How do we help employees share our business stories?

Find stories in your existing material. Review case studies, technical documents, press materials and internal content for achievements employees could explain to other people. The task is to uncover useful stories, not simply pass existing documents on to employees.

At IBM, employees had extensive knowledge and access to powerful stories, but much of the material sat in dense formats that were not designed for easy sharing. IBM's contributions to everyday systems, including barcodes and ATMs, were often poorly understood outside technical or enterprise audiences. The campaign's starting point was to turn that complex archive into narratives employees could understand, remember and share. Look for achievements whose significance is obscured by the format or language used to describe them.

Connect achievements to familiar experiences. Frame a technical achievement through recognisable objects, places or situations so employees can see how the business relates to the world around them. Use simple, memorable language to make that connection easy to explain.

The IBM campaign treated employees as powerful storytellers who needed suitable material and framing. Its approach was to uncover the everyday relevance of IBM's innovations rather than leave employees to translate technical achievements themselves. Familiar reference points made the brand's impact more tangible and relatable. Apply the same principle when selecting a story's focus: identify the connection between the achievement and daily life, then make that connection central to the account employees will share in professional or personal conversations.

Give employees concise stories to share. Distil the selected material into short, expressive accounts, with a consistent narrative across the places employees encounter and share them. Keep the language accessible and the presentation easy to communicate rather than reproducing a traditional technical case study.

For IBM, a storytelling platform turned case studies and internal materials into concise "story nuggets" linking innovations to familiar objects, places and human experiences. Visually striking content appeared on a dedicated website, social channels, YouTube, internal communications, environmental branding, printed books and event cards. Each touchpoint reinforced the same narrative: IBM's technologies quietly shape the modern world. The practical lesson is to give employees ready-to-share stories whose format can vary without losing the central account of the business's contribution.