Using Storytelling in Training Sessions

After decades of working with leaders at companies like Apple, Salesforce, and Cisco, we've identified 4 storytelling techniques that consistently work to deliver important messages in high-stakes settings: 1. Start with the unexpected Don’t begin your presentation with context. Instead, begin with the moment that makes people think, “Wait…what?” Instead of something like: “Here’s an update on our September campaign…” Try starting with the most interesting detail: “I broke our biggest marketing rule last month, and it worked.” Lead with the surprise. You can add context later. 2. Let people feel the tension After the surprise, don’t rewind to the beginning. Take your audience to the moment where things weren’t working. Flat numbers. Missed goals. Stalled progress. Instead of: “The campaign was underperforming, and our team went back to the drawing board.” Try:  "We were two weeks out from the end of the quarter. The campaign wasn’t producing results, and the team was out of ideas. That’s when I decided to take a risk...” You don’t need to explain the problem. You need to make people feel it. 3. Use real dialogue When your audience hears what was actually said, they stop listening to you and start visualizing the moment. This helps them connect emotionally with what you’re saying. Instead of: “The campaign manager said team morale was low and they were struggling to find a solution.” Try: “My campaign manager pulled me aside in the hallway and said, ‘We’ve tried everything. The team has been working overtime, and we don’t know what else to do.’” Dialogue brings listeners into the moment with you. It makes the story real. 4. Share the lesson Never assume people will infer the meaning you intended. End your story by answering: - What does this mean? - How should someone act differently now? Example: “Breaking our biggest marketing rule helped us turn this campaign around and hit our numbers. I strongly suggest we revisit our marketing guidelines. We could be leaving a ton of revenue on the table.” Without the lesson being clear, even a good story feels unfinished. These are the same techniques we teach to our clients at Duarte. Try them out during your next presentation and watch how people lean forward and tune in to your message. #ExecutivePresence #BusinessStorytelling #PresentationSkills

The Emotional Suitcase: A Narrative Therapy Technique The Emotional Suitcase is a metaphor-driven journaling exercise rooted in Narrative Therapy. It invites participants to imagine their emotions, memories, and beliefs as items packed inside a suitcase—some intentionally chosen, others inherited or stuffed in without consent. Through guided reflection, individuals explore what they’ve been carrying, what still serves them, and what they’re ready to unpack or leave behind. This technique externalizes emotional experiences, allowing participants to separate their identity from their pain. By naming and visualizing the contents of their suitcase—grief, guilt, resilience, hope—they begin to re-author their story with clarity and compassion. In my seminars, we use tactile prompts like fabric swatches, stickers, and symbolic objects to deepen the metaphor. Participants might “repack” their suitcase with legacy items, emotional tools, or affirmations that reflect who they are becoming—not just what they’ve survived. Whether used in grief coaching, counseling settings, or group retreats, the Emotional Suitcase offers a gentle, creative path toward emotional healing and narrative transformation.

🤔Ever heard of the “primacy recency effect”? People tend to remember mainly how you start and end a meeting. Therefore, the way you conclude your session imprints on the memory of your participants and should not be a careless afterthought. 💡 Coming back to the 5E #experiencedesign model, the 4th stage is the #EXIT. WHAT NOT TO DO: 👎 End with a Q&A - it puts people in a questioning state of mind and does not help them feel the learning journey has landed 👎 End with logistics - these can be the 2nd to last thing you do but people remember emotional feelings like connection or ending on a fun / high so make the end count! WHAT TO DO INSTEAD: 👍 End with action steps - This can be as simple as asking everyone to type into the chat or share out loud how they will use this #experience and the learning outcomes moving forward 🎯It’s easy for participants to say they want to do EVERYTHING they learned, but that’s not how #behaviorchange happens. People can get overwhelmed trying to take on too much and eventually give up. It’s much more realistic to have participants pinpoint 1 or 2 key focus areas so they can manage to achieve their goals! 👍 End with #connection - leave the meeting on a high and memorable note! The mere act of ending with a connecting activity helps to foster a feeling of belonging in the group, which may very much encourage them to come back for another workshop! 🤝 For today’s #TrainerToolTuesday, here are some ideas for better closings: 💡Invite everyone to self-reflect with music to the question 🤔 What’s an observable behavior / actionable takeaway / intention / challenge / next step (pick your fav!) you want to be sure to put into practice after this event? 💡For small groups: Go around the Zoom circle and ask each person to share out loud their key takeaways or learning outcomes and at least one action they will take to apply their learning 💡For large groups: Encourage them to share in the chat their response to the prompt 💡 Create accountability partners to help them put the learning into practice Make breakout rooms for participants to share their next action steps and even find ways to support each other and/or set specific deadlines by when they will meet and report on their progress. 💡Have everyone pick an image card that describes how they are feeling leaving the training 💡End with a gratitude circle / chatterfall having participants share with one another what they appreciate about each other 💡 Collaborative drawing activity to re-create a collective visual image of the training (great for longer programs) 💡 1 minute Rampage of Appreciation for participants to celebrate themselves for their effort and growth throughout the learning process 💡 End with music, zoom waves (spirit fingers), virtual high fives, and even a dance party. Ask everyone to unmute and say goodbye all together before exiting. 🧐 What are YOUR favorite ways to end a #learningexperience? Let me know below👇

Turn Your Stories into Powerful Experiences Do you want to make your stories more impactful? It’s simple: lead with value. When you do, your stories become more than just tales—they become meaningful experiences that resonate and inspire action. Here’s how: Start with Purpose 🎯 Every story should have a purpose. Make sure it aligns with what your audience cares about. Example: “I’m sharing this because it taught me a crucial lesson about resilience that might help you during tough times.” Focus on Takeaways 📚 Share the lessons you’ve learned and how they can benefit your audience. Example: “After multiple rejections, I learned persistence pays off. Each ‘no’ brings you closer to a ‘yes.’” Make It Relatable 🌍 Connect by sharing experiences that resonate with your audience. Example: “I used to be terrified of making mistakes. But everyone feels that way at some point—it’s how we grow.” Offer Practical Advice 🛠️ Give your audience something they can use right away. Example: “When overwhelmed by a big task, break it into smaller, manageable pieces. It works!” Encourage Reflection 🤔 Prompt your audience to think about their own experiences and growth. Example: “How have you challenged yourself recently? What did you learn?” Connect to Big Ideas 🌐 Relate your story to universal themes like resilience or leadership. Example: “Leadership is about guiding others through uncertainty—something I learned firsthand.” End with Action 🌟 Inspire your audience to take action based on your story. Example: “Conquer your fears by facing them head-on. Start today—it’s worth it.” Lead with value; your stories will do more than engage—they’ll empower. --- Hi, I’m Anna Ong, an ex-banker turned storyteller. I'm the creator and host of What's Your Story Slam, a show where people share powerful personal stories. Imagine stand-up comedy but with stories instead of jokes. Want to bring storytelling magic to your life or organisation? DM me, and let's chat!

The Blueprint: How to Build an Employee Ambassador Programme Every company will tell you their people are their biggest asset. But if you look closely, most treat them like a line on a balance sheet, not a path in their brand story. And there lies the problem. We're in an era where audiences don’t just want to see what a company does, they want to understand who’s behind it, what they believe in, and how they show up in the world. That’s why Employee Ambassadors matter. Because their voice creates both. And just like any marketing channel, their impact is exponential when it’s built with intention. Here’s my top level blueprint I wish every brand had: 1️⃣ Identify your natural storytellers Every business has them, your culture carriers, A-players, internal influencers. You don’t need everyone posting, just empower those who already live your values and can translate them externally. 2️⃣ Provide frameworks, not scripts People connect with voices, not scripted copy. Give your team clarity on what stories matter, not pre-approved captions. Define key themes and moments and let them share through their own perspective. 3️⃣ Teach storytelling as a brand skill Storytelling isn’t a “nice-to-have”, it’s a competitive advantage. If your team can clearly explain what you do, why it matters, and who it helps, you’ve built an organic marketing engine. Lead learning and development workshops on finding your voice, storytelling and delivery. Give them the tools and they’ll give you the content. 4️⃣ Recognise and reward visibility We celebrate sales and KPIs, but rarely celebrate the people who build trust equity for the brand. Visibility *is* brand contribution. When employees grow an audience or earn industry credibility, the whole business benefits. Acknowledge it. Incentivise it. Celebrate it. Build it into culture. 5️⃣ Build a two-way feedback loop The best advocacy systems work both ways. Leaders give visibility, employees bring insight back. That exchange keeps both sides accountable, aligned, and moving in the same direction. It prevents disconnects, ensures consistency, and turns advocacy into a source of growth - not risk. 🤝 When this system is implemented, your people become living extensions of your brand’s promise. And collectively, they build something no campaign ever could: human trust at scale. Employee Ambassadors don’t just grow your audience, they grow your authority.  Next week, I’ll unpack the business advantage - how visibility turns into real commercial value. Drop your questions, thoughts, challenges below! - 👋 I’m Grace Andrews - brand & marketing educator, creator-entrepreneur, and former Brand Director for Steven Bartlett & The Diary of a CEO. This is post 3/6 of my new series Inside Voices, exploring the rise of the Employee Ambassador and how they’re reshaping modern marketing. Hit Follow to stay informed! - I'm sharing a post every week unpacking how they’re changing the way brands grow, hire, and lead.

Most people think gaming and training simulation have nothing in common. After 20+ years in AAA, and working on real-world simulation projects at Endava, I’ve learned the opposite — the tech and design principles that keep millions of players engaged can transform training platforms too. Lesson 1 — Real-time feedback matters. Instant responses keep players engaged. In training simulations, real-time feedback ensures learners understand consequences and can adjust behavior immediately. Lesson 2 — Storytelling drives learning. Narrative creates emotional connection. Even in simulations, framing exercises as meaningful stories dramatically improves retention and engagement. Lesson 3 — Iterate live, not in isolation. Games evolve via patches. Training platforms benefit from the same agile, user-driven approach — testing, refining, and optimizing exercises in real time. I believe the next big innovations in training simulation will come from leaders willing to borrow from interactive entertainment. What crossover lessons have you seen between gaming and training? #Simulation #Training #AI #Gaming #Innovation

Storytelling is one of the most underused tools in eLearning. Most designers think of it as decoration—a nice-to-have wrapper for the “real” content. However, it's the story that gives content its meaning. It’s how people make sense of information and turn it into experience. When a course tells a good story, learners stop clicking through slides and start caring about what happens next. That shift from awareness to investment is where learning begins. To build that kind of experience, I use what I call the STORY Method. 1. Situation Begin with a realistic moment from the learner’s world—something familiar enough to feel possible, but specific enough to pull them in. 2. Tension Show what’s at stake. Every story needs a challenge, a conflict, or a decision that matters. Without pressure, there’s no reason to pay attention. 3. Options Give the learner room to choose. Let them explore different paths or perspectives so they feel responsible for what happens next. 4. Result Reveal the outcome. Make the consequences visible and connect them to the underlying principle or skill you want to teach. 5. Your Move Ask them to act or reflect. Invite them to apply what they've learned or to consider how they would handle a similar situation. Good storytelling doesn’t need fancy visuals or complex characters. It just needs a clear situation, meaningful stakes, and a path that lets the learner discover the lesson for themselves. When done well, a story turns information into experience.

Your company's culture isn't built with ping pong tables, free snacks, or nap pods. It's built through stories. Most founders get this wrong. They write out a mission statement, slap it on the wall, and call it a day. But your team doesn't internalize values through posters. They absorb them through stories and messages. Here's the hard truth: If you're not intentionally shaping these stories, someone else is. Every challenge, every win, every failure becomes part of your collective mythology. So take control of the narrative. When you overcome a major hurdle, don't just celebrate. Turn it into a story of resilience. When you ship a product with half the resources of your competitors, that's not just scrappiness. It's a tale of ingenuity that will echo in future projects. Your biggest competitor just acquired your largest customer? Turn that from a setback into a story of determination. These stories are the building blocks of your culture. The key is consistency and repetition. One-off stories get forgotten. But when everyone tells the same core tales, they become your company's DNA. Your brand isn't your logo or your product — t's the stories your team tells when you're not in the room. So make every meeting a storytelling opportunity. Not with long, rambling anecdotes. But with sharp, purposeful narratives that reinforce who you are and why you exist. This is what strategic culture-building and branding actually looks like in practice. It's how you build a team that's resilient, scrappy, and unstoppable. Your competition can copy your product. They can't copy your stories.

Not all soft skills training is created equal. A few months ago, I was working with a group of managers from a large manufacturing company. They had been through plenty of training programs before- the kind where you take notes and then go right back to doing things the old way. When I walked into the room, I could see it in their faces: Let’s see if this is any different. So instead of starting with slides or theory, I took them straight into a live simulation: - A crisis scenario that could actually happen in their business. - Conflicting priorities, tough personalities, and limited time to decide. - Every move they made in real time had visible consequences. To begin with, I saw a lot of resistance in experimentation, voices which were not too loud and over powering were ignored leading to loss of critical information- the room was tense. People hesitated. Some stuck to their usual patterns. But as it got deeper, they started communicating much more effectively, this led to them collaborating, noticing blind spots, and eventually testing new ways to lead. By the end, they weren’t asking- Will this work? They said that they wanted to cascade it to their teams. Weeks later, I got an email from one of the managers. He told me he used the exact process from our simulation to navigate a real customer crisis and not only avoided a major fallout, but actually strengthened the client relationship through this crisis. That’s the difference between training that’s forgotten by the time you’re back at your desk, and training that rewires how you think, act, and lead. The secret? Immersion. When participants practice real scenarios, solve actual challenges, and see the impact of their decisions in the room, learning sticks. Priya Arora #immersivelearning #trainingdesign #employeeengagement #learningthatsticks #corporatelearning #leadershipdevelopment #upskilling #skillbuilding #workplacetraining #experientiallearning #Learningdeisgn #corporatetrainer #softskillstrainer #simulation #experintialtraining

Back in the day, the smartest, savviest entrepreneurs told jokes and stats. Today, they’re telling stories. Why? Because stories stick. ‣ They're easy to remember. ‣ They make an emotional connection. ‣ They inspire. Think about it: ‣ Nike doesn't sell shoes. It sells heroes. ‣ Apple doesn't sell tech. It sells creativity. ‣ Tesla doesn't sell cars. It sells innovation. All through the power of storytelling. And listen, you don't need to have a heroic adventure to tell a good story. ✅ Tell your why. ✅ Tell your struggles to make it your business. ✅ Tell your successes that came after from many defeats. I saw the impact of this in real time during a recent networking event. I was on a panel and gave a brief introduction of myself. The attendees were somewhat interested, but I wouldn’t say they truly cared. They had no reason to root for me. Then, I was asked about my role as a keynote speaker. I told them about my most popular keynote, The Resilience Roadmap. I shared how it was based on various challenges I’ve experienced over the past 10 years which include battling alcohol addiction, unemployment and losing my son. That’s when the attendees really took notice, and that's when they began rooting for me. I wasn’t just the guy who did a bunch of stuff, I was the guy who highlighted the transformative power of resilience. It’s been three days since that event and people are still messaging me about it. And, oddly enough, they’re also asking me to remind them what I do again. So don’t make the same mistake I did, whether it be in person or online. Don’t just share what you do, share the journey you’ve been on as well. People will remember your story, it forms a connection. And people give you opportunities when they feel connected to you. So, are you ready to share your story?