STORY

I am a sucker for the hero's journey. When I think of all of my favorite movies, a vast majority of them are based on the heros journey. Batman. Hoosiers. Gladiator. Oceans Eleven. James Bond. Jason Bourne. They all have basically the same plot but I cannot get enough of them. I cannot wait for the next movie to come out where the central figure has to overcome the odds to restore glory in his kingdom. Every time I watch a movie and my wife decides to predict exactly what will happen 10 minutes in, I ignore her for that brief moment so that I can join in with the unsuspecting characters and go along for the journey. If I listen to her I usually agree and can predict the next two hours, but I don't care. I still want to hear the story.

The True/False film festival was last weekend and it has quickly become my favorite weekend of the year. I cannot get enough of the documentaries, so rich in content and assortment. Before I know it, 3 days have passed and I have seen 13 movies. Where did the time go? I want more!!! The power of the story is so strong, that virtually any product can be sold to me if it is linked to a strong story.

The idea that Xerox is using a manual full of employee stories to train each other makes total sense to me. Once I buy a product, I rarely read the manual. I begin fiddling with the object and trying things. I begin to understand it once I have past experiences linked to different trail and error scenarios. I can certainly see how businesses adapting to a right-brained way of thinking, in terms of how they relay their products to customers, could see a lot of growth in sales figures. Similarly, as an art teacher, if we can find ways for our students to pour their stories into the work that they are creating the level of interest will skyrocket.