In corporate storytelling, no one cares about your story as much as you do, so if you want it to influence an audience, your story must be clear, concise, and deliver value quickly.

That sounds simple, but clarity is fragile – especially when a story is shaped by a group. Each contributor arrives with their own priorities, messages, and details they want included. Before long, a once-focused narrative is buried under conditions, modifiers, and explanations.

The result isn’t engagement. It’s friction.

Instead of drawing people in, excess detail gives them reasons to switch off.

Good storytelling is an exercise in brevity. It demands ruthless focus on a single objective – influence – and a willingness to question whether every element genuinely supports that goal.

This can be an uncomfortable process. Cutting material often means disappointing people whose contributions don’t make the final edit. But if those elements don’t help achieve the outcome, they’re not helping the story anyway.

The rule is simple:

Do these words help me achieve my outcome?

If yes, they stay.

If no, they go.

Use this test the next time you’re crafting a narrative – especially when internal resistance appears and the urge to keep adding starts to creep in.