“Storytelling is by far the most underrated skill when it comes to business.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
Since ancient times the art of storytelling has been used across numerous countries and cultures in order to relate folklores, which either depicted life in those times or served as a moral compass to people of that generation and also successive generations. Over time the method of storytelling progressed from cave drawings to a more complex process involving a mixture of verbal, pictorial, musical and dance forms. Nowadays the digital platform has taken the art of storytelling to a whole new level.
So integral is storytelling in today’s world that it has become an unassailable part of everyone’s life right from childhood. Ancient tales of valour, humour, mythology etc, each carrying a moral continue to entertain children who unconsciously imbibe these morals/good values and continue to remember them (both the tales and the messages contained in them) even as they grow older. In fact such is the magic of storytelling that it holds sway over not only children but people of all age groups. Realising this fact numerous fields like advertising etc have made storytelling an integral part of their process. This makes it clear that storytelling can prove to be a very useful tool when it comes to imparting knowledge in organisations all across the world also.
Role of Storytelling in the Organisation
Seeing how the information imparted via storytelling tends to remain with people long after they have heard them brings to light the fact that it can be made a very important tool for training sessions, team meetings and other such organisation based learning/informative sessions. So let us take a closer look at this and other reasons why you can consider making storytelling an integral part of your organisation’s information sharing process.
Actively Engages the Audience
Nothing garners people’s attention like a good story. Any type of meeting where the speaker puts forth his message via a story is bound to make the audience sit up and take a keener interest in the presentation.
Over the course of your journey to becoming a leader, numerous learning experiences, struggles and achievements would have helped shape and enrich you and make you who you are today. By sharing these experiences you will be able to create a personal connect with your audience and make them relate to your journey and experiences. Therefore while sharing your wealth of knowledge, it is recommended that you recount any of these personal experiences which have helped you gain such knowledge. This will definitely help make a real impact on the listener.
Aids in Better Understanding
For training sessions where new concepts are being presented to the participants, storytelling not only helps break the monotony of continuous slides of information/facts but also helps better the participants’ understanding of the concept you are explaining. By listening to the experience or anecdote you narrate in relation to the concept they will be able to see how it correlates to practical everyday business life and this enables them to gain a holistic learning experience as opposed to only theoretical knowledge.
Helps Retention of Information and Facts
As mentioned above the information imparted via storytelling tends to remain far longer in the minds of the listeners than it otherwise would, thereby ensuring the purpose of any training session or organisation meeting meets the purpose for which it was convened.
Therefore by making storytelling an integral part of the organisation’s information sharing process, you can enhance the intake and retention of information while enlivening the interactions.
