Use Storytelling in Learning Programs

Tell a story to help them learn

According to Wikipedia, “Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images and sounds often by improvisation or embellishment.” Stories are shared in every culture to entertain and educate others and have been told for thousands of years. Grandparents use stories to pass traditions down to their grandchildren.

We tell stories all the time – we talk to our spouse about our day at work, our children tell us about their day at school, we tell our colleagues at work about a project we are working on, we talk to our clients about similar work we have done for other clients, and we tell our friends about what is happening in our lives and with our families.

Storytelling can be used throughout learning and development programs in a variety of ways:

• Help the participants get to know each other by telling a story about themselves during introductions
• Help the participants understand a particularly difficult concept or theory by relating it to a real-life story
• Have participants share best practices through a story of a project they were involved in
• Have participants work in a team environment to create a story based on what they are learning in the classroom

What other ways can you think of to use storytelling in training programs? Please share in the Comments field below.

By sharing stories, individuals can see a link to “real life” and they are able to better understand how a particular concept or theory might be applied in real life.   Storytelling can be, and is, used to convey information to others in shorter periods of time.  If you only have an hour or two to teach a concept, you can get your point across quicker and more effectively by storytelling.  The story allows you to put the information into a real-life context that makes it easier for the participants to learn and retain what they are being told. Storytelling also enables the participants to be engaged.  Rather than you lecturing at them for 1 or 2 hours, they are engaged when storytelling is used and contribute – thereby increasing the retention of what they are learning.

One example of successful use of storytelling is a change management program where the group created stories (as part of an exercise) around a particular global change occurring in the workplace and individual and business unit reaction to that change.  Role playing helped the participants address issues with individuals afraid of the change and map out a plan on how they would manage these individuals when the change management project was launched.  The role playing and storytelling enabled the program participants to have a better understanding of what to expect and how to manage the entire change process.

In another example, a friend of mine needed to present at her company on sexual harassment – what it is and what to look for.  She only had ¾ of an hour to talk with some new hires to the company.  In those 45 minutes she gave them 3 short stories and asked them, at the end, to tell her which of them might be examples of sexual harassment.  The new hires participated, providing examples of their own and discussed what constitutes sexual harassment.  To this day (1.5 years later!) she still hears about those stories!

Bottom line – storytelling enhances the individual’s ability to learn and retain what they learned for application back on the job.  It keeps the participant in the training program engaged.

Do you have some examples to share with others?  Would this work for you?  Why or why not?  Please share in the Comments field below.  Thanks!