This piece discusses the thorny issue of confidentiality in Corporate Storytelling. Why do we need it and in what circumstances? And, as importantly, can we ever get round it?
Of course, not everyone may be happy with storytelling. I don’t necessarily mean that they would object to the principle of deploying storytelling as one way of communicating with audiences and readers, more that they may have concerns that their name will be available for full public consumption. Indeed, it may not even take their name to reveal their identity, but the circumstances of their life or the field in which they work.
Protecting identity
So two other important issues to emerge from the roundtable were those of sensitivity and confidentiality. Clearly, marketing pharmaceutical products needs to tread a careful line. It’s important to remain aware that many customers are, by definition, quite possibly likely to be ill. This applies to other industries too, not least the legal profession, where it can be very difficult to discuss individual cases and success stories.
(…) Marketing pharmaceutical products needs to tread a careful line. It’s important to remain aware that many customers are, by definition, quite possibly likely to be ill.
No-one should ever feel obliged to feature as part of a storytelling campaign. Everyone does and should have a right to privacy, no matter how important the cause or the organisation. Nor, for that matter, how well their circumstances may be suited to a story.
For instance, if someone has been a victim of a crime, or if they have an illness that makes them feel acutely vulnerable then one should tread very carefully. This is particularly the case with instances of domestic violence, where the victim may have been forced to leave their home. And failing to maintain their confidentiality may also endanger any children they have, and in extreme cases, even other members of a domestic violence refuge.
Confidentiality in legal proceedings
Also, storytelling may be a controversial course of action when the person at the centre of the story is part of a legal process. Revealing names or even the wider context of the case may unduly prejudice the proceedings, which may work exactly counter to what the organisation is trying to achieve.
What follows are a few suggestions for absorbing confidentiality within storytelling. Firstly, and most obviously – though it’s worth stating nonetheless – you could change the name of the person involved. This simple move could obviate a lot of the challenges you face (and perhaps save you a lot of sleep!). It’s not duplicitous, let alone illegal, to change the name(s) of the characters in your story and doing so is simple. It may well be all you have to change, and you can still go in-depth into the story that needs to be told. Secondly, and closely connected of course, is not to use a photograph (or similar image) of the person in question. Again, it’s obvious, but again it’s worth stating – without a visual image, how likely is it really that that person will be recognised?
Devising a written policy for confidentiality
Thirdly, it’s worth thrashing out with your colleagues exactly what the issues are. It may be that you are making too many assumptions in believing that confidentiality is a deal-breaker. Does the organisation have a set, perhaps even written, policy about this, or is it merely just an opinion of one or two of your colleagues, which everyone else has wound up following? So sitting down and devising a written policy – and it’s crucial that it is indeed written – would be a major step forward, and one that may well produce unexpectedly beneficial results.
Another strategy may be to write about the company itself, and not yet about an individual case or person. It would be very straightforward to tell the stories of your colleagues, how they came to be working at the organisation, their successes, their challenges, what drives them and so on – anything that can illustrate the excellent work that your organisation is producing. You can also, of course, write about the clients or customers that you are helping, but keeping the stories as generic as possible.
The character in your story should always have the last say
But finally, and what one always has to bear in mind when it comes to confidentiality, is that the person whose story you are telling should have the last say. It doesn’t matter how many other stories you may have told, but without their free, frank and express permission – and, ideally, enthusiasm – the story should not be told.
These issues are of course hugely relevant for the pharma industry, where companies not only have to be careful about patient sensitivity, but are also more and more turning to storytelling strategies that focus on the patient and not the disease.
List of storytelling successes?
This brings me to my final point. I was also asked at the roundtable to provide examples of success stories or case studies that demonstrate how effective storytelling can be. So now for an admission – they are very difficult to come across. Sure, I could have gone on rather immodestly about my own products and how good they are, but that is very different from demonstrating how this has led to an increase in followers, customers and an increase in sales.
I have since come across this short of list of successes, which strikes me as both very interesting and important (though the article itself dates back to 2015). It’s also a good starting place for building up a ‘bank’ of evidence of success, both in Pharma and other industries.
I’m hoping that at my next roundtable in December I’ll be able to focus on some of these successes, and indeed to interview someone with first-hand experience. So if you yourself have this experience, or alternatively know someone who does, then please do feel free to drop me a line!
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