
Storytelling is certainly a powerful art - both in the creation of intentional stories released into the world to entertain, enthuse, or inspire, and in the internal dialogue which has evolved to keep each of us safe. But it also holds significant weight as an effective corporate communication tool…
We
recently shared our insights about the importance of determining
your
truth in amongst
the
truth when it comes to the tales we tell ourselves as a response to the world around us. But once this has been mastered, storytelling can help you to further connect and engage – whether at Board level or communicating with your entire workforce.

Stories aid you in getting your point across more powerfully, in a way that will be retained and remembered by those who need to know. And there’s six core stories that you can adopt:
- The Ice-breaker – Used to build rapport from a cold start, think of this as a 30-second pitch to create some kind of engagement at the start of a Board meeting or team presentation
- The De-Mystifier – With this story you are taking something complex and deliberately making it much easier and simpler to understand
- The Case Study – An effective storytelling tool already widely used in the corporate world, case studies are very outcome-focused, taking you from problem to solution to evidence the effectiveness of a particular approach
- Emotional Epic – Hugely useful in a corporate setting to inspire or engage the emotion of an audience. Told correctly, it depicts a rollercoaster diving to the depths of challenge and despair and soaring to the heights of success and celebration, taking listeners along for the ride on ‘the hero’s journey’
- Transformation Tale – Quite literally transformative, this story takes us from one state to another - usually from challenge to opportunity, or problem to resolution – unequivocally telling the listener that you are a problem solver
- Elephant’s Tale – So called because it’s your one core objective and the kind of message nobody forgets. Way beyond the excitable chatter at the end of a strong presentation, this anecdote still exists and infiltrates conversations around office water coolers the next day.
It’s likely that one or two of these stories will land more naturally with you than others, but they’re all really powerful ways of helping you to become a truly compelling communicator. We’d absolutely encourage you to consider how you can build stories into your own corporate communications, and do let us know how you get on.
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