Mastering Storytelling in PR and Internal Communication: A Practical Guide

Welcome to our briefing on storytelling in PR and internal communication.

In this guide: 

Introduction

Definition of storytelling in PR and internal communication

Why storytelling matters: the case for corporate storytelling

Storytelling for employee engagement

Storytelling and culture in organisations

Practical tips for creating compelling stories in both PR and internal comms

Understanding stakeholder engagement in a crisis through storytelling

Structure of compelling stories: rhetoric and semiotics

Storytelling in action: an example from practice

Different narrative patterns: the CAR model for storytelling

How to frame a story for maximum impact

Stephen Denning’s eight different narrative patterns

Storytelling techniques: nested loops

AI and corporate storytelling

Transmedia storytelling for CSR communication

Challenges and misconceptions: the importance of credible and authentic storytelling in business

 

Introduction

We all tell stories. We come home from work and tell a story about what happened that day. We use stories to share our experiences and hope that others may learn from them. Storytelling pre-dates the written word. You could argue that we are programmed to tell and respond to stories.

Storytelling as an ancient human practice and now has relevance in the modern workplace.

In the workplace, corporate storytelling is a growing phenomenon. However, many communication strategies still talk about ‘messages’ which end up as a list of bullet point facts and claims when they would be much more effective woven into a story.

We can consider the importance and power of storytelling in PR and internal comms over traditional messaging in corporate communications. Writing in the Public Relations Strategic Toolkit (available for PR Academy students in our online library), Heather Yaxley points out that a key message approach involves creating consistent statements comprised of predetermined words, phrases and/or sentences, which can be monitored as outputs to be deemed as a measure of successful communication. She says it reflects a transmission approach to communications. That is, the focus is on what the organisation wants to say, rather ensuring others understand, gain a positive impression or empathise with the communications

This briefing is designed to inspire you to help your organisation to communicate more effectively through corporate storytelling with both internal and external stakeholders.

It draws on contributions from PR Academy CIPR PR Diploma course leader Chris Tucker and Dr Liz Yeomans who drafted some of the content for our PR Diploma course, plus articles written by our Diploma students as part of their studies.

We start with some background and theory and then share techniques for storytelling.

Definition of storytelling in PR and internal communication. Is it a story or is it a narrative?

In practice, the terms storytelling and narrative are usually used interchangeably. The term ‘narrative’ perhaps has a more corporate feel to it and may be preferred in organisations where ‘storytelling’ may be thought to imply that something is more superficial and may be made up. Of course, this should not be the case and in this guide, the term storytelling is used mostly.

However, according to storytelling theorist David Boje, there is a difference. Boje links narratives and stories to different types of organisational sensemaking. According to Weick’s sensemaking theory, narratives are part of the meaning-making process of organising, and of particular significance during crises and change. Narratives commonly look to the organisation’s past, using a beginning, middle and end structure, known as retrospective sensemaking, while ‘antenarratives’ look forward and link to prospective sensemaking. In crisis situations and transformational change, antenarratives, or unfinalised story fragments, play an important role in depicting possible future states and a break with past narratives.

Stories, according to Boje, emerge through everyday social interaction (or dialogue); they are spontaneous, and involve multiple storytellers.

Why storytelling matters: the case for corporate storytelling

Change in organisations is now pretty much business as usual. Leaders want to take their employees, shareholders and other stakeholders with them on the journey. They seek support and buy-in to the change. To do this, they need a solid approach to organisational change communication strategy.

The American psychologist Jerome Bruner is often cited in writings about storytelling.  Back in 2007 at the grand age of 91 he spoke to The Guardian Newspaper in the context of teaching in higher education:

Leadership storytelling can inspire and provide a call to action. Writing in Forbes, Stephen Denning says:

Storytelling for employee engagement

The Engage for Success movement has given ‘strategic narrative’ as one of the key enablers for employee engagement.

Your organisation’s story needs to have depth and breadth, but not necessarily length! It needs to enable your people to see the Big Picture, what your organisation’s purpose is, where it has come from, where it is going.

Storytelling and culture in organisations

Stories told about the organisation are one of the three sets of ‘artifacts’ along with physical environment, technology used, products sold, style – as embodied in clothing, published values and observable rituals that Schein says demonstrate to others what the culture of the organisation is.

He says these artifacts are easy to observe, yet difficult to decipher. This is because artifacts can be open to multiple interpretations, some of which may be driven by your own cultural background.

In this context, the stories are likely to be told by employees and maybe other stakeholders about the organisation rather than told by the organisation. It demonstrates the power of storytelling but also reminds us how difficult it is to influence and change culture in the way that an organisation may want.

Corporate storytelling example

Innocent Smoothies has been telling its story since launch back in the late 1990s!

The company talks about how the founders tested their product idea at a festival and asked customers to throw their empty smoothie containers into either the “yes give up your job and do this full time” bin or the “no” bin!

The story has developed since then, but the one about the founding of the company is simple to remember and you can actually visualise it happening!

Practical tips for creating compelling stories in both PR and internal comms

Now let’s look at some models and techniques that help us to understand and to tell stories for effective communication.

Understanding stakeholder engagement in a crisis through storytelling

Understanding storytelling can help us to understand how stakeholders may respond in crisis situations.  Stakeholders may look for a story as a way of explaining an event that may seem shocking or challenging. In fairy stories there can be various roles:

• Hero
• Helper
• Villain
• False Hero
• Donor
• Despatcher
• Sought-for-person

In a crisis, a stakeholder may look for a hero and a villain to make sense or what has happened. The organisation hit by crisis needs to establish the nature of its ‘character’ for quickly indeed.

Structure of compelling stories: rhetoric and semiotics

From a communication perspective, storytelling draws on a number of theories concerned with the study of language – in particular, rhetoric, semiotics and framing. Rhetoric is often written about as concentrating primarily on how the sender of messages and crafter of stories can choose the most effective rhetorical techniques to use to achieve a persuasive outcome such as a change in audience attitudes. Semiotics, by contrast, is seen as involving the audience’s construction of meaning, but brings into play the language of signs, symbols and images, and therefore can be said to broaden the storyteller’s resources to visual and other communication devices.

Framing: the structure of compelling stories with conflict and resolution

When we take photographs, we select what’s to be in the picture and we choose where the focus should be. Framing in public relations storytelling works like this:

We decide which elements to include, which to highlight, and which to omit.

We’re painting a picture with words and telling a story for a persuasive purpose. We creating a compelling narrative out of the apparent chaos of the world.

It’s important to realise that while we can frame an issue in a certain way, others will see it differently.

A five-storey building could be shown to overwhelm a traditional village. Shot from another angle, the same five-storey building could itself be dwarfed by later developments. So is the building tall or not? It’s a question of how it’s framed.

That explains why framing in public relations is a powerful concept, dealing as it does with perceptions and the ‘wrangle in the marketplace’. Oil companies have either enabled a century of rapid development, mobility and urbanisation; or they are in the forefront of environmental destruction. Economic growth or a sustainable planet: it’s a question of framing.

Storytelling in action: an example from practice

In an article written as part of his studies for the CIPR Professional PR Diploma with us at PR Academy, Phil Simon discusses the importance of storytelling in health service communication.

He draws on an example from healthcare – the launch of COVID vaccines in the UK.

The focus was not the number of vaccines being produced or their make up (though that information was clearly communicated), it was the story about Margaret Keenan (known as Maggie), the first person to be vaccinated against the virus in the UK.

Read Phil’s article

Different narrative patterns: the CAR model for storytelling

Paul Smith’s CAR framework sets out a suggested structure for storytelling. His CAR model has three elements –

The context stage includes the introduction of a villain or challenge. The second stage, action, talks about what is done and includes a setback or failure along the way. The final stage, the result, includes a point of learning for the reader or audience.

This technique can be seen in use in observatory documentary making. In the UK, Grand Designs is an example of this. The programme is about people building their own homes. There is inevitably a disaster along the way and setbacks to overcome but it generally all ends well and the presenter draws the programme to a close with some advice and opinion on the build.

Step 1: Create context

The context provides the background information that listeners need in order to make sense of your story. Context needs to address four key questions:

1. Where and when does this story take place?
2. Who is the main character?
3. What does he or she want?
4. Who, or what, is in the way? Every story needs an obstacle or villain.

This can be a person, object, event, or challenge.

Step 2: Describe action

Every great story has action: ups and downs, setbacks, conflicts, failures, and battles.

Step 3: End with result

At the end of your story, you reveal your main character’s fate. You also need to explain, subtly, what the audience should have learnt from this result. What is the moral? Why did you tell this story?

Paul Smith’s book Lead with a Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives That Captivate, Convince and Inspire is available to PR Academy students in our online library.

 

How to frame a story for maximum impact

Stephen Denning’s eight different narrative patterns

Denning says that there is no “right” way to tell a story but he sets out eight different types, according to what the organisation wants to achieve. He calls these “narrative patterns”, four examples are set out here:

• Spark action – springboard stories: describe how it worked in the past while allowing people to see how it could work in their situation
• Communicate who you are: provide drama and some strength or vulnerability from the past
• Transmit values: feel familiar and prompt discussion
• Lead people into the future: evoke the future

Storytelling techniques: nested loops

Nested loops are a technique from Neuro Linguistic Programming – NLP. It is a technique that is designed to keep your audience open and receptive to what you say. The way it works is to start a story but instead of finishing it, start another story, then another.

You close them in turn, ending with the conclusion of your first story.

All the while that you leave a story unfinished, people are receptive because they are waiting for the end of the story.

The British Comedian Ronnie Corbett (1930 – 2016) used this technique during the TV sketch show ‘The Two Ronnies’. He would sit in a comfy chair and start with a funny story or joke that he wouldn’t finish until the end of the sketch. He would have many loops (stories) open in each sketch.

Data driven storytelling

Our go-to text here is Narrative by Numbers: How to Tell Powerful and Purposeful Stories with Data, by Sam Knowles.

In Narrative by Numbers Sam presents us with a formula for success:  Analytics + Storytelling = Influence.

To spell this out, those of us in public relations already know about storytelling; we understand that influence is central to our purpose; we recognise the value of data – but do we know what to do with it? As Knowles writes:

Sam references “five gods” of data storytelling, explains why he has chosen them and what we can learn. The list may surprise you and includes:

• Florence Nightingale: she brought about change to the way patients are treated by showing the data that she had gathered visually.
• Dr John Snow: another Victorian, he established the source of an outbreak of Cholera, looking at data visually on a map.

Read our review of Sam’s book

AI and corporate storytelling

Writing as part of her studies for the CIPR Professional PR Diploma with us at PR Academy, Madalina Lazar argues against automation of storytelling.

She asserts that it is because of human intelligence, that we, PR professionals, are able to build connections with audiences and communicate a brand’s message. Storytelling is a crucial component of PR because it fosters an emotional bond between a business and its audience. It is also a complex process that involves understanding human emotions, cultural values, and psychological motivations.

Her argument is that while AI can create narratives that are logically clear and correct, it frequently struggles to come up with original concepts and ideas or articulate complicated emotions and experiences in a way that people can understand. Why? Because they lack human intelligence.

Do you agree?

Read Madalina’s article

Transmedia storytelling for CSR communication

American academic Timothy Coombs is better known for his extensive work in crisis communication, but he has also written about transmedia storytelling. In his paper on the topic he focuses on the potential application of transmedia storytelling in sustainability communication.

He starts by suggesting that “stakeholders often dislike it when firms promote their CSR efforts – people view the firm more negatively rather than viewing it more positively after hearing the CSR messages and this has been called the ‘Catch-22’ of CSR communication”. To counter this, Coombs argues that “transmedia storytelling and its ability to harness multiple voices and platforms around a coherent set of values that are attractive to stakeholders”.

Coombs concludes that transmedia storytelling is an excellent vehicle for values advocacy through building favourable organizational reputations by praising values that stakeholders find desirable. And the innocuous nature of values advocacy serves to prevent a backlash from CSR communication because it is subtle rather than overt.

 

Challenges and misconceptions: the importance of credible and authentic storytelling in business

In his book Dynamics of Persuasion, Richard Perloff looks at a number of studies on what makes someone a credible communicator and summarises studies in to three attributes:

• Expertise: special skills or know how
• Trustworthy: perceived honesty, character and safety
• Displaying goodwill: caring

Storytelling is an effective way for organisation leaders to position themselves as credible communicators. The approach is to tell a personal story that illustrates these attributes. However, there are some things to think about:

• Expertise: during the Brexit debates in the UK the claim was made that “we have all had enough of experts”. The point is to select an expert who will have resonance with the audience. An expert does not need to have letters after their name; that expertise may have been gained through experience.
• Trustworthy: in her book on change, Julie Hodges talks about Andrea Jung, CEO of Avon Products until 2012, who had to take the organisation through a restructure. She decided against cascade communication and instead travelled the world telling a compelling story of how she saw the future of the company. The approach was credited with making the harsh reality of job losses easier to accept and she was seen as open and honest.
• Goodwill: being an expert is no good if there is no empathy – Perloff uses the example of the doctor/patient relationship to illustrate this. The doctor may be an expert, but without empathy they would not be thought of as a credible communicator.

 

Writing in his book Narrative by Numbers: How to Tell Powerful and Purposeful Stories with Data, Sam Knowles issues a note of caution about experts.

The author warns about the Curse of Knowledge in which experts (such as academics) assume that others share their level of understanding of a subject, and write in a way that excludes. ‘They [academic psychologists] were actively looking to keep others out who weren’t part of their club, their tribe, their niche.’ Knowles rejects jargon as ‘the smokescreen of the insecure’.

A similar point is made by CIPR Professional PR Diploma graduate Dave Poole in an article written as part of his studies with us at PR Academy.

Dave warns that Higher Education is uniquely positioned to provide creative solutions to the myriad issues facing society and achieve “demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to society and the economy” as the Economic and Social Research Council defines impact. However, the virtuous aims contained in extensive mission statements and initiatives like ‘open access’ papers are pointless if effective knowledge communication strategies are neglected.

Read Dave’s article

 

In summary

We hope this storytelling in PR and internal communications briefing has been useful and inspired you to make storytelling part of your external or internal communications. There is so much written about storytelling its hard to cover everything but a few of my favourite takeaways are:

• Data is good – but can you make it into a story (see Sam Knowles work)
• Stories need a structure – think about stories you remember and can repeat with ease – what made them special?
• Fine to have key messages – things that you want people to know and understand – but can you weave them into a story?
• Authenticity matters – if people don’t trust your leaders they won’t believe their story.

Finally, my favourite storytelling tip is the use of Paul Smith’s CAR model for storytelling. I often spot this in use (e.g. Grand Designs!) and for me it always makes a story more compelling.

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Useful links and references

The Public Relations Strategic Toolkit: An Essential Guide to Successful Public Relations Practice. vol. Second edition, Routledge, 2017 by Alison Theaker and Heather Yaxley. For PR Academy students, this book is available on the online library.

Boje, D.M. 2008. Storytelling Organizations. Los Angeles: Sage Publications Ltd.

Coombs, T. 2019. Transmedia storytelling: a potentially vital resource for CSR communication. Corporate Communications: An International Journal. Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 351-367

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