THE POWER OF GOOD STORYTELLING

Before I jump into the personal benefit(s) of storytelling, let me tell you a really practical one.

As I’ve mentioned before, I studied communication at TCU – with some of my favorite people on the planet. Two of those people, my dear friend Katie Day and treasured professor and mentor, Dr. Paul King, published a very interesting study in the Spring 2014 issue of the International Journal of Listening.

In their experiment, they studied the cognitive impact of storytelling in the classroom. What they found was that we process and remember information better when it’s presented in narrative form – told in stories – as opposed to expository form – straight-up, super-organized, stick-it-in-a-PowerPoint-with-bullets form.

It’s not a surprise (literally – it’s what they hypothesized). We connect with stories. We can hold on to bits and pieces that help us process and remember information if we hear those bits and pieces in narrative form. This concept dates waaaay back to oral tradition – before we had the luxury of writing things down. People had to remember. And to remember, they had to share.

So what does this mean for those of us who communicate to educate and inspire? If we want our presentations to be more memorable, we need to tell more stories. (Tweet that!)

SIDENOTE: This is a PERFECT example of the communication studies goodness I’d like to share with you moving forward. If you like this, you’re going to LOVE what I’ve got in store!

Now for the personal benefits. In the spirit of my bigger brand pants and this sentimental + celebratory week/end for my sweet fam, I figure this is a perfect to share some of my favorite stories with you.

The (current) digital home of many of these tales is my personal blog, titled “Stories from a Screensaver.” I started it in early 2012 to record our stories so we could look back and laugh at, learn from, and love our journey for what it is at the moment: life in a screensaver [Hawaii].

I knew from the start that I would make no apologies when I missed a few weeks. This blog was never intended to be a chronological diary of events. I wrote about all kinds of stuff – ranging from Bryson’s Up-themed 1st birthday extravaganza, an analysis of Park Ranger Barbie + “mom jeans,” and even the dramatic three-part tale of our stolen iPhone.

Didn’t matter if the posts were funny, sappy, or straight timeline style – I just wanted to get these memories down before they escaped our minds forever.

And I’m so glad I did.

You see, earlier today I sat down to write this post and made NO progress. I got caught up reading the four-part series that tells the story of the day we became parents, exactly 13 years after our story began.

What struck me most is that even though only two years have passed since “our best anniversary yet,” some of the precious details were already fading from memory.

Details like Jeremy’s first words when Bryson was born. A PRICELESS video of my family seeing Bryson for the first time via Skype. The fact that the medical team sang along to “Don’t Stop Believin'” while I was on the operating table. (YES. That was as fantastic as it sounds.) Our first night as a family of three.

Seriously. What if I hadn’t written that stuff down? It would’ve been lost forever. Nobody would’ve remembered, and the details would’ve faded out of the family history like an old photograph.

I’ll be honest. Writing this post (and sharing these links) makes me a bit nervous. But I’m doing it anyway because:

So that’s the story: We need to tell more stories! In the comments below, I’d love to know: