- I'm going to react to another clip from Jordan Peterson.
Last year I reacted to a few minutes
of a college lecture that he did.
This time I'm looking at a story he tells
about zebras and lions on a Canadian show.
I've heard him tell other versions of this story,
but it's essentially the same approach each time,
and as I break this down, I'll explain
how Peterson uses subtle but powerful techniques.
One I'll call the magic wand that's used
by all great story tellers.
The educational value of this is that we get to hear
a seasoned communicator tell a story,
and I'll break down some of the finer points
so that we can learn how to tell stories better ourselves.
If you'd like to, download the free PDF
of my seven instant tips to become
a more confident public speaker.
I will put a link to that in the description below.
The entire Peterson clip is less than three minutes,
so we'll watch the whole clip together,
and then I'll break it down.
And at the end, you can tell me what I missed.
- Then I came across this story by Robert Sapolsky,
I think it was Robert Sapolsky,
and he was talking about zebras.
So I'll take two minutes and tell you the zebra story
because if you understand this story,
you understand absolutely everything about human beings,
and so it's worth two minutes.
So, you know, zebras hypothetically are camouflaged, right?
That's what everyone says, but come on, really?
Lions are camouflaged.
They're the same color as the grass.
Zebras are black and white.
You can see one of those things a mile away.
But there isn't a zebra, there's a herd of zebras.
So the zebra's actually camouflaged against the herd.
Now, that's something to think about.
So the stripes of zebras are the zebra's jargon.
That's a good way of thinking about it.
- [Interviewer] Ooh.
- Yeah, no kidding, no kidding.
So anyway, I'll just go out and study zebras.
He's a zebra biologist.
They've got to watch a zebra to figure out what it's up to,
so they watch a zebra, and then they make a note,
and then they look up and they think, oh my god,
which collection of black and white stripes was that zebra,
because the stripes don't outline the zebra,
and they camouflage the zebra perfectly against the herd.
So if you look away from the zebra down and back up,
you don't know what you're looking at.
So these biologists think, okay,
we better solve this problem.
So they drive up to the herd with a jeep,
and a bucket of red paint, and a stick with a rag
on the end of it, and they paint one of the zebra's haunches
with a red spot, or they clip its ear
like you do with cattle.
Then you can keep track of the zebra.
Guess what happens to the zebra?
The lions eat it.
- [Interviewer] Oh.
- Right, oh is right, bloody right.
Oh, yeah.
The lions cannot hunt a single zebra down
unless they can identify it,
because they organize their hunt,
they have to organize their hunt
around an identifiable zebra.
- You can't hunt four zebras,
you can only hunt one at a time.
- That's right, you can't hunt a blur of zebras.
So the reason they go after the little ones
or the ones that limp isn't because
they're part of kind nature and just culling the weak.
They like a nice, healthy, delicious, juicy zebra
as much as the next person, you know.
But they have to be able to identify.
So the thing is is you make yourself colorful.
You stand out.
The lions will kill you.
- [Interviewer] Aha.
- Right.
Well, Canadians, we don't like to stand out.
We like everybody to do okay, but we don't like it
very much when people stand out.
I mean, I'm not being entirely critical of that.
I really do understand it.
- Because there's lions out there, you guys.
- There are, that's right.
There definitely are, and if you stick your neck out,
then the lions will come, or the sword,
because that's a common saying, right?
The head that sticks up above the rest
is the first to be cut off by the sword.
Many, many cultures have a saying like that.
The poppy that grows higher than the rest.
- The tall poppy syndrome.
- Exactly, exactly.
- That's a powerful story.
Let's look at five reasons why his approach works so well.
If he skipped any of these five elements,
the story just wouldn't have the same level of impact.
And then I'll talk about that big picture magic wand he uses
to make the story extra special,
so be sure to stick around till the end for that.
First, I love the way he starts.
It's a story within his own story.
He explains learning about this research
as an experience that he had.
- I came across this story by Robert Sapolsky,
I think it was Robert Sapolsky,
and he was talking about zebras.
- He doesn't just cite some research about zebras,
he tells us about his own educational journey through it,
and he brings us along with him.
That helps us as listeners get into story mode
much more quickly.
Second, he signals up front that this zebra story
is really a way to understand people.
A good communicator tells stories to help make their point.
He's not simply trying to entertain listeners,
he wants to inform us.
He even turns and faces his listeners
and says his point directly.
- If you understand this story,
you understand absolutely everything about human beings.
- He doesn't give away yet exactly how zebras
and people are alike at the beginning, but he's giving us
a heads up about what to pay attention to.
Third, he brings the story to life
by telling it from the researcher's point of view.
He knows his story is more likely to have an impact
if he says it in a colorful way.
So he does a bit of acting.
He pretends he's a zebra researcher who just lost track.
- They watch a zebra, and then they make a note,
and then they look up and they think, oh my god,
which collection of black and white stripes was that zebra?
- He pretends to visually take notes
and paint the zebra's backside and tag its ear.
He is telling the story almost as if
he's on the inside of it, like he's one of the researchers.
And that brings us, as listeners, inside of it with him.
That's much more engaging than talking about
the same research as if he were an outside observer.
That would have kept us as listeners on the outside as well.
Fourth, he shares the key conclusion of the study.
Lions don't select a specific zebra to hunt
because it's injured or the youngest.
Lions select a zebra because it stands out the most.
He lets that sink in for a moment.
He then brings the analogy full circle.
Great story tellers land on what we call
the moral to the story, the bigger lesson learned.
Most inexperienced story tellers
don't do this very well, but he does.
He says, well Canadians, we don't like to stand out.
We like everybody to do okay.
- But we don't like it very much when people stand out.
- The moral to this story is that if you stand out,
society will come after you.
He reinforces the point by mentioning other similar sayings
like the head that sticks up above the rest
is the first to be cut off by the sword.
That builds a package for the story.
It's like a sandwich.
Almost all great story tellers do this.
They design their stories this way.
He signals up front that this story will compare
zebras and lions with people, and he tells the story,
and then at the end he explains the connection
between zebras and lions and people in more detail
so we as his listeners don't miss the point.
All five of those elements accumulate
to make this a powerful story.
If he had missed any of those five,
this moment would have been good, but not necessarily great.
But big picture, here is why I think this story
is not just an A, but an A plus.
He is not just combining a story and an analogy.
He's using what I call a little magic wand.
He's enlisting fairly exotic animals in his story.
So how does this function as a magic wand?
When a magician says some magic words, snaps his fingers
or waves an actual wand, it's a mechanism
that allows the audience to suspend our disbelief.
It engages our imagination and it helps us go along with it.
In a story, the source of magic can be anything.
The power can come from infinity stones
or a magic ring or a special time traveling phone booth,
or in this case, Peterson's magic wand is zebras and lions.
In stories, we often associate exotic animals
with something mysterious or magical.
Animals engage our imagination and emotions
in ways that stories about regular people do not.
Animals transport us more easily into the story.
So as soon as Peterson says I came across
a story about zebras, as listeners we can feel
the magic wand working on us.
We are already leaning forward and saying to ourselves,
zebras, I want to hear all about this.
We suspend our disbelief, we lower our defenses,
and it makes us curious, softens us up
and allows us to listen without feeling attacked.
It takes, then, almost no extra effort at the end
to get us to accept that zebra and lion behavior
are also true, perhaps, for human behavior.
Now, don't forget, he's talking about us,
or at least Canadians who are in the audience.
He's saying that we don't like it
when people rise up too high.
We like to take them out, and we shouldn't be that way.
So it could feel bad to hear it
come straight at us like this.
I don't know about you, but I didn't feel defensive at all
because he was talking mostly about zebras,
so we hang in there, and at the end,
maybe even chuckle at ourselves a little bit.
Stories and analogies are powerful in their own right,
but including exotic animals really opens us up
almost magically to listen and accept his point.
By the way, for fans of Peterson,
you'll notice a couple of other items.
One is that even though this clip is several years old,
this is really what happened to him.
He did this interview before he got really popular,
so he stood up then a little too high
and distinguished himself, and as a result,
society has attempted to take him out.
Another thing you'll notice is that he uses animals
in other stories, most famously his analogy
comparing lobsters to people in his book.
It's also important to know the Peterson uses
lots of different communication strategies.
He cites research and historical information
when he's giving presentations, and in his books
he gives personal examples, stories and analogies
like this one.
We're just looking at one specific instance here,
but he's a very well-rounded communicator,
and we can learn a lot from him.
Be sure to download that free PDF I mentioned
with the seven instant tips to become
a more confident public speaker.
I'll put links to that in the description below.
Question for you.
What did I miss, and what are your thoughts
about this story, analogies, and that concept
of the magic wand of story telling?
And who else should I react to?
I look forward to reading your comments
in that section below.