Why the Business Story?

Well, to answer the question, I would like to explore with you the value of the the story in a business setting. To do so, I will make references to Dan Pink’s book, “A Whole New Mind”.

Here he quotes what Don Norman says, “Stories have the felicitous capacity of capturing exactly those elements that formal decisions methods leave out. Logic tries to generalize, to strip the decision making from the specific context, to remove it from subjective emotions. Stories capture the context, capture the emotions…Stories are important cognitive events, for they encapsulate, into one compact package, information, knowledge, context, and emotion.“

Steve Denning, a KM organizational storytelling expert states, “Storytelling doesn’t replace analytical thinking – it supplants it by enabling us to imagine new perspectives and new worlds… Abstract analysis is easier to understand when seen through the lens of a well-chosen story.“

And as Richard Olivier so eloquently puts it, “Logical and analytical abilities no longer guarantee success. Successful businesspeople must be able to combine the science of accounting and finance with the art of the Story.”

Hence the reason why fact (in this case, numbers) combined with story is such a potent combination. With accounting technology tools, the production of numbers (facts) is so readily available and instantly accessible, it becomes less valuable without interpretation (story). So what begins to matter more is the ability to place the numbers in context and to deliver them with emotional business intelligence impact.