The power ‘strategic storytelling’ has in employee engagement

Employee engagement is an important consideration. When employees are focused and engaged in their work, they produce better results. So, how can “strategic storytelling” help?

Boosting engagement should be a top consideration for leaders. According to Jostle, employee engagement is important because:

1. Engaged employees boost productivity.
2. Employee engagement increases customer satisfaction.
3. You’ll retain your best people.
4. Employee engagement enhances company culture.
5. Engagement is a symptom of success.

A great way to engage employees is through presentations. However, if not done correctly, a presentation can fall flat.

According to business strategist David Fish, engaging presentations can be achieved through the art of strategic storytelling.

“The purpose of thinking about a presentation or piece of communication as a strategic story is to bring a structure to how important information is shared,” Mr Fish explained.

“It is about marrying the science of storytelling with strategic communication. It is a way to ensure that what is shared is easy to understand and impossible to misinterpret.”

This approach to communication means employees are focused on the information being presented. Not only will this help keep staff engaged, but it will also assist in conveying messages more effectively.

Mr Fish believes this approach can help employers to boost their communication skills: “It helps ensure the message is tuned to the audience. It then helps refine the content to give it structure, flow and remove superfluous or excessive content.”

“This approach also ensures that the audience is drawn in to connect with the narrative straightway. This increases their attention and makes keeping them engaged and following along easier right up to the final, conclusive resolution of the story.”

He continued: “This approach is designed to increase understanding of the core message, aid recall and the memorability of key points.”

Presentations are an integral part of many team leaders. By harnessing communication skills and adding strategic storytelling to them, employers can help drive home a stronger message.

“Businesses rely on presentations to communicate both internally and externally. Whether that’s to engage and motivate teams, position within the market, attract new customers or ensure existing customers stay connected to the brand with ongoing access to updates and new products,” said Mr Fish.

“When they fail to deliver the message and connect, teams waste time going back over the content. Key decisions can be slowed down; even the wrong decisions can be made because of a lack of understanding or poor recall of key points. Externally, customers only buy when they leave presentations with clarity.”

Jack Campbell

Jack is the editor at HR Leader.