Building Your Stories - Verbal Communication Techniques Explained

A researcher once proposed a game to a group of kids from a tribe in Africa. He placed a basket of sweets near a tree and announced that whoever reaches the tree first wins the sweets. Now, the children made a circle by holding their hands and running towards the tree together and finally divided all the sweets among themselves. When the researcher asked the reason for this, they told him that they are 'Ubuntu', which means 'together, we are one'. This was the motivation for the software operating company that created the system Ubuntu. 

Stories work on all levels of the brains of the audience and hence are impactful. They grip the audience's attention, as shown in the graph below.

Let’s watch the next video to understand a framework that explains this graph.

Some of the key takeaways from the video above can be summarised as follows: 

• Some of the basic elements of a story are as follows: 
  • Place: Mention the place where the story unfolds at the beginning of your presentation or speech. For example, ‘on a cold windy night in New York’. Here, the place is mentioned at the beginning. This helps in capturing the audience’s attention.
  • Time: Always mention the time of the story. Audience indulgence increases when they know the proper time and place of the story, and they are able to visualise it in their mind.
  • Protagonist: You must also describe the person or the group of people around whom the story takes place. This conveys the proper message to the audience and evokes relevant emotions.
  • Details: Never forget to mention the important details of the story. Without details, your audience will start losing interest in your speech or presentation.
• The OSCRE framework for storytelling is a helpful tool. The important components of this framework are as follows: 
  • Objective: You should develop your story around a clear objective that you want to convey through the story.
  • Situation: The situations and circumstances in your story should match and complement the objective.
  • Complication: Your story must have a problem and complication. When there is a complication in your story, you are able to pave the way for the next element of the framework, resolution. 
  • Resolution: There must be a proper resolution to the problem in your story. Otherwise, your audience will start questioning you, and as a result, your credibility will suffer.
  • End: You should provide a bona fide ending to your story. This will make your audience think differently, which in turn will start changing them.

Additional Resources

• Checklist and Resources for Strategic Storytelling
• Checklist for Creating a Great Story