If you speak to CSR executives you will commonly find the following aspirations:

• We want wider audiences to know and care about our CSR journey

• We want to build a trusted relationship with our stakeholders

• We want to get credit for the genuinely good work we’ve already done

In spite of these aspirations, the state of the current practice is to then proceed as though these aspirations didn’t exist, pushing out dull and data-heavy reports that may be useful to expert audiences, but not fit for purpose for the objectives above.

Most companies – even when they use powerful storytelling media such as video – fail to capture the attention or the imagination of their target audience with their CSR stories and attempt to confront and overcome problems of the world.

Stakeholder voices are the most powerful vehicle if they exist, since they often have a direct and emotionally powerful story. 

There are 3 elements to creating more compelling stories that companies can implement immediately in how they talk about their corporate social responsibility.