10 Free Storytelling Training Courses
We’ve selected ten of the most recommended storytelling training courses to help you create and deliver strong stories and positively influence and motivate your team. Some of the topics covered here include the story design model, crafting motivational and persuasive stories, the basics of portrait photography, and tools for digital storytelling.
Storytelling Training Course #1
Story Design
This two-part course by SC Training (formerly EdApp) is designed in collaboration with Rance Greene from needastory.com, known for his story-based business solutions that aim to inspire, guide, and persuade corporate employees. It begins with a brief example of a short but compelling story that will give you a quick overview of how story-based training should be structured and delivered.
From there, this storytelling class will walk you through the general story design and the story design model, alongside some tips on how you can make the content of your story strong and relevant. It also contains an exclusive 2-minute video clip from Greene, which will help you further understand why stories work so well for training, instead of settling with traditional presentations like graphs and charts.
Cost: Free (up to 10 users)
Created by: SC Training (formerly EdApp)
Scope: General story design, story design model, what makes stories so great for learning
Storytelling Training Course #2
The Art of Storytelling
This learning course will teach you how to determine your audience, topic, and goal and craft inspirational stories that will inspire your listeners emotionally and impact them positively. It will also guide you to the secret magic formula for opening, delivering, and closing a story, ensuring that your team will be able to easily connect to your message and understand things from your perspective.
Cost: 279 USD
Created by: Dale Carnegie
Scope: Define audience, topic, and goal, use the magic formula for crafting stories, plan an opening, message delivery, and closing, identify best practices for presentation
Storytelling Training Course #3
Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling
This storytelling course by Coursera is focused on introducing trainers and instructional designers to digital storytelling and its fundamental elements through a series of video tutorials and review examples used by educators across different curriculums. Here, course takers are expected to learn more about the step-by-step process of creating a good digital story, from selecting a theme to writing a simple script and constructing a storyboard, as well as recording an audio narration.
Cost: Free
Created by: Coursera
Scope: Introduction to digital storytelling, steps for creating a digital story: choosing a topic, writing an effective script, creating a storyboard, recording narration, publishing the final version of the digital story
Storytelling Training Course #4
Storytelling in the Workplace
In this edX course, you’ll learn how to craft your story and narratives correctly, taking into account all the above considerations for maximum audience impact. You’ll also get to know the elements of effective stories, the best practices and writing styles, and how you can apply them in the workplace.
Cost: Free with paid certificate
Created by: edX
Scope: Crafting stories based on the medium, situation, and target audience; best practices and writing styles; elements of effective stories and how to use them in the workplace
Storytelling Training Course #5
Everyday Business Storytelling
In this world with declined attention spans, even the smartest business people struggle to communicate and deliver their stories and messages, especially when they’re strapped for time. To overcome this challenge, the Presentation Company has put together this informative course, discussing the strategies and techniques for cutting down the metrics of your messages and sharing only the most critical insights.
Compared to other business storytelling courses, this training storytelling program will teach you how to use a simple, repeatable storytelling framework to convey a story for audiences with competing interests or when your meeting is unexpectedly cut short.
Cost: 749 USD
Created by: The Presentation Company
Scope: How to cut down messages and share only the most critical insights, science-backed storytelling framework to effectively convey a story
Storytelling Training Course #6
Storytelling for Leaders: How to Craft Stories That Matter
This Skillshare course consists of a series of short videos hosted by the founder of SYPartners, Keith Yamashita. He draws on his decades of experience to teach leaders and alike how to craft compelling and engaging stories that matter to storytellers. Here, you will be guided on the different forms of storytelling used by most leaders, the components of a great story plus the archetypes involved, as well as the processes for developing and refining a story. His strategy is based on a proven structure he’s used for helping Fortune 100 companies tell their brand stories.
Cost: Free
Created by: SkillShare
Scope: Shaping and drafting stories that matter, types of stories, components of a great story and archetypes
Storytelling Training Course #7
Storytelling to Engage and Motivate
Pluralsight’s Storytelling to Engage and Motivate course will expand your communication skills and round out your ability to identify, develop, and deliver engaging stories in professional contexts. It contains a total of 5 short video lessons covering major topics such as elements of an effective story, steps to developing a story, persuasive storytelling in action, and ongoing storytelling strategies.
Unlike business storytelling workshops, this will help you learn how to structure your narratives based on your target audience and message purpose and deliver them based on your existing skills as a communicator.
Cost: 159 USD per year (subscription basis)
Created by: Pluralsight
Scope: Introduction to storytelling and persuasion, what makes an effective story, steps to developing a story, persuasive storytelling in action
Storytelling Training Course #8
Storytelling Through Portrait Photography
Masterclass' course on Storytelling through Portrait Photography is spearheaded by renowned photographer Tyler Mitchell, sharing his personal techniques and process for creating eye-catching portraits. Expect a total of 11 short video lessons that will take you around an hour and a half to finish. In this course, you will understand how to use your images to tell a motivational story—even if all you have is your phone. You will also learn the basics of lighting and composition, methods for selecting and processing images, and also tips for choosing colors, props, and locations to help you express your story better.
Cost: 15 USD/month (subscription basis)
Created by: MasterClass
Scope: How to tell stories with photography, the basics of lighting and composition, selecting and editing images, directing photos, and choosing colors, props, and locations
Storytelling Training Course #9
Storytelling for Impact
This storytelling training course by Philanthropy University is geared towards influencing speakers into writing and delivering memorable stories that will grab people’s attention and positively impact them. It comes with tools, best practices, and a step-by-step framework for crafting narratives and translating facts into emotions, ensuring that you know how to do storytelling for influence. Making sure your story will evoke emotional responses and encourage listeners to move and act for greater action.
Cost: Free
Created by: Philanthropy University
Scope: Crafting stories that will evoke emotions and move people to act, choosing the best story medium for your narrative
Storytelling Training Course #10
Storytelling for Social Change
In this course by FutureLearn, a Learning Management System (LMS), you'll discover the secrets of storytelling from the experts and how you can apply them to writing and delivering stories that will not only inspire your employees but also drive them to make real change. You will also learn the simple rules of crafting stories by using visual elements and choosing characters that your audience can emotionally connect with, improving the impact of your message.
Cost: Free for 7 weeks; Upgrade to 59 USD for unlimited access
Created by: FutureLearn
Scope: The secrets of storytelling from expert performers and artists, simple rules of story craft, power of visual storytelling
A storytelling training course can teach you how to use storytelling in a smart way, so you can amp up the impact of your communications and become a master at engaging, persuading, and inspiring others. It’s impact is powerful because it can help your audience connect with you, make sense of an idea, and even take a desired action.
Storytelling as a communication tool works like magic for professionals from all walks of life, whether you’re a team leader, marketing associate, salesperson, engineer, or trainer - you name it. If your job involves regular communication with others, storytelling training is a key to boost your skills.
How do you train to be a storyteller?
Organizations can help their employees become great storytellers by setting up storytelling training courses or workshops within the company. This will give them a chance to get hands-on experience and encourage them to practice regularly.
These sessions can also create a safe and supportive space for employees to share their stories, ideas, and experiences during team meetings or training programs. Plus, when employees get constructive feedback and encouragement, it boosts their confidence in delivering powerful stories.
Companies can also take storytelling to the next level by promoting empathy and emotional intelligence among their employees. Special training programs can be designed to help employees understand the emotions and needs of their clients, stakeholders, and colleagues. That way, they can create stories that really connect with them.
It's even better when employees share their personal anecdotes and experiences that align with the company's values and goals. Adding that authenticity and emotional depth to their stories makes them super relatable and impactful. The pay-off is huge when it comes to improving communication, building better relationships, and ultimately boosting business success.
Bring life to your corporate training with storytelling training
These days, training managers and L&D leaders are turning to interactive storytelling to bring life to their training programs. Because let’s face it, traditional training sessions with long modules and static PowerPoints aren’t working anymore. Storytelling in training, on the other hand, piques the interest of learners, resulting in higher participation and retention rate.
As it entertains them into a relatable scenario, employees easily remember a message or lesson and effectively apply their acquired skills and knowledge in their work context. A strong company story can also trigger emotions and motivate them to work even harder and perform better.
Planning to spice up your training with storytelling? While it’s not exactly rocket science, storytelling can be learned through training and exercises. Taking the right storytelling training courses will improve your communication and influencing skills and bring great impact to your story-based training initiatives.