What is Storytelling?
Storytelling is the art and skills of presenting stories and tales, of making communication interesting and memorable. (1) (2)
I’m not here to tell you how to be good and effective at Storytelling. If you type Storytelling in any search engine you will get various results for techniques, styles, principles, structures, hacks, science, ways, elements and tips and so on so on so on...
So...
Business Storytelling, what is it?
Business Storytelling is the art and skill of presenting the Business in an interesting and memorable way.
Business Storytelling is nothing but the use of storytelling techniques to communicate information and motivate stakeholders such as investors, employees and customers. (3)
There is also plenty written over the web about Business Storytelling with the tendency being about selling something.
Being in Finance, I like to call that Marketing or Product Storytelling and make Business Storytelling being more about… yep… Business... and Finance and the connections to all other departments, either Marketing, Operations, Sales or Customer Care.
As I like to say...
Business Storytelling is the ability to translate numbers into stories (maybe even emotions).
Why is Storytelling important for Business?
I know Storytelling is a buzzword that nowadays starts to be overused either by everyone and/or to everything but, to anyone at the Finance Department that strikes to make an impact in helping the business, it can be a valuable skill.
Every Finance Professional should take their knowledge about the Business, acquired from hours of Monthly Closings, repeatedly Headquarters Reporting, multiple Budgets, never ending Forecasts revisions, several Meetings and procrastinating hours, and mix it all up with Communication skills, if he or she wants to really positively impact the Business.
Where are we going (or, where should we already be) with Business Storytelling?
Human beings have an innate fascination with storytelling. (4) It’s a fact proved by science, a story has a stronger impact on your audience. (5) We strive to create meaningful connections, make an impact and help decision makers.
Storytelling is knowing that everything you're saying, from the first sentence to the last, is leading to a singular goal, and ideally confirming some truth that deepens our understandings. (6)
Does this sound like what you should be doing at Board meetings?
Communication skills are at the heart of any successful Finance Business Partner.
Most professionals in Finance already use some kind of Business Storytelling in their quest to better support Business decisions.
What stories have you told recently?
What stories are you already thinking about telling?
References
1 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/storytelling
2 https://simplicable.com/new/storytelling
3 https://simplicable.com/new/business-storytelling
4 https://www.thebalancecareers.com/business-storytelling-skills-with-examples-2059685
5 https://enigma.swiss/en/blog/what-is-business-storytelling/
6 https://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_stanton_the_clues_to_a_great_story/transcript?referrer=playlist-how_to_tell_a_story&language=en
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