We help lots of organisations turn their strategies into memorable and concrete strategic stories. In doing so, a key factor is ensuring its not a ‘Pollyanna’ story’. You know the ones…everything is upbeat, previous successes are emphasised, failures are not mentioned. Theses stories might be politically correct but risk being viewed as inauthentic or not believable.

I recently watched this Steve Denning video of his TEDx talk in late 2011 on the topic of ‘Leadership storytelling’. In it, Steve describes exactly the same concept in a very succinct way. He calls them ‘Titanic Stories’…”700 people arrived safe and happy in New York after their voyage on the Titanic.”

This story only works if two conditions are met: (1) listeners don’t know about the 1500 people who died on the trip and (2) you can keep it that way. As soon as either condition is not met your story, your strategy and your credibility will plummet to the icy depths never to be recovered.

The golden rule in business storytelling is ‘be authentic’.