setting.  Another word for this type of communication is "narrative."

More formally, we might reference Aristotle. Although humans have been telling stories for as long as we’ve had language, the Greeks brought story telling to a high art. Their epic heroic tales and classic tragic plays adhered to what we would now regard as classical form.

Obviously a story should have a beginning, middle, and an end.  A good story should include characters with some complexity.  It should have a plot that incorporates a change of fortune and then the subsequent lessons learned.  And finally a story should engage the imagination so that the listener might visualize what the characters see, feel, experience, and hear.

For the purposes of business people, we are not looking to win a prize in literature.  What we are interested in is how our clients and colleagues talk about what's important to them and their companies.  We are interested in how the people who work in our client companies talk about what's wrong and what's right.  And equally as important, our clients are