This opinion piece was written by Ibrahim Elbadawi, CEO of Exantium and Associate, ODI Australian Network. It also appears in our government innovation newsfeed.

In Autumn 2013, I was at the Open Data Institute (ODI) HQ in London to attend the first global meetup of the newly established global node network.

Throughout the discussions, I remember a recurring theme in the requests from node representatives: tell us your stories! We were hungry for stories demonstrating the value of open data that we could use to engage our local open data communities.

At the time, the story of the innovative UK startups working with the NHS to discover a simple way to save millions of pounds was told at almost every open data meeting or workshop I participated in. It even featured in The Economist.

The effect this one story had on the conversation was a great reminder: stories powerfully communicate your message. Storytelling is essential to your communication strategy, regardless of the message you’re trying to communicate or the soundness of your business case.

Without a compelling story, expect an uphill battle! This is especially true when your goal is to promote innovative practices or technologies and you expect higher levels of resistance.

Here are my prime reasons for believing storytelling is effective for promoting innovation in the public sector, at least as I’ve experienced it:

1. Stories are inspiring: budget constraints, culture & readiness, and skills gaps are some typical delivery challenges (or excuses?!) we encounter. By sharing stories of organisations that have achieved results, you inspire your team and stakeholders to think positively, innovate and believe they can do it too.

2. Stories are adaptable: The same story can be presented from different angles for different stakeholders. The NHS story I just mentioned is a good example. If your objective is to spark a conversation about startups, tell the story from the perspective of Mastodon C and Open Health Care UK. If your target audience’s main concern is efficiency and cost-effectiveness, focus on the magic number.

3. Stories are engaging: They can transform the driest, most technical topics into dynamic subjects and help you initiate and maintain a constructive conversation with your target audience. That’s mainly because captivating stories engage both sides of the brain. Research shows that compelling, character-driven stories convey your message in a more memorable way than PowerPoints, enabling recall of your message even weeks later.

Storytelling is in fact our default conversational mode. It accounts for sixty-five percent of all human conversations in public places. But that doesn’t necessarily mean everyone is by nature a good storyteller.

Above and beyond the usual advice about knowing your target audience and presenting your data and facts effectively, I offer three key pieces of advice I consider essential for using storytelling in the context of public sector innovation:

It’s not about technology: A common trap we fall into is being so carried away by our love of technology and new buzzwords that we focus on them in our stories. The problem? We immediately limit our audience to techies, making it very difficult for non-techies to relate to our message. Microsoft understood that. Have you seen the Microsoft Cloud ad campaign?

It’s not about you: You need to celebrate the heroic team members, partners and people in the community who make things happen. That’s why Humans of New York is so popular. Singapore, in celebrating the country's 50th year of independence, asked ordinary citizens to visualise the Singapore story as they have lived it using government data.

And it’s not about pyrotechnics: Remember the closing credits of the last megahit movie you watched? Endless, right?! The good news is we can start our storytelling ventures much smaller — with a basic storytelling system that emphasizes the right mix of skills, processes and tools. We can learn from the New Zealand Government Storytelling Guide — storytelling is an essential component of their Service Design toolkit. Start somewhere, then keep improving.

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(Picture Credit: Flickr/Drew Bird)