Fear of being too good!

Everyone has heard that people fear public speaking worse than death. Usually the fear stems from a fear of being judged and falling short..not interesting or not smart enough. I recently heard a new fear, and from some of the smartest people in the world, doctors. I was working with a group of physician speakers, experts selected not only for their clinical excellence but because they were interested in communicating about new drugs. As always, I urged them to share stories, examples. One doctor objected. He said story telling doesn't work in medicine. Why? because, he said, stories could set up false expectations. In other words, while numbers and studies unequivacally supported a reason to be optimistic about a new drug, this doctor feared that a story about how it worked for a patient would be too powerful. A story would speak louder than studies! I suggested that he have a story about a patient for whom the drug worked and one where it didn't. He bought that and they all became convinced of the power of story telling.