Why Storytelling Works in Business
Business storytelling works not because it is persuasive, but because it helps people make sense of complexity, evidence, and change. When grounded in facts, stories move people where data alone cannot.
Editor's Note: This essay is part of the Cultivated canon — a body of work exploring communication as a practical discipline. It sits alongside essays on clarity, sense-making, and leadership, and reflects a core belief of this library: that ideas only become valuable when people can understand and act on them.
Why Storytelling Works in Business
Business storytelling is everywhere — and for good reason.
When it works, it helps people understand complex ideas, align around change, and move into action. When it doesn’t, it becomes little more than decoration: words layered on top of confusion.
The difference is not talent. It is discipline.
Before working in business, I spent time in journalism and editing. I have since been the editor of an industry newspaper and have spent more than two decades creating content across print, web, audio, and video. Long before I consciously thought about “storytelling,” I was practising it.
Good journalism teaches a few enduring lessons. You gather evidence. You verify facts. You decide what matters. You structure information so that someone else can understand it — quickly, clearly, and without distortion.
Those same principles apply directly to work.
In business, storytelling is often misunderstood as persuasion. In reality, it is closer to explanation. Its purpose is not to embellish facts, but to organise them into a form people can grasp.
This is why stories matter.
Facts alone rarely move people. They inform, but they do not orient. A spreadsheet can describe the present, but it cannot easily explain why change is necessary or what role someone plays in it.
Stories do that work.
When done properly, business storytelling remains grounded in evidence. It resists drama. It avoids exaggeration. One of the first lessons I learned in journalism was simple: if in doubt, leave it out. Credibility is fragile, and once lost, it rarely returns.
The most effective stories in organisations are therefore not fictional. They are interpretive. They take today’s reality — data, constraints, pressures, goals — and arrange it into a coherent narrative that explains what is happening, what needs to change, and why.
This is where storytelling becomes future-facing.
A good business story does not ignore difficulty. It names obstacles openly. It acknowledges uncertainty. And then it connects those realities to a credible path forward. People do not need certainty to move — they need clarity.
At its heart, business storytelling is human. It reflects how people experience change, growth and movement: as a journey from a familiar present toward an unfamiliar future, shaped by challenges, trade-offs, and effort along the way.
Current reality. Desired future. Obstacles to overcome.
This structure is not a trick. It is how people make sense of experience.
What matters most is restraint. A strong business story carries one idea. Not a portfolio. Not a strategy document disguised as a narrative. One central thread that people can remember, repeat, and act upon.
Everything else is supporting detail.
Good stories are edited, not expanded. They are tested for clarity, not cleverness. Every sentence earns its place. If it does not move the idea forward, it is removed.
This is why storytelling is a craft, not a performance.
When evidence and narrative work together, stories do something powerful. They allow people to see themselves inside the change. They reduce anxiety by replacing ambiguity with meaning. They create momentum without manipulation.
Stories go where facts cannot — but only when they respect the facts they carry.
Used well, storytelling becomes one of the most responsible tools in organisational life. Used carelessly, it becomes noise.
The difference is intent, discipline, and respect for the audience.
Bibliography
Chantler, P. and Stewart, P. (2009). Essential radio journalism : how to produce and present radio news. London: A. & C. Black.
Jordan (2022). Types of Stories: 7 Story Archetypes (and Ways to Use Them) – NN. [online] Now Novel. Available at: https://www.nownovel.com/blog/types-of-stories-archetypes/ [Accessed 11 Jan. 2023].
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