This past week was our Story Lab spring showcase. This public event concludes our semester-long Story Lab program at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business. I lead the program, which starts with workshops to help students develop their storytelling and public speaking skills. From there, those who want to work on a story for the showcase continue with peer mentoring where they workshop their stories (a nod to Iowa’s famed Writer’s Workshop).
This year, we had a problem. Story Lab was ravaged by spring sickness. At the last minute, we lost two of our storytellers. Luckily, two of our peer mentors stepped up to sub in with just hours’ notice, preparing a story on our theme of “courage.” Both knocked it out of the park.
One of these students told a story about summer camp. I was engrossed. Transported back in time to the five summers I spent at YMCA camp outside of Boone, Iowa. A world of boys and girls’ cabins, crafts, swimming, and awkward dances at the mess hall. As I think about this, it was also another time and place, very early on, where the power of story was imprinted on me.
When this student’s story was done, I stepped up to the mic and asked the audience, “Who else went to summer camp?” Hands up, knowing nods and smiles followed. Then, on a whim, I added, “Who didn’t go to camp but started imagining what it’s like based on that story?” More hands, nods, and smiles, to which I added, ”That’s called narrative transportation.”
How Narrative Transportation Works
Narrative transportation is exactly what it sounds like. You hear a story and get pulled into it. Your mind literally takes you there.
Researchers Melanie C. Green and Timothy C. Brock coined this term in their paper, The Role of Transportation in the Persuasiveness of Public Narratives. Basically, when we hear a story, we lock in with attention in a way we don’t when regular information is presented. Because of this, we start feeling for the characters in the story. As a result, the listener simulates the events of the story in their minds as though they were happening to them.
Sometimes you can take a shortcut by telling someone a story about something they’ve actually experienced — like telling a story about going to camp to someone … well, like me, who had been to camp. But camp attendance isn’t required. The real magic of narrative transportation is that the simulation in the audience’s mind happens even if they haven’t directly experienced the events described.
This is what makes narrative transportation such a powerful tool. When you’re captivated by a story, you experience it rather than analyzing it or creating counterarguments against it. That’s why stories move people and change minds and hearts more than simple facts, stats, and other carefully prepared but emotionally lacking messages.
What You Can Do with This
Narrative transportation is why so many storied brands are just that. Storied.
When I mention brands like Nike or Apple, people are quick to bemoan their “big brand” status. While size, budget, and resources certainly play a role, these brands are often telling compelling stories. One of Nike’s earliest ads features a solitary man running down an empty tree-lined road with the headline, “There is no finish line,” along with some Don Draper-level supporting copy. I have this ad up on my wall because it makes me think of my struggles and goals as a runner. I see myself in the story they’re telling. It takes me there.
Leaders can use narrative transportation internally as well. In the early days of Gramercy Tavern, restaurateur and founder Danny Meyer trained new employees himself. This included using stories like “the salmon story.” Long salmon story short: a guest was upset by overcooked fish, and the server didn’t make it right. The guest wrote Meyer a letter detailing the situation. This led Meyer to overhaul his hiring and training, which now included the salmon story to reinforce the aspirational idea that employees should strive to be “hospitalitarians” who get fed by serving others.
In his book The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle (who I talked to this month on the podcast) refers to leaders like Meyer as lighthouses, broadcasting organizational culture for all to see. But if the leader is the lighthouse, then the big ol’ lightbulb is story. Studies further indicate that using stories in training can cut teaching time in half. Why? The answer once again is narrative transportation.
Stories take team members inside critical concepts by engrossing them in a story that can bring lessons to life in vivid relief.
Story Strategy: Narrative Transportation
To move your audience — internally or externally — you need to embrace narrative transportation.
Apply it: Where do you want your audience to go? Start with that end in mind and think of a story — either a true story from your life or a fictional story or parable — to lead your listeners there.
A version of this first appeared in Story Strategies—my monthly email newsletter designed to help you connect with your audience through the power of story. Get the next issue delivered to your inbox.
