Change takes magic, guidance

Stories have problems. Stories also require change.

When a story’s characters (especially the hero) tackle and solve a massive problem, they change their circumstances and themselves. That’s a huge part of why we love stories.

In the classic story formula, change is created by three forces:

Magical elements. Guillermo del Toro says, "We create monsters and myths so that we can speak about the things we cannot speak about. They are the way we encode the truth." The ring, the force, the sword in the stone - these are all magical elements that heroes deploy to face incredible problems.

Guidance. Gandalf, Obi-wan Kenobi, Merlin, Krishna in conversation with Arjuna, these guides give advice without giving specific instructions. When Yoda says to Luke, "Mind what you have learned. Save you it can,” he’s reminding Luke that he already knows a lot but doesn’t tell him exactly which lessons to use when. Krishna does not tell Arjuna whether to go into battle.

Heroism. Heroes become heroes because they have the courage and discernment to take a leap of faith and act. When Luke decides to ditch his guidance system to fire his proton torpedoes into the exhaust shaft on the Death Star, he’s saying to himself, “Oh here’s how I should follow Obi-wan’s non-specific advice to use the force.” What makes him a hero is that he DOES it and it WORKS.

I live in the tech world, where stories look like this:

Your fantastic software (and maybe even hardware) is the magical element.

You and your team are the guides who coach your customers to become power users of your solution.

Your customers are the heroes who test your solution and then get it deployed through the whole organization, helping their companies grow!

When we tell a proper story about why what we do helps people become heroes, they listen!