Telling Tales
Storytelling and social change
How can you make business topics more exciting, relatable and memorable for students and other audiences? Picture the scene: it’s September, the leaves are beginning to fall... your lecture theatre is full of new students ready to learn about management strategy. They look up to the presentation slides but instead of business theory, the Hollywood actor Mark Ruffalo, surrounded by cows, fills the screen...
research into storytelling for social impact crosses over with his teaching here at Sussex. There are lots of techniques we can use to communicate our research better, and to make our teaching engaging and meaningful for students.
What films can tell us about storytelling for change
Films can change perceptions about topics and encourage people to understand the world in new ways. Blackfish, a documentary about orca whales in captivity, led to pressure on the company SeaWorld to change their business model, and to legislation to protect animal welfare in the USA. The documentary unpacks the cruelty and tragedy surrounding sea mammals being used for entertainment, and the death of a SeaWorld trainer. The film made an emotional connection with audiences. Along with powerful campaigns for animal welfare, it led to pressure on corporate sponsors, a drop in revenue and decreased market value for SeaWorld. I use this film in my teaching as just one example of the power of storytelling for social change.
Touching visuals and emotional storytelling have the capacity to expand student minds beyond conventional textbook teaching.” Professor Stephan Manning
Using storytelling to teach complex business issues: case studies
A film inspired by true events, Dark Waters with Mark Ruffalo (2015), teaches multi-stakeholder processes in the context of corporate misconduct. It translates an abstract, legally complicated topic into a character-driven story that is much more relatable.
A defence lawyer joins forces with a cow farmer to tackle a big chemical company’s local water pollution, despite the fact that they're a big client at his law firm. The ethical dilemma at the heart of the film connects with students — what would you do if you were in the lawyer’s shoes? Would you take a case that is against your own career interests? Using Gareth Morgan’s book, Images of Organisation, we consider decisions as outcomes of partly overlapping, partly conflicting considerations like the nature of the task, career ambitions and aspects like personal values and interests.
The film is also a consideration of power. I can use this to draw out further questions for the class. We can explore the idea of marginalised stakeholders like the farmer, who is taking on a big company and gaining alliances by bringing in emotionally invested people to join him. We can go beyond a textbook case and ask what else could these characters do to support their cause? Who are all the stakeholders? We can fully explore all the issues raised and how they relate to business practices.
Outside of the classroom, the power of Dark Waters’ storytelling has led policymakers to propose bans on dangerous so-called “forever chemicals”, and several companies have pledged to stop using them.
Business stories
Storytelling is not just a useful way of creating meaning, making an emotional connection and facilitating learning across disciplines. It has a practical application and can be used as a tool in different aspects of business. 
Strategic leadership
Developing a strategy for an organisation requires leadership, and it’s about communication and storytelling. Your strategy touches on aspects like where did we come from? What’s our situation as an organisation? Where do we want to go and how will we get there? It’s the story that you need to tell your employees, to help them understand where the organisation is going, and to get on board with its mission and values.
Entrepreneurship
As an entrepreneur you’ll need to build a story world to successfully convince investors. How good are you at convincing others that your business idea will work? Your story shows where you come from, your experiences and what challenges you may’ve faced. It shows your vision of the future and how your product can work in the world. Storytelling is a way to define your business.
Getting technical
We can enhance teaching or our research presentation using the following techniques:
- Layers of storytelling: telling a story on multiple levels – from specific details to broader, deeper themes. By addressing what the story is about (the characters and interactions), what it's really about (typical struggles and journeys people go through), and then what it fundamentally represents (the norms and values guiding us), we can engage the audience more effectively.
- Three-act structure: structuring research like a story, with a clear beginning (setup), middle (conflict), and end (resolution), helps make complex ideas more accessible and keeps the audience engaged.
- Character-driven stories: focusing on characters, whether real or fictional, allows readers to connect emotionally with the narrative. This approach can make complex topics like corporate misconduct or multi-stakeholder processes more relatable and memorable.
- Building stories from scenes: breaking down research into vivid, memorable scenes or moments that illustrate key concepts or interactions can make theoretical ideas clearer, and adds depth to the story. You can vary these scenes for direct comparisons and to help the audience see how interactions can play out in changing contexts.
- Visual and emotional impact: integrating films, music, art or anecdotes into research presentations can create emotional connections with the audience. Using different methods of communication in teaching can showcase complex dilemmas and make topics like ethics or strategy more exciting.
- Personal and ethical storytelling: sharing personal experiences or role-modelling through stories can inspire students and make academic teaching more meaningful.
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