Strategic Storytelling
Explore storytelling fundamentals in the digital age, combining narrative, data, and AI for professionals who leverage stories in communication.
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Course Description
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Storytelling is the key to persuasion. It’s the key to leadership. To holding people’s attention. Yet too many of us continue to believe—all evidence to the contrary—that facts persuade. That people respond to logic and reason. That stories are fuzzy or soft.
They haven’t yet gotten it that what works on the debate team won’t get you points in real life!
Neuroscientists have clearly demonstrated that we respond more readily to a story than to a set of facts—even if we’re told in advance that the story is fictional. They’ve shown that the more immersed your audience is in a story, the more likely it is to change their thinking. In a digital world, as audiences tune out ad-type come-ons while seeking ever more immersive experiences, stories are more important than ever—they’re the most effective way businesses and professionals can communicate.
This is doubly true now that AI has put a premium on being and sounding human. But how do you move from a didactic, “buy-me-now” mindset to one that engages your audience through stories?
Strategic Storytelling, led by Frank Rose of Columbia University’s Digital Storytelling Lab, explains all this through the concept of “narrative thinking,” which—much like systems thinking—involves a fundamental reset to meet the challenges of a digital world. The program shows how stories have been used effectively by organizations as varied as Warby Parker, Burberry, John Deere, and Mailchimp.
At the end of the program, you will leave not just with a clear understanding of the importance of storytelling but with a set of frameworks and methodologies that will show you how to tell better stories today.
What You Will Learn
Columbia’s Strategic Storytelling program grounds you in the basics: Why stories are more persuasive than a simple list of facts, why emotion is critical to storytelling, how it helps you connect with your audience, and why you need to tell stories that don’t just express your point of view but address the needs and expectations of your audience.
Then it shows you how to do these things.
We take the “strategic” part of Strategic Storytelling very seriously. It’s not a nice-to-have. It’s a must, because it directly affects everyone’s opinion of you and your organization. By “everyone,” we mean everyone—your clients, your customers, your employees, your executives, the public at large, everybody who’s ever heard of you, those who haven’t heard of you yet but will soon enough. Learning to be strategic about the stories you tell requires consistency in both message and voice.
You will learn about the narrative arc and other classic story structures. You’ll learn about creating characters your audience can identify with. You’ll learn how to expand your stories into “story worlds” that audiences can project themselves into. How to use data to tell emotionally engaging stories. How to use AI in storytelling. How to deploy multiple stories across different media to build a narrative platform that will amplify your message and connect you with your audience directly.
We’ll dissect case studies and introduce you to the Strategic Storytelling Model, a set of frameworks that let you manage narrative platforms efficiently and effectively. And we’ll show you how to do it all without bullet points.
Modules:
(All modules take place from 12:00 to 2:00 PM EST)
- Module 1: Narrative Thinking | Monday, January 26, 2026
What it means to think in terms of stories. How this is changing psychology, medicine, economics, marketing, science—even personal interactions. A "5x why" exercise pairs participants in an effort to surface each person's story.
- Module 2: The Science of Story | Thursday, January 29, 2026
What recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and neuroscience tell us about how stories work in the brain and why they are so much more persuasive than facts.
- Module 3: The Elements of Story | Monday, February 2, 2026
Introducing the nine key elements of any story: author, audience, journey, voice, character, detail, world, platform and immersion. AI is used to help each participant frame their story in a way that will appeal to their audience. Spotlight on the narrative arc and the role of conflict in storytelling.
- Module 4: From Analog to Digital | Thursday, February 5, 2026
What are the constants in storytelling, no matter what the medium? What is changing in the digital world?
- Module 5: Stories in a Digital World | Monday, February 9, 2026
How you can use data to tell emotionally engaging stories. How to use AI in storytelling—and how not to.
- Module 6: Immersive Platforms | Thursday, February 12, 2026
How individual stories can work together to form a “constellation” of stories—a narrative platform that strengthens your message and invites immersion.
- Module 7: Transformation | Monday, February 16, 2026
A group workshop lets participants put what they’ve learned to work by developing a strategic story and designing a narrative platform that will encourage people to immerse themselves in it.
- Module 8: Conclusion | Thursday, February 19, 2026
What stories can't do. Concluding discussion: How to make stories work for you.
FAQs:
- I don’t work in a “storytelling” industry. Why should I take this course?
If you ever have to present ideas, pitch something or someone (including yourself!), or share information with others, you are telling stories. This course is designed to equip you with the skills and knowledge to tell those stories more effectively and engagingly.
Previous participants from a wide range of industries—finance, consulting, science, marketing, the military, corporate strategy, game design, law, education, and non-profits—have found this course invaluable for their personal and professional growth.
- I already work in a “storytelling” industry. Why should I take this course?
Even if you are an expert storyteller—creating a TV show, writing a book, directing a play, or similar—consider this: How confident do you feel when pitching your projects? When communicating your ideas concisely and compellingly to agents, producers, peers, or podcast hosts? The strategic storytelling framework can help you reframe your approach to these moments and leverage your narrative expertise for greater impact.
- What background knowledge is necessary?
No specific background knowledge is required. If you’ve ever seen, read, heard, or otherwise experienced a story, you’re prepared to engage with this course.
- What can I expect during course sessions?
Each course session will include a mix of interactive activities, presentations from the instructor and guest speakers, and group discussions. The final session will primarily be a group workshop designed to help you put your learning into practice.
- Will I need to complete any work outside of course sessions?
While no work is required outside of course sessions, suggested readings are available that may deepen your engagement with the material.
- How can I earn a certificate?
To successfully complete the course and earn a certificate, learners must attend at least 6 of the 8 live online sessions in their entirety (or watch the full recordings), with Modules 7 and 8 (group workshop assignments) mandatory. If unable to attend a live session, learners must view the recording via the Panopto Video Library page. A maximum of two missed sessions is permitted; however, Modules 7 and 8 may not be missed. Recordings may be watched for up to two weeks after the course concludes to meet completion requirements; we encourage you to dedicate time each week to stay engaged—especially for the workshop modules. Learners must also complete the required pre-course and post-course surveys.
Instructors
A native of Virginia, Frank Rose graduated from Washington & Lee with a degree in journalism and moved soon after to New York, where he got his start covering the punk scene at CBGB for The Village Voice, chronicling the emergence of such performers as Patti Smith, the Ramones and Talking Heads. He subsequently became a contributing editor at Esquire, a contributing writer at Premiere, a contributing writer at Fortune and ultimately a contributing editor at Wired.
He is the author of six books, most recently The Sea We Swim In: How Stories Work in a Data-Driven World and The Art of Immersion, inspired by his work covering media and technology for Wired. He joined Columbia University School of the Arts and its Digital Storytelling Lab in 2014 and has led its executive education seminar in Strategic Storytelling, initially presented by the School of the Arts in association with Columbia Business School, in the years since.
His thought leadership has appeared in publications such as strategy+business, the Milken Institute Review and the Opinion page of The New York Times. For strategy+business he explored the power of immersive media and explained how AMC Networks built a narrative platform around The Walking Dead; in the Milken Institute Review, he questioned blockbuster strategies and showed how brands like Burberry and Warby Parker have used narrative platforms to fuel growth.
Christopher Baldassano is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Columbia University and Principal Investigator at its Dynamic Perception and Memory Lab, which studies how we understand and remember the complex world of our everyday lives. How can we so quickly understand high-level properties of our environment, such as where we are and which actions we can take next? How do we break up our lives into events that we can understand and later recall as stories? Using functional MRI and other neuroimaging tools and conducting experiments involving narratives, movies, and virtual reality, the lab builds models of how neural representations vary across stimuli and across people.
Before he came to Columbia, Baldassano was a postdoctoral associate at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, where he worked with Uri Hasson and Ken Norman. He completed his PhD in computer science at Stanford in 2015, advised by Fei-Fei Li and co-advised by Diane Beck. As an undergraduate, he majored in electrical engineering at Princeton and earned certificates in physics and in robotics and intelligent systems.
Valentina D’Efilippo is an award-winning designer, creative director, and author renowned for her ability to inspire and connect people through data-driven experiences.
She co-authored the critically acclaimed Infographic History of the World, which has been published in eleven languages. She wrote Britannica’s Encyclopedia Infographica, a children's encyclopedia filled with facts and infographics about the universe, wildlife, and human anatomy. Based in London, she has led infographic workshops for The Guardian and popular masterclasses for the Data Visualization Society and other organizations.