As many of you know, I am on a quest to quantify the value of storytelling. I want to put a number to it. I want a calculation I can put into a spreadsheet.

It is not enough to say, “Storytelling is good, we should do more of it.”

It is not enough to say, “Storytelling drives sales, we need to train our salespeople how to tell stories.”

It is not enough to say, “Storytelling is an important leadership skill, leaders need to know how to tell stories.”

Don’t get me wrong, these are excellent places to start, but we need more.

We need a calculation that enables us to say “Storytelling is worth $X to my organization.”

Then, and only then, will my quest stop.

When we saw that oil was an important component of plastic, we didn’t say, “Oil is important, let’s put some in there.” No, we measure how much oil is needed, and we track how much that oil costs, and we hedge against future price fluctuations.

If we all agree that storytelling is an important part of sales and leadership, we need to treat it with the same respect we give to oil. We need to put a number to it. We need to measure it. We need to put it under the pressure of performance.

If you have some info you can share (like how your organization calculates the value of storytelling), please reach out and let me know.

Your calculation is vital to the cause, because I’m not finding too much so far.