You're absolutely right that relevancy is important – perhaps the most
important attribute of a good story. If your story is not relevant to your
listener, that listener will tune you out. Perhaps the key is to figure out
how your stock of success stories might be relevant to your audience and
then emphasize that angle. The alternative (hunting for specific stories
for specific situations) might be too difficult to pursue.

- Mary

You're absolutely right that relevancy is important – perhaps the most
important attribute of a good story. If your story is not relevant to your
listener, that listener will tune you out. Perhaps the key is to figure out
how your stock of success stories might be relevant to your audience and
then emphasize that angle. The alternative (hunting for specific stories
for specific situations) might be too difficult to pursue.

- Mary

To the three key attributes I would also add relevancy. If I can't relate to a story, it will have less impact.

Story telling is a great way of sharing knowledge. I once interned at an organisation, where Intranet usage was very low. One of the reasons (apart from being on a Sharepoing platform) was that people simply didn't know how the Intranet could help them get their work done. Instead of pointing out all the features, I started writing stories. In every story someone with a specific role (e.g. PM, HR professional, accountant etc.) was playing the main character. (S)he faced a certain problem, which was solved by using the Intranet.

People were able to relate to the stories because they had a similar role, frustrations, needs as described in the stories.