What is intelligent storytelling?
Intelligent storytelling is the strategic discipline that underpins all of our work here at Wordtree. At its heart is an understanding that story is one of the most powerful assets any organisation can nurture.
This is because story has the ability to clarify, transform – and bring people together to achieve incredible things.
Why is story so important?
Story is humanity’s secret weapon and evolutionary advantage. As historians and philosophers like Yuval Harari have explored, story is what has allowed human beings to collaborate at scale and become the planet’s dominant species.
Human beings don’t have sharp teeth or claws. We’re not even particularly strong or fast. But the fact that we tell stories gives us a powerful ability to work together and build knowledge.
What does intelligent storytelling look like?
Stop anyone in your organisation and ask them what it exists to achieve, and what their role in delivering these goals is. If their answer is instant, clear and aligned with corporate strategy, then intelligent storytelling is at play.
Equally, if you ask your audiences what your organisation does and what it stands for, you need them to all have a consistent response. Otherwise, how do they know to choose and recommend you?
Intelligent storytelling comes about through:
What intelligent storytelling isn’t
Founders’ stories and the history of your business might be interesting components of an intelligent storytelling approach. But in and of themselves, they’re not intelligent storytelling.
Generic, could-apply-to-anyone platitudes are not intelligent storytelling either. These often emerge at brand level with values like “honesty” and “respect”. Or straplines that say things like: “Taking you into the future”.
For storytelling to be intelligent, it has to be deeply rooted in corporate strategy and act as a force for cohesion throughout an organisation.
Why do businesses need intelligent storytelling?
Organisations need their people to pull together and collaborate. They need to build resilience and an ability to keep innovating, even when the world around them is in constant flux.
When you approach storytelling intelligently, your organisation makes sure that its core beliefs and objectives are clearly communicated at all touchpoints. This means that even if what your organisation does changes, why and how you do it remain constant drivers of culture and customer relationships.
When you don’t deliberately nurture your story – or just treat it as something fluffy that comms people do – messaging fragments, silos form and clarity ebbs away.
How can Wordtree support you?
We empower organisations across the world to develop coherent storytelling strategies – and implement them at scale.
