4 Ways Storytelling Can Drive Better Results in Business

Is a business storytelling approach part of your culture? If not, it’s time to reconsider! Effective storytelling is a powerful tool for driving a positive culture and improving business.

Business storytelling is similar to reading a good book. Painting a picture of the characters and providing background on where they came from, what they went through, and how they overcame challenges. The descriptions of various sights, sounds, and emotional responses help readers connect to an unknown situation, allowing them to understand the importance of certain events or outcomes.

Effective storytelling in business can accomplish the same thing. Providing background about your foundation and explaining company goals helps employees understand the “why” of your existence. Creating a clear narrative for what is happening to make necessary changes can also help them grasp what’s coming next.

In short, there are plenty of benefits to business storytelling. Here’s why it’s so important that storytelling is engrained in your organization’s culture.

Business storytelling can inspire new hires.

When new employees think they are starting “just another job,” they are less likely to become fully engaged. New hires need to understand the company culture and how they fit into it.

The start of new-hire orientation is the right time to tell the company's origin story. Begin with a narrative in which new hires learn company history and purpose. For example, this compelling story begins with the now successful pastry company CEO who 20 years ago began baking donuts in her small kitchen to sell at church to raise money for her handicapped son’s special needs. Eventually, she branched out selling her donuts to mom-and-pop markets throughout the country. Fast forward 20 years, and her son is now the CMO of a multi-million-dollar company. Today, they donate to a foundation for special needs kids.

According to a study by BambooHR, employees with a positive onboarding experience are 18x more loyal to their new company. Right from the start, employees need to learn that anything is possible with enough hard work and that they’re becoming a part of something that makes a difference. Using storytelling during onboarding achieves this. Employees will be dedicated to their new company, thus increasing employee retention rates.

The Art of Storytelling: Practical Strategies

With a compelling narrative, employees understand and accept change. Shifting strategic direction or incorporating new processes is often difficult for employees to accept. Uncertainty is scary, especially when employees don’t know how their jobs will be affected. Incorporating a story into the business case strengthens the emotional connection to the strategy. With a compelling story of why these changes must happen, and how they will benefit from the company’s end goal, employees are often less resistant to, and even excited about the upcoming changes.

A well-told story that articulates a path for the future should start with something positive, such as founding core values or a company’s vision. It should then explain a problem or conflict that is causing those things to shift and spell out how upcoming changes will address those issues. The tone should be comforting, so employees aren’t left feeling threatened, but instead are ready to become part of the solution that moves the company forward.

“The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. The storyteller sets the vision, values, and agenda of an entire generation that is to come.” —Steve Jobs, Former CEO of Apple

Brand storytelling humanizes your business.

Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran firmly believes "storytelling is everything,” particularly when it comes to whose invention she decides to support. If you’ve ever watched the show, you’ve seen how the investors quickly become uninterested in a product that doesn’t elicit an emotional connection. But as soon as entrepreneurs describe their personal stories behind their reasons for creating their product or how they want it to impact their customers’ lives, the investors become intrigued.

Relatable stories carry great weight. Even after a young mom who pitched her swimsuit line admitted to having no business experience, Corcoran chose to provide her with funding. The mom explained that she worked extremely hard through the years to help her son with ADHD keep up his grades. As the parent of a daughter with ADHD, Corcoran was moved to invest, stating that she knows how much dedication that takes. Making personal connections fosters mutual understanding and builds trust.

Repeated storytelling facilitates consistency.

Redundancy might be boring in everyday life, but in business, it’s the key to success. Leaders who repeatedly tell the story of the company’s past, present, and future are more likely to reach all team members and accomplish their goals.

Research by Harvard Business School’s Tsedal Neeley and the University of California’s Paul Leonardi shows that company leaders who were intentionally redundant in their communication moved projects forward faster and more smoothly than those who were not.

In an interview with Harvard Business Review, Leonardi said that clarity is often thought to be the key to good communication when in reality it’s about making your presence felt. “Employees are getting pulled in many directions and reporting to lots of people and getting tons of communications,” he said. “So how do you keep your issues top of mind? Redundancy is a way to do that.”

To make a lasting impression, leaders should follow best practices by telling the same story across job interviews, town halls, team meetings, and one-on-one meetings. The business story should also be incorporated into training videos and presentations since human brains process images around 60,000 times faster than text.

HSI Can Help

Storytelling is a valuable soft skill that can be developed through proper training. As you can see, storytelling is a powerful tool to help leaders build trust, convey vision, and make strategy relatable. When employees can truly grasp the purpose of their work, they’re more likely to help businesses achieve their goals.

Interested in how to teach the basics of business storytelling to your teams by using real-world examples? Take the next step and ask us about our storytelling content.

Additional Resources

• Inspiring Employees with Stories [3 Examples]
• How to Build Authentic Leadership Through Storytelling
• Using Feedback and Corporate Storytelling to Improve Employee Satisfaction