With origins dating back to prehistoric times, storytelling has long been a way to pass down knowledge and wisdom to future generations. As human civilization has evolved, so have the methods of storytelling: Visual and oral tradition led to written texts and eventually to digital and multimedia narratives.

Today, stories look quite different from the scenes that the earliest human generations painted on cave walls as a form of communication. A story might take the form of a 30-second TikTok video, a podcast conversation with a subject matter expert or as an audio or e-book. Although the medium through which stories are delivered has evolved, the purpose of storytelling remains the same — to convey knowledge, real-world experiences and lessons learned in an engaging and memorable way.

Through stories, training professionals can better explain and connect complex concepts to learners’ everyday job roles. In doing so, they can improve learner engagement and knowledge retention, both of which remain major hurdles to effective training.

Let’s explore how learning leaders can build and leverage storytelling skills for more impactful training programs.

Storytelling: A Key Skill for Learning Professionals

In the context of corporate learning and development (L&D), storytelling is “a skill that is useful for instilling some sort of personal connection to the material that you’re describing,” says Ken Stockman, an L&D leader and former senior L&D strategist at IBM Consulting.

“If I’m telling you the right story at the right time, you’re much more likely to recall what I’ve told you,” Stockman says. “You’re much more likely to relate to the material a lot better, particularly because it may be a bit more personal … you could identify with a character or the situation or the context.”

Patti Sanchez, an author, speaker, facilitator and owner and principal at PattiSan Communication, says, “Storytelling is a skill that can help people influence and persuade other people.” Whether it’s to gain stakeholder buy-in and support for their programs or to demonstrate impact, storytelling skills are a “really necessary” tool for L&D leaders.

Ultimately, stories help people connect personally to training content, says Makana A. L. Agcaoili, manager of diversity, equity and inclusion at Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon. “You can spend hours training someone on anything, but if you don’t have a really personal story that gets people to say ‘Oh, I understand that. I get that,’ they’re not going to remember it afterwards. And that’s really why storytelling is so important. That’s what’s going to connect all the hard work people have done with research and creating content, to actually seeing behavior changes afterwards.’”

The Neuroscience of Storytelling

When considering how stories can improve engagement and retention, it’s helpful to consider the neuroscience of storytelling. Stories activate multiple parts of the brain, including the brain region involved in social interactions. Stories also create mental images and trigger “neural coupling,” where the listener’s brain activity mirrors the storyteller’s. This helps listeners absorb information more effectively, leading to better learning recall and memory retention.

A good story engages the listener through a process called “narrative transport,” which essentially is the experience of being immersed or “lost” in a story.

A learner is much more likely to be absorbed by a captivating story than by a lengthy PowerPoint presentation or lecture. This is why we’re more likely to remember the stories we heard growing up, and the lessons they taught us, than we are to remember most concepts or facts we learned in school, Stockman says.

How to Build Your Storytelling Skills

While not everyone is born a gifted storyteller, storytelling is fortunately a skill that can be learned.

Here are some tips for building your storytelling skills:

• Don’t be afraid to “borrow” stories: Some learning leaders may be hesitant to embrace stories in their programs if they don’t feel they have a relevant or related story to share, Stockman says. In these cases, it’s OK to borrow stories from others. There are many publicly available stories through books, podcasts, videos and other mediums that you can leverage. Or, without sharing personal or identifying details (unless you are granted permission), you may opt to share a story about a learner you trained or coached and how they applied their newfound skills on the job.
• Be strategic with the stories you share: A good story is personal and helps to build connection with your learners, but it should also remain professional and applicable to the training context. When telling personal stories, it’s important to avoid oversharing. A more strategic approach is to “think about your audience first and choose a story that’s going to speak to a thing they’re trying to get better at, or a situation that they’re struggling with,” Sanchez says.
• Become familiar with “The Hero’s Journey”: The Hero’s Journey is a popular storytelling framework used in stories across cultures. It follows a protagonist (the “hero”) as they embark on an adventure, face challenges and, ultimately return “transformed.” For L&D professionals, this formula is effective because it mirrors the learning process: Learners are the heroes on a journey to gain new knowledge or skills. By framing learning experiences as a Hero’s Journey, learning leaders can make training experiences more engaging and memorable for the learner.

Storytelling in Different Delivery Formats

Storytelling is “fundamentally the same skill” whether your training program is in person or virtual, Sanchez says. However, in virtual formats, learners may become distracted. To maintain engagement, consider incorporating multimedia elements like videos, visuals and polls throughout your session, or break up the content with micro-breaks to help learners stay focused.

In a virtual format, you also can’t use as many visual cues, such as body language, as you could when telling a story in person, so it’s important to be intentional with your tone of voice. You can also use tools like breakout rooms to encourage interaction and discussion.

Real-World Example

Let’s consider a real-world example of incorporating storytelling into training.

At a prior company he worked with, Agcaoili created a global diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) curriculum. As he was creating the curriculum, he spoke with his peers about the importance of storytelling, which is especially important in DEI programs “because there’s so much misunderstanding around what the work really is.”

The very first training employees went through during onboarding was a 30-minute conversation about what it means to feel included. Agcaoili says, “We didn’t talk about defining diversity, defining equity [or] talk about systems of oppression, because that’s way too big of an ask to talk about with an employee on day five.” However, “We can expect every employee to want to do something to make their team feel valued and heard.”

During the training, employees were simply asked to share a time when they felt included. Even so, some learners were visibly uncomfortable “because of their preconceptions about what DEI work is.” As people shared their stories, however, people became engaged in the conversation and began to share similar experiences with one another. “That’s the powerful part of storytelling,” Agcaoili says. “If you use it intelligently in training, you can get so much more engagement in that space.”

Conclusion

In a time when technology enables instant communication, genuine human connection remains rare due to the constant distractions we face.

Storytelling is a powerful tool L&D professionals can use to bridge this gap, fostering deeper connections with learners. By building storytelling skills, learning leaders will be positioned to deliver engaging learning programs that drive knowledge retention and behavior change back on the job.