We are wired for stories. Over the past decade, there has been growing interest in storytelling as a means of making business presentations more engaging—and effective in terms of data retention. MBA students at Stanford University are now required to take a corporate storytelling course as part of their degree program. This serves as a teaser for my presentation on corporate storytelling. Let me know if your group would like to learn more.

1. Tell it, sell it
Storytelling for business audiences

2. Deliver data with a backstory.

3. A good
narrative
makes
data sticky

4. If you want to build a ship, don’t
drum up the men to gather wood,
divide the work, and give orders.
Instead, teach them to yearn for the
vast and endless sea.
~ Antoine de Saint Exupery

5. “When it comes to presentation, you need to
package your message in a design language
that speaks to the audience.”
~ Martin Sykes

6. Filter and focus

8. Use scenarios to keep
eLearning Real

9. Around the Corporate Campfire

10. Bean, C. (2012). Use scenarios to keep elearning real. T+D, 66(2), 76-77.
Clark, E. (2004). Around the corporate
campfire: how great leaders use stories to
inspire success. Sevierville, Tenn.: Insight
Publishing Company.
Collins, D. (2013). In search of popular
management: Sensemaking, sensegiving and
storytelling in the excellence project. Culture
& Organization, 19(1), 42-61.
doi:10.1080/14759551.2011.634198
Lewis, P. J. (2011). Storytelling as
research/Research as storytelling.
Qualitative Inquiry, 17(6), 505-510.
doi:10.1177/1077800411409883
Sykes, M. R., Malik, A. N. (2013). Stories that
move mountains: storytelling and visual design
for persuasive presentations. Hoboken, N.J.:
Wiley.
Sources
Char Hopela 2013