Why Authentic Stories Matter More Than Ever in an AI World | Gabrielle Dolan | 719

Leveraging Thought Leadership · Jun 18, 2026 · 38m

What do you do when you've found a powerful idea — but the market thinks it's silly?

Gabrielle Dolan (known to almost everyone as "Ral") noticed something in the corridors of corporate Australia: the leaders who moved people, who made change land, who made ideas stick — they all told stories. The data nerds and slide-deck merchants were losing the room. The storytellers were winning it.

So she did something that seemed a little mad at the time: she left a senior role at National Australia Bank to teach business storytelling professionally. The reaction from the market? Something between…