Effective communication is a necessary competency for talent development professionals. Whether presenting information for learners or pitching ideas to drive organizational change, communication skills have myriad applications in talent development. In their keynote address Wednesday during the Association for Talent Development’s Virtual Conference, Patti Sanchez and Nancy Duarte focused on a specific type of communication: storytelling.

Together, Sanchez and Duarte challenged the notion that all that matters is sharing a message and that storytelling is inconsequential. Stories, however, build connection. And by wrapping and shaping your message in story, you multiply and magnify its impact.

In this session, the two keynoters shared secrets of storytelling that date back to the time of Aristotle. After providing a description of what story is, Sanchez—author and chief strategy officer of Duarte, Inc.—discussed a story’s role in business communication.

Stories do what talent development professionals need them to do: engage. Sanchez explained some of the science behind listener engagement. They are more engaged when we effectively weave words together into a story.

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Fully engaged minds are good for knowledge retention. Based on the communication patterns of powerful brands that Sanchez has watched over the decades, she provided four ways stories are used: identity, insights, ideas, and influence.

In discussing identity, Sanchez presented the three-act story structure, sourced from a larger work. Building upon the familiar story elements—beginning, middle, and end—Sanchez introduced attendees to the likeable hero who encounters roadblocks and emerges transformed. She also covered the three different lenses by which we tell stories: how I am changed, how we are changed, and how they changed.

Sanchez tossed the virtual baton to Duarte, who moved the discussion from identity to insights. Duarte, author and CEO of Duarte, Inc., provided attendees with a valuable formula for telling stories that communicate data. “Data insights are mission critical,” she said. “And how we communicate them will make or break organizations in this season.”

Duarte detailed two steps in data communication: finding the problem and finding the opportunity in the data. The way we communicate data, she noted, is directly connected to our ability to drive action. She explained that when we package data in the form of a story, we add meaning; that meaning can help drive action.

Duarte centered her discussion on how high-performing brands communicate, and she examined the words those organizations use and the way they wrap them in story. The examples she shared illuminated the difference between power and performance verbs. She further clarified how performance verbs are an effective tool to drive organizational change.

Sanchez and Duarte’s keynote address embodied the adage: It’s not what you say, but how you say it. They made relevant the power of storytelling for talent development professionals.

Participants can use these storytelling practices to connect with learners at their next training event or even use them to make their next pitch more appealing to the executive suite. A story is more than entertainment—as Sanchez notes, “It’s an essential skill.”

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