One way to make your stories even more meaningful
Sometimes it’s a good idea to finish a story so that the audience has to put some pieces together to get what the story is about. When someone puts some work in understanding a story they own it and it’s more meaningful for them.
As an example, my 21-year-old daughter told me this story the other day.
A friend of hers has a dog which just loves to dig. Whenever it gets a chance to dig up plants or dig up bones it couldn’t be happier. It’s a Staffordshire Terrier and is a real rough and tumble sort of dog.
Their next door neighbour’s dog is the exact opposite. They have a beautifully groomed poodle. A white, fluffy one which they like to put a bow around its neck.
One day after work my daughter’s friend came home to find their neighbour’s poodle dead on the back lawn. Their staffie had dug under the fence and killed the poodle and dragged it into their backyard. The poodle’s white coat was filthy and the bow torn right off.
She didn’t know what to do so in a panic her and her boyfriend decided they would clean up the poodle and put it back in their neighbour’s backyard as if it had died of natural causes.
They washed the poodle in their bath and blowed dried its coat. They even cleaned up and put back the bow around its neck. They curled the poodle up in a sleeping position on their neighbour’s back porch.
Apparently the neighbours nearly had a heart attack when they found their poodle on the porch that night because it had died a few days earlier and they’d buried it in their garden.
Make your stories even more meaningful
It’s a silly little story really but I have to admit it made me laugh. I’ve told it a few times now and it’s great to watch the people’s minds tick over as they put two and two together.
The key point is this: it’s important your audience works out the meaning of your story themselves. Don’t tell them what it means. By telling them you take away their power and ownership of the story. If you let them make sense of what it means, and even work for it, they’ll own it and are more likely to mull over it and even retell it.
Shawn, author of Putting Stories to Work, is one of the world's leading business storytelling consultants. He helps executive teams find and tell the story of their strategy. When he is not working on strategy communication, Shawn is helping leaders find and tell business stories to engage, to influence and to inspire. Shawn works with Global 1000 companies including Shell, IBM, SAP, Bayer, Microsoft & Danone. Connect with Shawn on:
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Reminds me of grade 6 in 1973 SRA reading. The story about the housekeeper borrowed the diamond necklace without asking the lady of the house. The housekeeper lost the piece of jewellery and commissioned a jeweller to replace it. It took 30 years for the housekeeper to pay off the debt. On her deathbed, the housekeeper confessed to the lady of the house. The lady of the house was distraught because the piece of jewellery was an imitation! Now that’s a story that has stuck in my mind for over 40 years! D