Storytelling

I arrived early. The room was set up with a matrix of round tables, set for lunch. Only two people were in the room. I wandered up to the front table, next to the stage. No name tags. It seemed like fair game, so I sat down.

Slowly the room began to fill up, and so did my table. We chatted about the conference and the AI topics that had been the signature theme through all the presentations. Lunch was delivered and the lights began to dim. On the stage, right in front of me, an announcer appeared. “Hi friends! We are delighted today to have a special guest join us to talk about The Power of Story: How Imagination Fuels Innovation. Please welcome, LeVar Burton.”

I watched LeVar walk on stage and sit just a few feet from where I was sitting. My mind raced with questions, about Reading Rainbow, about Star Trek, about Roots. I never got the chance to ask any of them. I didn’t need to. LeVar unpacked his life in a masterful, story-telling way, punctuating each point with incredible twists and turns.

According to Burton, storytelling is not a soft skill or an optional elective. It is the foundational technology of human civilization. Everything, every new innovation, every accomplishment, begins as an act of imagination. Nothing manifests in the physical world without first being imagined. Storytelling is our lingua franca, the universal shared language across ages, cultures, and people groups. Everyone understands and connects through stories. In the old days, storytelling was around a warm fire, casting light and shadows on the speakers. Today, it’s a new fire, a cool fire: glowing screens and digital systems we use to craft, transmit, and deliver stories. But in all of it, storytelling is key.

Are you a storyteller? I confess, as a kid, I was terrible at it. I’d do my best to give a narrative, or worse, try to tell a joke, and my stepdad would literally roll around on the ground laughing at how bad I was. That stung, but he was also quick to encourage me, and to teach me how to tell stories. He was brilliant at it. I embraced the lessons. I’d try again, sometimes a little better than the last, sometimes not. But I kept trying. Somewhere between his laughter and his lessons, I stopped being afraid of failing at it. Now I love to tell stories myself. Probably too much.

How do you tell a story? As in my example, the best way to improve is to practice. Keep telling stories. Take the feedback. Keep going. You’ll get the hang of it.

“Life, like walking, is a controlled fall. Take the step that is in front of you, and the next step will always reveal itself.” — LeVar Burton

Like learning any new skill, life gives us endless opportunities to fall. We might wish there were a magic button: press it, become an instant expert or artisan, but that isn’t how it works. It’s a series of trying, falling, failing, getting better, and trying again. Just like my own path to becoming a storyteller. The key is to keep trying: to place that foot of faith right out in front of you and keep walking.

Sometimes that means sitting at the front table, even if you don’t know you belong there. Sit down anyway. The story is about to begin.

Do you have a story? I know you do. Write it down if you haven’t already. Tell someone. Keep creating new ones. We are storytellers, after all. It defines us. It changes the world around us. It brings new color, flavor, and dimension to our lives. It even helps us imagine, and do, the impossible.

Keep telling stories.