How can you effectively communicate a company's values through storytelling during a corporate presentation?

1 Why storytelling matters

Storytelling is not just a way to entertain or inform. It is also a way to influence and persuade. Stories can capture the attention, emotions, and imagination of your audience, and make them more receptive to your message. Stories can also help you establish credibility, trust, and rapport, and show your personality and passion. By telling stories that illustrate your company's values, you can demonstrate how they guide your actions, decisions, and goals, and why they matter to your audience.

2 How to choose the right stories

Not all stories are equally effective for communicating your company's values. You need to choose stories that are relevant, authentic, and memorable. Relevance means that your stories should relate to your audience's needs, interests, or challenges, and show how your company's values can help them. Authenticity means that your stories should reflect your company's true identity, culture, and purpose, and not be exaggerated or fabricated. Memorability means that your stories should have a clear structure, a compelling plot, and a meaningful message, and not be too long or boring.

3 How to structure your stories

A good story has three main parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. The beginning sets the scene, introduces the characters, and establishes the context. The middle builds the tension, presents the conflict, and shows the actions. The end resolves the conflict, reveals the outcome, and delivers the message. A simple way to structure your stories is to use the STAR method: Situation, Task, Action, Result. This method helps you describe the situation you faced, the task you had to accomplish, the action you took, and the result you achieved.

4 How to deliver your stories

The way you deliver your stories can make a big difference in how they are perceived and remembered by your audience. You need to use your voice, body language, and visuals to enhance your stories and make them more engaging. Voice: Use a clear, confident, and expressive voice. Vary your tone, pitch, pace, and volume to convey emotion, emphasis, and suspense. Avoid filler words, jargon, and acronyms. Body language: Use eye contact, gestures, facial expressions, and posture to show enthusiasm, confidence, and connection. Avoid distracting habits, such as fidgeting, crossing your arms, or looking at your notes. Visuals: Use slides, images, videos, or props to support your stories and make them more vivid. Avoid cluttering your visuals with too much text, data, or graphics.

5 How to connect your stories to your values

The last step is to connect your stories to your company's values and show how they relate to your presentation topic and objective. You need to make the link between your stories and your values clear and explicit, and not leave it to your audience to figure it out. You can do this by using transitions, summaries, or questions to bridge your stories and your values. For example, you can say: "This story shows how we value innovation and creativity in our company." Or, "How does this story relate to our value of excellence?" Or, "To summarize, this story illustrates our value of teamwork and collaboration."

By using storytelling, you can effectively communicate your company's values and create a lasting impression on your audience. You can use storytelling to capture their attention, emotions, and imagination, and make them more receptive to your message. You can also use storytelling to establish credibility, trust, and rapport, and show your personality and passion. Remember to choose stories that are relevant, authentic, and memorable, structure them with the STAR method, deliver them with voice, body language, and visuals, and connect them to your values with transitions, summaries, or questions.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?