There is a time-honoured and reliable structure for story-telling. It is described in different ways but looks something like this.
Circumstances: characters, place and situation.
Intrusion: new facts, disruption; need for change
Rising action: journey, events and struggle
Culmination: pivotal moment (triumph or calamity)
Resolution: conclusion, outcome and effects.
It is used for classic novels by world-renowned authors throughout history; and for funny anecdotes by stand-up comedians. Reliable, and not hard to learn and apply, it is also perfect for business stories. All that is required is to identify the five components and organize your story around them.
The first, Circumstances, should be the easiest, however narrators too often gloss over the status quo ante (the pre-existing situation). That is when the audience is drawn in, becomes familiar with the scene of action, empathizes with individuals, recognizes the situation and wants to know what happens next..
The listener, invested in the current situation, reacts to an Intrusion of new facts, The Rising Action of subsequent events increases tension, leading up to an emotional Culmination or climax which engages them in the Resolution.
The narrator can change the order of the story elements – it can even be back to front – but the elements remain. Here is a story about real people, places, companies and products. It is structured using the five story-telling elements.
Francois loved tech and all things novel. His new role, developing markets and finding customers for his company’s innovations was almost perfect for him. Almost, because he struggled to fit into his new, German-speaking work environment in the Frankfurt office. A call from John at corporate HQ, about a potential customer for a biodegradable plastic, PHB/PHV, gave Francois a longed-for excuse to get out on a call. A company situated in Erfurt wanted to know more about this new co-polymer. John had little to tell Francois about the product but briefed him on its many possible uses: self-decomposing golf tees; body-bags for disaster zones (and airports!); flushable tampon applicators; sacks for human faeces collection; controlled-release drug delivery; and, yes, even plastic shopping bags.
Rehearsing his pitch as he drove to Erfurt, Francois began to wonder if the potential client made anything similar to the eclectic list provided by John. He wondered what they made that could be better if biodegradable? Are the plastic mouldings in cars not already recycled? Was the company exploring new markets? Doubts about this call had darkened his mood long before he saw a large, ominous factory gate with the name he was looking for.
“Folgen Sie mir bitte” said the receptionist and showed him to a large meeting room where, inside, already seated around a boardroom table, were 15 men in white coats. Francois went to the only empty chair and the receptionist put a coffee beside him.
The scientists had no interest in products or markets. They wanted to know about co-polymer melting points, extrusion characteristics, moulding properties, chemical resistance, elasticity, UV-stability, brittleness and so on and so on. John had not prepared Francois for any of this and the meeting was over before Francois had sipped his coffee.
On a miserable journey back to Frankfurt, Francois saw how little his company knew about the markets for a whole range of products it hoped would replace its dying core business. He saw that innovation without an ability to execute is pointless; and he resolved to be the person asking the difficult questions back in HQ, before the customer did. He did not want another Erfurt embarrassment.
It takes three and a half minutes to tell this story. How long would you take to explain best practice in launching spin-off products in unknown markets; and would your audience feel the embarrassment that awaits everybody who attempts it?
You decide.