A to Z of Business Storytelling -01

A = Authenticity

In this series of “A to Z of Business Storytelling” I am going to cover 26 different aspects of Business Storytelling. Each of them would be represented by an alphabet.

Many of us understand the significance of storytelling, how it connects with people since time immemorial. But business storytelling is a different ball game. It is not like generic story telling with the help of folklore, fables, fairytales etc. It is even neither sharing personal stories. The corporate audience cannot connect with these type of stories, as many of them are cooked up or manipulated stories. Some of them may even get annoyed when cliched motivational stories like ‘boy throwing starfish in the sea’, ‘donkey in the well dusting’, ‘little boy and the color balloons’ as they would have heard them in many forums ’n’ number of times.

In business storytelling, the storyteller cannot share fake or imaginary stories. The stories need to be original from the corporate world. If not, the audience may find it difficult to connect with their day today issues and challenges. In other words, the stories need to be so authentic for better connection. Business storytelling shall revolve around incidents and anecdotes happened in the enterprise world. At the end of the day, there is every possibility that the audience may go back and verify the authenticity of the story online.

While the emphasis is on authenticity, it would be difficult for the leaders to tell an authentic story on-the-spot based on what message they want to deliver. So, here are few tips to make your stories authentic.

• You may start compiling interesting business stories from the corporate world. There are enough stories are there from GE, Apple, Walmart, Google, Exxon, ONGC, BHEL, Indian Railways etc.
• You may also introspect your own corporate life and start identifying interesting anecdotes.
• You can group the stories under different aspects of corporate traits like Customer Centricity, Team Building, Delegation, Decision Making, Time Management etc. One story may even cut across multiple themes.
• Before going for a business meeting, chose the right story from the story file to suit the occasion.

With the above simple tips, the authenticity of business storytelling can be taken care.

More tips, in the coming days!

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