Strategic Storytelling Training

Use the power of storytelling to cut through the noise

It’s no secret that today’s audiences are overwhelmed with noise. Employees receive hundreds of emails, text messages, chat messages a day, along with meetings and consuming social media content.

And in a world of constant change, and more pressure to achieve business goals, you need to make sure your message can cut through the noise. One of the best ways to do that is to embrace the power of storytelling!

At the end of this workshop, your team will:

  • have storytelling frameworks and tools they can start to use in their work right away

  • understand why storytelling is so effective and how to do it

  • have more confidence in finding, designing, and delivering strategic stories.

What to expect from your Team Communication Skills training session

  • Understand why our brains love storytelling, not dot points.

  • Learn about different story types and frameworks to help you craft great stories.

  • Find out how to discover the stories in your workplaces.

  • Practice designing and delivering a story to help build the confidence to do it ‘in real life’.


Who should attend

This workshop is for people who…

  • are leaders who need to level up their communication skills to inspire, motivate, and engage their audiences

  • Change Managers and Project Managers who need to use storytelling to demonstrate the value of their work and engage people in their projects

  • Professional Communicators who want to add strategic storytelling to their toolkits

  • Any professional who needs to influence others and catalyse change.


How the course is run

To get the most out of your Strategic Storytelling training, this workshop is facilitated in person for two hours. Please note that hybrid workshops (some people online / some in person) are not ideal for this type of training.

If required, we can run the workshop as a 60-minute webinar with everyone joining online.

Course Outline

Module 1: Understanding the power of storytelling

  • What happens in our brains when we hear a story

  • Why storytelling is so ‘sticky’ when it comes to sharing strategic messages

Module 2: Finding the stories

  • The elements that make a great story

  • How to unearth the hidden stories in your organisation

Module 3: Types of stories & Frameworks

  • The different types of stories you can use in business contexts

  • Different storytelling frameworks to help you structure and build your stories

  • Examples of great storytelling in action.

Module 4: Practice time!

  • Using a hypothetical scenario or a real-life case study, participants will have time to design and then share a strategic story to help put the learning into practice

What you’ll get as part of this training

  • Each participant will receive printed tools during the training to help make the learning stick

  • Your team will receive a copy of the slides presented

  • If required, we can supply a Certificate of Completion for each team member

Your questions answered

About your facilitator

Mel Loy SCMP

Founder and Director, Cuttlefish; IABC Asia-Pacific Region Board Member; IABC Asia Pacific Academy Partner

Mel Loy is a self-confessed serial ideator, obsessed with how humans behave and what that means for effective communication. After studying journalism she discovered a love not for reporting but for the power of communication — and went on to spend more than 20 years in increasingly senior corporate communication roles across emergency services, construction and mining, early learning, retail and more.

In late 2020, after leading her team through the COVID-19 pandemic, Mel started her own agency. Today her small-but-mighty team at Cuttlefish provides consulting and training to clients across Australia and overseas, specialising in internal, change, crisis and strategic communication.

Mel is the author of two books — Change Isn't Hard and Less Chatter, More Matter — and host of the Less Chatter, More Matter podcast. An international award winner for her training programs and strategies, a sought-after facilitator and keynote speaker, and a certified Strategic Communication Management Professional (SCMP), and a volunteer Board member for IABC Asia-Pacific. When she’s not obsessing over words and human behaviour, Mel is teaching group fitness classes and yoga at her local gym.