"Corporate Narratives We're Passionate About: An Insight into Employee Satisfaction"
Business Storytelling: A Frustrating Puzzle
Storytelling consultants, such as Shawn Callahan, encounter numerous challenges in the corporate world. While meeting a myriad of people and listening to a plethora of stories can be intriguing, the job also presents drawbacks, with misconceptions about storytelling being a major issue.
Callahan, author of "Putting Stories to Work: Mastering Business Storytelling," expresses his frustration when businesses claim to value storytelling but fail to understand its concepts. This misconception often leads to the repetition of the same disappointing routine: businesses eagerly showcase their own unsuccessful storytelling attempts to Callahan, only to expect him to approve them. However, he often finds himself explaining that merely talking without a compelling narrative does not count as storytelling.
One of Callahan's solutions to this problem is his YouTube tutorial, "Spotting Stories," which guides clients in identifying the elements that make a story effective. The confusion and misunderstanding surrounding storytelling echo the sentiments of theorists such as Roland Barthes, who question the universality of narrative and its importance.
The lack of a universally agreed-upon definition of storytelling has challenged experts, as noted by Kimiz Dalkir and Erica Wiseman in their survey of organizational storytelling. This uncertainty has raised doubts about the scientific nature of storytelling, leading to hesitation and confusion.
One notable example of this dilemma is oceanographer and professional storyteller Kendall Haven. Despite his extensive experience in storytelling workshops and publications, he struggled to provide persuasive evidence of his methods' effectiveness when challenged by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. After exhaustive research, Haven failed to establish a reliable definition of storytelling, as his circular reasoning and simplistic conclusions did not satisfy his critics.
In his book "Story Proof: The Science behind the Startling Power of Story," Haven attempted to reframe the argument by starting with the results of scientific research. He argued that the human brain is evolutionarily preprogrammed to process narrative structures, thereby deriving a definition for a story. However, the simplicity of his definition and the circular reasoning in his argument have been criticized.
Despite these challenges, the quest to define storytelling persists. Callahan emphasizes the importance of pinpointing the elements of a story, such as time, place, character, and surprise, while warning of the potential drawback – an overabundance of perceived narratives in everyday life. This highlights the delicate balance between the ubiquity and meaninglessness of narrative.
Businesses in the realm of finance and technology often grapple with the same frustrating puzzle as Callahan, who finds many organizations claiming to value storytelling in their business operations, but lacking a deep understanding of its concepts. This lack of comprehension can result in ineffective storytelling efforts, leading to disappointment and misguided attempts to seek approval for unclear narratives.
