Story Types

“Over the years I have become convinced that we learn best—and change—from hearing stories that strike a chord within us… Those in leadership positions who fail to grasp or use the power of stories risk failure for their companies and for themselves.” -John Kotter

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Lots of people have categorized stories into different types but the system that I like the best uses six different story types:

1-Rags to Riches- This is the story where the character starts at the bottom and ends at the top.

2-Riches to Rags- This is the story where the character starts at the top and ends at the bottom.

3-Man in a Hole- The character starts in a good place, then something bad happens leaving the character in a bad place, and finally, the character triumphs and ends in a good place.

4-Icarus- The character starts in a bad place, rises to great heights, and then falls to the bottom again at the end.

5-Cinderella- The character starts at the bottom, something good happens to raise them up, then something bad happens and they fall back down, then something good happens at the end to bring them back up again.
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6-Oedipus- The character starts at the top, something bad happens and they fall down, then something good happens and they rise back up, and then something bad happens and they fall back down at the end.

Depending on what point you are trying to make you can decide which style of story you should use.

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Leadership Lesson

As a leader an effective tool that you should use to help people learn, grow, and understand is storytelling. People have been telling stories for longer than they have been doing business and it is a very effective way to teach and share. I recommend learning how to tell stories and to use them to communicate better. You don't have to tell long stories to be effective either, short stories told well can be very powerful.