To Improve Your Storytelling Skills, Use Abraham Lincoln as Inspiration

Today's blog post is based on an article from Inc. magazine:

There are many times in our lives that we're required to make speeches but how do we go about making a memorable one?

Time magazine lists it as one of the 10 greatest speeches of all time. It is a poignant expression of the travails of a troubled nation. And it contains an opening line that most Americans can still recite years after they learned it in school. 

The speech, of course, is Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. But although you know it well, what you might not realize about "four scores and seven years ago . . ." is that Lincoln's oration followed one of the most effective story structures you can use—the structure that storytelling expert Shawn Callahan calls "the clarity story." 

This type of story is so valuable because for people to be engaged, they need to understand why they should take action. "The clarity story provides reasons in the most powerful and digestible format possible," writes Callahan in Putting Stories to Work. 

There are four parts to the clarity story:

Part 1 begins with a look back at the past to take the listener back to the way things used to be. 

Part 2 shifts to something that happened: the events that caused a problem or opportunity. 

Part 3 is what Callahan calls "so now . . ." which describes the decision or action needed to respond. 

Part 4 looks ahead to the future to envision a desired outcome.

Be sure to check out the article to see how Lincoln's speech used all four parts.

Also, check out the article to see how a bank used the clarity story to tell its employees why they were making a certain change.

The structure works so well, writes Callahan, because it creates a series of events that cause people to want to know what happens next. "You need to spark people's interest by starting with the context, then hold their attention because something happens that causes a change, then end with an outcome." 

Lincoln relied on this technique in his iconic speech—and you can, too.

How can you use this in your speeches? Let me know what you come up with.

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