‘Imagine if …’: The power of storytelling in building business resilience

Abstract

This paper contends that a missing key in the creation and growth of a truly cyber-resilient organisational culture lies in building a vigilant and resilient workforce through effective awareness learning for all. The author will argue that storytelling, one of the oldest human practices, is one of the most powerful tools we have to combat the unprecedented threats we face, both individually and as part of our organisations, while, paradoxically, also being one of the most neglected. Dry ‘tick-box’ annual compliance training, with a ‘one size fits all’ approach, is still the typical approach, yet this has demonstrably failed to embed the long-term behavioural changes required to operate securely, effectively and responsibly in the digital age. Storytelling can and should be an integral part of an effective enterprise-wide response to the cyber risks we face. Our emotional connection to these challenges, through stories, can be as powerful as technology in building the organisational, behavioural and cultural changes required to better protect our most precious information and systems.