LEADERSHIP: THE UNDERUTILIZED POWER OF STORY TELLING
we live in language
Success stories (large or small) provide positive examples of ‘living the culture’. Everyone learns and integrates new behavior more easily when real situations are used to illustrate. Employees identify more easily with the possibility of their own success when they have a chance to resonate with what others have done. Identifying with the actions of a colleague is many times more powerful in terms of encouraging employees to ‘take action’ than instructions.
At team meetings, encourage ‘story telling’ by asking for examples that illustrate the point you are trying to make:
- Stories lead by example: Stories provide a real, authentic situation with information that clarifies why it the topic is important.
- Stories help employees emulate behavior: It is easier to emulate behavior than it is to divine it from a manual or training session.
- Stories show employees how to get ahead: Inherent in every story is a message about what it takes to be successful.
When asking for stories that illustrate the application of your organization’s cultural-values, ask the story teller to set up the story in 3 parts:
- Situation
- Action Taken
- Results
Situation A story meant to highlight a success should include a situation that is relevant and will resonate with the audience. Include the following:
- Significant—Do the subject and the situation quickly explain the significance of the situation?
- Specific—General stories about general situations involving unnamed individuals can actually do more harm than good. They become clichés. Specificity and details help breed credibility.
Action Taken A Cultural Values story needs to include actions taken to address the situation.
- Relevance—The actions taken should be tied to one or more cultural values.
- Authentic—Not only must the story be real – it must be real in describing what happened—good or bad. Authentic stories help to remove the fear of sharing mistakes.
Results Any story about living the organization’s cultural values must demonstrate the consequences (positive or negative) resulting from the actions taken:
- Rational—Results should be tangible and identify an outcome to which employees can relate (e.g. customer growth, personal advancement, product innovation, etc.).
- Emotional—Beyond the customer/employee results, how did the actions taken and the resulting outcome make the subject of the story feel? ‘Relieved’, in the case of a processing error? ‘Creative’, when new opportunities are discovered? Etc. Asking the story teller to express how he/she felt allows others to more readily identify with the situation and how they might feel.