Narrative Strategy and Storytelling for Organisations
Helping organisations solve communication, engagement and change challenges through story
A senior leader at a global employee experience company opened what she expected to be a routine email marking her fifteenth work anniversary. What she found instead made her cry. Her husband walked in, saw her on her phone in tears. He asked her what was wrong.
Scratch the surface of any human, and you will find a story that matters. The nurse who became a marathon runner after a breakdown. The accountant who grew up on a cattle station. The team leader whose decision to stay home one afternoon changed the trajectory of her family. These aren't dramatic. They don't need to be. They're real, and real is what connects us.
I have facilitated numerous workshops, strategy days, narrative sessions, and conference experiences. Regardless of the setting or participants, a consistent pattern emerges. Typically, the most senior, outspoken, or confident individuals are the first to contribute, filling the room with their perspectives. However, as the session transitions to deeper reflection, it is often a quieter participant who introduces a profound idea, causing everyone to pause and absorb the insight.
What truly separates those who reach mastery from everyone else is not talent, but the ability to keep going when the work feels unremarkable. The consistent effort during ordinary moments is what drives mastery.
Friend and futurist Simon Waller invited me to explore the future of acting on his podcast, The Future with Friends. It led me to a surprising place. The conversation evolved into a discussion about the importance of emotion in navigating life as a human being. It led me to reflect on how emotion shapes communication. Not as something that drives us irrationally as a holdover from our distant past, but as the feature that has allowed humanity to outpace other species and thrive in increasingly complex societies.
Stories make us feel good. Yup, that good. According to novelist and neurologist, Robert Burton, when we hear something with a beginning, middle, and an end, we get a hit of dopamine. Dopamine is our natural feel-good, high chemical. This is why we love and are addicted to stories. From childhood fairytales to novels, to TV…
There was nothing unusual about the small wooden pipe except for a tiny glass rectangle protruding from the bottom of its bowl. This piece of glass is so small it could be easily missed. For those who don't miss it will see a black and white image if they press their eye against it at…
Life is not about the big stuff. Everything that is important is quite small. We tend to think of a person’s life as a long and complex story. A biography shouldn’t be a short easy read right? It should be a complex narrative that examines a person’s loves, struggles, accomplishments and failures. What if I…
“I feel like I have done it all, I have made all of the mistakes and now I am fearless.“ - Paraphrased from an interview with Barak Obama on Marc Maron’s podcast WTF. It is not possible to be completely without fear, it is a natural part of being alive. Another way of looking…
What is letting go? It doesn’t refer to everything, it means removing what is not essential. What is not essential? It is things that consume your time and energy without fulfilling you or moving you forward. So for example, writing a book can be very time consuming, but it also fulfils a deep desire within…
Narrative Strategy and Storytelling for Organisations 