Candid interview in NZZ with the Head of Swiss Intelligence, Christian Dussey. A brilliant man, Ambassador Dussey kindly hosted me as a Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy and as the Centre’s first Novelist-in-Residence. Also, he’s a great storyteller from whom I learned a lot…

Allow me to reminisce and reflect on the ambassador’s storytelling, which has lessons for every leader, such as how to bring your points to life.

Guess! A Story Hook

At the GCSP, Ambassador Dussey would often open courses with an old photo that depicts a bedraggled group of people in a poor mountain village.

He asks participants where they think this is.

Frankly, it could be in any one of the poor disadvantaged regions on this earth…

Dussey then points to the lady in the middle and says, “This is my grandmother. I grew up in this village, and I was the first person in my family to graduate from high school.”

He goes on to make his point: “Change in Switzerland happened within one generation. It’s possible. But it requires investing in education.”

A quiz like this is a good move for information retention: According to neuroscientist Judy Willis, “every prediction you make triggers an increase in attention and dopamine.” Dopamine increases pattern recognition.

Storytelling brings your point to life

The ambassador’s introduction serves several purposes.

First, knowing Dussey’s humble roots humanises the centre’s leader. It particularly helps to connect with other people from rural or underdeveloped backgrounds. The story emphasises the importance of investing in education, reassuring participants (and donors) they have made a good decision to come here.

It is a hopeful story. It tells us something about the speaker: he is an optimistic person. Giving people hope is always a gift, and we feel better disposed toward the giver. This further reinforces the empathy we already feel from knowing his background and one of his personality traits.

Finally, the story communicates more about the GCSP’s vision and values than any of their formal statements.

Stories are more efficient and effective

The snapshot story, told in under a minute, makes several points about the leader and the institution he leads, and it makes them all more effectively than any resume or policy statement. This is how the best leaders communicate. And because stories naturally draw us in, most of the time we don’t even spot the secret weapon in action. We simply put it down to their being ‘good communicators’.

Stories are more efficient and more effective than abstract information.

They bring your point to life.

Think of your most important objective. What abstract point do you need to bring to life to ensure attention and buy-in? Let me know!

Learn how to use simple stories to achieve complex goals in my book, Business Storytelling from Hype to Hack.