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Camilla Long, TED.com: Tell a story, unlock your influence.

   

Friday 30 September 2022

Camilla Long, TED.com: Tell a story, unlock your influence.

Have you ever found yourself in a meeting where you’re the only one seeing what’s really going on? What about those times where you’ve found yourself in a disagreement at work, even though you know you did the right thing? Or maybe you’ve experienced the frustration of coming up with a brilliant new idea, but the people around you just didn’t get it?

And that’s why storytelling matters. We live in a world of information overload, where people are bombarded with ideas, suggestions and marketing messages every minute of every day. This adds up to a whole lot of choice overload – in fact some research suggests that the average adult makes over 25,000 decisions in any given year.

What that means for you when it comes to communication in the workplace, is that you are speaking with an audience that is distracted. In fact, very distracted. So it’s your responsibility to find ways to encourage people to tune in to your message and to find ways of making what you have to say relevant to them. Really what you want to do is to encourage people to change their perception of their own reality. If the real story is being missed, then it’s up to you to find a new story to tell.

We all have a curiosity budget, that is a limited capacity to focus on what’s important. And your decision-makers are no different. If you can tap into your audience’s curiosity budget and get their attention, you’ll immediately increase your chances of being heard. If you create emotionally charged moments, they’ll not only listen to you, but they’ll remember your message.

Click here to listen to Camilla Long’s talk from TED.com on Tell a story, unlock your influence to find out more about how storytelling at work can increase your influence.

 

Friday 30 September 2022

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