Storytelling Toolkit for Communication in the Workplace
We believe that any idea or event is a story and therefore can be best planned, understood and communicated with storytelling. It’s not always about telling a story but there is always a benefit in applying something from storytelling.
When is storytelling appropriate?
Short answer: any time, it’s about the application of the right technique or approach, based on what you are communicating, to who and under what circumstances. Long answer: Any time you need to share important messages with colleagues, give people an update on a project or gain buy-in to something new, storytelling gives you techniques to both work out what to say and how to say it so that it truly resonates with your audience. Company leaders speaking to a team, a department or to the whole organization to initiate or sustain a change or to meaningfully share the direction of a strategy can benefit from storytelling techniques so they can lead with commitment not compliance.
Why are you speaking? Why should anyone listen?
A good story changes us. It’s told with the intention or purpose of making the audience think and feel and do something. What is the purpose of communicating with others about your particular topic? When you’re clear on the purpose or desired end result, you can build your story around it. What is the story you want your audience to take part in, play a role in, help to make happen? This gives you the reason, the enthusiasm, the confidence to speak and gives them the clarity of purpose they want too.
Relatability
Be you. Being ‘human’ means people will trust you, have respect for where you stand and therefore will listen more and be more likely to go with what you’re telling them. Your subject or message is told through you, so you are there whether you like it or not.
Allow authentic spontaneous moments of fun, emotion and description that create a shared experience. Change the pace, emphasise points you believe to be important. And don’t read from a script; if you give all your attention to your notes or your slides then you can’t give your attention to your audience.
Explain, Explore and Evangelise
If we want our audience to think, feel and then do then we need to find ways to achieve these. A combination of these 3 angles on your content offers it in ways everyone can listen to. Explain what they need to understand, explore the options of a subject and state what you believe or know to be true. The 3 approaches allow you to give detail and context to those that want and need it, show you are open to exploration and to question any ways forward and demonstrate your certainty and where you stand firm. These give you authority to deliver messages in different ways to suit different colleagues so they can all find their way into what you propose.
Beginning, Middle and End – a map to guide and follow.
A beginning, a middle and an end is easy to follow, both by you and your audience. What you tell needs to be as much their story as yours so start with setting the scene you are all part of, the relevant context, need, or rational, to ensure everyone in your audience is starting off on the same foot. Then move in to exploring, explaining and evangelising how things will or have happened to or because of them, the challenges and the solutions. The end is how things have changed for them or “us”, the outcomes, the benefits, the learning, the what nexts for you all.
What do people need to know?
It can be tempting to talk around a subject and include the most interesting content or feel that everything needs to be touched on to do it justice. But how much of that will anyone hear? Let alone remember or know what to do with that content? What do people need and want to know, now, to help reach the purpose of your story? Ensure the information is relevant to your audience and the moment in time; hook them in at the start with something that will grab their interest and end with a call to action, so they know how to make the story theirs.