From fairy tales to blockbuster movies to conversations with family and friends, we’re surrounded by stories — and have been since we were tiny babies. Stories are how we learn and make sense of the world.
Stories also have a powerful impact on the brain. Neuroscience shows that stories awaken our senses, help us remember information, and create a sense of human connection.
Using storytelling for business is, therefore, a really effective way to engage employees with your messaging. It’s also a great way to convey information quickly and effectively to time-poor frontline workers.
We know not everyone is a creative writer. But we also believe that with the right approach, you can make business storytelling an integral part of your organization.
So in this article, we’ll walk you through some of our best tips for using company storytelling for your internal communications. Let’s start by looking at some common storytelling structures.
Some popular storytelling structures
Storytelling has existed since the development of language itself. As Yuva Noah Harari explains in his book Sapiens:
“It is the distinctive ability to believe in stories that separate sapiens from other creatures. You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.”
Storytelling is one of the foundational pillars of society. It’s shaped our understanding of right and wrong for generations. From 30,000-year-old cave drawings in France to Aesop’s fables to the urban legends teenagers share today, all cultures in history have told stories.
And despite there being stories about every topic and every character imaginable, stories tend to fall into a surprisingly small number of categories. Knowing these categories can help when you’re creating your own corporate stories.
The seven basic plots
Some people argue that you can put every single story ever created into one of these seven categories.
Rags to riches. A character finds power, money, or love, loses it, and then wins it back. Example: Cinderella.
The quest. The main character has to reach a location or fulfill an objective, conquering obstacles along the way. Example: The Lord of the Rings.
Rebirth. A character changes their ways and becomes a better person. Example: A Christmas Carol.
Overcoming the monster. A hero has to overcome an evil force. Example: Any James Bond movie.
Comedy. A story designed to make people laugh by subverting expectations and mixing the familiar with the absurd. Example: Bridget Jones’ Diary.
Tragedy. The main character makes a big mistake or demonstrates a character flaw which leads to their undoing. Example: Bonnie and Clyde.
Voyage and return. A character goes to a strange land, overcomes the challenges there, and returns home with newfound experience or knowledge. Example: Gulliver’s Travels.
The hero’s journey
The hero’s journey is another popular story structure. A hero is living happily in their comfort zone when something unexpected happens and they’re forced into an adventure.
Here are some examples:
- Harry Potter lives with the Dursleys. Hagrid comes to take him to Hogwarts.
- Frodo Baggins lives with Bilbo in Hobbiton. Bilbo sets off on a journey leaving the ring to Frodo.
- Barbie lives in Barbieland. But when she starts behaving strangely, Weird Barbie sends her to the real world.
This same basic template can be found across countless books, movies, and TV shows — and it tends to follow the same 12 steps.
A hero is called to an adventure. They experience tests, allies, and enemies. They reach a low point before finding a solution and returning back to their original lives as a hero.
How these popular story structures can support business storytelling
We’re not suggesting that you go and write a whole novel or screenplay about your organization. But there are a few things we can learn from these storytelling structures.
First, storytelling is not just a talent people are born with or without. There are structures you can follow and techniques you can learn. It’s perfectly possible for your internal communications team to tell compelling corporate stories.
Second, structures like the hero’s journey lend themselves beautifully to storytelling in corporate communications. Challenges intrigue your audience and get them to empathize with the hero. But the hero always achieves their goal. So success is another important and inspiring part of the story.
By incorporating key story elements — compelling characters, emotional ups and downs, and a popular story structure — into your internal communications, you can create messages that engage your employees. You make your messages more memorable and create a sense of connection between employees and your organizational values.
How to supercharge engagement with internal communication storytelling
There are lots of ways to boost employee engagement with your internal communications.
You can give employees a voice with communication tools that support bottom-up communication. You can celebrate achievements and recognize hard work.
Simply giving employees the right information improves their motivation and morale. Employees who receive enough information to do their jobs well are 2.8 times more likely to feel engaged in their work.
Business storytelling is another strategy to add to your list. And however you choose to use storytelling for business, here are some tips that will help you make your stories more engaging for employees.
1. Make it easy
Many organizations use outdated internal communication software that makes it hard to share stories. Some are still using email newsletters or paper memos as their only channels of internal communication. So storytellers find it hard to get their stories seen.
You can make it easy for everyone to tell corporate stories by assessing your internal communication tech and — if it isn’t streamlined and user-friendly — consider other internal communication software providers.
2. Share corporate stories as they happen
The more relevant a story, the more impact it tends to have. Workers like to see authentic stories that are happening in real-time, not stories about an event or accomplishment that happened weeks ago.
Share corporate stories as they happen and employees are more inclined to respond to them in the moment. They’ll then amplify the story by sharing or commenting on it.
3. Mix it up
When storytelling for internal communications, you can get creative. You can use stories to convey all sorts of information. Here are a few ideas.
- Share a customer success story. Share a case study explaining a customer pain point, describing how a frontline team member supported the customer, and the outcome your customer achieved. Use quotes from the customer and a video or photos, so employees can put a face to the name.
- Share the story of your organization. Tell the story of how your company came to be. This type of story works really well during the onboarding process. Be authentic. Share the challenges founders faced, how they overcame them, and what their plans are for the future.
- Paint a picture. The characters in your stories don’t have to be real. You can use imagined characters to paint a picture for employees. For example, when explaining how a new process will benefit customers, create a customer character — let’s call her Sarah — and describe the process from her point of view.
- Celebrate an employee milestone. Rather than simply recognizing an employee for their hard work, describe the journey they’ve taken within the company. Start with their nervous first days and lead on to their current successes.
There are countless ways to weave stories into your internal communications. So don’t be afraid to mix it up and try new things.
4. Bring stories to town hall meetings
Whether you conduct town hall meetings in person — or involve remote and frontline workers by live streaming — starting with a story is a great way to build rapport.
When leaders tell stories — any stories — they come across as more human. This makes it easier for employees to trust the organization’s leadership and makes them more likely to contribute to the meeting with their own questions and comments.
According to Ally Bunin, Global Head of Internal Communications Stories at Russell Reynolds Associates:
“Starting with a story is the best way to open a town hall. We encourage our team to share a personal story, even if it's not related to the topic of the town hall meeting. A story makes them more relatable, and it's so important to be a human first.”
5. Be authentic
Stories are compelling because — sometimes — things go wrong for the hero. So don’t gloss over the failures or challenges involved in your stories, even those that come from senior leaders.
Stories told with honesty and authenticity are much more engaging for employees. Therefore, leaders should aim to tell their own stories, rather than relying on polished scripts.
Even if the business is struggling right now and you’re sharing bad news, you’ll make a better impact with a sincere story than with an airbrushed version of events.
The more open you are in your storytelling for internal communications, the more inclined your workers are to believe in what you say. And they’ll not shy away from lending their support.
6. Avoid information overload
When marketing to customers, a company takes steps to ensure that its messages are relevant to each segment of the audience. You should try to do the same for employees.
Corporate stories only resonate with employees when they’re relevant to them and their roles. So —as part of your internal communications strategy — be sure to segment your audience and personalize messages for each sector of your workforce.
This helps to avoid information overload. And because employees come to expect relevant internal communication messages, they’re less likely to switch off from your communication channels.
7. Use the power of repetition
While you want to avoid information overload, you need to make your most important stories stand out and sink in.
Stories tied to your mission, brand, values, and identity should stick in the hearts and minds of employees. To achieve this, you need to repeat those stories often.
Take inspiration from Howard Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks. Schultz often recited an anecdote about his travels to Milan. It was in Italy that he discovered brewed espresso for the first time and became convinced that coffee shops could be big business in the US.
Schultz shared this story at many different times, events, and locations. He did this to inspire workers, to show his human side, and to emphasize that the Starbucks brand is about more than just selling coffee. It’s about delivering an experience.
Search for Howard Schultz and his name is now synonymous with this story. Repetition has helped him to create a company legend that has engaged and motivated Starbucks employees for years.
Storytelling for internal communications FAQs
Why is storytelling important for internal communication?
Storytelling is important in internal communications because it makes messages more engaging, relatable, and memorable. It helps you to build an emotional connection between employees and the organization. And it helps you convey important messages more effectively.
What is internal storytelling?
Internal storytelling is the process of building compelling and relatable narratives around your internal communications. These narratives help to captivate, build empathy, and engage better with your workforce.
Internal communication storytelling for your organization
Company storytelling is a powerful way to improve your internal communications.
Company stories are engaging. They prompt emotion in employees, which makes them feel more bonded to your organization. And while the corporate world tends towards numbers and charts, there’s scientific proof that stories live longer in the memory than even the most impressive stats.
These storytelling benefits can help you achieve your internal communication goals. You can encourage more employees to use your intranet or employee app. You can get more employees to read and engage with your content. You can ensure that important messages are being read and remembered.
In today’s modern workplace — with the help of internal communication tech tools, like Blink — it’s easier than ever to use storytelling for business. You don’t have to rely on edited corporate announcements that receive little engagement.
Instead, you can create and curate stories from across the organization. You can tell stories using engaging multimedia content, like video or live stream. Employees can comment on news feed stories — and create their own content, too.
What’s more, because Blink is a mobile-first employee app, you can put business stories at the fingertips of every employee, whether they work in the office or on the frontline of your organization.
