4 ways good storytelling can improve internal communications

We all love a good story and good storytelling is one of the most important tools in the internal comms toolkit. But what makes storytelling such a powerful form of communication?

Stories resonate with people. They bond people to each other.

“Stories teach us about other people and it’s a practice in empathy and theory of mind,” says Joseph Carroll at the University of Missouri-St Louis, in an interview with the BBC.

Brain scans have shown that reading or hearing stories activates various areas of the cortex that are known to be involved in social and emotional processing, and the more people read stories, the easier they find it to empathise with other people.

Still need convincing? Here are four reasons why storytelling is your secret weapon for successful and effective internal comms.

Use stories to communicate the values and culture of your company in a way that is engaging and memorable.

When employees hear stories that illustrate the importance of things like teamwork, innovation, collaboration or customer service, they are more likely to understand and live these values.

Inspire and motivate employees by sharing stories that highlight the successes and accomplishments of individuals or teams within your organisation.

When employees see that their work is making a difference and contributing to the success of the company, they are more likely to be engaged and motivated.

Create a sense of community and connection among employees by using stories to highlight shared experiences, challenges, or successes.

When employees feel a sense of belonging and connection to their colleagues, and the organisation as a whole, they are more likely to be invested in their work and committed to the company’s success.

Stories are more memorable than dry facts and figures.

According to a London Business School study, storytelling can drive the retention rate of your audience up to as much as 65–70 per cent, so try using storytelling to communicate important information.

When employees remember the stories behind key initiatives, strategies, or policies, they are more likely to understand and follow them.

By using stories to communicate values, inspire and motivate employees, create a sense of community, and improve knowledge retention, you can create a more engaged and effective workforce.

And Involv Intranet can help.

While the right communications matrix will vary on the company, needs of its people, and the type of work they do – one thing that remains constant is the need for good stories.

A modern intranet has many effective tools to help internal comms teams to publish and promote great stories.

Here are some of the ways how….

Bite-sized content

Intranets with a flexible and customisable layout allow important news to be condensed into short ’n‘ snappy, visible content. Surface a short post from Yammer, highlight bullet points on a digital screen, publish a 15-second audio soundbite from the CEO.

Human stories

Personal stories and success stories are important for humanising the business. They need to be less ‘suit and tie’, and more fun and engaging to help build the culture. Use customisable templates to design pages that have a wow factor, emulating your external website for your internal audience.

Reaching audiences

Using your intranet’s audience targeting feature you can tailor your news, events, jobs, FAQs, incidents and apps to your myriad of workers, even those with irregular working patterns. With audience targeting, you can tag and tailor content by department or role which helps distinguish between ‘need to know’ or ‘nice to know’… thus reducing information overload.

Informing & aligning employees

From corporate news to births, new starters, promotions and retirees use your intranet to celebrate your employees and their milestones. Use your ‘recent hires’ feature to display who colleagues are, what they do, how to reach them.

Empower colleagues to tell their stories

In an age where everyone is a communicator, who should create content in your organisation? Use permissions and approval workflows, with pre-set content templates, to confidently hand over the content creation to your colleagues.

What’s working well?

Reflecting on which content is resonating is an important part of an internal comm’s role… with analytics you can see what content’s being consumed, when and by whom in an easy-to-use dashboard.

Find out how Involv can provide the tools to facilitate great storytelling by downloading our ebook.

Or why not book a demo and speak with one of our friendly intranet experts?

We know a great story about an award-winning intranet…