Storytelling and Science

 As a marketing company, we knew Storytelling is important. Good piece, intro below.    See also 'How to Tell a Story' which I am currently reading, by Meg Bowles et al.   Publication of' 'The Moth ' a storytelling consortium.  Worth a close look, and thinking about how it can be linked to science and tech applications. 

Storytelling and Science  By Titus Barik, Sumit Gulwani, Mario Juarez

Communications of the ACM, October 2022, Vol. 65 No. 10, Pages 27-30  10.1145/3526100

In the spirit of this Viewpoint, we begin with a story. One of the authors—Sumit Gulwani—struggled to teach his preschool-aged son—Sumay—a simple conceptual math theorem: Odd plus odd equals even. When diagrams and toys did not work, Sumit realized he had to meet Sumay where he was and not push to a level he was not ready for.a So, he told a story. An odd number, he began, is like a group of kids who are all paired up, except one. That person is "the lonely kid." And he is happy when they meet another odd number because he gets a friend: the other lonely kid. Now, there are no lonely kids, and that makes them an even number. The look on Sumay's face told Sumit that the concept had landed immediately. "What is odd plus even?" Sumit asked. In a sad voice, Sumay answered, "Odd, because there is no one to pair up with the lonely kid." "What is even plus even?" Sumay asked. "Even, because there is no lonely kid to begin with!" Sumit realized his son would best comprehend the abstract theorem when it was couched in a relatable narrative—in this case, one that resonated with a young child's preoccupation with socialization, friendship, and inclusion. As well, this experience happily turned out to be the seed for Sumay's love for mathematics and computing.

Sumit's experience with Sumay shows how even young children use stories to understand, interpret, and construct meaning about the world around them—and earlier evidence suggests stories are in fact fundamental to human cognitive processing.10 Sadly, as professionals we overwhelmingly dismiss the importance of storytelling in our day-to-day work, relegating our professional discomfort of "telling stories" to something that is only for children.

Our organization, the Microsoft Developer Division (DevDiv), has undertaken a bold initiative to make storytelling a "professional competency" and incorporate the science of storytelling intentionally into our culture and operations.4 By doing so, we have amplified our impact across the organization through increasing empathy with our customers, generating clarity with our partners, and building diverse teams.7 Our transformative experiences within this emerging storytelling culture have inspired us to share these stories with you, stories that have deeply connected us—not just as professional researchers and engineers—but at a human level.

The Science Behind Storytelling

During the past decade, the conventional view of storytelling in technical and professional circles has evolved from a "soft skill" to a must-have competency, as the need to influence people has become more important in a world of information overload and remote connections. In organizations, research has found storytelling can act as a springboard to ignite unified action.3 High-tech corporations have used stories as a medium for sharing culture, to "identify heroes and villains, attitudes and values, beliefs, and practices of the organization."6 And in software engineering, crafting stories together with stakeholders builds a common vision of a system—"a good story is much more powerful than any UML diagram can ever be."  ....