Type of Work
Speaking
Topic
Storytelling and Building Trust
Challenge
How can storytelling help organisations build trust when trust cannot be assumed?
As part of Severn Trent’s Communications Futures Day, colleagues came together to explore the role trust plays in shaping relationships, culture and communication. I was invited to contribute to that conversation by sharing insights drawn from years of working in environments where trust cannot be taken for granted and where relationships are built through consistency, credibility and care.
This wasn’t a domestic abuse awareness session. It was an opportunity to explore a much broader question: how storytelling can help organisations build trust, strengthen connections and communicate with authenticity.
Contribution
Drawing on my experience in the violence against women and girls sector, I explored how storytelling can become one of an organisation’s most powerful tools for building trust.
Using examples from my work, I demonstrated how authentic stories help people recognise themselves within services, transforming case studies into relatable human experiences that encourage women to seek support when they are ready. I also explored how those same stories help build trust with funders, partners and communities by showing the difference an organisation is already making rather than simply describing what it does.
Alongside the practical role of storytelling, I invited colleagues to consider the responsibility that comes with it. Together, we explored the difference between telling stories and stewarding them, and how trust is built when people feel seen, heard and represented with care.
The session formed part of a wider day exploring the future of communications, including the opportunities and tensions surrounding artificial intelligence and the role technology may play in shaping the way organisations communicate.
Outcome
The session created space for reflection and conversation around trust, storytelling and communication. Colleagues shared how the stories and ideas discussed had brought the theme of trust to life and prompted further conversations about credibility, connection and organisational culture.
One of the most unexpected outcomes was the way the session humanised domestic abuse. Although the focus was not on raising awareness of violence against women and girls, several attendees reflected that hearing real experiences through the lens of trust helped them move beyond the rhetoric and statistics to better understand the human realities behind them.
The session also opened the door to ongoing dialogue and future collaboration.
Reflection
Working in the violence against women and girls sector has taught me to communicate in situations where trust cannot be assumed, where language matters, where stories carry real responsibility and where getting communication wrong has genuine consequences.
Those lessons don’t stop at the charity sector.
Whether an organisation is supporting survivors, leading teams or communicating with customers, the underlying questions are remarkably similar. How do we build trust? How do we communicate with honesty? How do we help people feel seen, understood and respected?
The context changes, but people don’t.
That’s why I believe the strongest communication strategies are rooted not simply in marketing expertise, but in an understanding of people. Stories do not create trust on their own. But when stewarded with care, they can help create the conditions in which trust becomes possible.