Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact

CHAPTER 8Vision Stories

WHEN I WAS a kid my mother taught me table manners by suggesting I’d need them “in case the queen ever invites you to tea.” I’m over 45 and so far I’ve received no royal invitations, but I do have lovely table manners (as do all of my mother’s past fifth-grade students). The Queen’s tea party was my mother’s version of a Vision story. When you are ten, using a short fork for salad is ridiculous without the “You’ll thank me some day” story. Unpleasant chores, training, routine maintenance, disruptive changes in procedure usually offer little immediate gratification. Frustrations experienced in the here and now are borne only because we can imagine the payoff somewhere, sometime in the future. A good Vision story makes otherwise ...