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The Storyteller Boom
A quick spin through LinkedIn, and once you get past all the tiresome AI schtick, one thing that stands out is the growing consensus that storytelling is the superpower of our age.
The corporate world is about to spend a fortune mistaking storytelling for strategy.
Let me explain.
During their earnings calls, public company CEOs mentioned “storytelling” or “storyteller” no less than 469 times in 2025, according to FactSet/Wall St Journal, up from 147 times in 2015. That’s an increase of roughly 220%.
Storytelling is seen as a core competency in defining corporate strategy and brand. It has moved from the marketing department to being a core business imperative.
Stakeholders to ‘Audience’
So, it makes sense that this is the skill that businesses need to harness to develop traction among the people we used to call 'stakeholders', but now call 'audience'.
This is why we are seeing the rise of the 'corporate storyteller'. On LinkedIn, job postings mentioning storytelling doubled through the year 2025 to over 70,000.
A number like 469
But I am not so sure. I don’t think this is a reflection of an industry finally understanding something. I think it is the sound of grasping for something.
The thing with a number like 469 is that it doesn’t point to being deployed with precision. Words that get used that often are being used as a buoyancy device - as an act of hope.
We have been here before.
Five years ago, the magic word was ‘purpose’, remember that? Five years before that, it was ‘innovation’. Before that, ‘transformation’. We’ve made films about all of these. A LOT of them.
Each time followed the same arc.
Certain companies who embody the concept flourish. At their best, these concepts are real things, which can deliver tangible business value. Which is why the idea then gets packaged and named. It becomes the buzzword, and the books, job titles, and panel discussions are suddenly everywhere.
Value squandered
But because we’ve seen this before, we can ask: how many of those companies truly understood, lived, and embodied ‘purpose’, ‘innovation’, ‘transformation’?
There were those who did, who won that phase, and then there was the vast majority who played at it on the edges. Passing the time until the new idea came along. Leaving the true value available on the table. We worked with a LOT of them, too.
The point is, most of the 70,000 storyteller roles being announced this year will not be doing this work in five years. Most of them will not have the title anymore. We will quietly move on to the next word.
‘Homo Narrans’
And yet, the underlying instinct is not wrong. There is a name for it.
In 1984, the communications scholar Walter Fisher proposed that we are not Homo sapiens but Homo Narrans. Story-making animals.
Our brains do not record events and then construct meaning. They construct meaning first, in story form, and notice the events as they confirm or contradict it.
Our RAS (Reticular Activating System) filters what we see based on what we already believe. Oxytocin levels rise when we listen to a well-told story.
We are not creatures who happen to enjoy stories. We are creatures whose core operating model is story.
This is the fundamental underpinning of the trend. Every corporate communicator now reaching for the word "storytelling" is reaching, knowingly or not, at Fisher's point.
Story is not a tactic. It is the substrate.
Storytelling is still essential
I love storytelling. I have been doing it as a job for over two decades. In that time, we have produced hundreds of thousands of ‘stories’.
This boom still gives me pause. My concern comes down to where so many of these hires sit in the org structure. What businesses really need is the narrative built into strategy, not just bolted on as a comms or content function.
Yes, a storyteller can create you a better PowerPoint, or write some better captions, but the closer narrative and story sit at the core strategic business function, the better.
Look at your own organisation. Where does your storyteller sit? If they sit in marketing, they’re a content function. There is nothing wrong with that. Just be clear about whom you have hired.
Narrative as the bath
Most companies hire storytellers because narrative strategy is a forced act of honesty their business cannot survive. The storyteller is a content role. Narrative is a business strategy. Most companies are hiring the former and calling it the second.
Our very best, most impactful work has been when we have been as close as possible to the core narrative of the companies we work for. Distilling and sharing the essence of what that company embodies.
Of course, you should hire storytellers - they’ll make your business better - but too many of them are just fluffing the bubbles on top of the bath. They’ll do it beautifully, but that is ultimately superficial.
The real opportunity comes when the story is the bath itself. Not the foam. Not the duck. The bath itself.
What it is made of. What it is for. Who it is for. And whether it holds water.
Have a great week.
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