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The Future of Storytelling in 2021 & How Businesses can Benefit from the Power of Storytelling

And the Storytelling trends to watch out in 2021!


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Sandeep Kochhar

3 years ago | 3 min read

The Art of Storytelling is a form of articulation of one’s heart, calibrated on paper to build a persona of one’s thoughts & beliefs. It is a connection – trust that builds between the storyteller & the listeners. It is a play of Enactment & Enhancement.

StoryTellers enact what their heart spells out to them & enhance the meaning of their stories by giving it a unique fragrance of its own.

To look at it this way, StoryTelling is an identity - born out of the heart of a StoryTeller, incubated in their mind & let out on paper; a story is both the offspring of the StoryTeller & the parent of a transformational journey.

The above was an attempt to express what StoryTelling is but, it would be a white lie to say that it covered every aspect of StoryTelling. It is not possible to give an all-encompassing definition of StoryTelling because imbibed in its very nature is the quality of vastness.

Storytelling is a versatile artform & means different things to different people, cultures & societies. To say the least, StoryTelling is a free-flowing state of expression & so, it can never be the same.

This versatility in nature that StoryTelling so openly postulates, exposes the artform to different kinds of audience & innumerable instances of being utilized to do what it does best – share & communicate. Two important insights can be drawn from this multifacetedness of StoryTelling.

First, the artform finds utility in every field humans have immersed themselves in. Numerous fields, including the ‘data-heavy’, ‘number-conscious’ corporate world have seen the genesis & perpetual growth of StoryTelling.

‘Business StoryTelling', as it is called, has secured a steady position as a form of communication between businesses & their numerous stakeholders. It aids organizations to emote & tell their narratives to employees & customers letting them see the brand as ‘their own’.

Other important uses of StoryTelling in business are as follows.

(1) StoryTelling gives a personal touch to brands & helps build brand loyalty, thus, enabling business development.

(2) StoryTelling helps brands find their voice amidst the chaotic revelry of other similar brands. Telling a brand’s story gives it a unique identity & is a marketing strategy for young businesses to grow & old businesses to break fixed mindsets & perspectives.

(3) StoryTelling is a tool for creating a rich organizational culture as businesses that use StoryTelling for internal communication encourage a culture of innovation & ownership. StoryTelling inspires & facilitates alignment between employees’ personal stories & the organization’s story, in turn, improving employee engagement & employer brand.

(4) StoryTelling builds an emotional connection with customers & helps them understand the brand’s values & beliefs. This improves traction for the brand as people are now attracted to ‘why’ rather than ‘what’ the business is selling.

(5) StoryTelling humanizes the brand making it less about ‘using’ the products/services & more about ‘interacting’ with the brand’s core values.

The second insight drawn from StoryTelling is about its ‘on-going’ emergence. StoryTelling cannot be seen as an innate ability that only some people have. We are all StoryTellers - the difference lies in who tells their stories & who does not.

This gives StoryTelling a process-orientation & means that there are likely to be several trends in StoryTelling &, so there are!

4 impressive StoryTelling trends for 2021 include:

(1) Data-driven StoryTelling -the art of using Data, Narratives & Visuals to gain & communicate insights from data & turn information into knowledge. With the emergence of Big Data, it is crucial to manage & collate information in presentable ways. Data StoryTelling helps achieve that.

(2) Customer-driven StoryTelling - another emerging trend, gives power to customers to lead the narrative of a brand rather than letting the organization do it for themselves. Influential customers are invited to share their stories about the brand. This helps build customer ownership & loyalty.

(3) StoryTelling for Internal & External Employer Branding – stories help employers build a reputation with their existing employees. Stories also convey the values & vision of an organization to attract talent that is more aligned with the organization’s goals. BlewMinds Consulting, with StoryTelling as their core, has built an impressive employer brand as a learning organization, positively impacting hiring & retention quality.

(4)Influencers & Thought Leaders - direct outcomes of the growing importance of StoryTelling. Influencers now have higher liberty to build the brand of the organization(s) they represent & they use StoryTelling as a powerful medium. Thought Leaders with expert knowledge in their respective fields, network & communicate their knowledge through StoryTelling.

Food for Thought

With the nature of versatility & process-orientation that StoryTelling so boldly endorses, the artform is expanding quickly. A pertinent question to be asked, as StoryTellers is:

How can I create an impact, bring a change, add value with my stories?

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