What
is it about stories that captivate us?
One of my favorite books is Shadow Spinner by Susan Fletcher. Her use of story within story
captivated me. I didn’t understand why until recently.
One of my school requirements for a class this semester
is to read the book The Conviction to
Lead by Albert Mohler. I wasn’t particularly excited about this. I mean,
come on, who wants to read a boring old leadership book?
But as I read, I’m finding it’s actually pretty
interesting and even enlightening. For example, chapter 4: Leadership Is
Narrative.
Stories
teach us who we are.
Mohler explains that the story of an organization or
movement describes the reason for its existence. He says, “The excellent leader
knows how to lead out of the power of the narrative that frames the identity
and mission of the people he will lead. That story frames the mission…of the
organization, and explains why you give your life to it.” He goes through how
our (Americans’) understanding of what it means to be American is shaped by
things such as the Revolutionary War, the Louisiana Purchase, the Civil War,
and many other events. How do we learn these events? Through stories.
Stories are vital to understanding our history, which is
vital to knowing who we are. Takeaway: a good leader knows how to use stories
to captivate and motivate his followers.
But
is that all stories are good for?
After all, I’ve mentioned that one of my favorite books
is Shadow Spinner, a fictional story
about the background events of the fictional story, One Thousand and One Nights (often known in English as The Arabian Nights). It is therefore
multiple layers of fiction – a story within a story. If stories teach us who we
are because it teaches us from whence we came, what is the point of works of
fiction.
It is here that we come to the fact that our
circumstances, while influential, are not all that make us who we are. If that
were the case, there would never be a boy with an abusive father who grew up to
love and care for his kids. It is what we do with our circumstances that makes
us who we are.
“When you’re telling a story, you can suggest things that
would get you in trouble if you were just stating your own opinion. And you can
suggest even more if you wrap one tale inside another. So if you’re telling a
tale about a merchant, and the merchant tells a tale about a barber, and the
barber tells a tale about a fisherman… Well, inside the fisherman’s tale you
can put the most provoking and mutinous truths. Because the tale is so far
removed from you.” – Shahrazad, Susan Fletcher’s Shadow Spinner
At the end of Shadow
Spinner (don’t worry, no plot spoilers), a girl uses a story as a means to
teach the sultan the truth about the events of the book. She is able to do it
because it is, “Just a story,” that mirrors the events of his life over the
last few years. Because of her story, he realizes many things about himself and
those around him.
That is what I saw in Shadow
Spinner – the power to speak truth to people. That is why stories are vital
to leaders. It doesn’t matter if you have all the “best and brightest” if they
don’t have truth. Especially for the Christian leader, the ability to speak
truth without pushing people away for being “too preachy” is very important.
That is the power of storytelling, and that is powerful leadership.
