For over two decades I’ve witnessed the power of story first hand in the work that’s chosen me. Beginning at the University of Pennsylvania Department of Bio-Epidemiology where I served as Lead Research Interviewer on an ovarian cancer study. This might not sound like the place you were thinking one would see the power of story at play, but it was. Sitting in hospital rooms and homes gently asking 64 medical history questions it turned out the most information packed answer was gained from this question, “tell the Story of how you were diagnosed with ovarian cancer.” The answers led to insights we never would have heard from the standard questions usually included in studies such as these. Countless women shared their journeys of sometimes a decade or more of misdiagnoses, not being heard by doctors, being told it was “all in their head” before they were properly diagnosed. Imagine if this was you or your mother or sister or daughter or best friend. An eye opener to understanding the often long delays between initial symptoms and diagnosis. By the time most women are diagnosed they are in late stages and life expectancy is often 5 years post diagnosis. Perhaps, through the stories shared, more lives will be saved. That might sound like a big claim to make, but it’s possible. In fact, several prestigious medical schools now include Storytelling in their med program.
Story is an effective tool across all sectors: at the World Bank I’ve witnessed projects stalled in negotiations finally come to fruition and signed agreements with the seemingly simple addition of stories from real world impact of their project rather than the typical complex data dump or death by powerpoint.