In my practice, storytelling has a definition and a strategy. Helpfully the research is clearer too: gathering people’s lived experiences, sharing them and then collecting the feedback to share back — on and on — gets you closer to the truth. That definition: Storytelling is a process that uses character and plot to share ways to navigate a complex world.
It’s closely linked to my longstanding definition of journalism, a strategy that uses storytelling.
I got to talk about that on the Talent Wars podcast, with Patience Fairbrother of DCI (Development Counsellors International), the 60-year-old marketing firm that specializes in economic development and place-based marketing.