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	Once Upon a Time... By Emmanuel Tchividjian

Before the advent of writing, society transmitted knowledge, history, literature medicine, and law across generations by word of mouth, which is a form of storytelling. The oral tradition preceded manuscripts, printings, and now electronic communications.

If it were not for stories, we would have no novels, movies, plays, or even biographies.

“Once upon a time” always catches our attention. We know something interesting may follow. We love stories; they constitute part of our emotional framework.

We remember stories we were told in early childhood. Most of us remember the fi rst book we read, and although we may not remember the story, we remember the feeling we had when we fi rst read it. My first book was a children’s edition of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist.

Stories are powerful because we remember them. We often do not remember a sermon or a speech, but we do remember stories or anecdotes that were told during the sermon or speech.

Psychological Impact of a Story

There is a strong demand for stories from the public. Paul Harvey, perhaps America’s most well-known storyteller, is the oldest syndicated radio personality in America. His series “The Rest of the Story” has been on the air for more that 30 years and is carried on 1,200 radio stations across the country. He tells of stories behind stories of famous events and people. Chicken Soup for the Soul by JackCanfi eld is a collection of inspiring, life-changing real stories from ordinary people doing extraordinary things. A seriesof more than 200 titles have been published since 1993, which have sold 112 million copies and have been translated in 40 languages.Clarissa Pinkola Estes, the American poet, psychoanalyst, and post-trauma specialist, wrote a beautiful little book called Th e Gift of Story: A Wise Tale about What Is Enough. She believes that “stories not only instruct, renew, and heal but provide vital nourishment to the psyche that cannot be obtained in any other way.”

Joseph Campbell, who taught comparative mythology at Sarah Lawrence College for almost 40 years, says, “When a story is in your mind, then you see its relevance to something happening in your own life. It gives you perspective on what is happening to you.” Stories and myths help us make sense of the world around us and give meaning to events in our lives. Hannah Arendt wrote, “Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defi ning it.”

Dreams can be considered stories we are told by our subconscious. Psychotherapists believe dreams give us insight into our own psyche. Sigmund Freud, in the preface to the second edition of his book Th e Interpretation of Dreams, says that dreams allow us to make “all manners of deductions” that lead us to a better understanding of who we are.

Peter Lavelle, who studied the psychology behind storytelling, through the work of Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, and filmmaker George Lucas, believes that stories are like little road maps that guide us into the unfamiliar. He writes that, “When we experience a story or a myth we are, in a sense, experiencing our own stories. Th e struggles and the challenges of the hero fi gure are also our own struggles and challenges that can require the very same heroic courage as the great fi gures from mythology demonstrate.”

Stories and Religion

Religion is passed down to the next generations by stories. All religions have sacred stories at their center.

There are many stories told in the Bible. In the Book of Samuel, we are told of King David’s adulterous aff air with Bathsheba. The prophet Nathan comes to see the king to condemn his action but fi rst begins by telling him a story. It is the story of a man who had only one sheep that he loved dearly but that was taken from him by another man who had many other sheep. The king was infuriated and declared, “That man deserves death.” That is when the prophet replied, “Thou art this man” and denounced the king’s action.

In the Gospels, Jesus spoke in more than 30 parable, such as the Prodigal Son, the Lost Sheep, and the Good Samaritan. Th e short allegoric stories taken from nature and contemporary social life were used to teach important lessons that are still relevant today. According to most Biblical scholars, the Gospels were written more than 30 years after Jesus’ death. His followers sustained his memory by sharing stories of his life and teachings. 

A Difficult Story to Tell

One story that is almost impossible to tell is that of Holocaust. The original meaning of the word “Holocaust” is “burnt off ering,” a sacrifi ce to God or a god. Th e Holocaust was not a sacrifi ce to God. Some have advocated the use of the word “Shoah” instead, which means “catastrophe” or “disaster.” Many believe that the story cannot truly be told because words alone cannot even come close to describing the unimaginable horror. Elie Wiesel, a survivor and well-known author, was once asked how this story could possibly be told. He replied with a metaphor. “Th e only way,” he said, “would be for the world’s greatest actor to stand on the world’s largest stage and…to remain silent!”

Jacques Lanzman tried to tell the story by interviewing survivors more than 20 years later, in a 9-hour documentary called “Shoah,” which aired on PBS. Once, a journalist, writing an article at the premier of the documentary, noticed a woman crying as she came out of the theater. He asked her why she was crying. Her reply was startling: “I had never heard the sound of children crying in a gas chamber.” However, there was no such sound in the movie, only the testimony of someone that had heard those children. By just listening to the story, the woman believed that she has actually heard the children cry.

Untrue Stories

Even if untrue, a story can have a strong and sometimes negative impact. During the fi rst Iraq War, at a congressional hearing a woman testifi ed that she had witnessed Iraqi soldiers removing babies from incubators in a hospital in Kuwait and throwing the infants in the desert. Th e story infuriated the American public and created greater support for the war. However, the story was untrue, and the supposed witness was in fact the daughter of one of the ruling Sheikh of Kuwait. Th e story was used as propaganda in favor of the war. 

Untold Stories

Untold stories, memories, and transmitted memories that are painful and that we therefore repress can also have signifi cant impact on human relationships. The International Center for Conciliation (ICfC) is an organization that creates and facilitates dialogue between communities that have a confl ictual historical past, such as the Armenians and Turks, the Israelis and Palestinians, and the Americans and Japanese. Hillel Levine, ICfC’s president, believes that stories of painful pasts that are told and shared can prevent future confl icts. “Th e ICfC enables each side’s members to appreciate the complexity of their own and their adversary’s pasts, to understand the process by which historical facts are selectively remembered, and to make space for points of mutual acknowledgment, empathy and eventually, the beginning of trust. Rather than an iron box from which a party to confl ict can never escape, a tragic past can be a source of strength, renewed identity and new relations.” 

Storytelling and Business

Th ere is a new interest among business leaders in the art of storytelling. As Robert McAfee Brown, the American theologian and political activist, once said: “Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.”

The use of narrative can achieve practical outcome with individuals, communities, and organizations. Robert McVee, the Fulbright Scholar and screenwriting lecturer, wrote in the Harvard Business Review: “A big part of a CEO’s job is to motivate people to reach certain goals. To do that, he or she must engage their emotions, and the key to their hearts is story.” Robert Dickman, co-author of Elements of Persuasion, says that every successful story has five basic elements:

1. The passion with which it is told.
2. A hero that leads us through the story and allows us to see it through his eyes.
3. An antagonist or obstacle that needs to be overcome.
4. A moment of awareness that allows the hero, and us, to prevail.
5. And the transformation that naturally results.

Storytelling and Public Relations

In Public Relations, we try to help our clients tell their story, their perspective, and understanding of a particular issue. Paul Greer, former journalist and now a PR professional and a featured speaker at the Bulldog Reporter Media Relations Summit, believes that storytelling is an essential tool for PR professionals. Robbie Vorhaus, the former CBS newsman, created his own PR fi rm based on the principle that Public Relations is a form of classic storytelling. He practices storytelling in the work he does for his clients. He believes that both storytelling and PR function as exposing a point of view (or a theme) that focuses on one person or thing and takes the audience through the trials and tribulation to arrive at some new point that has now changed. He says: “It does not matter if you are promoting a country, company, product, person or cause; if you tell the story with the same structure of all great stories, your message will be heard and acted on. In business whoever tells the best story wins.”

Telling our clients stories in a crisis situation can be challenging. Our first loyalty and obligation is to our client. We fi rst need the confi dence that our client is telling us the whole story.

However, if our client does not want us to reveal the whole truth to the media, we are not allowed to do so. According to a recent debate sponsored by PRWeek, more than half of the audience, composed of 260 public relations executives, did not believe that we have an obligation to tell the truth. Truth can be elusive, and sometimes it is diffi cult to know what is true and what is not. However, the consensus was that if we know that the news we are about to communicate is false, we should not communicate it.

Many years ago, one of our clients, the CEO of a large food company, had authorized the illegal payment of one million dollars to a dictator of a South American country. The dictator threatened to impose a prohibitive export tax unless he was paid. After many attempts to dissuade him, the CEO authorized the payment. He soon became very depressed by his decision until finally, one day, he committed suicide by jumping off the 38th floor of his office building. The board of the company contacted David Finn and asked him to tell the press that the CEO had fallen. David Finn refused because he knew it was not true.

Furthermore, no one would believe it because one just does not fall off the 38th fl oor of a building. Th e board then agreed that the press should be told that he had killed himself because he was depressed, which was true. However, David knew that the press would not stop there and would sooner or later investigate why he had committed suicide. David obtained permission from the CEO’s wife and the board to tell the whole story when or if a journalist called. A few weeks later, a journalist from The Wall Street Journal did call. David asked the journalist to come to our office, where he would tell him in exclusivity exactly what happened. The story was front-page news in the WSJ. In the story, the CEO was portrayed as having been a victim of extortion instead of just having paid a bribe.

We have an obligation to our clients or employers not to reveal to the press information they consider confi dential. However, we also have an obligation to the media and the public not to say anything we know is false. We have to make sure, at the very least, that what we tell the media is what we believe is true. The ideal solution, of course, is to be authorized by our clients to reveal the whole truth, because sooner of later, in most cases the truth comes out. 

Storytelling and Ethics

Stories played a role in our sense of right and wrong. Our parents often accompanied their admonitions with stories. We may have forgotten what it was that we should or shouldn’t do, but we do remember the stories that were told to illustrate the admonitions. For instance, we may not remember our parents telling us specifi cally that if we lied people may not believe it when we tell the truth, but we do remember the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf.

A story or stories can play an important role in the development of an ethics culture in a company. The story of how Ruder Finn decided to hire an outside ethics advisor and an ethics committee in the early 1950s’, during the McCarthy years, is told to all new employees. Th e stories of how Ruder Finn dealt with specifi c ethical issues with clients through the years by resigning some accounts helps new members of our staff understand the context and the history of ethics at the fi rm. It also sends the message that ethics is taken very seriously and is not just included in a mission statement that has no real impact on the day-to-day operations of the firm.

In the early 1960s’, Ruder Finn worked for the Greek government, more precisely for the Greek National Tourism Association. It was a large account and quite profitable. In 1963, three colonels overthrew the government and established a military dictatorship. Some people in the firm believed we could not work for such a government for ethical reasons. Others believed that we were just involved with tourism (sun, sand and beaches). David Finn decided to investigate and went to Greece to speak with one of the three Colonels. Before doing so, he visited some of his friends in Greece and was told horror stories. His friends were afraid to speak in public spaces because the government taped offi ces and phones. In private conversations, David heard of people being arrested without charge and that others had simply disappeared. David also noticed that the press was censured. He made up his mind to resign the account, much to the chagrin of the Colonel, who tried to dissuade him, unsuccessfully, by offering Ruder Finn more work and more money.

Let me tell you a story. It is the story of a friend who has passed away. His name was Father Edward Flannery. One day he took a walk down the street in his hometown of Providence, R.I., with a young Jewish woman soon to be married. It was around Christmas time. They passed by an illuminated cross and the young woman shivered. He asked her why. She felt she could trust him and said, “The cross scares me; it is like an evil presence.” He was stunned. How can the cross, which represented for many the symbol of love, forgiveness and redemption, provoke such a reaction of fear and have such an impact on the young woman? He decided to find out. Thus began a long journey of soul searching and historical investigation. He went to his superiors and found no satisfying answer. He discovered with horror the history of Christian Anti- Semitism. He found out about the stories of Jewish martyrs who died at the hands of clergy. None of those events were ever mentioned in all the catechism books he had read. He wrote a book in 1964 called The Anguish of the Jews: Twenty-Three Centuries of Anti-semitism which was the fi rst book ever written by a priest on the topic of Christian antisemitism. Th at year, Pope John XXIII composed a prayer shortly before his death and asked that it be read in all churches through out the world. The prayer reads:

“We realize that many, many centuries of blindness have dimmed our eyes, so that we no longer see the beauty of Thy Chose People and no longer recognize in their faces the feature of our firstborn brother. We realize that our brows are branded with the mark of Cain. Centuries long has Abel lain in blood and tears, because we had forgotten Thy love. Forgive us the curse, which we unjustly laid on the name of the Jews. Forgive us that with our curse we crucified Thee a second time.” 

Father Flannery later became the first spokesman of the Catholic Bishops of the United States on Catholic-Jewish relations. He spoke in hundreds of churches and synagogues and devoted his life to combating antisemitism in the Church and the defense of the State of Israel and Jews in the Diaspora against attacks on the local, national, and international levels.

What is your story?

We all have a story or stories to tell. We identify with the story we tell and, more importantly, with the message that the story conveys. We would not be who we are if it was not for the stories we were told or read. Stories we were told and stories we tell help us defi ne our beliefs, values, and attitudes. Stories we tell can have long-lasting infl uence on the lives of others. If you love a story you hear, tell it to someone else. Th is is also the best way not to forget it.