Matt Damon as King Odysseus in The Odyssey (2026)

• Storytelling allows professors to trace the history of an idea across thousands of years, deepening students’ understanding of complex challenges.
• Building narratives through interactive simulations and role-play exercises in class is an engaging form of experiential learning.
• Observing how art is created spontaneously can teach executives how to perform under conditions of uncertainty.

For thousands of years, from the theatres of Ancient Greece to the modern-day BBC, people have recognised the power of storytelling to both entertain and educate.

Look no further than the enduring story of Homer’s The Odyssey, which will be brought to life in cinemas this July thanks to the combined talents of Christopher Nolan, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway and a cast that includes Hollywood couple of the hour, Zendaya and Tom Holland.

The original story, set down as a written text in 7^th or 8^th century BCE Greece, focuses jointly on the titular Odysseus – a grizzled veteran returning home by ship from a far-off war – and his son, Telemachus. Under the watchful eye of a goddess in disguise, the young prince of Ithaca grows from an untested adolescent into a capable leader who assists his father in retaking the throne from a crowd of unruly nobles.

It’s a thrilling epic replete with gods and monsters, but at the story’s core is an exploration of leadership. Odysseus offers a case study of leadership through turbulent circumstances. Meanwhile, Telemachus must develop critical thinking and strategic planning – a learning path not without similarities to modern-era management education. At business schools, archery skills are optional!

Building case studies from the classics

No wonder, then, that The Odyssey is used as a teaching resource in NEOMA Business School’s “Lessons from Great Literary Texts: Management, Business and Leadership” course.

Agathe Mezzadri-Guedj, the course leader and Professor of Literature, explores the text with students as a cautionary case study on the risks associated with poor communication and pursuing efficiency at any cost.

“Odysseus achieves his objective but loses his entire crew through lack of listening and empathy, preferring his personal curiosity to his men’s warnings,” she says.

Other influential works of literature that the course delves into range from the classics, such as Virgil’s Georgics and Sophocles’ Antigone, to modern novels like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Claire de Duras’ Ourika.

The course groups these and other texts together in a series of five sessions, each focused on exploring a specific theme that affects business leaders today, including DEI, finance, and emerging technologies.

Sessions begin by anchoring the topic with a contemporary reference point from culture or industry. Students are then invited to explore how a selected group of literary characters and narratives reveal the complexities of the issue, moving backwards through time to the literature of ancient civilisations to show how the way a challenge is approached and understood evolves.

“By making us adopt the perspective of powerful characters, or conversely, marginalised ones, grappling with dilemmas, or toxic managers, it forces us to decentre ourselves,” Mezzadri-Guedj explains. “Moreover, it offers the necessary distance to analyse the world with a depth that daily life does not permit.”

She believes that tracing the history of how an idea develops from antiquity to the modern day equips managers with critical thinking, creativity, and ethical understanding, while also strengthening their decision-making amid complex challenges.

“Unlike abstract managerial theories, narrative gives body and reality to complex and fleeting situations. On a cognitive level, fiction doesn’t merely explain concepts like inclusion or collaboration; it creates emotional identification that allows one to experience these realities from within.”

By presenting a series of literary works, published across millennia but unified in their themes, the lectures themselves  attain an almost story-like quality: the story of an idea, how the way it is understood has developed, and how that depth of understanding can guide today’s students towards a more cultured and empathetic approach to leadership.

“In sum, it is about considering that management is not just a matter of numbers, but a human adventure that requires constantly renewed imagination and empathy,” says Mezzadri-Guedj.

Industry-aligned role-play

Another approach to harnessing the power of storytelling in the classroom is through setting up simulations or role-play activities that make students the protagonists.

This interactive approach is adopted at Nottingham Business School, where programmes emphasise the importance of experiential learning. Storytelling is used by teaching faculty to cultivate social connections and enhance engagement.

“As a teaching approach, storytelling binds emotion, cognition and context, making learning memorable and meaningful,” says Sharon-Marie Gillooley, Course Leader for the MSc Marketing suite. “Narratives help students make sense of complexity by grounding abstract concepts in lived experience, enabling adaptive sense-making and deeper understanding,”

Across the postgraduate marketing programmes that Gillooley oversees, storytelling is implemented as both a pedagogical approach and a professional competency that students actively practise. It becomes a tool to help them make sense of complexity and communicate ideas with clarity and impact.

For instance, industry-aligned role-play and creative storyboarding exercises are integrated in the MSc Advertising and Marketing Communications. Students create visual storyboards to present their ideas for a marketing communications campaign, which they then perform as a simulated agency-client pitch.

The activities provide a framework for students to translate theoretical models into emotionally resonant narratives, backed by visual communications and evidence-based justifications in their pitches.

“Through embodying industry roles, students learn to balance emotion, insight and strategy, building confidence in communicating creative concepts. Storytelling becomes a rehearsal space that mirrors agency practice and strengthens students’ capacities to craft persuasive communications,” says Gillooley.

Other programmes integrate a more tech-focused angle. In the MSc Digital Marketing, data storytelling workshops guide students through crafting digital customer-journey stories that map how potential consumers can become loyal advocates.

Students learn to integrate data points with emotional arcs to help them identify opportunities for improving customer experiences. They also explore how to use AI to refine messages, timing, and content in real time.

“When designing a storytelling exercise, my aim is for students to use narrative as a vehicle for sense-making, critical thinking and applied creativity,” says Gillooley.

“The desired outcome is self-efficacy, deeper understanding and the ability to synthesise data, theory and lived experience into persuasive, socially responsible strategies. As a pedagogical approach, storytelling supports tutors and students in translating theory into practice, moving from abstraction to application in an engaging and experimental way.”

The art of performing despite uncertainty

As an art form, stories can be told through many different media. Experiencing a character and an emotional arc are not dependent on language, as many musicians and composers would argue.

At Aalto University Executive Education and Professional Development (Aalto EE), senior executives learn how to perform under conditions of uncertainty from jazz.

Patrick Furu is both the Director of Top Management Solutions at Aalto EE and a musician. His work embeds storytelling within live musical performances, an approach he has termed “Jazz Strategy.”

Executives observe a performance by a group of professional musicians who have never played together before. Planning is minimal, and the written score must serve as a guide. While it helps the musicians set direction, boundaries, and intent, it does not specify execution.

“What follows is coordinated action unfolding in real time, under conditions of uncertainty, interdependence, and time pressure. The performance becomes a living case precisely because it is worked with: we pause, rewind, and reflect together,” says Furu.

Participants examine specific moments to identify how initiative can be taken or withheld, and how alignment can emerge without formal authority. Then, they collectively apply these observations to leadership challenges in their own organisations.

The lessons underpinning this exercise can be extended through more traditional storytelling approaches, such as written case descriptions, as well as digital and AI-enabled simulations.

When examining case studies, Furu invites participants to “rewrite” the story by imagining alternative decisions, interpretations, or outcomes. In some cases, they have the opportunity to speak with senior leaders at the case study company to explore how different scenarios could have affected the organisation’s story.

AI simulations add a sense of immediacy to thought experiments, placing participants inside dynamic scenarios where their choices shape the situation in real time. This introduces an element of ambiguity, requiring them to emulate the way jazz musicians manage uncertainty.

“Storytelling is effective in management education not because it entertains, but because it structures experience. Rather than discussing leadership or strategy as abstract concepts, participants encounter them as patterns of action: who initiates, who responds, where coordination breaks down, and how meaning is negotiated in real time,” says Furu.

“By engaging with stories, they must interpret, influence, and rewrite, participants learn to see leadership as an emergent, relational practice rather than a set of prescribed actions and behaviours. Ultimately, they leave better equipped to act thoughtfully and decisively in organisational contexts where the ‘script’ is never fully known, but where their choices really matter.”

Instruction through narrative

At their core, stories are an engaging way to convey meaning, whether through an interplay of characters or of melodies, and the best stories leave the recipient wiser for having consumed them.

International business schools are drawing on rich storytelling traditions across multiple forms o to guide students and executive participants towards a deeper understanding of the complex issues facing organisations today.

In the upcoming film of The Odyssey, cinema-goers can expect to witness cunning heroes outwitting monstrous foes. While C-suite executives can rest assured that their roles do not require them to slay any one-eyed ogres, what remains consistent is that, like Odysseus and his shipmates, they are navigating an uncertain environment where the next challenge is often difficult to predict.

For business school graduates, developing the critical thinking, emotional understanding, and interpretive listening skills to thrive in ambiguity will be essential steps in learning how to steer through restless waters and keep the entire crew on board.

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