Peter Guber on the persuasive power of great storytelling

"The ability to move people emotionally is also the power to move them transactionally," says Peter Guber, veteran film producer and long-time TFT professor and Executive Board Member."

In high demand nationally as an entertaining and inspiring motivational speaker, in addition to his work as an educator and as the CEO of the company he created, Mandalay Entertainment Group, Guber has distilled the hard won lessons of a lifetime into those popular talks and now into an engaging new book, "Talk to Win: Connect, Persuade and Triumph with the Hidden Power of Story."

The aim,” he says, “is to empower the reader to tell emotionally resonant stories, in order to persuade, motivate, excite and incite others to your goal for success. Most importantly, how it provides the impetus for them to viral market your concept or product for you, because a good story is something people can’t wait to pass on. I’ve designed this book to be exciting and inspiring to read and also to deliver tools and takeaways that readers can use today to change their tomorrow.”

Teri Schwartz, dean of the School calls the book “a ‘page turner’ – certainly as entertaining and galvanizing as Peter's talk at our 2010 Commencement, and totally grounded in the captivating concepts he presented that day.”

Guber began his on-going exploration of the power storytelling at TFT in 2008, Guber taught a popular workshop course at TFT called "Navigating a Narrative World," which studied the different types of narratives that permeate our work and everyday lives. Participants learned how to find and create their own narratives. Many of the same concerns later informed his 2010 commencement address and the writing of "Tell to Win."

The wide variety of situations in which the power of narrative can be decisive is a cornerstone of Guber's message. "Whether you’re a manager, housewife, entrepreneur, lawyer or non-profit," he recently told "The Huffington Post," "you often must get someone or a group of people to do something – buy your product, adapt to your organization’s culture, invest in your vision, donate to your cause, meet a curfew – and embedding the call to action by telling purposeful stories, preferably in the room, face-to-face, is the most effective means of achieving that goal.”

To illustrate his claims about applying the power of purposeful storytelling to a wide variety of life-situations, Guber includes the testimony of a diverse array of “voices” – master storytellers with whom he has shared turning-point life experiences.

“As you can imagine,” Dean Schwartz says, “Peter's amazing professional experiences have played a big role in the development of his theory of ‘tell to win,’ which he has successfully tested both in the classroom and in the boardroom. The stories and the people Peter chooses to highlight in his book dynamically bring to life his wonderful ideas and insights.”

Highlighted individuals include former President Bill Clinton, record breaking NBA coach Pat Riley and NBA star Magic Johnson, former South African president Nelson Mandela, film directors Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton and Curtis Hanson, actors Tom Cruise and Sidney Poitier, world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, restaurateur Wolfgang Puck, novelist Alice Walker, rock legend Gene Simmons and physician and author Deepak Chopra.

Another key message is that often untapped persuasive power of narrative is available to all of us, even to people who do not see themselves as "natural storytellers."

"Everyone is a natural teller of stories," Guber has said. "The ability to tell purposeful stories for success isn’t a gift from me to you. It isn’t a special talent bestowed upon a select few. It’s hard wired in all of us."

Guber ranks storytelling as one of the core atributes of human nature, as ubiquitous across all cultures as language itself:

"The telling of stories was critical to the survival of our species. In order to compete and triumph against far more ferocious predators we had to develop rules, beliefs, values and strategies. This meant the development of the ability to communicate, remember, and act upon the information embedded in stories told around the campfire. This social cohesion allowed us to move from the bottom of the food chain to the top – from prey to predator."

"Tell to Win" will be released on March 1 by Crown Business.

Peter Guber has served as Studio Chief at Columbia Pictures; Co-Chairman of Casablanca Records and Filmworks; CEO of Polygram Entertainment; Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures; and Chairman and CEO of his current venture, Mandalay Entertainment Group.

Among the award-winning films he has produced or executive produced are “Midnight Express,” “The Color Purple,” “Gorillas in the Mist,” “Batman” and “Rain Man.” Guber is the owner and co-executive chairman of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors and oversees one of the largest combinations of professional baseball teams and venues nationwide. He is also a longtime professor at UCLA, a Harvard Business Review contributor, and a thought leader who speaks at numerous business forums around the country.

Peter Guber intervewed by UCLA Newsroom director Kevin Roderick:

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