So, What’s Your Story?

Every organization has a story. For more than three decades, we’ve been helping them figure out how to say, “Once upon a time…”

Works Design

“[Man is] the storytelling animal, the only creature on earth that told itself stories to understand what kind of creature it was.” – Salman Rushdie

Human beings tell stories as part of their basic makeup. It’s how we relate to each other and the world. In fact, most of us tell stories every day, transforming ordinary life events into the tales we want to share with the world.

“You won’t believe what happened on the subway this morning.”

“That crazy doodle was at the park again. Remember the one I told you about?”

“The presentation? We nailed it!”

Telling stories is as natural and essential as breathing.

Yet many organizations struggle to tell their own stories. Aspects of storytelling that come easily when regaling a friend with an unbelievable incident witnessed on your daily commute evaporate when you try to tell the story of your company and its achievements.

So, what’s the problem?

After helping hundreds of organizations tell their stories for more than 30 years, we can tell you what it isn’t. It isn’t that what you and your company do lacks interest.

Making things, providing valuable services, solving problems, employing people and contributing to the economy are interesting.

Your company is interesting. Its story just needs to be told the right way, and that means tapping into the five classic – and proven – elements of long-form storytelling:

• Plot
• Setting
• Characters
• Conflict
• Theme

Embracing these elements will help make your company’s story compelling, exciting, engaging and impactful. And it will do the job you need it to do.

Plot

Typically, this aspect of storytelling is the one reporters are most comfortable and familiar with. At its most basic, a plot is a sequence of events. What did Frodo do after learning that the only way to destroy the One Ring was to throw it into the volcanic fires of Mount Doom, where it was forged? Similarly, if less dire, what did your company do to deliver on its strategy and commitments in fiscal 2025? Answer this question in sequential order, and you’ve got yourself a plot.

Of course, the most interesting stories have subplots, plot twists, and shifts in time and perspective, and your report can too. Any time you focus on the activities and achievements of a particular division, that’s a subplot. Any time you talk about a change in strategy, approach or personnel, that’s a plot twist. These elements add interest to your story, particularly if you can make clear how these subplots and twists contributed to your company’s most noteworthy achievements.

Every fan of detective stories knows that there is nothing quite so satisfying as that final wrap-up, when Holmes, Miss Marple or Columbo gathers the threads of the plot and shows how they lead to the criminal. Do the same with your company’s narrative, and the path to your profitable year-end becomes just as gripping.

Setting

Some companies have it easy in this regard: mining companies with operations in far-flung destinations around the world or global real estate companies with assets in the world’s top financial capitals.

But what if your only location is a collection of offices in Richmond Hill, Ontario? That’s easy. Your setting is the market you operate in, the stage where your story happens and where big events unfold. What businesses and places are impacted by what your company does? What is the timeline of your activities during the year? Time drives the plot and impacts the setting. For storytelling purposes, the past and the future are both locations for action and open the door to answering interesting narrative questions: How did you get where you are? How will you get to where you want to go?

Plot and setting are the aspects of storytelling that most companies can handle with ease. It’s the next three where corporate communicators are a little more tentative.

Characters

Most great stories have memorable protagonists – individuals who drive the central action – and they are often defined by traits, good or bad, that shape how they approach the world. Hamlet is bitter, cynical and uncertain. Portia is intelligent, resourceful and compassionate. Superman is sunny and friendly. Batman is brooding and aloof.

The central character in most corporate communications is the CEO, and that individual’s defining characteristic is being the CEO.

In literary terms, most of the people referenced in corporate reports are “flat characters,” defined by their roles in the organization, not by actual aspects of their character. All senior executives are smart, hard-working and committed to creating stakeholder value. They are almost never quirky, humorous or playful, and are even less likely to be thin-skinned or occasionally cranky.  

In short, they are not human.

We get it. A key goal of corporate communications is to make it clear that an organization is in safe hands. So, a report isn’t a place to be cheeky or to overshare. However, check out the gold standard of CEO communication, Warren Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders, and you’ll see that they let the “sage of Omaha” shine through, capturing his folksy, down-home wisdom and the occasional touch of crankiness.

Using storytelling techniques to reflect on and share the humanity of a company’s people across all dimensions lends weight and substance to the messaging.

Here’s an example: We help produce the sustainability report for an organization where the CEO is a driving force behind the company’s GHG reduction program and other climate change–related initiatives. Each report begins with a message from the CEO, and one letter contained this powerful detail:

“About 10 years ago, I took a cross-Canada bike ride with my family. Among the many great things that came from that trip, it helped remind me of the value of the beauty of our country and the natural world… and I recognized that [our company] had an obligation to help preserve that value for future generations.”

Two simple sentences showed what mattered to this CEO – nature, activity and family – and made it clear that the organization’s commitment to sustainability was genuine and enduring.

Conflict

Millions of people watched Game of Thrones, making it a television phenomenon. Of those millions, not one tuned in to see how nicely everyone was getting along and how smoothly things were going. Conflict makes for great stories. We know this, and yet most corporate communicators get anxious even at the mention of the word “conflict.” So, let’s use a different one.

Challenge

What challenges did your company have to overcome during the reporting year? Make it clear why particular issues were a challenge. Add drama and interest by showing how these challenges put achieving your organizational goals at risk. And it’s OK to share that people in an organization may have had different opinions about how to achieve a particular goal. That shows stakeholders that people are thinking about what they are doing and that they care about how their choices may impact an organization.

By showing the rough patches and being transparent, even when the news isn’t great, you make your organization’s achievements more compelling and more inspiring. Most importantly, you show your team came together to get the job done.

Theme

A theme is much more than just a cover line. In fact, a cover line is not essential; a theme is an organizing principle that adds depth to a story and provides a throughline that connects its elements. A theme also gives an organization a powerful platform for positioning its performance and delivering messages that matter to its stakeholders.

Several years back, a pension plan we worked with made a significant investment in opening and staffing offices in New York, London and Hong Kong. They recognized that to bring in the investment opportunities they needed, it was essential to think globally and have boots on the ground in the world’s leading financial capitals.

Two of the international offices opened, and one expanded in the same fiscal year. The theme for that year’s annual report was “Pensions mean the world to us.”

A theme is perhaps even more valuable when showing how an organization meets challenges. Several years ago, when one of our mining clients had to report on a year in which they lost time at one site due to a fire and then had to close a promising mine due to geotechnical issues, nobody was quite sure how to frame it.

After some discussion, we all agreed that, while we weren’t going to sugar-coat the year’s problems, the company’s strengths far outweighed its weaknesses. So, the cover featured a paragraph that started:

“2011 was a disappointing year for [our company] …”

And ended:

“… without downplaying the challenges, it’s important to acknowledge [our] strengths. The Company has good people, a quality asset base, solid financial performance and an outstanding investment track record with strong potential for more.

“That’s where we stand.”

We later learned that the CEO received many calls and compliments about that year’s bold report theme.

In both cases, these themes truly reflected the reporting year while positioning the organization for the future. That’s what good themes do.

We strongly believe that a report is more effective and that its messages have greater reach and resonance when introduced and supported by a compelling theme. This is especially true as AI increasingly homogenizes corporate communications. In a “sea of same,” a great theme draws an audience in and helps an organization stand out.

Tell Your Story

No human invention comes close to the power of storytelling. Nuclear power can light up a city. A story can move the world. Plot, setting, characters, conflict and theme are the five essential building blocks that will enable you to harness that power with a breakthrough narrative that captures attention and connects with the audiences that matter most.