Following our live episode of the Creative Confidence Podcast on storytelling for leaders, we invited media innovator Catherine Connors back to answer follow-up questions from our community. The result? A wide-ranging conversation touching on everything from team culture to AI ethics, all rooted in Catherine’s belief that storytelling is a transformative tool for connection, power, and possibility.

Here’s a recap of the questions and some of our favorite quotes from Catherine.

Listen to the full episode with Catherine Connors to hear her take on storytelling skills for leaders and how to make your storytelling more impactful and resonant. 

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or SoundCloud.

How do you build the storytelling muscle in teams?

“Take it seriously. Build it into your org as something that is as important as operations, HR, and design. Recognize that it's a function that lives across disciplines.”

How should teams use storytelling frameworks with stakeholders?

“Frameworks are really useful as diagnostic tools… They can give us a way of capturing the broad structure and cadence of a story… Then we can ask ourselves how we color beyond it, how we build beyond it, how we innovate with it and really make it our own.”

How do you scale stories to reach more people?

“If you think about reach in a deep and meaningful way–making people feel like they need to share the story and build their own community around it–that's when you really get scaled impact.”

How can storytelling combat disinformation and negativity online?

“When you remember that most people are the hero in their own story… that opens up new ways to engage.”

What’s your take on AI and storytelling?

“We should be thinking about AI as more than a tool. Compare AI to the emergence of the film camera. If our attention is just on the mechanisms of it, that’s not nearly enough for us to understand or lean into the creative possibilities.”

How should someone new to storytelling get started?

“The absolute first and best thing any aspiring story maker, storyteller can do is have a practice of storytelling. That could be journaling, recording voice notes, or doodling…I call it story fitness.”

What does it take to tell stories that lead to real-world change?

“We are all storytellers. It cannot and should not be gate kept as some expert sphere where only the privileged few get to be the creative heroes. The people closest to the threads of the story—in a culture, a community, a context—are the ones who are the most important authors or co-authors.”

Can you share an example of collaborative storytelling?

“We've all played some kind of game where we immerse ourselves in a narrative. It could be Dungeons and Dragons, charades, or Monopoly. Anytime you sit around a kitchen table, or a campfire, or a hearth, or a gaming table, you are engaged with other people in the co-creation of a story.”

Missed the first episode?

These questions came directly from our community’s response to the original episode with Catherine on Storytelling for Leadership.

In that conversation, we explored how story isn’t just a communication tool; it’s a strategic, connective force. Catherine helped us reframe leadership storytelling as an act of co-creation: a way to build trust, move people, and spark collective imagination.

If you haven’t listened yet, we highly recommend it.

Final thoughts

This follow-up episode reminded us that the best questions explore our intentions more than AI’s capabilities. 

How might we use story to make strategy more human? To navigate uncertainty with empathy? To include more voices in shaping what’s next?

Have a question you'd love answered in a future episode? Join our live events and subscribe to the IDEO U newsletter for invites and early access.

If you're ready to take your storytelling practice further, check out IDEO U’s Storytelling for Influence online course to learn how to craft stories that connect, inspire, and create lasting impact.