Tell me a Story : Blog # 248

Tell Me a Story

Once up on a time, there lived a group of people. They used to talk. They used to look each other in the eyes. They used to smile at each other. They used to waive at each other. They used to enjoy the breeze, the sunset, the birds that flew around, the sounds they made, the scents of nature. They used to sit together listening to each other. They used to sit together in silence. 

Once up on a time, there lived a group of people. They had smartphones.

I feel stories are a great way to communicate. They convey the message so effectively and helps us to remember them better. But at the heart of it, I think all that a story is doing might be that it is appealing to our inner child. Somewhere, it connects us to our childhood. May be that’s why our attention span stretches when someone tells us a story and knocks on our intrigue with double the will.

Everyone is telling a story these days. When I say story, I don’t mean that which starts with ‘Once up on a time’ and which ends with ‘and happily ever after’. I am talking about just creating an element of intrigue in your conversation. Ever thought as to why did Nestle tell us about how they evolved over almost a century in India? They could have easily listed down the awards that they won over the years or the regulations that they follow. Reason is that by telling us about their evolution as a tale, they captured our imagination. It is the same reason that all the products, apps and platforms that we see around us are requesting their customers to tell a story – not a testimonial, but a story.

I stumbled up on a website created by Varun Gampa from IIM Trichy. It goes by the name www.varun4flipkart.com . You might ask what is so great about his website. It is a very novel approach towards applying for a job. What he has done is that he has explained through this website as to how he can add value to the company. As a recruiter, I feel my counterparts at Flipkart should spare a moment to give credit for this ingenious approach.

What Varun did is also story telling in a way. He created a story around himself. He will soon become that guy who created that resume-website. If Flipkart looks at his resume, they will soon become that company with an open mind. 

Weave a story around yourself and see the magic unfold!

Arun Babu

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