Zynia - Motivational metaphors for Training and Development

Well, stories affect the brain, and get an emotional reaction. They act as a catalyst for helping people learn; when we listen to a story we are constantly analysing it against and associating it with experiences we’ve had ourselves. And we do this at conscious and sub-conscious levels.

We can use stories to bring theories alive, by giving examples, by demonstrating, by making you think and getting to the emotional level.

There’s a video that’s been around since 1970; a documentary called ‘The Eye of the Storm; it’s about an American schoolteacher working with children on the subject of racism. She gets them to ‘live out’ for a day the hypothesis that people with blue eyes are more important and more privileged than those with brown eyes as a means to explore power, discrimination and racism. On showing this video once in a subsequent training session on racism to a group of adults, a participant, a guy from South Africa left the room in tears. There was nothing about South Africa in it; it didn’t have anybody black in it and that’s why the trainer did it that way because the original video was all about a class of white school children. So at many levels level it was remote from his experience but, nevertheless, it suddenly got to him. He just couldn’t sit in the room anymore. That’s why stories work; they’re powerful in getting to emotions, personal experiences and making you think.

Stories help make sense of complexity; often when we describe storytelling methods we are challenged with “But, you can’t tell stories about everything, can you?” and as trainers we must consider all alternatives but we believe that you can use stories to break any complexity down into understandable elements and to provide metaphors and analogies that enable the listener to understand.

For example, does your computer really have a file inside it? Or a folder? No, of course it hasn’t, but these are perfect examples of single-word metaphors and symbols that help us to understand how we can use a computer. There’s no file or folder in there but to all intents and purposes if we treat it as though there is then our understanding of how to use it increases. Even something as ‘hard’ as that can have stories and metaphors that help people understand. We can tell stories based on a non-work related situation and by pulling out the strands of metaphor enables us to understand how to overcome issues that face us at work and vice versa. It’s that distance that can often help us have that ‘aha!’ moment.

From the trainer’s point of view stories can offer a different dimension for use within a training event. They can reinforce messages, provide an opportunity for discussion and create great scope for learning. Even if you’re not a great storyteller yourself anyone can play a story.

Finally, stories are entertaining; they make you laugh, they make you cry, and chemical changes in the brain associated with emotion help to embed the things we learn. Think back to your childhood; do you have something that happened to you where you can remember exactly how it looked, sounded, smelt, tasted? This is probably attached to an emotion, so if we use a story and it provokes an emotion the chances are that will be the moment that’s taken away and remembered long after the course or manual has been finished.