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George Schultz, who faithfully and capably served the United States government for dozens of years, recently turned 100. To commemorate this milestone, he penned a remarkable essay for The Washington Post, The 10 most important things I’ve learned about trust over my 100 years.”
Given that The Post has one of those pesky paywalls, I am inserting the relevant paragraph in this blog post. Please take a moment and read it.
“One day, as secretary of state in the Reagan administration, I brought a draft foreign policy speech to the Oval Office for Reagan to review. He read the speech and said, “That’s fine,” but then began marking it up. In the margin on one page, he wrote “story.” I asked what he meant. “That’s the most important point,” he said. Adding a relevant story will “engage your readers. That way, you’ll appeal not only to their minds but to their emotions.” Telling a story, he made me understand, helps make your case in a way that no abstraction can: A story builds an emotional bond, and emotional bonds build trust.”
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