<em><strong>“I think the reason he was so good at telling our stories as Canadians is that he was a tremendously good listener. I want to say he was a mirror and he reflected us back to ourselves. But he was more than that; he was a conduit. He allowed our stories as Canadians to just pass right through him and in doing so, he really connected us – to our country, to each other and to ourselves.”</strong></em>
– Jess Milton, Executive Producer of The Vinyl Café on Stuart McLean*

<center><img src="https://courses.edx.org/assets/courseware/v1/2ba4d0b40821dbed5bb0d492a962fd2d/asset-v1:UBCx+COMM220x+2T2020+type@asset+block/Stuart_McLean__cropped_.jpg" alt="Stuart McLean" width="237" height="302" /></center><center><em>Photo credit by Alana Elliott - originally posted to Flickr as Stuart McLean under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CC BY 2.0.</a></em></center>&nbsp;

Why are we devoting an entire module to this topic in a course on business communications? Let me tell you a story…

It was a typical Vancouver winter’s night – pouring rain. I was halfway through my articling year at a business law firm in downtown Vancouver and I was miserable. Being a lawyer wasn’t for me. It was an innate instinct, as strong as my distaste for calamari. I’ve spoken about it more extensively <a href="http://www.genylawyer.com/gwl82/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>, but it was a combination of the work, the skill-sets necessary to succeed and the atmosphere at my firm.

On this particular (dreary) night, I was tasked with invigilating a paralegal exam for a course that a partner was teaching at a nearby college. It was dark and cold inside the room. It had probably been raining non-stop for the past two weeks (not an exaggeration in Vancouver) and my mood matched the weather.

I sat down at the front of the room after handing out the exam and I realized that my computer wouldn’t connect with the Wifi, which meant I wouldn’t be able to log-in to the firm’s system and work. It had been a hectic six months and I hadn’t had three hours without a memo to draft or a contract to review in a long time.

I opened a Word document and stared at the blank screen. It was finally time to focus on writing my essay to Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, focus on my dream, which had been pushed aside as I pursued my parents’ dream for me, law school.

But what would I write? My undergraduate degree was in creative writing and it was a discipline that always seemed to come naturally to me. But after three years of studying the law, my mind was trapped in legalese. It felt like I’d lost a piece of myself.

Subconsciously, I was tapping my shoes as I tried to come up with the words to express how badly I wanted to run away to New York, run away from the law and study the art of both advocacy and storytelling – journalism. Tap. Tap. Tap. Shoes have always been an important part of my life. My grandfather owned high-end ladies shoe stores in Calgary, Alberta and some of my earliest memories are visiting him at work and playing dress-up with the intricate pieces of art.

I was currently wearing a pair of bright pink, patent leather pumps. On the scale of appropriate-to-wear-to-work-at-a-corporate-law-firm to appropriate-to-wear-to-a-sorority-formal, they veered more toward the latter, but I loved them. They expressed who I was – colourful, creative, feminine, in a profession that tried to stifle those traits in me.

Shoes would be my savior! Without wasting another minute, I spent the next three hours writing the story of my pink pumps to the best journalism school in the world. It was either genius, or the stupidest move I could make, but it represented me and I wasn’t going to spend any more time at an institution that repressed who I was. If Columbia didn’t like the essay, they wouldn’t like me. And that would be okay. Finally, the words flowed again.

At the end of the three hours, I had my essay (and 30 very un-invigilated exams). On the day when I was supposed to find out whether or not I’d be offered a coveted associate position at my firm, I found out instead I was accepted to Columbia.

Storytelling can be life-changing.

In this module, we’ll discuss how to tap into the powerful act of storytelling in your communications. We’ll learn how to structure stories so they’re poignant and tailor them to business purposes, as well as the art of oral storytelling. As we move through this module, I want you to think about the stories that resonate with you. What are the ones that have stuck with you from childhood until now? What’s your story?

<strong>By the end of this module, I want you to understand and apply the following principles:</strong>
<blockquote>
<ul>
 	<li><strong>Craft a story with a beginning, middle and ending that follows the classic story structure.</strong></li>
 	<li><strong>Employ storytelling techniques in business.</strong></li>
 	<li><strong>Tell stories orally, appropriate to your audience and purpose.</strong></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
Ready? Let's begin.

<hr />

<h2 class="mb-0 h3">Understanding Story Structure</h2>
The importance of storytelling cannot be underestimated. In this video, I'll go over the standard story structure, which is used in many stories that we all know and love.

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<h2 class="mb-0 h3">Using Storytelling in Business</h2>
It's important to think about when stories are appropriate in business situations and when they are not. I discuss this in the following video.

[video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://tesoll.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/UBCBUS2B2017-V002900_DTH.mp4"][/video]

&nbsp;
<h2 class="mb-0 h3">Adapting Stories for Speech</h2>
In the following video, I discuss a few things that you should consider when using stories in your oral communication.

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<h2 class="mb-0 h3">In the Field Interview 5</h2>
Throughout the Business Communications course, we will be showcasing experts in areas that we are discussing in each module. These <em>In the Field</em> interviews will provide you with real-world examples of how the concepts covered are applied in actual business settings.

This <em>In the Field</em> interview is with Mandy Len Catron. Originally from Appalachian Virginia, Mandy now lives in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Walrus, as well as literary journals and anthologies.

She writes about love and love stories at <a href="https://thelovestoryproject.ca/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Love Story Project</a>, and she teaches English and creative writing at the University of British Columbia. Her article “To Fall in Love with Anyone, Do This” was one of the most popular articles published by the New York Times in 2015.
<blockquote>
<ul>
 	<li><strong>Ted Talks: </strong><a href="https://www.ted.com/speakers/mandy_len_catron/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.ted.com/speakers/mandy_len_catron/</a></li>
 	<li><strong>Website: </strong><a href="http://mandylencatron.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://mandylencatron.com</a></li>
 	<li><strong>Twitter: </strong><a href="https://twitter.com/LenMandy" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://twitter.com/LenMandy</a></li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
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