How do we explain our business's human impact?

Find the human outcome behind the work through research and stakeholder conversations that explore what your capabilities enable, not just what your business makes or delivers. For Tata Technologies, research and stakeholder conversations revealed a shared belief that engineering was about improving human outcomes at scale, rather than systems and machines alone. The resulting narrative connected technical capability with human experience, balancing technical credibility with emotional clarity for engineers, business leaders and future talent.

For Wates, stakeholder workshops and research identified a contribution beyond building and maintaining safe, secure properties: creating environments where people could achieve their ambitions. That understanding informed the purpose, "Reimagining places for people to thrive". Use the same shift in focus to connect your activities with what people can achieve because of them.

Turn complex material into familiar stories by distilling case studies and internal materials into concise accounts anchored in recognisable objects, places and experiences. For IBM, the storytelling platform used short "story nuggets" to connect innovations with everyday life. Simple, memorable language helped make the relationship between complex technologies and the world around employees easier to understand and share.

Start with the human change a story needs to explain, rather than a catalogue of technical details. Ask how a product or service improves someone's way of doing things, whether through cost savings, more time or a better user experience. Use details that matter to the audience, expressed plainly. The IBM approach made the brand's broad technological contribution tangible through individual stories, rather than asking every story to explain the entire business.

Carry the same account across your communications by adapting the stories to different settings while keeping the explanation of your business's contribution consistent. IBM's storytelling platform distributed concise human-impact stories through a dedicated website, social channels, YouTube, internal communications, environmental branding and physical materials, including printed books and event cards. Each setting reinforced the same narrative: IBM's technologies quietly shape the modern world.

Keep the central connection between the work and its human relevance recognisable, even when the format changes. In the IBM campaign, visually striking, accessible stories gave employees material they could communicate and share. The combination of a consistent narrative and varied formats helped explain the breadth of IBM's impact without relying on a single channel or a traditional B2B presentation.