A common question I am asked during my workshops is ‘Can you have too many stories?’. There seems to be a concern, as storytelling grows in popularity in business, that people will start overusing stories in their communications.

Business Communications

Before I answer the question of ‘Can you have too many stories?’, let me first share what we currently use way too much when it comes to business communication.

1. Text heavy slides with bullet point after bullet point.
2. Presentations that should be conversations.
3. Bias towards logic and data with very little or no emotion.
4. Detailed graphs that are barely legible let alone understandable.

When it comes to sharing stories in business communication, I see four consequences when leaders have not been trained around how to use stories properly.

1. Stories without a clear message so the audience is left wondering ‘what was that about?’.
2. Stories that are not succinct which means the audience has switched off before the story finishes.
3. Not understanding the audience, resulting in a good story being used for the wrong situation.
4. Including too much data in a story that reduces the emotional connection and impact.

When the above happens, it starts to feel like we are using too many stories. But what is happening is that people are not sharing stories skilfully.

Correct use of Stories in Business

When people are trained in sharing stories effectively in business, they invest the time to prepare and practise their stories. With the correct training, there is little chance we will ever reach the situation where we are overusing stories. Remember, stories engage people with your message. At the moment business communications overuse text heavy bullet points that enrage people.

Learn how to share stories effectively

If you are in the business of communicating, leading or influencing then I invite you to consider how to learn about sharing stories more effectively in business. Obviously, I can help with that if you like. My public workshops for 2019 are listed below or contact us to discuss an in-house workshop for your team or business.

1st March – Melbourne

20th March – New York

27th March – San Francisco

P.S. Early bird pricing is available until the end of the year.