The Power of Storytelling

We all love stories. From the time we come into the world, people tell us stories. As we grow older, we read stories and we tell our own stories. Some stories are personal, others professional (bios), and sometimes we tell stories for others – business or volunteer for nonprofit).

Why are stories so powerful? Stories have power because they:
· Give voice to our dreams and hopes.
· Tap into our emotions.
· Express creative thought.
· Pass on knowledge that comes from experience.
· Create and nurture collective memory.
· Tell where we’ve been (legacy) and where we are going (envisioned future).

Why do we tell stories (purpose)? We tell stories to:
· Educate (transfer knowledge and traditions).
· Communicate/uphold social and cultural customs, social structure, expectations of behavior.
· Create and reinforce social and cultural bonds (among social, economic, other groups).
· Explain the world (belief systems).
· Entertain.

Sometimes a story has multiple purposes. These stories can have the greatest power because there are many, layered meanings that reinforce each other and give deeper value to the messages.

For societies that did not (and some surviving ones that still do not) have a written language, storytelling – what anthropologists refer to as oral tradition – was the only way to communicate information critical to basic survival and explain the world. There’s even specialization in the storytelling. Some stories were known and could be told by all the society’s elders. Then there were stories that were meant to convey special knowledge and were told by particular individuals in whom this special knowledge resided by virtue of their roles, such as a ritual/spiritual leader or healer.

Even though our society has written language and sophisticated technology to communicate with more people, more quickly and in different geographical places simultaneously, the purposes behind the stories remain the same. The stories are there to help us make sense of the world and our place in it, and to share it with those who, by necessity or invitation, are in our circle.

What are the more important things you need your stories to say about your company / organization?

Stephanie Leibowitz, MA, Anthropologist At Work