Effective Storytelling Needs Effort Throughout the Organization

Want to tell more and better stories? Experts offer advice on where to start and what to be aware of as you develop what some call “a culture of storytelling” within an organization.

Talk to colleagues

“One of the big things I see people struggle with is that they don’t know where to find stories at their organization, especially if they don’t work directly with programs,” says Vanessa Chase, founder of the charity-consulting firm Storytelling Non-Profit, in Vancouver, B.C. “I always encourage people to start storytelling behavior internally, talking to colleagues and building rapport with them while focusing on the work they are doing. Maybe dedicate the first 10 minutes of staff meetings to storytelling. After you get comfortable telling each other stories, you can model that as your storytelling behavior for the organization.”

Get everyone on board

Once you have decided that storytelling is a priority at your organization, make sure everyone—from those in the mail room to the board room—is mindful of this goal and listens for new stories. “Everyone here knows we want stories,” says Connie French, director of communications and marketing for Health Leads. “Whether people work with clients or physicians or our [volunteers], they know that when they hear a good story, they need to get in touch with our department.”

Respect and protect privacy

For stories about individuals, confidentiality concerns must be thoroughly addressed from the start. “I think it’s certainly best to work with the storyteller directly—to face them and be frank about the ways in which you’d like to be able to repackage their story, and make sure they are comfortable with it and fully understand,” says Gregory Foster, technology manager for Consumers Union, the consumer-protection charity. “Some are not going to want to be in the media and some are going to jump at the chance.”

“Our default position is that we don’t give any identifying information in our stories,” says Ms. French.

Create a ‘story bank’

Most organizations successful in storytelling find it helpful to have a central database for collecting and cataloging stories. Depending on the size of your organization, and the nature of its stories, the scale and sophistication of such a system will vary, from a simple text document on a single computer to a web-based system offering real-time access and advanced search capabilities. (Consumers Union lets nonprofits use its custom web-based story collection and management system for free, at www.stori.es.)

“I have a midsize client with 75 employees and they have an internal intranet that includes a ‘Submit your Stories Button,’ ” says Ms. Chase.

Use social media

“I don’t think you can tweet a successful story in 140 characters, but you can use Twitter to point people to a story,” says Andy Goodman, a charity consultant in Los Angeles and author of the book Storytelling as Best Practice.

“With Instagram, you can use a picture that invokes a story or connects to a larger story,” continues Mr. Goodman. “And so social media can be great in terms of directing people to the fuller story. Of course, you will have some media, like video or audio slide shows, where you can tell stories directly.”