Episode 06: The Power of Stories to Connect, Train, and Humanize with Rance Greene

Written By Carly Schroeder
 
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Stories have the power to hold us in anticipation, motivate us to learn more, and connect with others on a human level. Rance Greene discovered this by accident when he made the move from directing actors on the stage to directing the creation of compliance training in business. Suddenly, ethics and compliance jumped to the top line item in the company culture survey. People knew what to do, listened to the stories, and reported that they were looking forward to the next round of compliance training. Can you imagine this happening in your company? 

Rance achieved this seemingly impossible feat using powerful stories in the compliance training. Stories that humanized the learners, provided a strong conflict, and motivated them to resolution. 

Listen in on my conversation with Rance to learn more about: 

  • Working with stakeholders and SMEs as humans first and sources of information second. 

  • The disrespect shown by not including observable actions in training.

  • The importance of defining relatable characters, strong conflict, and a desire for resolution in a story designed for learning. 

  • Three questions to ask when starting any design project. 

Rance Greene is often known as the "Story Man," but he prefers the title "Story Designer." He formed needastory.com and the School of Story Design (schoolofstorydesign.com) for those who struggle with storytelling at work. His methodology—Story Design—gives leaders and talent development professionals a systematic and creative way for discovering who their audience is and how to persuade them to act on new ideas. He helps leadership teams, entrepreneurs and instructional designers discover that they are uniquely equipped to tell the best story for their audiences. Rance is the author of Instructional Story Design, a practical guide for developing stories that train. He coaches, teaches, speaks, and writes often on the benefits of stories to connect people to one another.

Find out more and connect with Rance Greene here: 

Find out more and connect with Jess Almlie here: 

Carly Schroeder
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