Everyone enjoys a good story
It's very true, that there are few people who don't enjoy a good story. But being able to tell a good story is another matter. Very few people think of storytelling in the context of running a business, but relating an experience can link your colleagues to a concept more readily than just the facts. A good relevant story can engage and motivate beyond powerpoint presentations.
In the article Storytelling that Moves People , which appears on the Harvard Business Review website, the author talks to screen writer/lecturer Robert McKee about why it is so important for executives to communicate through storytelling with their employees and essentially what constitutes a good story. He gives some interesting examples of how to put a story together – uniting an idea with an emotion.
Taking one step beyond storytelling, is storydoing, which links all aspects of a company's organization to its corporate culture. The example that this Business Week article gives is of Tom's shoes. Tom's gives a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair that is sold. So for marketing purposes it is selling more than a product, it is selling a value.
One of Canada's memorable business storytellers died recently. Dave Nichols, of Loblaws fame, with his Insiders Reports, related stories about each product – how they were made or discovered, that made consumers want to try them.
Want to learn more about how storytelling can help your business? Check out a few of these titles:
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