Be Different or be dead

April 11, 2011

Why storytelling is really needed to make an awesome career

Source: Unsplash

Why storytelling is really needed to make an awesome career.

Successful people in an organization are usually identified as the ones who push for change. They not only recognize the need for it, they take on the role of communicating passionately for it to anyone who will listen — they adopt the messenger of change role.

Storytelling is a key ingredient to communicate the need for change in an organization and, if done well, helps build your brand as the messenger of change and your career benefits accordingly

To be recognized as a passionate messenger of change, these three actions will serve you well.

Events

Make it an important personal priority to organize events to discuss the direction of the organization and why change is necessary. Make it matter. Start with your own work team and expand to include other audiences.

Organize Bear Pit Sessions with frontline and staff people to get a cross section of commentary going on the direction the organization is taking, and provide feedback to leadership accordingly.

My approach was to have at least one employee event on my calendar monthly. The agenda was simple: remind people of the market forces that require the company to change, describe the company’s business plan and strategy to respond to changes being felt, and ask for feedback and support. My bosses quickly became aware of my actions and were very obliging when I would ask for their participation in the events.

Energy

The great messengers of change understand that’s it’s not all about the content of the message, rather it’s about the energy exhibited when expressing it. Strong emotion behind the business plan tells a story in and of itself: that the messenger unconditionally believes in what they are saying.

Their passion becomes infectious and others quickly buy-in.

I tried to downplay the theoretical aspects of the business plan we were trying to execute; the text book science of the strategy we were on. The audience doesn’t give a rats ass about how the change strategy adheres to microeconomic theory, all they want to know is that the way forward will make the organization successful and that they will be safe.

The messenger’s personal belief — expressed passionately — in the plan will do more to assuage the listeners than their promulgation of the theoretical justification for doing it.

Remember, people will tune you out unless they feel you believe what you are saying.

Use rich language in your presentations. Be visual and use pictures to describe where your company is going. My experience is that most people have to work very hard to interpret words and numbers, but they get it right away when they see pictures and graphs — the analogue world — with rich color and interpretation.

Stories

Pick stories that bring the crucial elements of your strategy to life. If, for example, creating memories for people in terms of their experiences with you is a main part of your strategic platform, sprinkle stories of employees (using their names) dazzling customers throughout the discussion.

If sales plays a major role, add stories of salespeople going the extra mile to build strong intimate relationships with customers.

An effective story communicates your strategy more than any other communications tool; the more stories you tell, the more likely it is that your audience will understand what the organization is trying to achieve.

What if the messenger can’t find a memorable story to tell? Well, that’s a pretty good indicator that the strategy isn’t being executed all that visibly so you have to dig deeper to find one.

Ans as a reminder, be as specific as you can in your story; use real people to express the event. Everyone relates more to stories that involve their particular function or department in the organization and about their colleagues.

Storytelling is a must for the messenger of change.

Include it as an essential element of your day-to-day work plan. Gather stories and find people who are living your strategy.

Develop your story telling repertoire.

Cheers,
Roy
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• Posted 4.11.11 at 11:00 am by Roy Osing
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