The Power of Narrative in Project Communication
If you read anything about giving effective presentations or being a powerful public speaker, you’ll come back to the same idea time and time again: storytelling.
Telling stories has been around as a communication technique since the dawn of time. From myths to ghost stories to fairytales, people have passed on wisdom, social norms and shared experience through crafting narratives. The business world is no different – maybe your social media feed is full of TED talks and marketing gurus trying to convince you of the power of using stories? Yes, ours too.
Project management is often seen as a technical discipline focused on timelines, budgets and deliverables. However, the most successful project managers understand that effective communication plays a key role in achieving project goals – and storytelling is a powerful technique for getting your message across.
Why stories work
Narratives are more effective than technical jargon for engaging audiences – because we’re hard-wired as humans to like stories and want to know how they end.
We’re not talking about making things up. You don’t have to be super creative. You can use what you already know, and with a few extra data points get to a engaging narrative that will inspire teams, engage stakeholders, and clarify the project’s objectives, challenges, and successes.
However, we should also recognize that some of your stakeholders will be data-led. A senior finance manager is likely to be more engaged by a graph than your narrative, so before we get started, remember to take your stakeholder’s communication preferences into account!
Creating your project’s narrative
Have you heard of the Hero’s Journey? It’s a classic storytelling framework where a hero goes on a journey, overcomes obstacles guided by a mentor and is successful at the end. Position the project as a journey with challenges and triumphs. The project manager (or the customer, or the user) becomes the guide (also known as the mentor in the framework), helping the team/users/their family etc navigate obstacles.
Let’s take an example. If you are working on a turnaround project to try to bring a project back into control, your journey is from failure to recovery. Here’s how you could frame it as a story:
- The background: The challenging situation that you find yourselves in; the project’s objectives within a larger story of the organizational mission, vision and values and why the project matters
- The journey: The path the team is on to get the project back on track
- The obstacles: The changes that need to be made to incorporate learnings from lessons or to shift performance; the team’s morale
- The mentor: The new sponsor who is stepping up to lead the work
- The outcome: The end result; the vision of where you see yourself at the end.
You’ve probably already got something like this in your communication plans, so it’s not difficult to adapt what you already know to fit within a story arc.
Tips for engaging stakeholders through storytelling
One thing you’ll know about stories is that they are consistent. There might be updates or sequels, but the core premise of a story is always the same. Use the same consistency with your project narratives: have one version of the story that you use to set the scene over and over again.
Here are some other tips for using your narratives:
- Tell the project’s story in a way that highlights both short-term and long-term benefits, ensuring buy-in from various parties.
- Frame the project’s vision to align with the broader organizational strategy or the personal goals of key stakeholders.
- Use the narrative to address concerns and risks, helping stakeholders feel more confident and involved.
- Adapt the story depending on team dynamics; keep the core message the same but tailor to different stakeholders’ needs, emotional states, and working styles.
When to use stories
So, you’ve got a story that make sense. How do you use it? It’s actually not that hard. You can start a status update, presentation or even a post-project review with a recap of your narrative. Onboard new starters with the story as a way to help them connect their role to the bigger picture.
Use mini-stories like customer testimonials in presentations or reports, to go alongside the data. Highlight team successes and call out wins by telling the story of what happened, bringing the moment to life for the rest of the team who weren’t there.
However, adapt how you use your narratives sparingly and simplify where necessary so that you aren’t taking up too much of people’s time. When you notice the eye rolls, you’ve lost your audience!
Anyone can use storytelling in a business context, and perhaps you already are without knowing it. Through compelling narratives, we work in leadership roles where we can inspire teams, engage stakeholders, and turn projects into journeys of success. Storytelling helps humanize the technical aspects of project management and fosters a sense of connection to the project’s goals, bringing together stakeholders across multiple vendors and creating a sense of a common vision.
When you’re thinking about communication techniques, consider what stories you could tell about your project. There are probably more than you expect, and people are waiting to hear them.