You will probably have a lot of personal references to where a story has made a difference in your life. I certainly have loads of them, and I mean to share some of these. But first, I would like to point out some more public examples of when stories made a clear difference.
First of all, an old but very interesting example: Uncle Tom’s cabin, (Stowe, 1852). The best-selling book of the 1900th century. This book had an immense impact on its audience, in the times of civil unrest and abolitionist movement leading up to the Civil war in America. President Lincoln himself allegedly said to the writer, Harriet Stowe; “So, you’re the little lady who wrote the great book that started this great war”.
Furthermore, the book sold in 1.5 million copies within the year of its publication in Britain. The huge impact it had on the public opinion of the British also led to that Britain remained neutral. This, in a civil war where they in fact had economic interests intertwined with the South, and thus keeping the British army from joining the fight on the side of the South.
Well, talk about impact.
Another, and more modern, example comes from the corporate world; it is from a study of companies undergoing change processes. Around 40 companies participated in the study, and one of the major take-aways was that so few succeeded in their change programs; only 42 percent. But of those who did succeed, the result was equally astonishing; they succeeded big time! In some cases, with a target ratio of 200 – 300 percent! One of the key factors the study [extracted] was storytelling. You are more likely to succeed with change programs in your company if you use storytelling in your change-driver communication. (LaClair & Rao, 2002, Helping employees embrace change).
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