Specific stories can be universal as long as they are fractal

"The magic of stories, though, is that the more specific you are, the more universal they seem to get." 

This idea by Frank Cottrell Boyce, who wrote the script of the film God on Trial, is an important one when we try to do a presentation or touch the hearts and minds of people during the facilitation process.

It is OK to build a framework and use theory to help the listeners make sense of what is being said but it is only when our ideas are imbued by the power of faces and names  that they become sharp enough to pierce the thick shield of reason and enter into the realm of action: the heart.

I once read that the Universe is contained in a grain of sand. This must be true also for ideas. If we manage the specifics well, we can increase our chances of engaging a wide range of listeners.

Managing the specifics well means using it to illustrate the universal and give life to the theory. If the Universe and the point are not linked coherently, the point really becomes just a grain of sand. The point has to be fractal for it to touch the heart.

PS: I recommend God on Trial ("during the Holocaust, a group of Auschwitz prisoners decided to put God in the dock").