Why is Business Storytelling important? Businesses need their people to be inspired and engaged when understanding a complex or difficult task. Stories help to share the vision and create a feeling of community. Let me take you through the key steps to business storytelling and my experiences. I will also share some additional references for storytelling inspiration. Then see Storytelling for Projects to get more on how to craft your story.

How stories are better than presentations

I used to try to be good at making great business presentations — complete with wow graphics, insightful data points, and a clear demonstration of my logic.

So why the drama? Why can’t a good powerpoint or speech be just as good as a business story? Because as people, we are storytellers and love to listen to stories. It is one of the oldest art forms. Stories are memorable and repeatable. People get burnt out on PowerPoint presentations but never get tired of hearing a great story.  

We all want to make and share great business stories. A narrative to draw in the audience, establish a shared truth (or problem), identify a cause (or why) of the hero (or audience) to overcome. We want to build to an “aha” (or surprising insight) and recognize the hero's true purpose, and link that to a “call to action” for the audience).  

We want to connect my idea with the audience and produce a compelling reason to consider an idea, buy a product, or take another action. This is best done when sharing an engaging moment in a compelling way, not just the exchange of “dry facts”. Facts don’t move people to act.

When telling a story, we are like the runner handing off the baton in a relay race. We want to “pass the baton” of the idea so the next runner can carry it forward. In fact, we want them to grab for it. We want the audience to make my story their own.

Stories are powerful stuff

Stories are central to our way of sharing and communicate in every community in every part of the world. It was how ideas were shared, traditions, and the status quo upheld.

Great stories live beyond their teller. If you see the words: "One ring to rule them all," "They call me Ishmael," "One more thing," or "I Have a Dream," — do any of these lines bring to mind a time, place, story, speaker, or feeling?  

Even if you have not read the book, seen the speech, or cannot resite the next sentence, I bet at least one of these lines evocate an idea or feeling. Might you even say that they are part of our collective conscience? Powerful stuff.

This is how stories stick, get repeated, and are remembered. This resonance and power of the story can be applied to a a compelling story of a shared mission, a project, or a goal. So let’s break down the components of a story:

The Hero: The central figure in our story, for whom the challenge and the reward await. Think of the hero in the Day in the Life and User Journey. While not always epic in nature, business journeys can be they can also be mundane, the goal is to find the compelling hero.

The Story Arc: The hero journey always has a start, middle and ending. However, these can take different shapes depending on your goals. Let’s look at some ways to build the story:

1. The "If/Then". Famous if/then's include: "if you build it, [then] they will come," and "For the want of a nail the ... Kingdom was lost".

2. The Comparison. Comparing what is to what could be. Famous comparisons include: "I have a dream that little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

3. The "Day in a Life”. How does the day start, what happens next, what are the people and things that happen, how does the day impact the “hero”? Famous “Day in the Life” includes: "George Bailey, [this is] his crucial night."

4. The “I Want”. An outrageous Goal that the Hero or champion has. “I want to be the first women president, will you help me?”. Everyone likes a champion who has a vision and asks for help.

While the above examples relate to storytelling in art and speeches, these methods are also related to other areas: business messaging, user journey, project mission statements, and product sales. By using any one of these or methods (or others), you can: 

• Set a clear problem or challenge

• Identify the hero who overcomes the obstacle

• Define what success is as a result of the hero’s actions

For Business purposes you can still use this method, and, along the way, you can also test the input, throughput, and outputs related to the detailed business content. Create your story arc, now backtrack to put in place the various steps, checks, tech, and structures needed to make this story real, sustainable, and have the right ending for your project, business, product hero.

The Resolved Ending: After defening the “hero”, question and journey. These aspects must resolve in an ending. The ending is not the action you ask the audience or team to take, it is the outcome of the action. Put in the effort and hours to reach the goal and what is the result. You can give this in practical terms (we get another challenge), but can you frame it in another way? Can you promote the emotion driven outcomes. In business money is a driving factor so bonuses and promotions are drivers. But so is pride in ones work, kudos for a job well done, team spirit and a sense of team effort and odds overcome. So try to take these aspects into your ending — what is your wish for the Hero?

I was a project manager for years - I know that Project Managers need to be a great strategist, planner, organizer, decision-maker, and often a problem solver. But I learned the good PM’s are also great story tellers. Projects can be boring, but the hero story never is.

As a Project Manager, envisioning and sharing the story of the path the team is taking, the project's challenges, the “dragons” that need slaying, and imagine the victory of realizing the final outcome. This kind of shared storytelling is just as important as any other leadership work you will do. Once you have shared this story, it becomes the mythology of the project. It creates a shared goal everyone can remember and understand. And the story works to bring the team together and ensure a common understanding, one that can be shared by any team member at any time in their own words. Building on the key idea and making it their own: The personal understanding of what success looks like. Who it will impact and how. Again, this is powerful stuff.

When running workshops, we didn't always discuss the User Journey or User Experience. But we often discussed the "Day in a Life." How does the person move from requirement to action to result? Even using physical posture to mimic the task action was instantly understood by those in the meeting. Better than sitting with charts to review our value add to our customer. Standing up “mimicking” a customer call — living the day in a life of and the “hero” and experiencing their frustrations. My project audience could see it, feel it, understand it. Even fact-driven executives understood the story of this hero and the business actions needed to solve the problem facing the organization, the story reminded them they have seen this issue first hand in some way. A chart cannot do that nearly as well.

Stories, presentations, speeches, they all share a common thread. It is an idea, a goal, and a shared outcome you hope those who hear it will accept and agree to the call to action.  

How to make a great story

I cover the basics here, but if you want an more in-depth information on crafting a story, see Share your Vision with Storytelling

1. Start with your audience in mind. What do they already know, what do they have in common. How will you get their attention? 

2. What is the story you want to tell. Start with the problem, the solution a comparison need to know before you get to the idea.  

3. Introduce your Theme or Idea. As a challenge, a solution, or a journey.

4. Show the path. Present your expertise, the data, insights, or comparisons. Create or show visuals of what is and what could be.

5. Find the Remarkable. Tell a story, create an “aha!” moment, so they relive it, share a surprise or mistake. Make them feel the struggle.

6. Believably resolve your conclusion. The line from the start to the end needs to be clear.  

Effectively bringing the audience with you is a double-edged sword. They may not agree with the chosen path, accept the challenge, or agree to the goal. In storytelling, you can win your team over, so they want to take the journey. Start by providing a compelling Why, share the pain, show the challenge. Next define your Hero who will help, who will benefit, what will they gain. Where and when will the action happen, gives reasons for timelines, milestones, or other asks of the audience. Share your emotional ending: What success looks like, what the future can bring. You are asking people to invest with their effort, money or time. And as Ben Franklin said “Time is the stuff that life is made of”, so it you have an ask (or request) for your audience, be direct and clear once and make it worth their time (by showing the value). Ultimately, we want the goal, call to action, and shared buy-in to be the outcome of the Story. The ask for action is want we want to be remembered.

Stories create a vision of the past, present and future. The best stories create an emotional connection with the listener. Really great ones create a sense of community (where were you when you saw “Start Wars”?). How to break down a story for a user experience: there are a couple of ways. Where before you start. The story is not just facts; it is through feelings that create a community to create a shared mission.  

It is not always easy, but my best work, journeys, and teams have come from building these stories. 

Telling stories & Daily in the Life

In 2007, When working on the Digitial IBMer, I had a new team, including engineers, scientists, and consultants in a room. I told my colleagues I wanted to invent a "Day in the Life" to explore, test, and narrate the future of our work. The scientist balked and almost walked out — with some bargaining, they all agreed to stay — the most challenging moment of my storytelling ethos.

In the end, we came up with a journey that looked like the “game of life” and showed how one role (persona) navigated their internal and external world of work. How they could be set up for success to overcome obstacles and how by creating a community of aligned workforce, each of these personas could achieve a new way of working and customer focus.

It was considered a success on the day and evolved into a video that played out the story. But it was through understanding the story that the diverse group who left the room that day had a shared understanding of a new idea and reality. And they were all advocates for it and shared the message with others without prompts or notes. It was team work to create a story we all believed would represent the future of the company. The story carried the day.

You never know which story will grab your audience. So try some things out. Work to understand your audience so you can build a story that fits the situation and the audience. Experiment with your willingness to add emotion, drama, or personal vignettes to your story. Just like life, storytelling is a journey. I hope you enjoy yours.

Tell me what you thought — what this helpful information? How do you plan to use it? Are you working on your own story for your team or customer? Do you want to have a sounding board? If so, leave a note in the comments or contact me directly. Thanks for listening.