Storytelling: Your New Business Planning Tool

Recently I came across an article about how authors write novels. Some authors write by micro-planning, chapter by chapter, and scene by scene. They write out bios of each character.

Others — equally successful — prefer to be more spontaneous. They’ll start writing before they know how their novels will end. One mystery writer keeps writing until she writes herself into a corner and then figures out how to get out.

With a business, most people feel they can’t afford to wait till they get caught in a bind and then work themselves out.

But some people find they don’t resonate with traditional models of planning. They aren’t comfortable writing notes in little squares on a calendar.

Others just aren’t ready to go there.

When I was new to the world of business, I attended a workshop that focused on planning as the answer to what ails you in business. The leader encouraged us to decide what we’d do in the next 3 months. For instance, next month might be “set up a JV with Janet.” Then there’d be “Webinar on Latest Trend.”

Like many of my fellow workshop participants, I dutifully filled out the form. For one thing, we had peer pressure: who wanted to say, “I haven’t a clue what I want to do next week, let alone three months from now.” We all…