Since 2008 · Next open Train the Trainer workshops: 18–21 Nov, Mumbai · 9–12 Dec, Bengaluru
Communication Skills

Storytelling For Business

Storytelling in training, Storytelling techniques, Storytelling for business, Storytelling methods

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Since 20082,000+ companiesCustomised to your context
In brief

Storytelling for business training teaches professionals and managers to turn facts into stories that motivate and guide listeners, including participants in training sessions. It covers the core elements of a story, storytelling techniques and building a personal story bank. Bodhih runs it as a 1-day workshop or 3 × 2.5-hour virtual sessions, with 60-day practice follow-up.

  • Delivered in person at your location or as live virtual sessions
  • Designed with the ADDIE model and evaluated for behaviour change
  • Offered by Bodhih since 2008 to 2,000+ organisations across 7 regions

Where and how: storytelling for business training as an in-person workshop in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Jaipur; as a live online course; or delivered overseas in Dubai, Singapore and across the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Last reviewed by Siddharthan VGJ, Founder · Bodhih Training, Bengaluru

Storytelling in training is a step by step guide to use a powerful emotional tool for motivating, teaching and guiding participants to gain the maximum from training sessions.

Storytelling for presentations and Storytelling in public speaking are two of the essential elements in Bodhih’s workshop for training with tales – captivating learners with stories.

01

What is the importance of Bodhih’s storytelling in training workshop?

Storytelling in training is the use of stories in the learning environment that can be the most powerful instructional technique in your arsenal. Stories have been used from the earliest time to define our values, dreams, desires as well as document our prejudices and hatreds. Before man learnt how to write, he had to rely on his memory to store information. This was the genesis of storytelling. It became a far more powerful and effective method to retain information and ensuring that important lessons are carried down generations. Storytelling thrived and became a profession on its own merit.

Storytelling in training is a powerful technique that can make accessible the most abstract topics and bring them alive in a learner’s understanding. Examples, analogies and metaphors are widely used because they harness a different centre of the brain that works on emotional inputs.

Storytelling skills make use of building narrative that are useful when storytelling is used in management.

Trainers use storytelling extensively to enhance the quality of their training and to get the learners’ attention. Storytelling in training is used in multiple ways.

Many trainers use stories or anecdotes at the beginning of their training in order to set the tone, establish rapport or create a safe environment for learning. For example, participants are likely to have greater interest in a workshop on personal fitness and well-being if the trainer starts with a story about his/her own battle with weight and a triumphant ending.

Storytelling in training can also be used to bridge the gap between old and new concepts, get the listener’s attention and appeal to different learning styles and in explaining complex ideas and concepts. People are more likely to understand complex ideas like root cause analysis and looking at a problem from several perspectives if the leader is able to explain the concept through the use of a story or anecdote.

02

What are the learning outcomes from Bodhih’s storytelling in training workshop?

Storytelling in training basics talk about trying to get the audience involved in the storytelling in some way. For instance, giving them the beginning of the story and getting them to complete the story. If these points are borne in mind, there is no debate that stories and anecdotes is the best medium to bring home many training lessons. It is not for nothing that this technique has survived the test of time.

Bodhih’s storytelling leadership’ programs prepare individuals with advanced storytelling lessons to maximize in their training sessions.

03

What are the key focus areas for Bodhih’s workshop on storytelling in training at work?

Bodhih’s program on Storytelling in training begins by deconstructing the paradigm of storytelling itself.

Storytelling for business explores the various facets like – defining your audience, and their needs, goals, and wants. The participants understand in detail and thereafter plan an opening, message delivery and closing. All these elements are planned with an intent to impress and influence. There are secrets of storytelling techniques that include theme and hooks and also analogies. The program also focusses on the best formats for storytelling methods given the premise, audience, existing mindsets by a self-audit.

The participants are able to clearly identify their strength and weakness by examining their current working styles, behaviour and class feedback. Through videos and facilitator led presentations, the learners start to develop an openness towards newer ways of doing things thereby increasing productivity within the given constraints.

04

Bodhih’s program on the storytelling in training begins by delayering the primary elements of storytelling technique

Bodhih’s facilitator through individual workbook activity, group discussions and videos, equip participants to understand the finer points of dimensions and guidelines of storytelling in training techniques. The encouraging deep dive sessions tries to identify the various elements that most participants already know of and use in their daily work lives.

Next, with the help of a facilitator led presentation and class discussion, learners discover a vital aspect of storytelling methods– importance of storytelling in business. It targets the age-old traditions that humans have used and revered to pass information, facts and lessons. Through group activity, and facilitator led discussions, the participants are taken through the creative thinking or brainstorming section that brings out ideas for creating stories.

The learner group is familiarised with the importance of taking the time and effort to try out various story openings. Various examples across the worlds of literature and countries are sampled to understand how to create ideal openings with story hooks – who is the protagonist? What is his or her single most important desire? What and how is he unable to meet his or her desire?

Bodhih’s facilitators are seasoned professionals who create linkages between skills picked up in the workshops and then to apply them in participant’s current roles. This is done through specific illustrations and analogies and is true for the sessions at Storytelling in training– understanding the interplay of context and content in storytelling for leaders

In Bodhih’s storytelling in learning training the seasoned facilitator through real world illustrations and videos, highlights the key elements of audience selection and customizing story style and structure.

At Bodhih, storytelling methods is a much sought-after session that is part of a larger leadership skills training suite. The session brings latest research done on storytelling for trainers, leaders and storytelling as a training tool – a subject that a few top training and development companies across the globe, publish regularly.

05

How would you gain from storytelling in training programs at Bodhih?

Bodhih customizes its storytelling methods program along the ADDIE model. Workshop experiences are analysed, designed, developed and delivered that are solution focused and include a range of blended training pedagogy such as role plays, group exercises, self-assessment tools, management games, individual activities, videos, case studies, facilitation, discussions and more.

In addition to the ADDIE model, the storytelling for business session takes advantage of the experiential adult-learning process of concrete experience – reflective observation – abstract conceptualization – active experimentation.

The edge in Bodhih’s storytelling in business program comes from researched industry learnings, current best practices and academic insights that ensures techniques are grasped and applied by chosen individuals. The long-term benefits are to institutionalise skills by embedding structural elements as individual toolkits – theme, character, character’s world, plot, emotions, messaging and takeaways.

06

What is Bodhih’s promise on storytelling in training course?

Managers across industries and functions and executive level participants who have attended Bodhih’s sessions on storytelling techniques talk about how trainers have embraced the power of storytelling in their class delivery sessions and also as a tool to motivate audiences and positively influence them to the larger goals.

01

Train The Trainer Certification Workshop

02

Master Trainer Certification

03

Confidence On Camera - Make Amazing Videos for your Online Course

04

Train your Teachers

05

How to Create an Awesome Online Course

06

Theater Based Activities for Trainers

07

Virtual Trainers and Instructional Designing

08

How to Train your Team

09

Consulting Skills for Trainers

10

Project Management Training for Trainers

11

Instructional Designing For Trainers

12

Certified Training Manager

13

The Virtual Trainer

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Sample training plan: 1-day hands-on design

This one-day workshop helps professionals turn facts, data and plans into stories people remember and act on. Each participant brings one real message they must land in the next month: a change, a customer win, a budget ask or a quarterly update. They mine their own work for stories, build them on a simple story canvas, sharpen openings, turn a data set into a narrative and deliver their story in a scored story slam. They leave with a tested story and a personal story bank.

80% hands-on practice6.8 contact hoursCohort: 10–20 participantsIn person · Live virtual
Day 1From facts to stories that move people

Participants can build, adapt and deliver a short business story on a real message they must land at work.

  1. 09:30–10:00The thing in my bagEnergiser
  2. 10:00–11:00Facts versus storyDiagnostic
  3. 11:15–11:45The story spineConcept burst
  4. 11:45–13:00Story mining on your own workBuild sprint
  5. 13:45–14:30Twenty seconds to hook themSkill drill
  6. 14:30–15:15Make the numbers talkDemo & practice
  7. 15:30–16:45Story slamPresentation
  8. 16:45–17:30My story bank and 60-day planAction planning
Get the full sample training plan as a PDF

Every session’s activity, timings, outputs and materials, plus pre-work, a 90-day reinforcement plan and how impact is measured. Free, emailed to you instantly.

Recommended: 1 day in person (09:30–17:30), or 3 × 2.5-hour live virtual sessions, plus a 60-day story practice follow-up. A sample design: every Bodhih program is customised after a short needs analysis.

How long is storytelling for business training?

The recommended design is one full day in person, from 09:30 to 17:30, with a 60-day practice follow-up. It also runs as three live virtual sessions of about two and a half hours each. A half-day version suits team offsites, and a two-day version adds leadership and change storytelling.

What activities are included in storytelling for business training?

Participants work on a real message they must deliver. They tell a story about an object from their bag, compare recall of facts versus story, mine their own work for stories, drill four kinds of opening hooks, turn a number-heavy slide into a data story and finish with a scored story slam.

FAQs

Frequently asked questions

What is storytelling for business training?
Who is the Storytelling For Business program for?

Professionals and managers who want to communicate with clarity and impact. Bodhih tailors the examples, case studies and depth to your industry, culture and team level.

How long is the Storytelling For Business program?

Bodhih recommends 1 day in person (09:30–17:30), or 3 × 2.5-hour live virtual sessions, plus a 60-day story practice follow-up. The length can be shortened or extended after a needs analysis.

Can Storytelling For Business be delivered online?

Yes. Storytelling For Business can run in person at your location, as live virtual sessions for distributed or hybrid teams, or as a blended journey that adds self-paced learning on Bodhih.org between sessions.

How is the impact of Storytelling For Business measured?

Success measures for Storytelling For Business are agreed with you before design, as part of the ADDIE model. Bodhih can add pre- and post-program assessments on AssessAll and manager check-ins to track behaviour change.

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Storytelling For Business

Storytelling for Business: 1-Day Hands-On Training Plan. Tell us where to send it and we’ll email it to you right away.