Yesterday, we noted that when we tell a story, we can help people listening connect from the left brain to the right, we can summon them to invest in the story, and that the listeners can even find multiple meanings and lessons in the story. Today, allow me to pass along an old and fascinating story to illustrate these points (see reference below.)
A mother once brought her son to Mahatma Gandhi and said, “Sir, please tell my son to stop eating sugar.”
Gandhi looked at the boy for a long time and then, turning towards mother, said, “Bring your son back to me in two weeks.”
The mother did not understand the rationale of the delay in instruction, but she did as she was asked. Two weeks later she and her son returned. Gandhi looked deeply into the boy’s eyes and said, “Stop eating sugar.”
The mother was grateful but puzzled. She asked, “Why didn’t you tell my son to stop eating sugar two weeks ago when we were here?” And Gandhi replied, “Two weeks ago, I was eating sugar myself!”
See: Jerry Biberman, Satinder Kumar Dhiman, and Joan Marques, “Teaching the un-teachable: storytelling and meditation in workplace spirituality courses,” Journal of Management Development 33, no. 3 (2014): 196-217.