StoryTraining: Selecting and Shaping Stories That Connect

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Storytelling and Facilitating Performance

On those days when the weather is changing at a moment’s notice or the sun and the shade seem to be in two different seasons, I often think of Aesop’s fable “Northern Wind and the Sun.” In the fable, the wind and the sun make a bet on who is the stronger of the two. They decide to settle the matter by seeing who can make a nearby traveler remove his coat—the wind’s wild force or the steady pressure of the sun. The wind causes the traveler to wrap his coat tighter, but the warmth of the sun makes the man to take the coat off—the sun wins! The moral of the story: “Gentleness and kind persuasion win where force and bluster fail.”

Aesop’s fables are clear examples of stories intended to influence behavior. ...