Storytelling for business is simply taking a narrative approach to how you communicate. This means you frame your content for the listener and give it a beginning, middle and end. Leaders who incorporate storytelling into their day-to-day communication connect at a deeper level and have a more profound impact. Read on to find out how we’ve applied storytelling to a range of business scenarios.
Whether you are launching a new product, announcing a new way of working or sharing your company vision and strategy, this simple story structure will transform your communication and get you the buy-in you need.
A recent client was merging two of their departments as a result of organisational restructuring.
This was a large, somewhat siloed organisation in that many of the departments operated as almost standalone businesses. The two merging departments were not aligned historically, making the merger more challenging than it otherwise might have been.
This merger was to bring significant change. Our client knew the potential negative impact that this change could have on the respective departments’ teams. They needed to make sure that they had buy-in for their proposed approach from both the C-suite team and their own people. That’s when they came to us. They knew they needed a change narrative that would articulate not just the approach and the logistics but also the purpose of this merger.
Through a series of story workshops with senior leaders from both departments, we co-created a concise suite of messaging which:
Through the story development process, these senior leaders, who were, themselves, initially reluctant to embrace the merger, began to own the story. They moved from being passive onlookers to being active agents of the change. The leaders were then coached to cascade the story to their people.
Our story-led approach ensured that what could have been perceived as a threatening merger was instead viewed as an exciting evolution of both departments.
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