Anecdotes all around you — put them to work

Just a few minutes into his State of the Union speech last week, President Barak Obama reached into the toolkit shared by every president (and every presidential speechwriter) in recent memory and pulled out a reliable old tool: the anecdote.

You know the routine: In order to make a point, the president tells a story – the story of some hard-working, down-to-earth American who embodies the spirit or issue about which the president is speaking. These days, that story is inevitably accompanied by a nod or admiring look toward the First Lady’s box, where the main character in the story has been given a seat of honor.

An example from last week: “One mother of two, a woman named Kathy Proctor, had worked in the furniture industry since she was 18 years old,” President Obama said. “And she told me she’s earning her degree in biotechnology now, at 55 years old, not just because the furniture jobs are gone, but because she wants to inspire her children to pursue their dreams too. As Kathy said, ‘I hope it tells them to never give up.’”

Why do presidents resort to this sort of showmanship? Because it works – it puts a human face on an issue, giving listeners something to relate to. As a result, one story can make a difference that no set of statistics, government studies or expert commentary can.

Professional communicators know why this works. People remember stories; they forget numbers. People respond to anecdotes; they skim over statistics. Faced with a story, people act; faced with data, people turn the page.

For a vivid example of this principle at work, look at The Indianapolis Star’s ongoing series “Our Children, Our City.”

For years, the people of Indianapolis have heard about the sorry state of the city’s public schools. They’ve seen countless data tables that measure the failure. They’ve read expert commentary describing the need for parental and public involvement. They’ve heard about national studies that describe the long-term impact of negligence.  And, by and large, they’ve done nothing.

Then The Star put a reporter in the classrooms on a weekly basis and told the stories of the people they met there. Teachers, students, parents, administrators and so on. And the people of Indianapolis engaged. Teachers who struggled to gather the materials for their classrooms were overwhelmed with gifts. Students who needed mentors got them. A Christmas concert that once attracted only a handful of family members sold out. A family with school-aged kids who struggled to get by while living in a low-rent motel room suddenly had more clothes, toys and essentials than they could manage.

What made the difference? Anecdotes. Where do we find anecdotes? All around us. How do we find them? We ask. We listen. We watch. We learn. And then we tell the stories.

After all, if it works for the president, won’t it work for your organization?