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The stories that move and captivate people are those that The Four Truths of the are true to the teller, the audience, the moment, and Storyteller the mission.
by Peter Guber
Reprint R0712C
The stories that move and captivate people are those that are true to the teller, the audience, the moment, and the mission.
The Four Truths of the Storyteller
by Peter Guber
I’m in the business of creating compelling sto- can rally the team to extraordinary efforts ries. As a filmmaker, I need to understand how through a story that shows how short-term stories touch audiences—why one story is an sacrifice leads to long-term success. An effec- instantly appealing box office success while tive CEO uses an emotional narrative about another fails miserably to connect. I’ve been the company’s mission to attract investors fortunate enough to work with some of the and partners, to set lofty goals, and to inspire world’s most talented storytellers—gifted di- employees. rectors, novelists, screenwriters, actors, and Sometimes, a well-crafted story can even other producers—and from them I’ve gleaned transform a seemingly hopeless situation into insights into the alchemy of great stories. an unexpected triumph. Make no mistake, a hit movie is still an elusive In the mid-1980s at PolyGram, I produced a target, and I’ve had my share of flops. But ex- television series called Oceanquest, which took perience has at least provided me with a clear a team of expert divers and scientists around sense of the essential elements of a story and the world—from Antarctica to Baja California how to tap into its power. to Micronesia—to film their aquatic adven- The power of storytelling is also central tures. The cast included former Miss Universe to my work as a business executive and en- Shawn Weatherly, a novice who served as a trepreneur. Over the years, I’ve learned that stand-in for the viewers at home. the ability to articulate your story or that of One of the planned segments critical to the your company is crucial in almost every phase success of the series was to explore the forbid- of enterprise management. It works all along den waters of Havana harbor, where galleons the business food chain: A great salesperson and pirate ships had carried treasure since knows how to tell a story in which the prod- the sixteenth century. There was only one uct is the hero. A successful line manager problem: Neither the U.S. government nor the OPYRIGHT © 2007 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. BUSINESS SCHOOLOPYRIGHT © 2007 HARVARD PUBLISHING CORPORATION. C
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The Four Truths of the Storyteller
Communist regime of Fidel Castro wanted a its way to the Spanish royal court. Pirates, team of Americans filming there. privateers, spies, and rival imperial forces— Pleading that our mission was purely sci- including Britain’s Royal Navy—had plied its entific and peaceful, we managed, with sup- waters, seeking booty, probing for military port from former secretaries of state Henry and economic secrets, and vying for influence. Kissinger and Alexander Haig, to get permis- I explained how we would use the latest tech- sion from the U.S. State Department. But nology to bring Cuba’s history to television the go-ahead from the Cuban government viewers worldwide. for underwater filming proved more elusive. As I spoke, I watched Castro toy with the Gambling that we could win approval, we equipment and listen with growing interest sailed to Cuba, set up our equipment in Ma- to the story of Havana harbor’s past. Finally, rina Hemingway, and filmed a few surface breaking the bureaucrat’s rule, I presented the shots in various locations as we waited for Cuban leader with a giant tooth (seven inches word from the regime. Millions of dollars in long, five inches wide) from a megalodon, a sunk costs hung in the balance. prehistoric shark that had once prowled Ha- A local official finally turned up with a sur- vana’s waters. prise announcement: Fidel Castro had taken a The upshot? Castro spent four hours visit- personal interest in our project and would be ing with our film crew, and he gave us permis- visiting the harbor. (Castro, we learned, was an sion to film anywhere in the harbor we environmental advocate and scuba enthusiast.) wanted. We captured hours of compelling “May we use this visit to ask for permission television footage. My impromptu story— to film in the harbor?” we asked. and Havana’s story—won the day. “The seas The official shrugged. “El Presidente will be belong to all humankind,” I reminded Castro, here for ten minutes only,” he replied. “But “and so does history. You are the steward of you are certainly free to tell your story. Just Havana’s history, and it is up to you to share remember, no autographs and no gifts.” it with the world.” Of course, we’d already provided all sorts of This experience led me—not for the first information about our project to the Cuban time and certainly not for the last—to try to government’s Washington office. But it was gather some basic truths about how storytell- soulless data with no emotion, life, or drama. ing can be used to get people’s help carrying No wonder our request had elicited a per- out your goals and ultimately to inspire busi- functory “no.” I was determined not to make ness success. Stories can, of course, take many the same mistake again. forms, from old-fashioned words on a page Castro (or Cool Breeze, as we’d privately to movies laden with digital special effects. code-named him) arrived, his entourage in In this article I’ll restrict myself primarily to tow. To make his experience interactive, we’d stories like the one I used with Castro: oral arranged a display of our most elaborate narratives in which a single teller addresses equipment on the deck of our main ship— one or more listeners. Whether the audience underwater vehicles, diving suits, high-tech is a handful of colleagues or clients at lunch cameras. Cool Breeze was suitably impressed or 10,000 convention-goers listening to a for- by it all—though he seemed most taken by mal address, the secrets of a great story are Peter Guber (petergmandalay@ the friendly welcome from Ms. Weatherly, largely the same. gmail.com) has been the top executive still wearing her bathing suit from that day’s at several multinational entertain- filming. The Leader as Storyteller ment companies, including Sony Pic- The ice broken, I began telling the story of As part of my continuing effort to unlock tures, PolyGram, and Columbia Havana harbor and its centuries at the heart these secrets, I recently persuaded a diverse Pictures, and has produced such mov- of world commerce, diplomacy, intrigue, and group of leaders and storytelling experts from ies as Rain Man, Batman, and The Color war. The central motivation for early explor- the worlds of business, education, and enter- Purple. He is currently the chair and ers of the New World had been the quest for tainment to come together over a meal and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment Group treasure. As the focal point of Spain’s trading exchange their insights about storytelling. in Los Angeles, the host of the weekly empire and the strategic “key to the Gulf of One beautiful spring evening, we gathered at film-industry talk show Shootout on Mexico,” Havana had been integral to this my home in Los Angeles. With a feast laid out AMC, and a professor at the UCLA quest, its port the shipping center through on a great low table and the city lights twin- School of Theater, Film & Television. which the gold of the Americas flowed on kling in the hills below us, we luxuriated in a
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cascade of ideas. As the wine flowed, so did must move in the same direction. The con- the jokes, stories, and observations drawn summate modern shaman knows his own from the centuries’ worth of life experience in deepest values and reveals them in his story that room. And as varied as our backgrounds with honesty and candor. were, I found that we kept returning to one Jim Sinegal, cofounder and CEO of Costco, theme: the crucial importance of truth as an tells a business story that embodies the values attribute of both the powerful story and the he’s helped build into his company. Back in effective storyteller. 1996, he often recounts, Costco was doing a Before I go further, let me clear up two mis- brisk business in Calvin Klein jeans priced at conceptions about storytelling that many $29.99. When a smart buyer got a better deal businesspeople have. on a new batch of the jeans, company guide- First, many think it is purely about enter- lines calling for a strict limit on price markups tainment. But the use of the story not only to dictated a lower price of $22.99. Costco could delight but to instruct and lead has long been have stuck to the original price and dropped a part of human culture. We can trace it back seven extra dollars a pair straight into its own thousands of years to the days of the shaman pocket. But Sinegal insisted on passing the around the tribal fire. It was he who recorded savings on to customers, because he saw the the oral history of the tribe, encoding its be- company’s focus on customer value as the key liefs, values, and rules in the tales of its great to its success. The story continues to be told in heroes, of its triumphs and tragedies. The life- Costco’s hallways today. It vividly conveys a or-death lessons necessary to perpetuate the message about the company’s values—one community’s survival were woven into these that resonates, in part, because it’s aligned stories: “We don’t go hunting in the Great with the personality of its author. Sinegal For the leader, Wood—not since that terrible day when three answers his own phone, draws an annual of our bravest were killed there by unknown salary of just $350,000 (a fraction of what storytelling is action beasts. Here’s how it happened…” most big-company CEOs earn), and has oriented—a force for Storytelling plays a similar role today. It signed an employment contract that’s only is one of the world’s most powerful tools for one page long—all of which means less cost turning dreams into achieving astonishing results. For the for customers to absorb. leader, storytelling is action oriented—a At the storytelling dinner I held, Oscar- goals and then into force for turning dreams into goals and winning screenwriter Ron Bass put it this way, results. then into results. drawing a parallel to the world of politics: Second, many people assume that story- “When I pitch a story, I have to sell myself— telling is somehow in conflict with authentic- who I am. The same is true of every leader, ity. The great storyteller, in this view, is a in business or any other field. Take Barack spinner of yarns that amuse without being Obama. His story is all about who he is. And rooted in truth. The image of Hollywood as everything about him is part of it, down to his “Tinseltown”—a land of make-believe and physical presence: the eye contact, the hand suspended disbelief that allows us to escape on the shoulder, the sound of his voice.” reality, even manipulates us into doing so— Being true to yourself also involves show- reinforces this notion. But great storytelling ing and sharing emotion. The spirit that moti- does not conflict with truth. In the business vates most great storytellers is “I want you to world and elsewhere, it is always built on the feel what I feel,” and the effective narrative is integrity of the story and its teller. Hence the designed to make this happen. That’s how the emphasis on truth as its touchstone in our information is bound to the experience and dinner symposium. rendered unforgettable. Reflecting on the lessons and ideas from But sharing emotion isn’t easy. As Teri our conclave, I’ve distilled four kinds of truth Schwartz, the dean of Loyola Marymount found in an effective story. University’s film and television school, pointed out, “It demands generosity on the Truth to the Teller part of the storyteller.” Why? Because it often Authenticity, as noted above, is a crucial qual- requires being vulnerable—a challenge for ity of the storyteller. He must be congruent many leaders, managers, salespeople, and en- with his story—his tongue, feet, and wallet trepreneurs. By willingly exposing anxieties,
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The Four Truths of the Storyteller
fears, and shortcomings, the storyteller allows First, you’ll want to try your story out on the audience to identify with her and there- people who aren’t already converts, to get a fore brings listeners to a place of understand- realistic sense of how your real audience ing and catharsis, and ultimately spurs action. might respond. Ron Bass finds this strategy When I told the story of Havana harbor to useful: “In effect,” he says, “I have my own Castro—standing on the deck of a ship story development company. It consists of strewn with expensive equipment that we’d three or four young women who represent essentially brought there on spec, trusting in my ‘marketing department.’ I bounce every- my ability to win the confidence of Cuba’s thing off them—every new idea, scene, plot all-powerful ruler—both my vulnerability twist, character development, big speech. I and my enthusiastic commitment to the risky study their reactions and then, even more project were on full display. important, study my reaction to them. I don’t Here is the challenge for the business story- necessarily follow their advice. What I must teller: He must enter the hearts of his listeners, follow is my own deepest instinct, and this is where their emotions live, even as the informa- best revealed to me as I see how I respond to tion he seeks to convey rents space in their the feelings and thoughts of other people.” brains. Our minds are relatively open, but we Business leaders too need to be in touch guard our hearts with zeal, knowing their with their listeners—not slavish or patronizing, power to move us. So although the mind may but receptive—in order to know how to lead be part of your target, the heart is the bull’s- them. Getting your story right for your listen- eye. To reach it, the visionary manager crafting ers means working past a series of culs-de-sac his story must first display his own open heart. and speed bumps to find the best path. Second, you’ll need to identify your audi- Although the mind may Truth to the Audience ence’s emotional needs and meet them with There’s always an implicit contract between integrity. It’s not enough to get the facts be part of your target, the the storyteller and his audience. It includes a right—you’ve got to get the emotional arc heart is the bull’s-eye. promise that the listeners’ expectations, once right as well. Every storyteller is in the aroused, will be fulfilled. Listeners give the expectations-management business and must storyteller their time, with the understanding take responsibility for leading listeners effec- that he will spend it wisely for them. For most tively through the story experience, incorpo- businesspeople, time is the scarcest resource; rating both surprise and fulfillment. At the the storyteller who doesn’t respect that will end of the story, listeners should think, “We pay dearly. Fulfilling this promise is what I never expected that—but somehow, it makes mean by “truth to the audience.” perfect sense.” Thus, a great story is never To meet the terms of this contract—and fully predictable through foresight—but it’s ideally even overdeliver on it—the great sto- projectable through hindsight. ryteller takes time to understand what his Third, you’ll want to tell your story in an listeners know about, care about, and want interactive fashion, so people will feel they’ve to hear. Then he crafts the essential elements participated in shaping the story experience. of the story so that they elegantly resonate This requires a willingness to surrender own- with those needs, starting where the listeners ership of the story. The storyteller must recog- are and bringing them along on a satisfying nize that the story is bigger than she is and emotional journey. must enlist her audience’s help. This journey, resulting in an altered psy- This can mean, as screenwriter Chad chological state on the part of the listener, Hodge pointed out during our dinner, “help- is the essence of storytelling. Listeners must ing people to see themselves as the hero of remain curious and in suspense—wondering the story,” whether the plot involves beating what’s going to happen to them next—while the bad guys or achieving some great business trusting that it is safe to give themselves over objective. “Everyone wants to be a star, or at to the journey and that the destination will least to feel that the story is talking to or be worthwhile. about him personally,” Hodge said. Business Truth to the audience has a number of leaders need to tap into this drive by using practical implications for the craft of story- storytelling to place their listeners at the center telling. of the action. As Hodge advised: “Encourage
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your people to join your journey, your quest, great “aha!”—not just sticky fingers and a few and reach the goal that lies at its end.” Recall, uneaten kernels of popcorn. for example, how I shone a spotlight on the Orchestrate emotional responses effectively, chain of history of Havana’s great harbor and and you actually transfer proprietorship of the placed Castro at the center of the story, as the story to the listener, making him an advocate harbor’s current steward. who will power the viral marketing of your LMU’s Teri Schwartz picked up on Hodge’s message. idea: “Make the ‘I’ in your story become ‘we,’ so the whole tribe or community can come to- Truth to the Moment gether and unite behind your experience and A great storyteller never tells a story the same the idea it embodies.” way twice. Instead, she sees what is unique in Consider how Sallie Krawcheck—formerly each storytelling experience and responds the CEO of Smith Barney and now, in her fully to what is demanded. A story involving early forties, the youthful chair and CEO your company should sound different each of Citigroup’s Global Wealth Management time. Whether you tell it to 2,000 customers at division—connects with people who might be a convention, 500 salespeople at a marketing intimidated by her reputation for brilliance meeting, ten stock analysts in a conference and her rapid rise to the top of the financial call, or three CEOs over drinks, you should tai- services industry. She often tells her life story lor it to the situation. The context of the tell- in a way that anyone can identify with, recall- ing is always a part of the story. In the case of ing how she felt like an outcast at her all-girls my pitch to Castro, the story had to seem school as a teenager—with glasses, braces, spontaneous, a natural response to the inspir- and corrective shoes—and how that prepared ing historic setting of Marina Hemingway her for the rigors of her professional life. She (itself named after one of the twentieth cen- has said in the business press that “there was tury’s great storytellers). And it did, though nothing they could do to me at Salomon the information had been gathered in ad- Brothers in the ’80s that was worse than the vance. Its organization and delivery were in seventh grade.” essence the “premiere” of this particular story. When you hear Krawcheck describe her There is a paradox here. Great storytellers journey in these terms, you know exactly how prepare obsessively. They think about, re- she feels. You can’t help rooting for her—and think, work, and rework their stories. As Scott if you’re a member of her team at Citigroup, Adelson, an investment banker who uses sto- you’re ready to follow her wherever she leads. rytelling to help clients raise capital in public Perhaps of equal import, business leaders markets, said at our dinner: “Sheer repetition must recognize that how the audience physi- and the practice it brings is one key to great cally responds to the storyteller is an integral storytelling. When we help companies sell part of the story and its telling. Communal themselves to Wall Street, we often see the emotional response—hoots of laughter, CEO and his team present their story 10, 20, shrieks of fear, gasps of dismay, cries of 30 times. And usually each telling is better anger—is a binding force that the storyteller and more compelling than the one before.” must learn how to orchestrate through ap- At the same time, the great storyteller is peals to the senses and the emotions. flexible enough to drop the script and impro- Nowhere is this more apparent than at the vise when the situation calls for it. Actually, story’s ending. Getting the audience to cheer, intensive preparation and improvising are rise, and vocalize in response to a dramatic, two sides of the same coin. If you know your rousing conclusion creates positive emo- story well, you can riff on it without losing tional contagion, produces a strong emotional the thread or the focus. takeaway, and fuels the call to action by the At the storytelling dinner, scientist and sci- business leader. The ending of a great narra- ence fiction writer Gentry Lee told us about tive is the first thing the audience remembers. appearing on a public panel about alien ab- The litmus test for a good story is not ductions. The other three members of the whether listeners walk away happy or sad. panel were two people who claimed they’d Rather, it’s whether the ending is emotionally been taken by aliens, and John Mack, the fulfilling, an experience worth owning, a late Harvard psychiatrist who believed in and
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researched such stories. As you might expect, Or the cause may be more modest but still the two abductees had colorful, vivid, fasci- important, at least to the storyteller and his nating stories to tell. The listeners were liter- audience: To turn around a company that is ally standing on their feet, clapping and floundering and save hundreds of jobs. To cheering. Mack poured fuel on the fire by bring a great new service to market and im- testifying that these stories could be con- prove the lives of customers. firmed by many others he’d studied. In any case, the job of the teller is to cap- Lee had prepared, from a scientist’s per- ture his mission in a story that evokes power- spective, a detailed response to the abduction ful emotions and thereby wins the assent and stories, showing how the power of the imagi- support of his listeners. Everything he does nation can conjure up fantasies that look, must serve that mission. feel, and appear compellingly real. But he This explains the passion that great story- could see that the frenzied audience was in tellers exude. They infuse their stories with no mood to absorb his lengthy presentation. meaning because they really believe in the Instead, he decided to avoid a war of dueling mission. I truly believed that our program on stories by simply using a single startling ob- the history of Havana harbor was important: servation to deflate the abductees’ tales. All We had shown up to do something that was he said was this: bigger than the swirl of temporary political “My friend Carl Sagan used to say, ‘Extraor- bargaining between our countries, and we dinary claims require extraordinary evidence.’ had bet the farm on the journey. Well, we’ve heard some wonderful stories to- When truth to the mission conflicts with day, and they make extraordinary claims. I truth to the audience, truth to the mission would just point out the following: Hundreds should win out. The leader who knows his lis- As a modern shaman, of people who believe they’ve been abducted teners is able to gain their trust and spend by aliens have told stories like the ones we’ve that currency wisely in pursuit of the mission. the visionary business just heard. And yet, despite all these hun- But this doesn’t mean telling people exactly leader taps into the dreds of supposed abductions, not a single what they want to hear. That’s pandering and, souvenir has ever been brought back—not a as Hollywood has learned, a formula for a me- human yearning to be single tool or document or drinking glass or diocre story. Indeed, sometimes you need to so much as a thimble! Given the total absence do just the opposite. At our dinner party, part of a worthy cause. of any physical evidence, can we really believe Colin Callender, president of HBO Films, these extraordinary claims?” noted that several of HBO’s most acclaimed This simple, unadorned statement—impro- productions are ones that audience pretesting vised on the spot to startle the audience into marked as losers. a fresh way of thinking—completely trans- Even in today’s cynical, self-centered age, formed the situation. Most of the throng people are desperate to believe in something changed from true believers to thoughtful bigger than themselves. The storyteller plays a skeptics in just a few moments. vital role by providing them with a mission For the well-trained storyteller, spontaneity they can believe in and devote themselves to. and economy can be elegant and powerful. As a modern shaman, the visionary business leader taps into the human yearning to be part Truth to the Mission of a worthy cause. A leader who wants to use A great storyteller is devoted to a cause be- the power of storytelling must remember this yond self. That mission is embodied in his sto- and begin with a cause that deserves devotion. ries, which capture and express values that he One of today’s most creative business leaders believes in and wants others to adopt as their is Muhammad Yunus, founder of Bangladesh’s own. Thus, the story itself must offer a value Grameen Bank and pioneer of the microcre- proposition that is worthy of its audience. dit movement, which advocates providing The mission may be on a national or even small loans to the poor. When he addresses global scale: To land a man on the moon and would-be partners to solicit support for mi- return him safely to Earth. To win the Cold crocredit, he tells some version of this story: War and bring freedom to millions of people “It was a village woman named Sufiya around the world. To reverse global warming Begum who taught me the true nature of pov- and save the planet. erty in Bangladesh. Like many village women,
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Sufiya lived with her husband and small CEOs, and high government officials—are children in a crumbling mud hut with a leaky moved. They are riding the emotional arc of thatched roof. To provide food for her family, Yunus’s tale, which culminated in 2006 with Sufiya worked all day in her muddy yard the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize jointly making bamboo stools. Yet somehow her to Yunus and Grameen Bank. When he con- hard work was unable to lift her family out cludes his story by asking his listeners to help of poverty. Why?” bring affordable credit to every poor person in (Of course, “Why?” is a rhetorical question. the world, he almost always receives a stand- But posing it to the listeners engages their ing ovation—along with a flood of pledges. curiosity and makes them eager to hear the answer, which they trust Yunus to supply.) The Unchanging Heart of “Like many others in the village, Sufiya re- Storytelling lied on the local moneylender to provide the Story forms have evolved continually since cash she needed to buy the bamboo for her the days of the shaman. Literary genres from stools. But the moneylender would give her epic poetry to drama to the novel use stories this money only on the condition that he as political or social calls to action. Techno- would have the exclusive right to buy all she logical breakthroughs—movable type, movies, produced at a price he would decide. What’s radio, television, the internet—have pro- more, the interest rate he charged was incredi- vided new ways of recording, presenting, bly high, ranging from 10% per week to as and disseminating stories. But it isn’t special much as 10% per day. effects or the 0’s and 1’s of the digital revolu- “Sufiya was not alone. I made a list of the tion that matter most—it’s the oohs and aahs victims of this moneylending business in the that the storyteller evokes from an audience. village of Jobra. When I was done, I had the State-of-the-art technology is a great tool for names of 42 victims who had borrowed a capturing and transmitting words, images, total of 856 taka—the equivalent of less than and ideas, but the power of storytelling re- $27 at the time. What a lesson this was for me, sides most fundamentally in “state-of-the- an economics professor! heart” technology. “I offered $27 from my own pocket to get At the end of the day, words and ideas pre- these victims out of the moneylenders’ sented in a way that engages listeners’ emo- clutches. The excitement that was created tions are what carry stories. It is this oral among the people by this small action got me tradition that lies at the center of our ability further involved. If I could make so many to motivate, sell, inspire, engage, and lead. people so happy with such a tiny amount of money, why not do more? Reprint R0712C “That has been my mission ever since.” To order, see the next page When Yunus tells this story of the origins of or call 800-988-0886 or 617-783-7500 microcredit, his listeners—including bankers, or go to www.hbrreprints.org
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