Stories have been used since the beginning of time to teach new ideas and concepts.  From early tribal legends, to fables and mythology stories have taught people how to accomplish tasks; from how to build an ark to how to escape your evil stepmother.  Stories allow learners to enter a unique imaginary world and play with new ideas without the fear of making a mistake or appearing wrong.  Stories provide context to complex ideas by framing them in situations and experiences that seem familiar to learners.  Stories can provide an emotional connection to ideas and concepts, which is vital to turning on the memory receptors in the brain.  And, finally stories entertain and challenge the mind to engage with information in ways simple explanations cannot.  Take a lesson from your earliest ancestors and tell stories around the boardroom table like cave men around the fire to help everyone evolve to the next level of their training.

Stories can be easily incorporated into most training documents.  How you choose to include stories as a training technique is completely up to you and how you want to present your information. Be sure the stories you are using further your goals and are not stories that will simply distract. Here are some of the most common ways to incorporate the power of stories in training documents.

1.    Use a story to set up the lesson. 

Include a simple story that provides an example of the task you are teaching not being accomplished well.  For example, the story of the new parachutist who bounced because he didn’t pack his shute correctly. The reason you want to focus on the skill not being done well at this point in the training, is because learners pay more attention and remember more, when they have a sense of risk.  What they’re learning might not be life and death, but they’ll get the point of needing to pay attention to detail!  When learners have some reason to believe not knowing what you are teaching them can cause them complication or frustration, they will focus more on remembering the new information.

Start your training with a story of what can happen if someone does not know how to accomplish the task being trained.  You can check out http://www.businessballs.com/stories.htm for story and fable ideas.

2.    Weave a story throughout your training document. 

This technique is very powerful in teaching complex skills that have multiple opportunities for the learner to do something right or wrong throughout the process, thus changing the outcome of their performance.  Kind of like one of those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books that we all read in grade school.  In this sort of storytelling you would set up the training by telling the first part of the story,where the desired outcome is not achieved, but as you include more and more pieces of the story throughout your training document, the outcome becomes more and more successful.

Continue to tell the story you started in the beginning of the training, but as you introduce another key concept increase the success of the person.

3.    Use a story to bring the lesson to conclusion. 

Include a simple story at the end of your training document to demonstrate how utilizing the skills outlined ended in a successful outcome.  Make sure it relates to the training, no one wants to hear about how you ran into the drummer from Cold Play in the airport on your business trip if it doesn’t directly relate to the topic at hand.  When using a story to bring your training to conclusion it is important to focus on including the steps that were taught throughout the story. 

Wrap up the story at the end of the training by telling how the person who learned the skills provided, became successful.

Three Quick Steps:

1.    Start your training with a story of what can happen if someone does not know how to

   accomplish the task being trained. You can check out 

   http://www.businessballs.com/stories.htm for story and fable ideas.

2.   Continue to tell the story you started in the beginning of the training, but as you introduce another key concept increase the success of the person.

3.    Wrap up the story at the end of the training by telling how the person who learned the skills provided, became successful.