The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence, and Persuasion through the Art of Storytelling (Paperback)

It's a practical book. For example, chapter seven deals with convincing the "unwilling, unconcerned or unmotivated." While there are no surefire remedies for every situation, Ms. Simmons provides a common-sense overview of resistance and some skillful ways to work with it. Even if you're not telling stories regularly the psychology lesson is valuable. True, this is not a paint-by-numbers book because good story telling is too subtle for simple how-to formulae. You learn the art of storytelling by telling lots of stories.

The Story Factor provides solid structural principles and the tips and ideas to stimulate creativity. Start telling stories and use the book as a guide. The style is fast and readable with catchy phrases and subheads. My copy is thoroughly underlined and annotated so I'll never be able to resell it! If you're interested in how to craft stories that sell, motivate, inspire and persuade you'll be glad you bought this book.

Annette offers the book as a way to achieve "inspiration, influence and persuasion." By the end of the book, the reader learns that the "secret" of influence is, in fact, what has drawn so many fans to the art of storytelling: stories persuade because they lead us to the common ground of mutual respect - not by giving one party a secret weapon with which to manipulate the other. In Annette's words:

"Story doesn't grab power. Story creates power.... As a storyteller you borrow a story's power to connect people to what is important and to help them make sense of their world." (Page 29).

"The Story Factor" is my favorite "storytelling in business" book. To be sure, I had the pleasure of writing the forward to it. I did so in part because Annette has been my student in storytelling as well as my mentor in my own work with businesses. But I would never write a forward to any book in which I did not believe as deeply as I believe in my own books. I receive no payment from sales of "The Story Factor."

Here are some particular things I liked about "The Story Factor":

1. The description of the "Six Stories You Need to Know How to Tell" is worth the price of the book. People want the answers to certain questions before they'll give you a chance to persuade them of anything. These six stories achieve some of your essential interpersonal goals right away, and lay the groundwork for you to achieve the others.

2. In the chapter called "What Stories Do That Facts Can't," Annette shows how your stories can de-escalate conflict, side-step traps laid for you, avoid the "because I said so" kind of arguments, broaden a discussion by grounding it in a wider reality, etc.

3. One of Annette's chapters takes up one of my least favorite questions: "How do I tell a good story?" Why do I dread being asked that question? Because it seems to pre-suppose that there is a recipe for telling stories that works in all situations. In her characteristic Aikido-like way, however, Annette directs her readers to follow solid, easy-to-use advice that doesn't lock them into a limited formula. She briefly and convincingly outlines nine key points to keep in mind - that will nearly guarantee good telling.

4. Annette's tone hits that "sweet spot" between the hype of so many pop business books, on the one hand, and the dense, soggy prose that deadens so many academic-type books on communication, business strategies, etc., on the other. She speaks to her reader with conversational ease - but without "selling" or oversimplifying.

5. Annette's book is filled with memorable, well-told stories. Some are brief enough to throw into a conversation; others could be the keystone of a speech. The story about the red and green shoes is now part of my permanent mental landscape, as are the burning piano and the silent door-to-door salesman. With few exceptions, Annette integrates the stories into her chapters, rather than separating them into self-contained boxes. She never says why; I'll bet, though, that it's because she believes that stories persuade best when they aren't self-consciously introduced as "stories," but when they flow out of your very being, your attitude toward your listeners, and your commitment to your message.

If you care at all about using storytelling in an organization, for persuasion, or to get across a personal message, you'd be foolish to pass up this book. Beginners in the use of story will be well guided; experts will find great new stories to tell as well as a clear, systematic exposition of how story works in practice - and, underlying it all, a refreshing, inspiring perspective about how humans actually persuade each other. This book is not only about influence; it has already become highly influential. Miss it at you own risk!

When I got to the end of the book I was still waiting for something, anything, that would turn my dissatisfaction into a feeling that it had all been worthwhile. But my hopes simply weren't met.

OK. Do you see a pattern in those first two paragraphs? Lots of promise but no delivery, nothing to get your teeth into. That is how this book was *for me*.

The book starts well.
Chapter 1: The Six Stories You Need to Know How to Tell. Great stuff - for the first 26 pages, But somehow that seems to be the nearest we come to anything concrete regarding the art of storytelling. It is followed by over 200 pages of text, but those 200+ pages concentrate almost entirely on "what" you should do, with far too little on "how" to do it.

Things weren't helped by the story at the start of Chapter 6: Sound Bite or Epic. I was already halfway through the book, and still wondering when we were going to get to the meat and potatoes, and the "Somali tale from Ethiopia" about a woman going to a shaman who tells her to get hold of a tiger's whisker, really pulled the plug.
Firstly Somalia (where Somali's come from) and Ethiopia are two separate countries, next-door neighbours, who spend much of the time at each other's throats. Secondly don't Africans have witch doctors, etc. rather than shamans? and thirdly, there are no tigers in Africa, only lions (tigers are found on the Indian subcontinent).

Now you might think this is nit picking, especially since the story itself does illustrate a valid point.
My problem is that this kind of presentation strikes me as being thoroughly disrespectful. It confuses Somalia and Ethiopia, it lumps all "wise men" under the trendy label "shaman", and it shows a basic ignorance of nature. In short, *to me* it says: "I'm telling a story, I don't have to go to the bother of actually getting the factual bits right - not even in the attribution."

Fine, but if an author wants me to pay them for what they're offering then I believe they DO owe their readers sufficient respect to avoid making such basic errors.

My biggest concern, however, is that the book simply doesn't "walk its talk".
If storytelling - or just "story", as the author whimsically insists on calling it throughout most of the book - is supposed to be so effective, shouldn't the book actually *illustrate* this fact rather than just telling me about it?
Why, for example, are a number of the stories included in the book presented in cut down form instead of allowing the reader to savour - and learn from - the full length version?

This author apparently runs workshops on various aspects of storytelling, and for all I know these may be incredibly stimulating and effective. Unfortunately, I found no such excitement in this book, just the same few messages - "storytelling is wonderful", "storytelling builds bridges", etc. - repeated over and over and OVER again.

For my money, just about ANY book by Idries Shah will give more insight into storytelling than "The Story Factor" - even the books that (apparently) contain nothing but stories.