Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Once upon a time…
Fairy tale structure is one of the most familiar types of storytelling for a lot of us. These stories are a staple in children’s books and programming. Just look at the movie audiences for fairy tale film adaptations to see how popular they are for audiences of all ages.
But do people use fairy tale structure for business storytelling? Absolutely.
We often hear it used when companies are trying to overcome intense competition. For example, this Bloomberg article uses it to describe how Best Buy is implementing a new in-home consulting service to fend off its competitors. You’ll recognize a lot of characteristics of a classic fairy tale — our CEO hero steps in to a bad situation (declining sales and low employee morale) but starts to turn things around. But, a villain (Amazon) is getting in the way. Eventually, the hero overcomes the obstacles (came up with the new service) to (hopefully) save the day.
It could also be more subtle. Check out this video clip of a speech by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
During his speech, he shares a story of how everyone who worked for the company in the early days helped put orders together to ship. He was complaining to one guy about how badly his knees hurt and thought they needed knee pads. But the guy offered a better suggestion of packing tables. Their productivity went up significantly as a result.
The Bezos example isn’t as dramatic as the article about Best Buy, but is a great example of incorporating a story from the company’s early days in a powerful way. Not only did he show the early culture and attitude of the company, but he also showed how one employee’s suggestion helped them improve in a powerful way.
The Formula
The main elements of this story structure are:
1. Something happens that puts the main character in a bad spot.
Belle’s father gets kidnapped by the beast. She eventually becomes his prisoner.
2. Someone else comes along and helps him/her. It could be through giving a gift, showing a way out, etc.
Some of the castle servants let her out of her cell and show her to a room. Eventually, the beast frees her.
3. But the main character loses what they’ve temporarily gained, usually at the hands of a villain.
Belle goes back to rescue her father but she and he are locked up.
4. Eventually, the main character gets it back and ends on a huge high point.
Belle goes back and kisses the beast and sets the man inside free. They live happily ever after.
Try It Out
Since the focus of the Fairy Tale Story is on the help from someone else, this structure is going to be really useful to show how you can step in to “save the day” for your clients. If you are a service-based business, this can be especially effective.
For example, if you build websites, then you might share a story of how a client of yours had a broken site that was costing them sales. You worked with them to show them how to correct the issues, which solved the immediate problem and brought sales back. But when a new competitor came in and their sales dropped, you worked with them to completely rethink their digital strategy and optimize their site for one specific audience. After implementing the new strategy, the company doubled their sales in six months.
Also consider this story type when you want to communicate information about partnerships or investments with outside groups. For example, if you own a daycare center, you might partner with a local sports complex to put on sports camps certain days in summer. Perhaps you want to use this as a selling point when talking with parents who come to take a tour of your facility. So you might tell the story for how it started — you realized that your kids had a lot of energy but were getting bored with doing the same activities. So you approached the local sports complex to put on a special field day that everyone really enjoyed. But it only lasted one day and the kids were bored again. So you and the sports complex decided to form a partnership — they hold several sports camps at the daycare center over the summer months and the sports complex puts on special events on the weekends for parents and kids to do together.
Internally, use the fairy tale structure to help illustrate resources available to help your employees. If you are launching a mentorship program, for example, share a story about how a mentor came into your life and gave you some great advice. Maybe you weren’t able to act on it for another year or so until a new opportunity came about. But, that turned out to set you up on the path to success and where you are today.
Story Starter Template
Here is a template to help you structure a fairy tale story. Use it as a starting point but adapt it to fit your experience and the message you’re trying to share.
Once I was in a bad spot. [Describe the problem.] Then [person] came along and helped me out. He/She [describe what they did]. It worked for a while but then [describe how the original challenge worsened or a new obstacle that came up]. Eventually, I was able to . I share this with you because [the key point you want to make].
Looking for More Help?
Check out the first post in this series for help in creating stories about overcoming an obstacle.
Also, sign up to receive emails for additional tips and resources sent directly to you, including a free cheat sheet 5 Easy Ways to Jump into Business Storytelling: Advice for Small Business Owners Looking to Use Smart Communications to Get Results.
Lastly, check out my Skillshare class on Storytelling for Small Business: Create a Killer Business Description that Sticks with People. (If you’re not a member of Skillshare already, you’ll need to create an account. But if you use the link in this post, my class will be free to you.)
