Story Bank
What is the Story Bank story tactic?
"Keep track of your stories-and the information behind them-if you don't want to lose our trust.
When you've got a good story, you're the centre of attention. But if you bore us or break a confidence, you'll lose our trust. You need a collection of useful stories (think of them as your data). But you also need information about those stories (meta-data) if you don't want to mess up. You need a Story Bank.
Tip: put your Story Bank into a collaborative online space so you can share stories across your team.
How to use the Story Bank story tactic
We mess up when we tell stories that are:
- Boring: tell the same story twice to the same person
- Disrespectful: wasting the audience's time
- Gossipy: repeat a story we were told in confidence
- Stolen: pass someone else's story off as our own
- Stale: a story that's past its sell-by date
You need a Story Bank to avoid these pitfalls. Use a notebook or spreadsheet with these headings:
- What's the story? (keywords are usually all you need)
- Why would I tell this story? What's the point?
- Who might find this story useful?
- Who have I told this story to already?
- Whose story is it? Is it OK for me to share it?
- Is this story still up to date?
If you create an online Story Bank, you can link to posts, articles and shared documents that give the full story.
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Story Bank is one of 54 storytelling recipe cards inside the Storyteller Tactics card deck.
Ditch dull presentations and tell great stories that influence and inspire your team, stakeholders and customers.