When you think of the salient characteristics of a non-fiction self-help business book, what comes to mind? At first, you might expect such a book to be a “how-to” manual, with instructions on how to accomplish a specified goal. The objective might be how to get a promotion, or increase employee retention, or ignite profitable innovation. In each case, a problem is defined and a solution offered. It’s all very logical. Of the four types of writing—persuasive, narrative, expository, and descriptive—you might expect to see mostly expository, which is used to explain a concept and share information with the reader. Expository writing focuses on the facts of a certain topic and provides evidence, statistics, or results. It’s the type of writing you find in newspapers, textbooks, and this article.

There’s nothing wrong with expository writing in small doses, but when used exclusively in a 50,000-word book, it quickly becomes deadly dull. This is because if you want someone to really learn something—and learning begins with both curiosity and focus—the most effective way is to tell them a story.

When we’re children, we learn how to live in society through stories. Take Aesop’s Fables, for example. Everyone knows the story of the wise, industrious ants versus the foolish grasshopper. The hardworking ants store food for the winter, while the silly grasshopper dances around all day without a care in the world—at least until the first frost! By then it’s too late, and he is doomed.

Or how about the hare and the tortoise. The foolish hare assumes he will win the race, and dilly-dallies along the way. The steady tortoise keeps plodding along at his own speed, and is the first to cross the finish line. How many businesses are operated like the tortoise? How many are like the hare?

Science Validates Stories

How people learn is a complex subject, but at least one research study has revealed that schoolchildren learn about a topic most effectively when it’s in story form. At the University of Bath, children who were taught about evolution in the form of stories read by their teacher had higher levels of retention compared to those who were taught by completing tasks. This makes a lot of sense, because stories are much easier to remember than random facts. With the tortoise and the hare, you begin by remembering the hare taunted the tortoise… there was a race… the hare leaped ahead… the tortoise started slowly… the hare stopped for a nap… the tortoise won! Each scene follows logically from the one before it, like rows of dominoes falling. Your memory can easily go from one scene to the next.

Stories and Business Books

This is why the best business books tell stories to validate the lessons they teach. Generally, in any self-help book, you want to do three things, in this order: state the problem, provide your solution to the problem, and then provide some sort of proof or evidence that your solution works. If the story is true, it’s called a “case study.” You can use a case study from the industry you’re discussing, or one from your own professional experience.

A business book can also take the form of a fable, like the tortoise and the hare, or a series of short stories that illustrate your solutions. The second-best-selling business book of all time (after Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill) is Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki. It’s written in the style of a set of parables, supposedly based on Kiyosaki’s life. But you don’t need to use humans as your protagonists; another bestseller is Who Moved My Cheese, by Spencer Johnson. Here, the story rests on the slender shoulders of four characters: two mice, “Sniff” and “Scurry,” and two “Littlepeople,” named “Hem” and “Haw.” They live in a maze, and they look for cheese, representative of happiness and success.

One of my favorite animal business books is The Bee Book: A Tale of Leadership and Change, by Craig Smith and Paul Rigby, in which a hive of bees is faced with a catastrophic change in their environment, and they need to take quick action if they are to survive. Another good one is The Path to Leadership: An Amazing Story of Challenges and Personal Growth, by Ronnell Crittenden, about a young lion who needs to find his mission in life, and sets off on an arduous personal journey of discovery.

If you really want to teach someone a valuable life lesson, tell them a story!