Here’s a link to an interesting article in the Harvard Business Review. It says that character-driven stories turn on oxytocin, a brain chemical that enhances empathy.
In order to activate oxytocin, the narrative must first sustain people’s attention by creating dramatic tension. In other words, the character must meet and overcome a difficult situation.
As the article says, this blows the typical PowerPoint presentation to bits. You can make your communications much more effective by adding human-scale stories to let people know why they should care.
You can read the full article here.