When he worked as the program director of knowledge management at the World Bank during the mid-1990s, Stephen Denning had a difficult time convincing people how important it was for the organization to collect its widely scattered information and make it easier for people to have access to it.

Finally, at a presentation in 1996, he began telling a story about how a health worker in one of the poorest countries in the world, Zambia, was able to get critical and helpful information about malaria, even though he was in a tiny town nearly 400 miles from the capital. The answer is obvious to any high school student now, but it wasn’t eight years ago: The worker went to the Centers for Disease Control’s Web site.

What stood out most about that anecdote, Denning told his audience, was that the World Bank wasn’t in it. Although the bank had all sorts of crucial information about poverty issues, it hadn’t put together a way to provide that information to the people who needed it the most.

The reaction to his presentation helped to convince Denning how important workplace storytelling can be, especially for leaders who are trying to motivate people or get their support. That was hard for him to appreciate at first, because it went against the lessons he had previously learned about business communication.

“It was being crisp and clear and sharp and analytic,” Denning said. “Anything anecdotal was bad.”

Now he has become such a convert that he has written “Squirrel Inc.: A Fable of Leadership Through Storytelling” (Jossey-Bass, $22.95) and is busy spreading the word. In the May issue of the Harvard Business Review, Denning explained how storytelling needs to vary substantially, depending on what you are trying to accomplish.

He elaborated on the point during a recent interview, saying that the World Bank story was hardly a captivating one — but that’s exactly what made it effective from the storyteller’s standpoint. If he had offered more details about what the health worker was going through and the conditions in Zambia, listeners would have been preoccupied with the specifics of that situation rather than using their imaginations to see how the bank could fit in and take advantage of the Internet.

“My story is really just the scaffolding to get the listeners to build their own story,” Denning said.

Other stories need to vary in detail, depending on their purpose. Denning said the tales can be used for such things as describing the company’s values, communicating who you are to workers or customers, and squelching the grapevine.

Leaders who want people to get to know and understand them might offer longer, more vivid anecdotes so that workers can appreciate their perspective, Denning said.

“Through reliving this experience, they can understand what makes you tick.”

One warning about any stories that are relatively elaborate: Make sure the audience wants to hear you, and that people have the time for the story. If people are rushing against a deadline and you start weaving a tale, you might come across as long-winded and clueless rather than inspiring.

On other occasions, longer stories can lead other people to tell tales of their own, fostering a spirit of cooperation and teamwork, Denning said. Have an action plan ready to capture that spirit.

Denning said that some concise, memorable stories can limit potential damage from the grapevine — but only if the original grapevine item is spurious or dwells on something relatively trivial. Ideally, such a counter-story should have some gentle humor and be easy to understand and remember.

One example he gave was during the 1992 presidential campaign between Challenger Bill Clinton in incumbent George Bush, when Hillary Clinton admitted that she hadn’t baked cookies. That item was true, but the Clinton campaign believed it was drawing far more attention that it merited. So Clinton’s group came back with a concise response that stopped the issue from being raised anymore.

This was the response, Denning recalled: “George Bush isn’t campaigning to be president. He is campaigning to be first lady.”

Dave Murphy is the San Francisco Chronicle's workplace columnist. His Web site is at www.couchpotatoguide.com.