Halloween is a holiday celebrated on October 31st in many English speaking countries and made popular worldwide through pop culture (literature and movies)
But what is Halloween? And where does it come from?
It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holiday All Saints' Day, but is today largely a secular celebration.
Behind the name... Halloween, or the Hallow E'en as they call it in Ireland , is All Hallows Eve, or the night before the 'All Hallows', also called 'All Hallowmas', or 'All Saints', or 'All Souls' Day, observed on November 1. In old English the word 'Hallow' meant 'sanctify'.
Roman Catholics, Episcopalians and Lutherians used to observe All Hallows Day to honor all Saints in heaven, known or unknown.
Despite this connection with the Roman Church, the American version of Halloween Day celebration owes its origin to the ancient (pre-Christian) Druidic fire festival called "Samhain", celebrated by the Celts in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Samhain is pronounced "sow-in", with "sow" rhyming with cow. In Ireland the festival was known as Samhein, or La Samon, the Feast of the Sun.
Trick-or-treating is a customary celebration for children on Halloween. Children go in costume from house to house, asking for treats such as candy or sometimes money, with the question, "Trick or treat?" The word "trick" refers to a (mostly idle) "threat" to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given. In some parts of Scotland children still go guising. In this custom the child performs some sort of trick, i.e. sings a song or tells a ghost story, to earn their treats.
National Geographic video on the History of Halloween.
In the last two posts we've been discussing the Basics and the Structure involved when TELLING STORIES to communicate important ideas (in English as a second language) Today, we'll look at a practical application of this.
Suppose you have to give a Power Point presentation. Your goal is to sell a new line of business. Your team has been developing this for over a year and your audience is the board of regional directors. Your research indicates that if launched smartly and soon, this new business could save your company from doom. You are confident this is the opportunity of a lifetime. But can you get their attention, let alone convince them?
Yes, you've prepared the slides with all the pretty pie charts and projections for the next five years. But before any of that, you need to engage your audience at a far deeper level. Can Storytelling help?
Sure. First, you'll need characters: a hero, a damsel in distress, and naturally, a bad guy. And a plot (storyline) with conflict, if possible one that involves, say... the end of the world or something of the kind. And sure, there will be a happy ending, but only after the bad guy has inflicted serious damage on the good guys and maybe even walked away with the damsel. Otherwise, who cares?
So how would this translate to your "new business" presentation? Easily.
Naturally, you should present the situation at hand in dramatic terms (see last post). Take no more than 5 minutes, but don't forget to make it fun...
"Once upon a time, there was this great company. Efficient, proud... no other like it in the kingdom", could be a good start. But then go on to tell them the tale of how this once great company (the hero) went from being successful and solving problems for its demanding clients (the damsel in distress) to running into serious trouble when confronted by the ruthless recession (the bad guy).
You can even illustrate this with some visuals for effect (just don't over do it).
It won't take your audience look to figure out what you're up to. And they'll want to know where you're planning on taking this "story". Some will be entertained, some might be concerned you might go overboard, but none of them will flip out their smart phone to see when their next meeting is. Why? Because you have engaged them.
So you go on. Now you tell them how the ruthless recession eventually smoothed out and the company survived. Unfortunately, in that time, other companies (new bad guys) have been quick to adjust their armor and spears to the new situation and have been advancing into your territory (market share), taking many of your damsels (clients). Darkness is upon you again.
Your audience will now be wondering who or what will come to the rescue.
Hold for a few seconds. Now tell them the story of a brave group of knights (your department) who has "burned the midnight oil" (worked really hard) to create a new secret weapon (new line of business) to win back your land (market share), and most important of all, bring back your damsels (clients).
But before deploying this secret weapon, the brave knights will submit the plan for approval of a wise council (the regional directors). "To be continued... ".
Surely, most will probably laugh and enjoy the fact you put some creativiy into your intro. But deep in their minds you also instilled the idea that - behind the cute little fairy tale - there is a very serious problem that is in their hands and potential solution equally at hand. They are far more ready to hear your solution now, then if you had simply walked in and started flipping the slides.
Or course, there are probably many other story models to follow. You might make yours a western, a romantic comedy, a gangster tale, a telenovela or even a space opera. It doesn't matter, as long as you engage them.
Naturally, if you're doing this as a speaker of English as a Second Language, it is in your best interest to plan out your story on paper first. But we don't recommend you memorize it either. This is not for everyone. But we still recommend you try to tell your company situtation in story terms at some point, at least for practice. You might learn something and even come up with some ideas.
So you’ve decided you’re going to tell a story. But before moving any further, let’s ask the following question.
What is a story?
At its simplest, a story is a description of change. It's how something went from being one way to being something else. But there's a little more to it than that.
Because to truly be a story, this description of change needs to have the secret ingredient.
Conflict.
You know, struggle, adversity, hardship, danger or desire. In other words, all those things that force us to take action or suffer the consequences.
In communication, this means that we should think about ways to raise the stakes on whatever we're talking about. This holds especially true in business presentations, sales pitches, press releases, but holds equally true outside of business when we wish to communicate important ideas.
However, for the speaker of English as a Second Language, it's a unique opportunity to engage a listener beyond the common practice of small talk.
So where do we find conflict? It's really everywhere in Life.
First we need to locate what in drama is called the inciting incident.
This is the event that sets the action of a story in motion. An inciting incident is what disrupts balance and forces people to take action, to restore that lost balance or perhaps to achieve a new one.
For people working in business, there can be many inciting incidents. Like maybe a major client who calls to tell you that they're taking business somewhere else... to your competitor. Naturally, something like this will set you in motion. And whatever the result, for better or for worse, will result in lessons learned and a great story to be told.
But in life in general, there are inciting incidents all the time. Like maybe you get an outrageously high bill from the phone company about those "calls" you made to Tokyo. But there's a just a little problem... you never made those calls. Most people in the modern world, have stories like these to tell.
In any case, after we identify this incident, we need to focus our attention on the 3 basic building blocks of a story:
1) The set up: This is where we set up the basic elements of the story. Here we quickly identify the protagonists, the place, the time, the context and of course, the inciting incident that leads to ... the conflict and the rest of our story.
2) The confrontation: This is the "meat" of your story, where you spend most of your time because it's where the protagonists take action as a result of the inciting incident that led to conflict. His or her goal is to restore balance and solve the conflict. To be engaging, this action should be full of challenges and set-backs. Nothing good ever comes easy, right?
3) The solution to the conflict. How does the story end? Do the protagonists solve it or not, and if so, how? What are the lessons learned here if any?
In fact, these are the key elements that make up the mechanics of any story, whether it's a simple event like a customer service experience or the story of a space crew that might not come home. Let's elaborate on these two examples.
ACTIVITIES:
1) WATCH the two videos that follow and try to identify the following: the inciting incident, the protagonists, the conflict, the context, the confrontation and the solution to the conflict.
2) THINK of a personal experience that might constitute a story. How do you know if it's a story? Test it to see if it has the right ingredients. Bad customer service
Houston, we have a problem
In the next post, we'll talk about fundamental story elements. In other words, what details are necessary to make a situation that has story elements become a compelling story.
Halloween is a holiday celebrated on October 31st in many English speaking countries and made popular worldwide through pop culture (literature and movies)
