Topic: Paradigm Stories

Theme: Communication 

Author: Barry Sweet

Date: January 7, 2018

Video Production by Tim & Karen Morse. Morsephotography.com

There is this power in knowing about how to develop a Paradigm Story. A Paradigm Story, is a story that you can tell in one minute or less and have you're hearer have an “aha” experience on their side of the hearing fence.  Let me give you some examples of this…

If I have two prospective employees that I'm looking to hire… and one of them says “I'm resourceful”. And the other one says “Yeah, when the seatbelt broke in my truck, I'd slam it in my truck door so that it would work until I could afford enough money to get it fixed”. Which one of those two am I going to hire?  One of them says“I'm resourceful”. But the other one tells me a Paradigm Story, so that I say “Yeah… they are resourceful”. 

Another example of a Paradigm Story is that when my son Landon worked at Dynamic Aviation, he went to dinner with the other interns at the CEO's house and the CEO sat them all down at this big table and said “Let me tell you a story about Jeff Williamson… Jeff Williamson was our best airplane washer. He would wash airplanes until they sparkled. And as a high school kid he never complained once. Today when we need someone to fly to Africa… We call Jeff Williamson. When we need someone to fly to Asia… We called Jeff Williamson. Jeff Williamson was our best airplane washer that we've ever had at Dynamic Aviation” And Landon said “In one minute or less, he understood the importance and value of hard work”. That's another example of a paradigm story. 

Here's a third one just to lock it in. The nine-year-old girl had knee surgery and the surgeon said to her parents “Make sure she goes to physical therapy because if she doesn't, she's going to have a lifetime of knee problems”. 

Her parents took her to her first session at physical therapy and the physical therapist worked her so hard, that it made her cry. And the parents didn't like their little daughter crying and they never took her back to P.T. again. And that little girl had a lifetime of knee problems.  A Paradigm Story, you don't need to tell the moral, because the moral kicks you in the teeth. To tell the moral is almost degrading.

The point of a paradigm story is to communicate quickly and comprehensively so that your hearer can have an “aha” experience on their side of the hearing fence. This is one of the most effective things you can learn for interviews or in a busy, fast-paced world…. it's effective just to be able to pare your stories down to something quick that people can say “Wow. Yeah. Got it.”