Building narratives and stories

Throughout time, storytelling and narrative has been a powerful way of sharing insights and ideas in a way that is memorable, persuasive, and engaging.

People hear facts, but they feel stories.

As part of message design, we build narratives and stories that inspire and engage – stories that encapsulate a vision, help to communicate a strategy, or represent a culture.

Why?

The first step is to understand the context of the narrative – it is vital to keep a strong focus on the purpose of the story.

What are we trying to achieve? Do we want to:

• spark action?

• help people to understand something new?

• share knowledge?

• lead people into something new?

Different story purposes need different storytelling approaches.

Who?

It is vital to understand our audience.

• Who are they?

• Why are we telling them this?

• What information do they need? (Which is not necessarily the same as the information we want to give them!)

• How much do they understand the context?

Once we get inside the heads of our audience, we can make sure that we tailor our message to make sure it has the greatest impact.

What?

Once we understand why and who, we can then start to structure the story, using context-setting, build-up, peak, morals and the use of emotion where appropriate.

Evaluation and learning

It is important to understand our impact:

• Did we communicate the right message?

• Did it get the anticipated reaction or behaviour from the audience?

Understanding the answers to these questions helps us to understand what’s working, and how we might make it even better next time.

Torchbearing uses an improvement approach to test new approaches, measure the outcomes and plan for the future.

We can help you improve your presentation and message design