Selling the story: the role of narrative in business
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Education
Abstract
As part of its high-level skills agenda, the AHRC has highlighted that the fundamental importance of understanding narrative as an essential business skill, of using the creative and communication skills that narrative entails, and of becoming an expert in the use of language has been overlooked. The failure by key stakeholders, and policy makers in particular, to recognise the skills offered by the Humanities (defined broadly) is a real concern. The core skillset relevant to business is that of narrative creation, transmission, understanding, and reception. This skillset is taught broadly across almost all disciplines within the Humanities, but it is rarely described in these terms. Moreover, none of the many initiatives to promote the Humanities has explicitly focused on this angle. Doing so is potentially a powerful and novel way of communicating why the Humanities are relevant to business and, more broadly, to STEM subjects, government, education, and society itself. This proposal, therefore, outlines a project to examine how narrative skills are understood, deployed, and valued within business contexts. A rapid interview study will be undertaken with CEOs from a diverse range of businesses and organisations to produce a report that the AHRC will be able to use across its networks to raise the profile of the Arts and Humanities. A high-profile steering group has been put together to ensure unprecedented access to key business leaders and that the report has maximum impact in the media as well as business and policy contexts.
Organisations
| Description | The project mapped out the skills business leaders particularly value. This highlighted that, in the modern business world, a range of technical and transferable skills were seen as critical to business success. These skills involved the ability to craft a narrative around multiple aspects of business working from developing complex financial reports, selling products, to engaging with a wide range of stakeholders. This led to the development of a narrative skill framework and recommendations for tertiary education to support students in developing these skills across interdisciplinary working. |
| Exploitation Route | Tertiary institutions could use the narrative skills framework as a way of thinking about students employability and shaping pedagogic practice. Business could use the framework to shape approaches to recruitment and in-house education and training. The research worked with business across a wide range of sectors. As such it has very broad relevance. |
| Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Construction,Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Electronics,Energy,Environment,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy,Healthcare,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Government, Democracy and Justice,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Pharmaceu |
| URL | https://skope.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Storycraft-Full-Report.pdf |
| Description | Through the publication of the Storycraft report and associated engagement activities the project has had three key impacts: Education and training in Adobe - the report was picked up by representatives at Adobe following social media campaigns, podcasts etc. This led to a series of meetings to discuss ideas and potential collaborations resulting in Robson and Randhawa recording a filmed section on the project and narrative skills specifically for the Adobe Max conference. This was broadcast to more than 32,000 people globally. Adobe have subsequently started working with the idea of narrative skills and are in the process of embedding this into an industry-university partnership programme with the University of Newcastle, embedding storytelling skills into more technical training approaches. This is an ongoing project and Robson is continuing to meet with Adobe representatives to discuss the collaboration. Broader skills policy discussions - Robson has presented the narrative skills framework to a variety of policy makers through Edge Foundation and in a workshop with representatives from DfE and BEIS. Consequently, the arguments presented in the Storycraft report, particularly in relation to the importance of narrative skills and interdisciplinarity, are increasingly featuring in policy discussions. This in a developing impact narrative, but the narrative skills framework has been incorporated into a recent report (to be published on 18th March 2022, after the current research fish reporting deadline) on green skills in the construction industry. This is being presented to BEIS and the DFE as well as a wide range of industry partners and is part of a trend to use narrative skills as a way of highlighting the importance of both technical and transferable skills in a rapidly changing labour market. Public and policy debate about the importance of the Arts and Humanities - the Storycraft report highlighted the importance of skills often associated with arts and humanities subjects and outlined ways in which arts and humanities degrees contribute to society and the economy. Evidence from the report has subsequently been used (e.g. by Christopher Smith, Executive Chair of AHRC) to emphasise the need for Arts and Humanities taught subjects and research as part of long running public debates aimed at shaping HE and research policy. In 2022, I have delivered several keynote presentations sharing emerging ideas about narrative skills and the importance of narrative in reconceptualising the role and value of the arts and the humanities in the economy. These have been to international audiences and have led to further conversations with key university leaders in Lingnam and the commissioning of a book. This will explore reconceptualising the role of the arts and humanities in the economy and draw on some ideas related to this original project. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
| Sector | Construction,Creative Economy,Education |
| Impact Types | Societal,Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | Citation in WonkHE by Christopher Smith (Executive Chair of AHRC) - Arts and humanities support the skill of storytelling |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
| Impact | The study has provided key evidence for the importance of the Arts and Humanities in business contexts which has been taken into key policy and public debate in this area. |
| URL | https://wonkhe.com/blogs/arts-and-humanities-support-the-skill-of-storytelling/ |
| Description | Collaboration with Adobe on education and training and technical skills formation |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | The work is helping teaching staff to think more carefully about skills and pedagogic approaches and helping learners to develop narrative skills to contextualise technical design skills related to Adobe products. |
| Description | Seedcord funding |
| Amount | £5,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Oxford |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2022 |
| End | 09/2022 |
| Description | Adobe Max Creativity Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Adobe came across the report and, following some initial meetings, invited Robson and Randhawa to participate in the Adobe Max Conference. This involved pre-recording a conversation about the Storycraft report in a full day of filming and interviewing. The recording was then broadcast as part of the conference (21/10/2021) to a global audience of Adobe workers and the general public. More than 32,000 people viewed the broadcast live and the recording is available online. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.adobe.com/max/2021/sessions/emea-education-mb162.html |
| Description | Graduate Employability, Employment and Skills in the Covid-19 Labour Market |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Robson gave an online 'Public Seminar' as part of the University of Oxford 'Public Seminar Series'. This focused on HE and the Covid-19 labour market and draw on emerging findings from this study. It was attended by approximately 40 people and the subsequent video on YouTube has been viewed nearly 638 times |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ3DvSa4GLY |
| Description | How does climate crisis change the curriculum?' Innovating in education and the future of work |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Robson participated in a panel discussion as part of CoP21 on education, skills, the future of work and the climate crisis. He draw on ideas from the project, particularly narrative skills, to present ways in which education and training can reframe how we think about green skills. This was attended by approximately 50 people and has been subsequently viewed 154 times on YouTube |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09dyIku0dBU&t=10s |
| Description | Invited talk (Lingnam University Hong Kong 'Narrative Skills and Normativity: The Role of Arts and Humanities in Transforming Economies' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Invited keynote at Lingnam University. Audience included students and staff, with a particularly focus on university level policy makers and leaders. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation of research at Edge Foundation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Robson presented the work at a Skills Shortages workshop hosted by the Edge Foundation for a range of UK policy makers and industry representatives. This took place online and included approximately 25 participants from across the UK. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Skills Observatory Podcast Special |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Robson and Randhawa host and produce a podcast called the Skills Observatory Podcast. Each episode is dedicated to a specific policy issue. An episode in June 2021 was dedicated to the Narrative is Business report where key ideas were discussed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://skope.ox.ac.uk/skop-%c2%a6-season-2-episode-3-%c2%a6-storycraft-the-importance-of-narrative-... |
| Description | Webinar - 'Resilience, flexibility and normatively: rethinking the role of the Humanities in the economy |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Webinar on the art and humanities and the economy, attended by 150 people globally. Youtube video has currently (March 2023) received 223 views. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX5eEDAn3TY&t=1478s |
| Description | Webinar series (6 events) on reconceptualising the value of the arts and humanities |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I arranged a webinar series of six sessions, examining the value of the arts and humanities in HE. Each session was attended by approximately 100 international participants. Sessions were recorded and loaded on YouTube. To date (March 2023), most have been viewed 100-300 times. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMmO-4lIpvA&list=PLMaY0rprzmBEEd8uCCdk5-m42-3ffl02a |
| Description | What does 'employability' mean amid global pandemic and recession? Covid-19, higher education and the graduate labour market |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Robson gave a seminar on graduate employability for the Centre for Global Higher Education webinar series that drew on emerging findings of the study. This was attended by an international audience of 100 people and the YouTube video has subsequently been viewed 287 times |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCMdUTuoSzA |