So you got the job. Now what? Join me, Eleni Mata, on HBR's new original podcast, New

Here, the Young Professionals Guide to Work, and how to make it work for you. Listen for

free wherever you get your podcasts. Just search New Here. See you there!

Welcome to the HBR IDA Cast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Kurt Nickyff.

Ten years ago, when today's guest published a book on the Science of Storytelling,

he was surprised by the number of business professionals who read it. After all,

Jonathan Gotchall is a U.S. literary scholar. He expected his first book on humanity's strange,

ardent love affair with story to resonate with English literature types and popular science

readers. He did not know at that time just how much companies and businesses were flocking to

Storytelling because they wanted a piece of that power, that ability to deliver joy,

values, and connection to people and consumers. In fact, I first encountered Gotchall's book,

The Storytelling Animal, how stories make us human in an MBA class. At the time,

companies were hiring chief storytelling officers, marketing gurus, or exclaiming that if you

couldn't tell your story, you were just irrelevant. And digital media was democratizing access to

storytelling mediums and audiences. But Gotchall says there's also a dark side to storytelling.

Like any powerful tool, people can wield stories for good or ill. And he argues that while it's true

that individuals and organizations need to cultivate the craft, they also need to prepare their

defenses against cheats and manipulators. Honest storytelling, he says, is a moral imperative

for companies and workers, and it is better business too. Jonathan Gotchall's newest book is

The Story Paradox, how our love of storytelling builds societies and tears them down.

Jonathan, thanks for coming on the show. Thank you so much for inviting me.

Now it seems like all we hear these days, especially with new companies and startups telling their

...