MODERN MARKETING
The Ethics of Business
Storytelling
By Shawn Callahan
B
usiness storytelling has
become increasingly popular
as leaders look for new and
better ways to get their message
to stick. With so many people
learning story skills there is an
even greater chance for it to be
misused. The number of times I’ve
been asked whether it’s OK to just
‘make the story up’ is a concerning
indicator that unethical practices
are emerging.
When we started in 2004 we
were wary of teaching business
storytelling. We knew the practice
24 ModernBusiness
July 2016
was open to manipulation because
stories are such a powerful force.
So in developing our story practice,
we gave careful consideration to
what ethical business storytelling
means, and how to tell when that
line has been crossed.
A while back I thought of a simple
test for storytelling manipulation.
Imagine you’ve told a story to
someone to influence them to, say,
get involved in a project, and this
works. Then you tell the person
what you’ve done. If they respond
with something like, ‘That makes
total sense, I really needed to
hear that to get onboard’, then you
weren’t being manipulative. If, on
the other hand, they explode and
call you a few choice names, then
you stepped over the line.
Of course, it’s never as black
and white as this test might
suggest. What seems reasonable
influence to one person can feel
like manipulation to someone
else. I remember a client telling
me about a marvellous exercise
his investment bank undertook
to illustrate this spectrum. A