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“Is storytelling enjoying a resurrection in business?” I asked screenwriting coach, Robert McKee, who is working with business executives to help them become stronger leaders. He feels that the pendulum has swung back in favor of story in business, because it’s the natural way capitalism has always progressed: with face-to-face stories.

“A great leader is somebody who has wisdom, has a vision: that means they understand life. They know how to make sense out of life. And they can compose life into a beautifully truthfully and a beautifully told story that makes sense to other human beings. When we feel that somebody has a vision and they can communicate that in a story, we follow.”

Data and our recent rapture with stats, charts and powerpoints have silenced the storyteller within us all. Some call it “Physics Envy.” Physics envy is our perceived need to find empirical evidence – the scientific method known as hypothetico-deductivism we all learned in high school – to explain why humans behave the way we do. You form a hypothesis, test it, and decided if it’s fact or fiction. Unfortunately, we humans are an awful messy lot. It’s nearly impossible to predict with any certainty how we’re going to act or react to the changing events that confront us each day: self-imposed or thrusted upon us.

Our only real savior that will help us be resilient leaders is what has worked within us – and on us – since the beginning of time. Storytelling.

All great business leaders turn data into drama, numbers into narrative, and stats into story.

Listen to this 9 minute podcast and hear why.