21228

Wk 5 Lecture

Storytelling and

Impression Management

I Can’t Think!Begley, Sharon (2011), Newsweek, Feb 27

The Twitterization of our culture has revolutionized our lives, but with an unintended consequence—our overloaded brains freeze when we have to make decisions…The research should give pause to anyone addicted to incoming texts and tweets. The booming science of decision making has shown that more information can lead to objectively poorer choices, and to choices that people come to regret. It has shown that an unconscious system guides many of our decisions, and that it can be sidelined by too much information…

A key reason for information’s diminishing or even negative returns is the limited capacity of the brain’s working memory. It can hold roughly seven items (which is why seven-digit phone numbers were a great idea). Anything more must be processed into long-term memory. That takes conscious effort, as when you study for an exam. When more than seven units of information land in our brain’s inbox…the brain struggles to figure out what to keep and what to disregard. Ignoring the repetitious and the useless requires cognitive resources and vigilance, a harder task when there is so much information.

Can’t Respond – Irritable – Bored - So What - No Decisive Action

Pyramid Principle and Alternative Structures

• Pyramid structure– Reports– Letters– Memos

• Chronological– narrative– cause/effect

• Problem-solution– FAQs

•Webinars/Zipcast•G+ Hangout•Sales Letters•Email•Voice Mail•PowerPoint•Proposals•Industry Conferences

Different types of value

FinancialValue

BusinessValue

Personal Value

1.Financial

2.Business

3.Personal

Roles of storytelling

• Preserve culture via social knowledge

– Schank & Abelson (1995)

• Sensemaking

– Confusing social and personal experiences or “messy” situations (Bruner, 1990) into a rational story that sequences the events to make sense of the world outside them

– “sequencing is a powerful heuristic for sensemaking”(Weick, 1995, p129)

– People’s self understanding is based on narratives they construct to make sense of their lives (Gergin & Gergin, 1983)

• Emotional experiences

- “components of pleasure are to a great extent unconscious” ( Hiltunen, 2002)

- “Proper pleasure” Poetics (Aristole,330BC) “pity,fear and catharsis”(Hiltunen,2002)

Compelling Stories

– beginning, middle, end (plot structure)

– Imagination integrating past, present, and future

– Parts of story enacted in daily life

– Exists in mind of the client

– An unusual event

– A moral and teaching perspective

– Suspense (Brewer and Lichtenstein, 1982; Durgeen, 1988 ; Gergen

and Gergen, 1988).

Good Story

The fundamental tenent of all stories is to have an "inciting incident" (McKee, 2003) that enhances the story tension by causing an imbalance to occur (Woodside and Chebat, 2001) that moves the protagonist from an original balance state to imbalance; the imbalance causes action (implicit or explicitly planned or unplanned) to restore balance by finding a solution or resolution (Heider,1958).

X-Factor and StorytellingSood (2010)

“Stay Hungry stay Foolish”Steven Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005

• “Today I want to tell you three stories.“

• “The first story is about connecting the dots.“

• “My second story is about love and loss.“

• “My third story is about death.“

Storytelling Theory of Structure and Emotional SlopeWoodside, Sood & Miller (2008)

Acts through Time (Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months, Decades)

Prequel Act 1 (Balance) Act 2 (Imbalance) Act 3 (Resolution) Act 4 (Sensemaking & Storytelling)

Emotion

Evaluativeslope

A1

A2

V3 V4

A4

S3

S4

Dictionary. Ai = actor; Vi = event/action; Si = scene; interaction/dialogue. Note: only A1, the protagonist, appears in all acts. In Act 4 the protagonist makes sense of the action when telling the story to herself and/or others about the events occurring beforehand (prequel), the action leading up (Act 1) to the inciting incident (act 2) and how the story turns out (resolution, Act 3.

A1

A2

V1V2

A3

S1

S2

A2

A1

A5 A6

A7

S6

S7

S8

A2

A5 A1

S9

A1

V5

V6

V7V8

S10

V9

Critical Model of ConsultingNikolova,Reihlen and Schlapfner (2009)

Shaping impressions social practices:

•Storytelling•Rhetorical skills•Charisma•Demonstrating•Tangible solutions•Client reflections

Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (PSEL)ConceptsGoffman 1959

1. The Drama• actors give meaning to selves, others & their situation • performances before observers deliver impressions (actor's goals). • Information exchanged to confirm identity & significance of behaviour.• The actor may have no "intent" yet others impute attributes to them.

2. Front• audience requires "idealised" front. Believable performance.

Stereotypical repertoires - "expressive equipment " to establish “self”. Dramatic realisation - "impression management". Must be convincing + "in-line" with expectations, conventions, mores, rules

• Credibility won by: satisfying expected duties & role performance + consistency in communicating activities & traits.

3. Signs & signifiers in projecting the front - the setting & props

Further Extending the Dramaturgical Framework in Marketing and Consumer PsychologyWoodside, Sood & Miller (2008)