The 3M company is currently using stories as part of its business planning to generate excitement and commitment. Their strategic stories set the stage, introduce dramatic conflict and outline the challenges the company is facing, and reach a resolution which outlines the organization s approach to the future. The advice of both articles is being picked up as required reading by every strategy course syllabus I found on the net.
Stories can be the best way to package meaning and spur others on to achieve.
At the most basic level, storytelling can help a manager gain and hold his audience's attention. Harvard marketeer, Gerald Zaltman has the focus groups telling stories about metaphors to tea se out their most inner feelings. There's no way anyone would admit that in a focus group. Digital storytelling retreats are teaching corporate executives how to combine storytelling with the latest in digital technology to give their strategies customer appeal. You can gather lo ts of stories without paying those focus group costs.