Storytellers who make up the skills gap
By Danuta Kean
Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. Once upon a time a businessman was feeling sad. Everyone was saying "innovate", but he did not know how. "What shall I do?" he wondered. "We need to dev-elop new products and reach new markets to keep shareholders happy."
Then a beautiful storyteller appeared. She said: "Don't worry, Mr Businessman. I can help you." He looked confused. How could the lovely lady help?
She smiled: "I will teach you my skills, which will boost your creativity, help you innovate and improve your profitability and internal communications."
Soon the businessman and his colleagues were spinning tales that resulted in a host of new products.
This is not a fairytale.
If you thought telling stories is something you do with kids, you are mistaken. A host of blue chip companies, including the BBC, Emap and Lego, have discovered that storytelling can help everything from marketing and product development to staff management and branding.
"Innovation is a hugebuzz word these days, but before you have innovation you need creativity," saysPreethi Nair, who runs Kiss The Frog, one of a growing number of training consultancies that use storytelling techniques to help businesses become more creative. Her clients include Citibank and Lego.
Brand and storytelling are intrinsically linked, says Ms Nair, who worked as a management consultant before publishing three novels: "If I say Google, you will know exactly what it is, what its values are and its image. The same goes for Innocent Drinks." The UK smoothie company is known for telling consumers about its drinks in an entertaining way. The two companies' brands "have stories at-tached, which are at the centre of their marketing, and that is great storytelling," she says.
Matt White, who heads the innovation capability team at innovation specialist ?What If!, believes storytelling is also vital for internal communication, especially for helping staff identify with corporate goals and values. "Not everyone can communicate numbers and behaviours," says Mr White, whose clients include Unilever and Barclays.
According to Ariane Koek, director of the Arvon Foundation, which offers residential courses to writers, businesses are latching on to the value of storytelling. "There is a perceived gap in our culture between the corporate world and the creative world, yet the two are not mutually exclusive and never have been," she says.
James Hall, who heads the concept lab at toy manufacturer Lego, has used storytelling for marketing and product development. His team has produced tangible results. "We came up with products that we can develop and a new approach to product development," he says. The products should go on sale next year.
Stuart Delves, who runs Henzteeth and Dark Angel, two consultancies based in Scotland, has used storytelling to help businesses overcome knowledge management issues. It is especially useful when staff leave who have technical expertise that is hard to communicate.
Instead of writing jargon-filled manuals with detailed job descriptions, Mr Delves has written stories that convey the technical data in a more digestible format.
It is about engaging readers emotionally as well as intellectually, he says. "It is a bit like at a dinner party. If you have a person spouting lots of facts, you tend to turn off. But if someone says, 'Guess what happened to me!' and then tells a story, you want to know whathappens next."
Mr Delves was brought in by the National Library of Scotland when the librarian responsible for tracking lost books in the 10m-plus collection retired. "I spent several days following him around the library, hearing how he found the books," he says. "This man was a detective, so I wrote a 4,000-word detective story about my journey with him through the labyrinth of the library."
Just as crime fans pick up forensic detail from reading about Rebus and Morse, readers of Mr Delves's detective were able to pick up details about cataloguing from his hero's story. "Iwas imparting information within the story about coding books," he says. "Storytelling is energising for companies. It gives employees a chance to feel something about their brand and shows them how they can contribute to the story, which has to be good."
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
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