Knowing how to tell a story can make a difference when passing, or not, a certain message. It doesn’t mean I do it all the time. Usually I end up wrapping things up in the typical bullet format to maximize efforts. At school I had the habit of saving in writing. I was short and direct, but that wasn’t what teachers expected of me and it reflected on my grades. So, I started breaking down the answers in 3 parts: beginning, middle and giving the answer only at the end.

When squeezing it right, the juice is the same, even though it’s in a different packaging. It struck me and I realized that not everything comes down to what you already know, there’s a lot in the way you present it.

Recently, in one of our training sessions on how to speak in public I heard something similar when discussing how to create good presentations: “Say what you’ll say, Say it, Say what you said.”

When telling a story, we are adding a little bit of us and ingredients which will amplify the attention of our audience. A story has a structure, a timeline, a beginning, a middle and an end.

With the right sequence of events, enriched with our experiences and emotions we are able to capture our audience and empower the ones who listen to also own our story. And a story well shared, stays forever.

People say it is better to be embarrassed than to regret not doing something - I believe that my “horror movie scenario” would be to feel ashamed in front of a wide audience for example, at a Celfocus management presentation.

‍

This is a great exercise, considering it’s something I’ve never had to do – make up stories and have a project delay. Considering my lack of experience, I wouldn’t make up a story, but I would call on references – reality always overcomes fiction. And there are great examples of that, like the endless seasons of Prison Break. It’s just silly... But lack of memory is what helps most people get out of sticky situations – I would probably use that.

A good story doesn’t always need a villain. The hero or the main character is always around, but there are great stories without a villain or a bad guy. Pixar brought this idea into their animation films.

But in reality, having a hero or a villain always comes in handy. Because we have two teams in play and we end up rooting for one of them, just like a game.

We’re usually rooting for the good guys but there are exceptions, in this case there may be a lot of exceptions. Sometimes the villain is so cool that we end up liking him/her more than the hero, even though we’ll root for the hero’s team, Star Wars is an example of that.

Deep down we all like the heroes and most of us like the villains. They are the two ingredients that make a story fascinating.

Trainspotting because…

And because...

Maybe this isn’t the best example, but I really liked the film.

Portuguese people like learning new languages and when we have trouble communicating with someone who doesn’t speak our language we try sign language, drawings or we just speak louder and the louder we speak the better they’ll understand us.

Ever since I finished college I have ventured into learning new languages.

A few years ago, I signed up for Spanish classes. It was good to learn the basics and learn a few false-friends (words used both in Portugal and Spain but with different meaning – Espantosa for example), but after a few months I stopped going.

So then, I decided to freshen up my French by reading a few things. It was good to look back on what I learned in high school and realize that I learned a lot more French in 3 years than in the 7 years of English.

More recently I started becoming curious about German. It’s a language that fascinates me, it’s hard, it’s rough, it’s almost offensive to the ear as if they’re always angry. But I like listening to it and saying the few sentences I know.

I started by signing up in a course that uses a methodology that is based on learning new language from one you already know – Michel Thomas method. I later tried audio lessons on YouTube, which I still do sometimes, and I started feeling more comfortable in very basic conversations like asking for a dish or a beer in restaurants – not yet comfortable answering if someone asks if I want my steak rare, or well done.

After some time, I had learned a few things and that coincided with a Design Thinking Conference in Berlin at the Hasso Plattner Institute. After the conferences, we always went for a drink, and on the last day there were a lot of drinks, which I drank with pleasure and dedication. After a pretty considerable number of mojitos and German beer, my German improved!

After a while, already hungry, we decided to stop at a hot dog truck and with no fear and feeling adventurous in my German I said, “Ein Bratwurst und das brad!”.

The waitress laughed, a lot, the people with me were amazed at my German. – I had made my first order in German and was victorious. I got a hot dog just like I asked – Hot dog on a bun. I later discovered that thankfully I didn’t get what I asked for – literally translating – I had asked from a hot dog and a nail… In Portugal that would’ve made sense but for Germans I sounded like someone who just had a long night.

I’m still trying to learn German, yes… “Trying to learn”. Some days I feel like I learned something, other days I’m smarter than that. I have daily lessons on duolingo, where I feel like I’m learning new words but no conversation. More recently, I signed up for a German course here at Celfocus. I’ve passed the initial test and answered like I were in high school, direct, short and many times wrong.