Personal storytelling

Why a story rather than an argument

A story is remembered far more easily than a list of qualities. It creates an image, and the image stays.

And above all: a story shows instead of asserting. Saying I am persistent commits nobody. Telling forty seconds of what you did over eighteen months installs persistence without the word being spoken.

Rule: never name the quality. Tell the fact, and let the other person name the quality themselves. It is far stronger, because they are the one who formulates it.

The five-beat structure

One. The situation. Two sentences maximum. Where, when, what context. Two. The problem. What was blocking, concretely. Three. The action. What you did. This is the heart, and it is the part people tell worst, talking about the team instead of about themselves. Four. The result. With numbers if possible. Five. The lesson. One sentence, never two.