A Good Story Helps Propel Supreme Court Nominee Sotomayor

There are many people in the communication field that have talked about the importance of telling a compelling story when giving a speech. Duarte Design, Bert Decker, Garr Reynolds, Guy Kawasaki, and Dr. Simon Raybould of Presentation Skills have all talked about the importance of telling a good story when giving a presentation or a speech.

Beyond that, if you had any doubts as to the importance of having a good story, then all of us were given a great example with President Barack Obama's nomination of Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Right away there were various newspaper accounts discussing her story and not her judicial record. A New York Times article summed it up well by starting a major article on Sotomayor with the following:

She was “a child with dreams,” as she once said, the little girl who learned at 8 that she had diabetes, who lost her father when she was 9, who devoured Nancy Drew books and spent Saturday nights playing bingo, marking the cards with chickpeas, in the squat red brick housing projects of the East Bronx. She was the history major and Puerto Rican student activist at Princeton who spent her first year at that bastion of the Ivy League “too intimidated to ask questions.” She was the tough-minded New York City prosecutor, and later the corporate lawyer with the dazzling international clients. She was the federal judge who “saved baseball” by siding with the players’ union during a strike. Now Sonia Sotomayor — a self-described “Nuyorican” whose mother, a nurse, and father, a factory worker, left Puerto Rico during World War II — is President Obama’s choice for the Supreme Court, with a chance to make history as only the third woman and first Hispanic to sit on the highest court in the land. Her up-by-the-bootstraps tale, an only-in-America story that in many ways mirrors Mr. Obama’s own, is one reason for her selection, and it is the animating characteristic of her approach to both life and the law.

Notice how there wasn't anything that dealt with her decisions on certain cases or her stance on certain issues. This was not a coincidence. The Obama administration is using a good story to help them ensure that their candidate gets through the senate confirmation hearings and placed on the Supreme Court.

Don't get me wrong - I am not claiming that Sonia Sotomayor is not qualified for the position or that the Obama administration is trying to fool anyone. I have not researched her qualifications nor have I delved into the debate about if she should be appointed to the Supreme Court or not. My point is simply this: the Obama administration is doing what all great speakers and presenters do. They are using a compelling story to get people on their side. 

In the same way, this can help your speeches and presentations. Knowing how to tell a good story gets people interested in what you have to say. Regardless if you agree with Obama's choice or disagree with it - you should recognize how effective their story is.

Travis