Using Stories To Engage Employees

I’ve been studying the use of stories to communicate with people who’d prefer NOT to read, even if they are technically “literate”.

Here’s a case study on using stories to engage employees at a UK firm, Parcelforce.

Studies by cultural researchers indicate that even in “literate” countries like the US, 4o to 50% of the population prefer to gain information through channels other than reading.

This firm helps corporations engage employees (and customers?) better by transforming complex messages into stories people can identify with.

Stories can help people learn, absorb, remember and share information and ideas. Stories motivate, persuade, inform and inspire. Compelling stories have far-reaching emotional impact – and a far longer shelf-life than the dry, abstract, one-way methods of corporate communications so often employed within businesses today. And stories can demonstrate what success looks and feels like, painting a clear picture of how we might need to change the way we think and do things.

I like the quote on their website “Thou shalt not is soon forgotten, but ‘once upon a time’ will last forever.”

Here’s one the corporate world should read too on their blog: how powerpoint presentations actually turn OFF your brain!