Who doesn't like a good story? A rich narrative helps to retain learning and makes us live other people's experiences, retaining knowledge in a natural way. Not surprisingly, the storytelling in companies It's a trend, especially when we talk about people development.
Eric Miller, director of the World Institute of Storytelling, says why the method has caught the attention of organizations around the world: “From management skills, to learning to be assertive and improving public speaking, several companies are interested in bringing storytelling professionals together to train its employees in various professional aspects”.
Tell stories to convey emotions and fix ideas It is something already extensively practiced by advertising. Currently, companies understand that appropriating stories also works for applications among their employees.
Creating connections through an emotional perspective helps and greatly accelerates training on issues such as organizational culture, development of skills and competencies, motivation and engagement of leaders.
Continue reading the article, discover everything about storytelling in companies and learn how to apply the technique with some simple tips.
After all, what is storytelling all about?
The best way to define it is: a practice of tell good stories, highly relevant to the interlocutor, whether in person or online. Knowing how to articulate a narrative, with a beginning that captures attention, an engaging development and an ending that will impact and fix the main message is the key to the matter.
The content can be full of comedy, drama, action... it doesn't matter the theme, as long as it engages the viewer. That said, many companies have appropriated storytelling as a resource for developing people. The mix between knowledge and entertainment reframes the content, making learning more fluid in organizations.
How to apply the technique in people development
Practicing storytelling in companies means, above all, worrying about the employee experience. Bringing emotional connections gives new look for training. However, there are some techniques and tips, which you will learn about below:
Understand who your audience is
There's no point in creating scripts and telling stories during training if you don't know for sure what actually engages people. After all, the essence of storytelling is emotional connections.
Survey your employees and understand what topics are relevant to them. Also, it is worth mentioning your age, professional training, lifestyle and personal tastes. This way, you will be able to make perfect relationships and analogies for your stories.
Insert company culture into stories
Another positive point of storytelling is that it allows you to insert elements of the company's culture, mission, vision and values. Even in more technical and results-oriented training, there is always the opportunity to put the company's reality into context.
One tip is tell stories that show the real trajectory of the company, with the history of its founders and important professionals who have worked there over time. People end up mirroring each other and motivating each other to achieve similar goals.
Simulate the company's daily life
Stories that connect to the company's day-to-day life are easy to assimilate. When training a sales team, for example, present negotiation situations between company and customer. This encourages creativity and the solution of practical problems in a playful way..
Direct to execution
To understand whether the story told met the planned concepts, you will need to measure individual and team performance and results. Since the purpose of training is to establish an idea in people's heads, the ideal is that you measure this with tests, achievement of goals and productivity itself.
Conclusion
As you can see, practicing storytelling in companies means prioritizing the employee experience. Figuring out how to foster emotional connections with your audience will make your stories part of training success.
Creating a story costs little and offers incredible power to engage people. It is up to human resources professionals, T&D and managers in general to detect the best way and themes capable of moving the public, in order to establish an idea and retain knowledge.
