A journalist walked up to a noted nutritionist and author who had just completed an informative talk on the risks of eating too many processed foods, citing specific facts about diabetes, hypertension and obesity. The journalist thrust a microphone at her during the reception afterwards and asked, "How do you think it went?"
"Fabulously," the speaker answered with a broad smile. "I think they got the message."
With that, the journalist pointed to the buffet table filled with desserts, surrounded by ravenous attendees fighting for the cookies and cake. "And what message is that?" he asked.
One of my childhood heroes on television was Sergeant Joe Frida, the hard-boiled detective who taught me the value of facts and fact-finding to solve problems, puzzles and crimes. Ironically, the show's appeal was not the endless list of facts accumulated in the investigation, but the story of the people involved. Who were they, what did they do, and why did I care?
The stories conveyed truth, even though they were pure entertainment, fiction.
Early in my career, I realized that if I was to be successful, I needed to be able to engage people on a one-to-one basis with little or no preparation. It wasn't a skill I had been taught in school. In fact, I was most comfortable when I was prepared, when I had the facts at my disposal to help prove my point, or support my argument. But with responsibility for a service department where clients could call at any time with a complaint or request, having all the facts was not possible or practical. I needed another tool at my disposal.
I would love to say that I became instantaneously enlightened, developing the confidence to enter a room and face a panel of inquisitors without a drop of perspiration on my brow, but the truth is, my training was by fire, and many times I got burned. Two things helped me in my learning experience. My mentors were two gentlemen I never met, Alex and Ralph.
By Alex, I mean Mr. Bell, the inventor of the telephone. (Ok, if we are going to check facts, one could argue that he just happened to patent his first, but it is not the man as much as his machine that helped me). As a supervisor of mail and messengers for a Long Island bank, my job put me in contact with personnel at the branches all day long. At first, I was a bit intimidated. I was a kid, and these were seasoned head tellers and assistant managers that I needed to persuade to cooperate with my schedule, not theirs. They weren't interested in facts like how much money would be saved by the bank if we could get 20% more tickets processed by 6 pm. Yawn!
No, the only way they were going to commit to making minor changes in their schedule was if they connected on a personal level with those involved. So, the conversation was much different. There was no stacking up supporting evidence on one side against the other. Instead, we talked about the people involved, the tellers and the messenger they loved.
"You know, Frank tells me that when he gets out on the road by 3:30, he can avoid the school buses that are all trying to turn onto Sunrise Highway."
"Oh? Well we can help him with that!"
My grandmother used to say that you can catch more flies with honey. I never understood why we wanted to catch flies in the first place, but you can see that I had missed the point. Hard facts are not compellin, while a single anecdote could be a headliner.
Last night, a friend told us of a harrowing experience he had recently involving an MRI exam. Apparently, his doctor forwarded an email from the radiologist rather than call him. What the email said was that the exam showed a mass that most likely was cancer. This news came late Friday of a long holiday weekend. My friend spoke to his doctor, who scheduled a CAT scan. In the end, all seems to be fine and there is no evidence of cancer, but in the process, we have one person who is convinced that he will never have another MRI exam.
So, having heard this story, I thought I would check the facts. In one article published in Radiology magazine in 2011, the false-positive rate among women in a breast cancer study was 10%. While that doesn't sound like a large percentage, and the article goes on to say that the percentage drops significantly in subsequent MR imaging scans, what do you believe?
With so much access to information in all forms, those who know how to convey meaningful truths in story form are more likely to make an impact. Do you want proof?
Which do you prefer? Facts or Anecdotes?
