10 years ago, a personal or professional development plan for leaders would often include “developing Executive Presence”: these days it’s story-telling.
If Executive Presence was about radiating the confidence to own a seat at the table, story-telling is sought as a method for bending the table towards our own way of thinking
Whether for winning hearts and minds or humble-bragging on social media, in an age where “influencing” has become professionalised, leaders are expected to be able to spin a good yarn. If we recognise stories as a form of magic that has the power to shape lives and create new worlds....how do we use that power for good?
And…action
I learnt about story structures the way a commis-chef learns about putting together menus. As a young media lawyer I assisted an exuberant lawyer/producer who created the original ‘kickstarter’ financing model for films like’ Kenneth Branagh’s “Henry V”.
Mid morning he would bound into the office, loudly patterned waistcoat endangered by a dripping cheese toasty from the local cafe. Our colourful clients were mainly owls not larks and were rarely spotted before late afternoon.
I learnt so much from Chris Parkinson. That our relationships with clients mattered to them more than legal skills. That laughing a lot and having an emergency stash of chocolate and pre-mixed gin and tonic in my desk were necessities for dealing with ‘creatives’. But I also learnt about the power of story structures or formats. It influenced the next decade of my career in TV producing formats such as “Idol” around Asia.
Our office was littered with unsolicited scripts and treatments. As a particular script purgatory pile started to teeter, it was my job to filter them. I must have read one or two a week at a time when home video was peaking. Action films meant for big screens were no longer the only game in town. Film makers were finding long tail audiences with re-watchable rom-coms or high-concept films that might hook audiences in the sea of movies at Blockbusters : - ’He lives the same day, over and over!’ , ‘His whole life is a TV show!’
“Sliding Doors” was a high concept, rom-com in that London script pile. Fun fact: the original leading lady attached to the script at that time was Helena Bonham-Carter but then Gwyneth won an Oscar for “Shakespeare in Love”…
We don’t need another Hero
The alternate realities of Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow) as she catches or misses a tube train was a fabulously relatable Big Idea. The phrase ‘sliding door moments’ even became shorthand for those innocuous pivot points that Life can turn upon - in fact the writer had been inspired to write it because of one of his own.
Now, arguably the most popular and frequently taught story structure in the English speaking world is the Hero’s Journey structure. Act 1, we meet the Hero. Act 2, the Hero encounters roadblocks. Act 3, the Hero resolves them and earns a Hero’s return, reward and celebration.
This format is popular for many reasons. It pulls us along in a satisfying linear way: cause leads to effect, and then to conclusion. The singular viewpoint from which it is told is one we can inhabit from our armchairs. In a Hero’s Journey, we’re vicariously in the centre of action, just like the movie of our lives in our own heads. We identify with the Hero’s struggle and root for the win - even if the actions along the way are shady and the justifications flimsy.
By contrast, “Sliding Doors” is an Inner Development story. It focuses on the protagonist’s inner world rather than their actions. They struggle with self-doubt or shame or pride. And not the type of momentary struggles that Heroes have, solved by a few words from a mentor who magically appears at the right moment. Inner Development protagonists’ struggles keep them perpetually stuck where they are, and who they are, unable to answer a Hero’s ‘call to adventure’ (if they even hear it in the first place).
In the Hero’s Journey, the Hero saves the day and his quest is satisfied: The End. An Inner Development Story is circular and may remain unresolved.
But most crucially, in an Inner Development story, it takes a village, an ensemble cast of characters, to Save the Day. Inner Development story protagonists don’t just have momentary mentors or side-kicks: they have companions, And what happens between them is important. If the protagonist gets ‘unstuck’ in the course of an Inner Development Story, it’s usually due to the care of others in facing Difficult Truths. In other words, it’s sort of the reverse of the Hero’s Journey:
It’s not the protagonist’s action that leads to resolution and transformation, but their transformation through relationships that leads them to take right action.
Talking with others vs talking at them
Would “Sliding Doors” work as a story today? Do we still believe that little choices we make- get on the train, stay on the platform - can change the courses of our lives and those of others? Or would Helen and James be so engrossed in their own little screen worlds that it wouldn’t matter either way?
In the 90’s, technology was going to kill us (Y2K) or save us(Dotcom boom)….. but we didn’t predict just how it was going to fragment us. In 1998 we had “Sliding Doors”. In 2009 “It’s Complicated”. And by 2022 , “Everything, Everywhere All At Once”.
Have you noticed how in classic Action movies, the Hero is often in his own little world, talking to himself? And he monologues, like, a lot (looking at you, "Die Hard" Bruce Willis).Yet, classic fables are so often about two characters: The Hare and the Tortoise, The Ant and the Grasshopper, The Lion and the Mouse. Fables have lessons to teach about how to live well and the characters show different ways of looking at things: they each have an important part to play in getting to the moral truth at the heart of the story.
What if leaders learned to be confluencers rather than influencers?
In a world where nothing seems to make sense, and everything is splintered, is learning how to dialogue and be in deeper conversations more needed than the performative monologuing we’ve come to expect on Social Media?
Maybe in our time, the stories we most need to hear - and tell - aren't the journeys of individualistic Heroes, but collective stories which celebrate how each of us can play our parts.
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