Five ways to build trust through storytelling
Developing that narrative was the focus of our recent Singapore event How to build trust through impactful stories. Hosted by Mahlab in partnership with B Lab Singapore, the event featured a panel conversation including leaders from L’Occitane, Nespresso and Stone Cybersecurity, who discussed how organisations can use powerful storytelling to get from intention to action and impact.
Purpose claims are now table stakes, but trust is still relatively scarce and therefore incredibly valuable. And trust can’t be manufactured with clever words alone. It starts with doing what you say you’ll do. Storytelling comes in once that foundation is in place, amplifying the proof of action and building deeper understanding.
Stories reinforce trust because they help us remember. Long after facts and stats are forgotten, we’ll still be able to recall the story around them. That’s not least because stories help us interpret things. They help us understand why things matter and how we feel about them. They evoke human emotion and empathy—two key things you need if you want something to be remembered and absorbed. Good stories take complexity and nuance and make it easier to understand, without oversimplification. And they make us feel a part of something bigger, forging connections that bind us to ideas and principles.
Done well, storytelling goes way beyond simple performative brand theatre. It’s essential infrastructure for understanding.
We’ve distilled five practical moves that communications leaders can make to articulate the stories of purpose-led businesses and win over sceptical audiences.
1. Use powerful metaphors
Metaphor can be a useful shortcut from complexity to common sense. For example, the circular economy, which focuses on the re-use and regeneration of materials, is easier to grasp when you swap jargon for something tactile and relatable. Like LEGO bricks that are constantly re-used and rebuilt, rather than being thrown away and having new bricks bought for every project. It’s the kind of image sustainability leader Joe Karten uses to explain why materials should live many lives, not one. Pair a familiar metaphor with credible scaffolding and you’ve made an abstract system visible.
2. Make the big things personal
Industrial stories land faster when they hinge on people. ABB’s “Everyday Heroes” series recasts service engineers—on the job and off—as the human force behind the reliability and safety of ABB’s equipment and services. The work is highly technical, but the ABB Everyday Heroes narrative is human, with character, place and consequence. Even in the world of industrial electrification, people are the proof. If you are looking to give people a relatable way to get to know your business, consider short profiles and first-person moments before you reach for the product sheet.
3. Harness visual storytelling
If much of your audience prefers to learn visually, pictures aren’t decoration; they’re delivery. And considering that nearly two thirds of the population could fall into the visual learner category, it’s a style of delivery that simply cannot be neglected.
Salesforce’s long-running 1-1-1 model, and its role in seeding the Pledge 1% philanthropy movement, shows how to render “giving” in crisp visual assets that employees and partners can engage with and act on, calling on relatable facts like hours volunteered, skills applied, and communities served. Translate your own impact into a simple chart, motion tile or diagram, and add a caption that explains why it matters, not just what it is.
4. Focus on impact, not activity
Volume isn’t always victory. Instead, it’s outcomes that persuade people. They’re how the story gets resolved, showing why we wanted to tell it. Around Australia and New Zealand’s national memorial day, ANZAC Day, veterans group RSL New South Wales balances moving stories with clear calls to commemorate, volunteer and donate. Crucially, it also measures and reports on what difference it’s making in the community. That’s why campaigns like its efforts to engage younger veterans have been so successful. In your next wrap, lead with who is better off and how, and let the activity numbers play a supporting role. It’s the difference between noise and proof.
5. Be genuine (and consistent)
Audiences are quick to spot varnish. Innovative Australian furniture maker Koala’s internal-meets-external operating guide, How we Koala, works because it codifies how the B Corp-certified company decides, designs and behaves—then lets customers and partners hold it to account. Mahlab created the platform using storytelling and visual design and brought it to life across print and digital to ensure what makes Koala special didn't get diluted as the company rapidly scaled. Publish only what you’re prepared to live up to in the real world. Consistency, not volume, is the real engine of credibility.
