes, because they come wrapped in a story.
I’ve found over the years that finding analogies to make your ideas hit home is time well spent. They make you much more interesting and understandable.
If you do any speaking or coaching, or if you simply want people to take your ideas more seriously, learn the art of using analogies to breathe life into your message and help them live on in your listeners.
When You Make Concepts Concrete, They Hit Home
Think of a time someone tried to explain a concept, and they used only abstract terms and generalizations.
Maybe it was a conference presentation filled with business jargon or a geek friend excitedly trying to explain the intricacies of some new, shiny technology.
Remember how you felt?
At best, you found yourself mildly interested and feeling like you had some idea of what they were talking about.
At worst, you were bored, detached, and/or confused.
Conversely, when someone told a short story to illustrate their point or used an analogy, you thought “Gotcha.”
The story or analogy made the idea hit home in a visceral way. Not only did you understand - you felt that understanding in a personal way.
It wasn’t just intellectual. It was visceral.
“Yeah…isn’t that the truth!” you found yourself saying.
Because the analogy or story was drawn from either a universal experience or something tangible, you were able to understand it at a physical level.
How to Build Your Analogy-Creation Muscles
You can grow your ability to do this by engaging in some simple analogy-creation exercises.
By the way, as you might have noticed, the concept of building your analogy-creation muscles through exercise is an example of analogical thinking.
In story-telling seminars, we get people warmed up for analogical thinking by playing with a set of exercises that combine disparate objects or activities, such as:
“A great team is like a great orchestra because….”
“Relationships are like a good bowl of soup because…”
Doing simple, fun exercises like these builds your ability to create creative and useful analogies. Doing these “workouts” will strengthen your analogy creation muscles. After awhile, seeing analogies will become second nature.
Analogies In Action
In the following clip, from a recent conference presentation, I share with the audience the difference that understanding human nature can make in a management team’s ability to bring out the best in their employees.
At the risk of overkill, I use three different analogies. I do that in part because each analogy illustrates a particular facet of the concept better than the others. Also, because people have different experiences and areas of interest, I want to try to hit as many bases as possible.
To watch the video, click here
In the next installment of this series, we’ll explore how to pack more punch into your ideas—increasing their “stickiness”—by using stories.
David Lee is the founder of HumanNature@Work and an internationally recognized thought leader in the area of optimizing employee engagement and in onboarding. He has used storytelling as a teaching and transformation tool for over 20 years. He is the author of over 60 articles and book chapters that have been published in trade journals and books in the US, Europe, Australia, India, and China. For more of his articles, go to HumanNatureAtWork.com.
Photo credit: Guldfisken