S as Storytelling: a successful practice of Corporate training

One Letter to rule them all.

Don’t worry, Sauron was defeated ages ago, so no surprise return.

The metaphor of the One Ring, however, is very useful to conclude our Alphabet of Modern Training by explaining the role that Storytelling has in relation to all the elements we have already discussed – namely, Links, Emotions, Anchors, Repetition, Novelty (we have also discussed them here).

Dive with us into a sea of adventure – unfortunately not Middle Earth – and discover how Storytelling can prove to be an essential tool for your business education.

Once upon a time, there was…

Storytelling: what is it?

Since we are referring to a Corporate setting, we can define Storytelling as the art of telling stories employed as a persuasive communication strategy to convey ideas, values, emotions and information in an engaging and memorable way.

The purpose is to create an emotional connection with the audience and make the message more effective and able to influence people’s opinions and actions.

So be careful: Storytelling is not synonymous with Narration, as the latter represents the physical act – oral or written – of telling a story in and of itself, devoid of any persuasive intent.

5 key elements for the perfect Story

Broadly speaking, Storytelling needs certain elements to define it, such as:

• a main character who creates a connection with the reader;
• a problem that he or she must solve;
• the resolution of said problem;
• a message, implicit or otherwise, to be conveyed;
• a narrative structure that connects all these elements.

In addition to these aspects, a dash of magic must be added. ✨

Why do Storytelling and Narration succeed in creating an emotional connection?

Man has always felt the need to tell and retell stories. Stories have enormous power: they present characters with whom the listener can identify and empathize; they evoke emotions and images in the mind, creating a sense of familiarity and involvement; they tend to make information more memorable and easier to understand.

To sum up, create Emozioni through Stories. ❤️‍

Storytelling is effective because it relies on a number of psychological and neurobiological mechanisms

Storytelling is effective because the human mind is naturally predisposed to recognize and remember stories; in addition, areas of the brain involved in perception, emotion, memory and comprehension are activated.

One communication psychologist who has done a great deal of research in this area is certainly Pennebaker. He has proven how storytelling and expressive writing can serve as powerful tools for understanding and managing one’s thoughts and emotions – and have been used in various applications including therapy, training and research.

How is Storytelling interpreted within Corporate training? 8 key points

The potential is endless. But let’s see what elements cannot be missed in Storytelling applied to Corporate training.

• The protagonist of the Story becomes the Learner;
• the problem to be addressed represents the challenges that learners must overcome to achieve the training goals;
• the resolution of the problem occurs when, at the end of the course, the Learner is able to put his knowledge into practice;
• the intended message is the educational concepts learned;
• a narrative structure that helps make the story easy to follow and remember;
• emotions that help create an emotional connection with students;
• effective language that helps make the narrative easier to understand and appropriate for participants;
• an interactivity that engages learners and helps them reflect on and practice the training concepts (aka interactive learning).

In short, make your Learners the main characters of their training journey: they will be motivated to achieve their goals and feel encouraged along the road.

In conclusion

Stories are everything: our past, present and future.

In this article we’ve explained to you how Storytelling can be used in Corporate training, taking advantage of both the emotional connections our brains build while listening, and the understanding and memorization that this peculiar narrative structure makes possible.

We’ve come to the end. If you want to know how to put these notions into practice, contact us.

See you next time!

#neverstoplearning