As a young child who’d just learned to read, my favorite book was 365 Bedtime Stories by Nan Gilbert, a 1955 children’s classic that recounted a year in the life of What-a-Jolly-Street, a cul de sac teeming with kids, pets, and adventures, complete with a cookie-baking widow at one end. The idea, of course, was to read a single one-page story each night before going to sleep.
But I never could stop after reading just one. hThe stories were too irresistible, and too many years later to admit, I still remember many of them. A quick search of an out-of-print book site shows I am far from alone; “I saw this on your (Stump the Bookseller) list,” one reader wrote in, “and I yelled so loud in my office I’m sure people thought that I was nuts.” Used copies start at $44.
Good stories are powerful, timeless and unforgettable. The best of them hold us in thrall. And we needn’t be children to fall under their spell. The love of story is something we never outgrow.
As adults, we still use stories to influence, persuade, correct, inspire, motivate, teach and reward. They’re how we make sense of each other, and how we make sense of the world. Stories strengthen the bonds between people, forging connections that might otherwise not exist. Hearing a person’s story puts you, however briefly, in their shoes. As the saying goes, you can’t hate someone whose story you know.
So it should come as no surprise that corporate storytelling has never been more popular, as growing numbers of business people learn to identify and tell their own stories, as well the stories of their companies and/or brands.
Business narratives also tell tales of change and success, of lessons learned and values shared. They bridge gaps between leaders and staff, and build customers’ trust in their products and services. Well-timed and well-told business narratives can even encourage us to envision the future, often with an economy of language and an element of emotion that locks them into our memories forever. Indeed, research has shown that we’re 20 times more likely to remember a fact when it comes to us wrapped in a story.
What’s your story?
