This morning Shawn Callahan of Anecdote and I hosted the third of four sessions of the Storytelling for Leaders programme. In this case it’s a public workshop, open to anyone who’s interested.

 

One of the participants asked how long a story should be. It’s a good question and we get it a lot. The short answer is: just as long as it takes to make your business point. Usually this is between 60 and 180 seconds.

 

This is a rule of thumb. The long answer is that it varies wildly. It depends on many things, such as the situation, the point you want to make, the effect you want to have, the amount of time the meeting is supposed to last, whether you already have rapport with your audience or not.

 

Shawn mentioned Brené Brown, a master storyteller. In her Netflix documentary A Call to Courage, she tells 46 stories in 78 minutes. That is one story every 99 seconds. Her longest story is seven minutes; her shortest seven seconds:

 

It was so funny. I’m backstage, they’re like, “Can we take your purse?” I’m like, “No.” It’s like totally a Texas thing, where I always have my purse and an exit plan.

 

This reveals something about her and with these few words she connects with her audience.

 

Shawn has a lot more to say about her and her storytelling in a blogpost.

 

Watch A Call to Courage if you can and experience the power of story.