Category: Storytelling

Journey to Excellence

Have you ever wondered what is the definition of Best? What is definition of Excellence? What is the definition of Perfection? Here is a small story which not only helped me to understand the meaning of The Best, Excellence and Perfection but also guided me towards journey to excellence. In ancient Rome, Romans had a very large number of Slaves. The behavior of Romans with their slaves was very cruel. Even for slightest mistakes the slaves were punished very harshly. Killing slave was not an offense in Roman law and Romans used to explore new ways to torture their slaves. If any of the slaves tried to escape from his master, there was only one punishment, slow but very painful death. This was also used to refrain other slaves from running. All the roads were well protected by the Roman army and a big jungle was the only place where slaves could hide themselves. But the jungle was full of wild animals and it was considered impossible to cross jungle without any protection. Romans calculated if someone was to cross the jungle successfully he will have to run like a leopard else he will be chased and killed by wild animals. It needed a superhuman to run at such speed hence Romans never tried to protect the road leading to jungle. Still in ancient Roman texts there are tales of many slaves who were able to cross the forest successfully and live a free life. When modern medical science came to know such stories they started testing human body if it was capable of running long distances at fast speeds. After so much of research medical science concluded that human body is incapable of taking this much of stress and if someone tries to run faster than the maximum speed described in the study his blood pressure will rise to such a level that he will die of a heart attack. They gave a bench mark that a human can’t run a distance of 400m in less than 50 seconds. On 29th Sept. 1900 Maxie Long of USA covered 400m in 47.8 seconds breaking the bench mark set by scientists. Time taken by Maxie was a world record in athletics and he was considered the best. Scientists said Maxie Long has something special that made him capable of covering 400m in less than 50 seconds. On May 27, 1916 Ted Meredith of USA broke this record by 4 seconds. Now 47.4 seconds was the new bench mark. On 18th Oct.1968 Lee Evans of USA covered the 400m in 43.29 seconds to reset the new bench mark. On 17th Aug. 1988 Reynolds set a new world record to cover 400m in 43.29 seconds. A new bench mark. And on 26th Aug 1999 Michael Johnson of USA made a new world record and covered 400m in 43.18 seconds. Michael Johnson’s world record still standing tall and has not been broken. Today how many of us know Maxie Long of 1900, let alone remembering him. People talk about Michael Johnson of 1999 and they will talk till a new athlete comes and reset the bar higher. In last 100 years the bench mark in athletics has been reset at least 25 times by different athletes. No one talks about athletes who were the best of their times and raised the standard to new levels. We remember people who keep raising the bar continuously and keep improving their own bench marks. Yesterday’s best can’t always be the best. It may not even considered to be good tomorrow. So what is the Best, Excellent and Perfection? There is nothing called Best, Excellent or Perfection. It is all about improving, getting better and better and raising the bar to next level. Hope you too are on your Journey to Excellence. Happy Journey!

God’s Companion

Have you ever wondered why do people take birth? What makes them take birth? They have friends, relatives, companions. Who is God’s companion ? Here is a small story, I was told in my childhood and the lesson to be learnt. God is one and he is the supreme power. Because God is one so he feels very lonely and he is very tired of his loneliness. He wants to have a companion with whom he can talk, play and spend time. So what he does is he makes his replica, a sculpture, of sand and then he adds life to it and examines if it is worthy enough to be God’s companion. If he finds any drawback/ weakness in his replica he throws it on mrityulok (earth). And here on earth human take birth. We are exactly like him, his true replica. We have most of his strengths and yes! some weaknesses too else he wouldn’t have sent us to earth. The day he will be successful in making his true replica, his eternal companion, he will stop making other sculptures and then no human will take birth on earth. I believe every bit of this story and I am firm believer that the mankind has been blessed tremendous potential. I wonder when people say they have so many weaknesses and only they want is to get rid of their weaknesses and not to work on their strengths. They forget that they were created by God to be his eternal companion. Story of a child There was a child, who was considered as a bully, a school dropout. Normally one would consider him to be someone who will struggle in life but this boy was different. He had a special talent of batting. He started practicing in nets for hours. When he was aged 16 years and 205 days, he was picked up to represent India against Pakistan. He made 15 runs in the first test he played and was out on a ‘duck’ in his first international one dayer. But so determined was he that he wrote history in international cricket for being the first player to score a century of centuries. There is hardly a record which is not under his name. When he decided to say good bye to international cricket after playing for 24 years and was to play his last test (200th test) at his home ground ‘Wankhede Stadium’ in Mumbai, he padded up and practiced for the whole day to prepare himself for the last innings of his international cricketing career. Cricket fans who had come there to witness him practice told reporters that he practiced so enthusiastically as if he was practicing for his first game of his career. He scored 74 runs in his last test match and when he got out and was walking towards pavilion he was still thinking he should have played his shot differently. By continuously polishing his abilities he took his career to such a level of excellence that he is became a legend. He is known as ‘Sachin.. The God of Cricket’. Believing yourself, knowing and polishing your abilities can make the difference for you as well. After all almighty had created you to be his eternal companion.  

Compounding- The 8th Wonder

Once there was a king who was very kind. He was renowned for keeping his words and helping the scholars for their wisdom and knowledge. There was a poor poet who came to know about his generosity and came to meet him. He had written a poem which had very high literary quality. The King was impressed and asked the poor poet for reward he wanted for his literary work. The poet pointed towards a chess board which was lying there and asked to place 1 grain of rice on the 1st box of the chessboard, 2 on the 2nd box, 4 on the 3rd box, 8 on the 4th box, 16 on 5th box and double the no. of rice grains till 64th box. The king was surprised to know on his demand and asked the poet to demand something else as this was a petty demand. But the poet insisted on putting the rice grains on the chess board. The king ordered his servants to start putting rice grains on the chess board as per poet’s demand. The servants started putting the grains on the chess. On 20th box the no. of grains was 524,288, on 25th it was 16,777,216, on 30th the no. was 536,870,912, on 35th the no. was 17,179,869,184. On 40th the no. was 549,755,813,888. On 45th the no. was 17,592,186,044,416. On 50th the no. was 562,949,953,421,312. On 55th the no. was 18,014,398,509,482,000. On 60th the no. was 576,460,752,303,423,000 and on 64th the total was 9,223,372,036,854,780,000. The total number of rice grains which the poet won was astonishing 18,446,744,073,709,600,000. This was something which was out of the means of the king. To keep his words to the poet the king handed over his kingdom to the poet and went for meditation in the forest. This is an ancient story which explains the wonder power of compounding can do if one starts investing early, invests regularly and sticks to his investments for a longer period of time. Albert Einstein once noted that the most powerful force in the universe is not the gravitational force but the power of compounding. He even said, “The power of compounding is the 8th wonder of the world”. I am sure you must be wondering about compound Interest and what Compounding- The 8th Wonder can do to your investments. Compound Interest is an interest which is added to the principal amount and the added interest start earning interest. The addition of interest to the principal is called compounding. For example your investment of Rs. 1000/- per year with a rate of interest of 10% would become Rs. 1100/- at the end of 1st year and at the end of 2nd year it would become Rs. 1210/-. This difference may look very small if you compare it with simple interest (which will be Rs. 1200/- after 2 years @ 10% rate of interest). But remember even the no. was small when the servants were putting rice grains on the chess board but eventually compounding made all the difference and the king lost his kingdom. To get more clarity on the power of compounding let me give you an example of two friends Amit and Satish. They both started working at the age of 25 at a same salary package. Scenario-1 (Assuming RoI @ 15% per annum) Amit starts investing at the age of 25 and invests Rs. 5000/- per month till his retirement at the age of 60. He will get an amount of Rs. 5.70 Crore Satish starts investing at the age of 35 and he invests Rs. 10000/- per month till his retirement at the age of 60. He will get an amount of Rs. 2.77 Crore Scenario-2 (Assuming RoI @ 15% per annum) Amit starts investing Rs. 5,000/- per month at the age of 25 and keeps investing for next 15 years. He does not take his money out till his retirement age of 60. He will get an amount of Rs. 5 Crore Satish starts investing at the age of 35 and invests Rs. 10,000/- per month till for next 25 years that is till he’s 60 years of age. He will get an amount of Rs. 2.77 Crore Scenario- 3 (Assuming RoI @ 15% per annum) Amit starts investing at the age of 25 and invests Rs. 5,000/- per month till his retirement at the age of 60. He will get an amount of Rs. 5.70 Crore Satish starts investing at the age of 45 and he invests Rs. 50,000/- per month till his retirement at the age of 60. He will get an amount of Rs. 3.07 Crore The power of compounding is the secret behind the great returns for long term investments. If you have the patience and if you can save and invest, then the power of compounding can do wonders to the investments made. If you have not started investing yet, you can start investing now and can still make good corpus for your retirement. In my next post I’ll share the different avenues of investment. Stay tuned and Happy Reading !!

Sone Ki Chidiya- Learning Perspective

These days when the entire nation is witnessing the vote bank politics. All we listen in the television news is about polls, the 49% women voters, the youth making choices and the country demanding a change – the positive one! On one such day, there was a debate on television where 2 panelists argued on the phrase ‘India – the then Sone ki Chidiya’ and I found that the phrase echoed in my mind for little longer than the usual. Something was disturbing me and I realised that my mind wanted to go back to the history. There was a time our country was called ‘Sone ki Chidiya’ (The Golden Sparrow). This is something we all are proud of. I always wondered how did India get this name ‘Sone ki Chidiya’ and not ‘Iron Eagle’. Who named India, ’the Golden Sparrow’? How did it all start? I hope you are also curious to know the story. So here is the story: India was invaded by many. The first time someone invaded India was Alexander the great. He crossed into India in 327 B.C.E. fought against King Porus. King Porus fought fiercely but was defeated. Alexander wanted to move further towards Magdha, the strongest of Indian empires. But his army refused to go further as they had heard the tales of powerful Indian tribes and they had not forgotten memories of their battle with King Porus. Alexander was extremely disappointed but accepted the decision of his army and decided to return to his capital. Post Alexander departed from India, close to next 1300 years were relatively peaceful and India didn’t suffer any major invasion. Starting 1000 A.D. Mahmud of Ghazni, an Afghan, invaded India several times. He plundered several temples and killed hundreds of thousands of Indians. The booty which he looted is estimated to be more than 100 million Dirhams, several tons of gold, silver and precious gems. While Mahmud of Ghazni was returning to his capital in Afghanistan, one of his generals asked Mahmud Ghazni about why Indians were not showing any resistance and were fleeing from the battle field without caring about their country, their families, savings and whatever they had. Mahmud of Ghazni reminded his general of a game they played in their childhood. They had eagles as their pets and their favorite past time was to watch their eagles fight. In order to make them fight, they used to throw a sparrow in the sky and before it can fly away, their eagles will chase, kill and eat the sparrow. Whosoever’s eagle killed the sparrow, was the winner. Listening this, his general laughed and told Mahmud of Ghazni that they are still playing the same game in India and the only difference is that they are the eagles and the Indians are the sparrows. Listening this Mahmud of Ghazni answered, “Yes! We are eagles and they are the sparrows.. But they are the Golden Sparrows!” This is how India got another name, “The Golden Sparrow- Sone ki Chidiya” as Indians didn’t stand united to face the threats and invaders not only defeated the Indians but also took away the resources. And today when I think about this story again, I wonder what would have been our country like if only, “the Maharajas, Kings, Dewans and then landlords during those times chose to show some resistance and fight instead of giving up to their own fancies, India would never have been called ‘Sone Ki Chidiya’. If we go by the facts in the story there doesn’t seems a single reason to feel proud. Digging deep into the context and trying to find out – how this could have been saved, I got the following answers from within and these are certainly the lessons learnt. Points to Ponder: Escapism: Running away from a problem is not an option instead we should understand, explore, find the solution and then act responsibly. An escapist attitude is never appreciated in any sphere of life – corporate or life in general. We come across many difficult situations but only those who face them patiently sail & survive. Escapism is a complete no in our lives, as emotions may sometime help us in life but here – results matter most. And those who care for results, choose to act. Team Work: No Indian king made any attempt to make a coalition to face the external threats. Had they formed a coalition and challenged Mahmud of Ghazni and other invaders, the story could have been totally different. Attentiveness and Action: As they say, the more you sweat during peace the less you bleed during war. One should always be ready and keep all the options open. During peace don’t stop practicing war. However, sometimes there is nothing wrong in buying time, if there is a grave threat to your existence because of the challenge in hand or a corporate situation is disturbing your work-life balance, one must buy some time, assess the possibilities and act accordingly. But mind you, taking too much time is not recommended. Take risks: Don’t keep waiting for the best time. The go-getters believe in ‘now’. This also comes from an independent & leaders attitude. Those people Take Risk > Lead> Confront> Solve. Experiment: Learn from others mistakes. When Indian kings were losing one by one, no one learnt the lessons and rectify their strategies to confront the Mahmud of Ghazni. Experiential Learning is life long, it offers a different point of view to handle situations, people and circumstances. It is the way of learning during the pressure situations. It is supposedly the only way to come out of those situations. One should rather not get trapped and act smartly. This was my interpretation of story for my corporate trainees who each day go out of home to add some more meaning to life. Stay tuned for more stories. Take Care

Little things matter the Most!

During the beginning of a training session I asked my trainees to give their introductions and also additionally they were told to tell the name of an animal they like the most and explain the reason for their liking. When everyone finished, trainees asked me about the animal I like the most. I told them that I like Squirrels the most as Squirrels remind me that whenever we are given a task we should take it as service to God and should give our 100% to it. They were curious and wanted to know the logic behind the same. I shared an incident from ‘Ramayana’- Ravana abducted Lord Ram’s wife, Sita, and took her to his capital, Lanka. Lord Ram asked Ravana to return his wife but he refused. Then with the help of Vanar Sena (Army) he decided to fight Ravana and take his wife back. They reached the southern end of the land and Lanka was on the other side of the sea and since it was not possible for the Vanar Sena to swim and cross the vast ocean, Lord Ram decided to build a bridge (Setubandh Rameshwaram) across the ocean with the help of ‘Nal’ and ‘Neel’, the Vanar princes. Nal and Neel were very notorious in their childhood and were used to throw belongings of sages in water. They were cursed by the sages that whatever they throw in water will not sink. The entire Vanar Sena started collecting the stones so build the bridge. The army was so excited that they started running around to look for biggest stones. The Vanar Sena was very strong and they brought huge stones and rocks and dropped them in the ocean. The other animals also wanted to help Lord Ram build the bridge. A small squirrel was watching this and decided to help. It thought for a while and started collecting pebbles and dropped them in the ocean. The squirrel worked hard and dropped as many pebbles as it could. Squirrel was tired but still wanted to continue the work so it rolled self in the sand, ran into water and washed. It ran back the shore rolled and washed self again and continued. While he was moving to and fro, it came in the way of a Vanar who was carrying a big stone and just survived from being crushed by Vanar. On seeing this another Vanar picked the squirrel up and threw it towards the shore and other Vanars started laughing. Lord Ram was watching all this and he caught the little squirrel before it fell. He addressed the Vanar army: “ Dear Vanars, you are huge and strong so you can bring big stones and rocks but those big stones can’t be joined perfectly and there are many small gaps between the stones. The pebbles brought by the squirrel have filled the gaps and the sand particles bind the bridge in proper shape and also make it strong. Remember, that in order to achieve something BIG one should not only concentrate on major task involved but one must take care of the small details as each step and all the efforts count equally. If you are working in a team, the efforts of all the team members, however small these may be, must be appreciated!” The Vanars were ashamed and asked for forgiveness from Lord Ram and the Squirrel. Then Lord Ram turned to the Squirrel and said, “My dear squirrel, I am sorry for the hurt caused by my army and thank you so much for helping me building this bridge. Please go back and continue your work.” Then he touched the back of the squirrel and three lines appeared where Lord Ram had touched him. Now whenever I see a squirrel, the three lines on its back reminds me that every task however small it may be, is important and significant in its own way and we should appreciate each and every contribution made by a team member (in personal or professional lives) to achieve something.

Find out stories. Follow the Do’s and Don’ts (Post 4 in Series)

We have covered the details on ingredients of a good story and how to prepare for storytelling. To follow such steps, we need to know first, where to find the right story? That is the Part- I of this post and afterwards we will discuss about the Do’s and Don’ts of storytelling. Stories are everywhere but it’s a difficult work to find a powerful story which can connect the audience to the speaker. Where to find stories from? From your own life/experiences: This is the best place to find stories from. Your stories are unique as these tell about experiences of your life. Make a list of things happened to you or your loved ones. When you tell a story from your life, you tell it with more energy and passion. You act as a source of energy for your audience and you can pull their attention towards you. Mythological stories: Myths are an integral part of human existence and such stories are proof of people’s beliefs of divine powers. The epics ‘Ramayana’, ‘Mahabharata’ and ‘Bhagwad Gita’ contain thousands of stories about ancient Indian society, philosophy, beliefs, culture and ways of life. Though these epics were written thousands of years back but still there is lot of resemblance. For example, the exact distance between Earth & Sun which is determined by NASA now is been exactly defined in the ‘Hanuman Chalisa’ years back. It is incredible to find such meaningful information and statistics which we never realized existed. Historical Stories:History is our guide to future. It not only provides the best relevant examples but also helps with the proofing of a subject. Take up the history, research the subjects and dig deep into them. You must have heard of the Panchtantra stories and the age old Fairy tales, they all still hold so much of importance & value in terms of learning. We all remember Cinderella, Snow White, Rabbit & the Tortoise, Thirsty Crow etc. Now here is a quick review to the Do’s and Don’t of Storytelling. Do’s of Storytelling 1. Keep your stories simple and to the point: Always keep your story simple and to the point as complex stories make it difficult to explain the point you want to make and lengthy stories has potential to lose interest by the audience. 2. Relevance: Tell stories only those stories which are relevant to the subject. For experienced and intelligent people it 3. Use Humor: Humor will help keep audience’s interest in the story. Follow a simple rule: The longer, the humorous it must be. 4. Personal Stories: Tell your personal stories to the audience as these are your first hand experience of the challenges you faced and how you overcame those challenges. Personal stories will make you a unique speaker as none in the audience will have listened to them and no one can steal your story. Make a list of the things happened to you the best, the worst, the biggest mistake, the funniest, he greatest, the most frustrating, the most embarrassing. 5. Personal Humor: Tell about your ignorance at a particular instance and how did you behave in that situation. Audience will see themselves mirrored in you hence connecting to the point you want to convey. 6. Learn your Story: Tell a story at least 10 times before sharing it with your audience. Learn to tell what exactly you want to say and even if you miss that point you can improvise and make out your point. If you leave out an important point in the story it may spoil the outcome of the story. 7. Trigger the Emotions: There are many emotions, Happiness/ Sadness/ Anger/ Nostalgia/ Compassion/ Sympathy/ Empathy, a speaker can target with a story that have emotional power. A powerful story will help getting positive emotional response as the audience feel connected to it. Don’ts of Storytelling 1. Do not use too many stories in a presentation:Often only one good story is enough. You can tell two or maximum three stories to reinforce your point. Using more than three stories in your presentation will make it difficult for the participants to remember the points you made in each story. 2. Do not Keep your stories too simple: For experienced and intelligent people it will be a boring and they will lose interest in the message. Still if you have to tell a simple and short story keep it short after making your point proceed to the next part of your presentation. 3. Do not be Funny: There is a thin line between using humor in your story and being funny and lose the interest and respect of the audience. Do not portray yourself how stupidly you behaved at a particular instance as there is strong probability that they will forget the point you wanted to convey but will remember you as dumb. 4. Do not memorize Story: Do not memorize the story as people have tendency to tell the story word by word. And if the fumble they’ll miss the interest of the audience and hence the outcome of the story.

What makes a Good Story? (Post 3 in Series)

Here we are with the 3rd post in our Storytelling series. We now know about the art of storytelling and what shall go in the preparation of a good storytelling session. Now that we are prepared, we must understand what makes a Good Story, what are characteristics of Storytelling and what are the characteristics of a good Storyteller. What makes a Good Story? Single themed and well defined: A good story is always single themed and well defined. It doesn’t leave any space for absurd meanings. Connect to the listeners: A good story connects to the listeners very easily. It makes audience think of things differently or they may never have thought of. Stories bridge to one’s culture: It’s not only our blood or DNA which connects us to our culture, stories bridge people to their culture. Stories are part of every culture and are being told since generations. How many of us have actually seen the Mauryas or Mughals but we all love to listen to their stories, they make us feel proud. Stories make up our history and guide us to future. Helps to remember: A good story helps audience to remember the communications. Relevant to the topic: A good story is always relevant to the topic and helps audience learn a life lesson. Characteristics of Storytelling: Storytelling involves verbal activity/ communication: Storytelling is a verbal activity which involves a speaker and one or more listeners. Storytelling involves non-verbal communications: We use non-verbal communication to increase the effectiveness of the story telling. Tone and pitch of your voice, your body language and gestures adds to storytelling. Facial expressions and gestures add to the visualization of the story. Storytelling is a two way process: A story can’t come to life if it’s not a two way process. The storyteller and listener both share the responsibility to make story come to life through interaction. Storytelling involves a story: That’s an essential as without a story it’s not possible to tell it. Storytelling encourages imagination of listeners: As it is said that everything is always created twice, first in the mind and then in reality. Story provokes the curiosity of the listeners and simulates their senses to feel, see and touch the word picture. If your audience can see it they are more likely o take away your message. Characteristics of a Good Storyteller A storyteller is the person who works on wiring our brain, who connects us to a different world by giving wings to our imagination and adding vigor to our thought process. I have been a trainer for 8 years and during all this tenure I have been a listener to some of the great stories – be it a TTT, a TED talk or the workshops. Stories come our way through many channels, life observations etc. Based on my experience & learning, I think the following 5 are the most required characteristics which make a story teller great from good. Doesn’t make stories, Discover A good storyteller doesn’t make stories, he discovers them. Like I mentioned a trainers/storytellers life is the best source for discovering stories. You need to explore, learn & unlearn. Sensitivity to people, humanity a passion for reading and listening, all these habits helps one in discovering stories. Stories could be found in everyday life – one needs to have the passion to find them. S/he is the one who you will find with a recorder, a notebook, a pen on all his journeys and even everyday travels. S/he makes note as, writes down and details it on return. This makes a story and the above habits make a story teller. Purpose Oriented Good storytellers don’t believe in having a story. They make stories with purpose, the story has got a message and they make sure that the audience takes home the story. Good storytellers don’t leave things at that; they make sure the message is well delivered through the story. The purpose of a story is well communicated. They know the story Good storytellers make sure they know the story; they have the relevant examples to deliver it in the right way. Knowing a half story takes away the passion from storyteller, it brings down the confidence levels and hence it brings down the story- its purpose and its message. Only if they know the story well- they can make it more n more relevant to their audience. Telling the same story in different ways to different audiences is like explaining same concept to different sets of audience – freshers and experienced. Only if a teller knows the story so well can they explain it in the right way. Bring out the Emotion In training, a story is not just about the conveying the message it is about delivering the message and embossing it in the hearts & minds of your audience. If a storyteller could make the right connect and touch the emotional nodes – that means he has achieved the purpose behind the session. Such a session lasts forever, and the story and its message get submerged. I hope you enjoyed the post and it helped you better your storytelling sessions. Next in the series I will share – Where to find good stories and some Do’s and Dont’s of Story.

Storytelling Preparation Tips! (Post 2 in Series)

In the first post of storytelling series I shared about the art of storytelling and how can we learn this art of storytelling. In this post I’ll share some storytelling preparation tips. Story telling is not just reading out a story. It’s a serious business. The way you tell a story can win or lose a battle for you as a speaker. Before you tell a story you need to work on the guidelines of storytelling. Following are some tips to make your Storytelling session better. 1. Purpose of the story: Storytellers tell stories for some reason. Ask yourself why you want to tell the story, what is the purpose for it. If you know the reasons, you can easily pick up a story which will help you to drive the point to the audience. A relevant story has the ability to take the audience where you want them to reach. 2. Master the story: Master the story inside out before you tell it. To master the story identify the three parts of the story, the beginning, the plot/body and the conclusion. If you know the story, it’ll be easy for you to present the same effectively. 3. Empower Imagination: Visualization is a great tool. It helps people understand better. To make the story visible to the audience a storyteller needs to visualize it first. Use your imagination to create various characters. If you can visualize the characters, their emotions, the situation they are in, their attire, their tastes, only then you can make your audience see it. Use your body (Gestures & Body language) and voice as tools to help audience visualize it. 4. Beginning: How we start defines the journey. The same holds right for a story too. Like we have explained in previous post about storytelling – the art, the beginnings matter. 5. Conflict: Conflict is a spicy food that feeds the listeners. 6. End: When the story is over make sure you end it too. Don’t just keep going. Let the audience know the story is over without you telling it to them. 7. Practice the Story: Before you tell story practice in front of a mirror or in front of your friends and ask for their feedback. I know a number of speakers watching their video recordings to improve and improvise in their next workshops. It is told that Adolf Hitler, before going to deliver any speech, was used to practice different styles to deliver the speech in front of a mirror. And look how he grew the ranks in Post WW-1 Germany. 8. Time the Pause: As you tell the story take your time and give time to your audience. A well timed Pause will give audience a chance to understand verbal and non-verbal components of the story. 9. Make it Interesting: Make the story interesting to the audience. You can change your voice describing the different characters. Modulation can help you to give different meaning. 10. Don’t Copy: If someone is popular don’t try and imitate him. You are unique and you have your own style. Find your style; there are people who will love your style. So these are the points to prepare for a great storytelling session. I hope you enjoyed reading them and will use them in your next training/ public speaking sessions. Do share your views and the difference you could bring by these tips.

The Art of Storytelling (Post 1 in series)

I am sure when you saw this blog title; you were quickly thinking about your childhood stories. The favorites, the inspiring and those which always helped you fell asleep. The bed time stories, the lesson driven stories and those which inspired us and instilled values which are still with us. Stories are amazing, they are relevant, they are believable and they are always remembered. What makes a ‘story’ interesting? Is it the content or the message? It is the narrator. The story teller – is simply an amazing person who has mastered the art of Storytelling. Did you know that storytelling is an art; or you believe that it is a technique? Can we learn ‘The Art of Storytelling’?   Storytelling is an art but here I am trying to take it as a very effective technique of communication that if told well can make the message easy to understand and remember. A story teller uses the listener’s brain as a canvas to paint the picture through words which involve a message and hence a learning. To become a good public speaker it is a must to learn and master the art of storytelling as stories not only cuts the age barriers between the speaker and the audience it also keep them interested in the communication. When I planned to write about Storytelling – to learn this art as a communication technique, I had so much to share with you all. And that’s why I planned a series on storytelling and here we start. In this series I’ll explain the basics of storytelling, the technique to learn this art and will share how to master the art of storytelling.  What is Story Telling? Storytelling is an art of using words and actions to encourage the imagination of the listener in order to convey the story/ event interestingly. It is like empowering imagination to make it more relevant to allow the message to get engraved.  How to tell a story? Beginning: “The beginning is the most important part of the work. -Plato” This is the first step of storytelling wherein the story teller sets the stage and introduces the various characters of the story. Usually storytellers start the story with phrases like “Once upon a time.. or I want to tell a story..” and the storytellers pause to gather his thoughts. Storyteller uses this time to take his audience to the imaginary world where they can see the various characters themselves. Beginning is important as that defines and mostly decides the interest levels of your audiences. Example: Once there was a Rabbit and a Tortoise. They had an argument that amongst them who is faster. Main Plot/Body: This is the second part of the story where the storyteller builds the story on the conflicts between the various characters and how the conflict gets resolved. Here the listener feels emotions like anxiety and curiosity, the interest levels rose as they want to know what happens next. It is like planning a Training Module which doesn’t gets boring in the mid-way. Example: They decide a race…Rabbit takes a lead…Rabbit sleeps under the shade…Tortoise keep on walking…Tortoise wins the race. Conclusion: It’s not necessary to always conclude the story. Let listeners go away thinking about the story and draw their conclusions. But it is always recommended to suggest the take away points, the lessons learnt and the knowledge gained. Example: Slow and steady wins the race. Giving up is never an option. So think about your favorite childhood story and cherish the lessons you still practice.