Corporate Storytelling

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Every civilization uses or has used story
telling as a way to communicate social values, skills, and to change or reinforce behaviors. While stories are often
the basis of interaction they are also the
building blocks of knowledge and the foundation of memory and learning.  They connect
us to our humanity and link our past, present
and future by teaching us to anticipate the possible consequences of our
actions.  Stories can help us define what is authentic about something or
someone.  The stories we tell and hear
about our companies comprise our corporate cultures.

Two Story Examples

1)     
The Viking Eric the Red with
son ‘Lucky’ the Red was exiled from Norway and founded the first settlement in
Greenland around 985 AD. The Norse society thrived, in
part due to the climate being in a cycle of warmth. At its peak the
Arctic settlement had approximately 5,000 inhabitants who
built churches and a cathedral, irrigated
fields, adapted farming and livestock for the environment, traded with Europe
and sourced building material as far away as Canada. The culture survived  for half a millennium. The decline was slow. As the climate cycle changed, the Nordic peoples
continued to adapt to their environment, some fled back to Europe and slowly, year after
year, the winters grew longer and were harder to survive. Wanting to maintain their
European their European style and culture they
refused to hunt on land and at sea as the Inuit
of the region had for generations. When the
settlement was discovered in 1932 it was rumored that they found the last of
the populace in the cathedral huddled together and likely starved to death.

2)     
1 in 10 people will change
their lifestyle after coronary-artery bypass grafting surgery. 90% of people
are not motivated enough to eat better, exercise, quit smoking, etc. despite being faced with fatal consequences. Yet somehow, in business,
we expect that writing a simple, well-drafted email
will inspire change within our organizations. As leaders, we face the challenge of changing team behavior, when- all
things, considered 90% of the people are
unlikely to make changes with life or death as
inspiration let alone an email.

We often tell these two stories at our
Leadership Workshops as a segue into a discussion about
the challenges of change. The Viking story is from Jared Diamonds’ book Collapse,
a follow up to  a modern classic: Guns, Germs, and Steel. The Vikings faced ‘slow
change’ which is extremely challenging. We often think that if only we tried a little harder, or hired better people
or had a little more capital, we could force things to change in a favorable direction.
When we do this, we risk ignoring the fundamental flaws of a market or
product. Ask the companies that bubbled and
burst in the 2000 tech boom.

Only 10% of people change their behaviors when faced with a life
changing event. This information comes from Alan
Deutschman’s 2007 aptly named book: Change or Die.
Dr. Edward Miller, the dean of the medical school and CEO of the hospital at
Johns Hopkins University first relayed these facts at IBM's "Global
Innovation Outlook" conference in 2004 which Deutschman reported on in an article for Fast Company. Both stories have
elements that stick with the listener: there are Vikings, Eric and Lucky the Red, there’s a thriving community in the Arctic, and there are people who
prefer to go on smoking and eating fries
than adding years and quality to their lives. Without
the story, the data may be perceived as less interesting and, therefore, less
effective at communicating important data.

The challenge we face as leaders in our
organizations is that our primary tool for corporate communication in live
meetings is often PowerPoint. PowerPoint does a great job of relaying the data
but bullet points are not stories. We don’t diminish PowerPoint for this deficiency
because it was never designed to tell stories: you were!

Stories are an essential way to communicate
with your organization, with clients,
competitors and shareholders. Stories can be a powerful method for bringing people together and building bonds that
increase engagement.  They can also bring the past and future into the present
and create an emotional context for people to locate themselves within a larger
experience. Stories have been a critical part of being human since the first
account of the mammoth hunt around the fireto today’s viral internet
commercials. We all feel
a deep connection to stories. We look for
them, we’re drawn to them, and we remember them.

Personal Identity Stories

We all have a story to tell, the story of
why we’re here, or why you’re in this job. Perhaps your story is about a big event that shaped you, a mentor or parent that provided guidance at just the
right moment or the serendipitous meeting of the CEO that lead to an interview
and an opportunity. Too often, we forget that our own stories are interesting, even
though we love listening to other people’s stories.
During our Leadership Workshops we always find a moment
to encourage each participant to reveal a story to the group. It’s powerful to hear: ‘That’s amazing! I didn’t know that about
you’ even though they may have worked together for 20 years. As a leader,
your personal story is critically important. Think
about your personal story in the context of your organization’s mission
and vision statements. Most importantly, make sure that
the personal stories you impart are consistent with your actions. We all know
the person who loudly states the truth is important to them but
consistently lie. Personal stories should be designed to help you and everyone
around you remember the type of person you are,
not to reduce your credibility and integrity.

Corporate Culture Stories

Companies often tell stories about their
history: “We started the company in our garage,”
- the ‘back in the day’ story. Corporate culture is largely comprised of the
stories we tell around the water cooler. It also includes the masterfully
crafted marketing or PR stories that define the internal and external view of
the company. A great example of a marketing story defining a company is the
Maytag Repairman. Ol' Lonely, or "the lonely repairman" was created
by the Leo Burnett Advertising Agency and remains one of the most recognized advertising characters. Interesting to
note that when Maytag wanted to push the fact that their dishwashing machines
had superior technology they felt the story of high tech needed to be delivered
by someone else. The younger sidekick character known as the 'Maytag Apprentice'
was created in 2003 to modify the story. Maytag created the story of
dishwashers that rarely broke down and then added
a chapter.

Another great corporate culture story is from Honda. A Japanese Honda employee is ‘caught’ repairing a windshield wiper on someone’s
Honda on the street. He is so dedicated to his employer and takes so much pride
in his role with the company that he’s willing to fix a stranger’s Honda. The
story tells us why Japanese car manufacturers produced a better quality car.
With the recent Toyota quality issues and its seeming avoidance of responsibility,
that story has changed dramatically. You may have noticed how much almost all
the Japanese car makers are advertising to restore their quality story line.

There are four common elements in culture
stories. These elements can be seen in
corporations, sporting events and, vividly, in politics. The elements are
easily recognizable and are crafted into stories to help us relate and
remember.

   1.
The Mob at the Gates. It’s us against them, we’re the underdog but if we pull
together we can triumph. We need to be on guard,
defend ourselves, secure our intellectual property and trust no one. In
politics, it’s the war on drugs, or defending ourselves from the terrorists or communist threats.

   2.
Triumphant Individuals. This is the rags to riches story, again the underdog
triumphs and proves we can all achieve greatness if  only we…
(insert message here). It’s the prodigal son, it’s
redemption and reality TV. Products often use this element to provide a ‘new and improved you’.

   
3. The Benevolent Community. Our group, company, team are the good guys.
We play fair, we treat each other with respect, and we forgive. We build barns
together, we work hard and play hard, and we support charities. This is also
‘the sum is greater than the parts’ underdog story (we love underdogs). If this
is the story our company preaches, we create a
lot of stress and embarrassment if we don’t follow through. Enron and Hurricane
Katrina are good examples of being ashamed that our actions do not match this ‘fair play’ story.

   
4. Decay at the Top. This is the story about not trusting people in
power or authority. It is a cautionary tale of greed and corruption, ‘with
great power comes great responsibility.’

Great stories have at least one and
sometimes all of these elements. The perennial holiday movie, It’s a Wonderful Life has all four elements.
George Bailey’s younger brother Harry is a war hero (Mob at the Gates). George
is constantly faced with making decisions about his life that are in the best
interests of the town, the Building & Loan Company or his family:  but never his own. It goes so far that he
foolishly thinks that he is more valuable to the collective dead than alive
(Triumphant Individuals). George is redeemed and uplifted by the community when
everyone comes together to raise the money
needed to make a loan payment. The community also forgives Uncle Billy after he
misplaces the loan payment that forced George into action (The Benevolent Community).
Of course the loan payment is owed to the evil Mr. Potter. In the alternate
universe of a future without George Bailey, Mr.
Potter has corrupted the entire community (Decay at the Top). It’s no accident
that It’s a
Wonderful Life is rated #11 on the American Film Institute’s 100
Best Movies, that George Bailey is rated #9 as the  Best Film Hero,  and that Mr. Potter is the 6th Best
villain.

The more of these four elements we have in
our corporate culture story the easier it is for people
to relate to and remember the story.

In our Corporate Culture Workshop we ask
the participants to craft their own individual story, based in fact and utilizing
sound story elements. It’s the story of why they are here at this company at
this time. Without fail, participants realize that they
are generally good at what they do but poor at telling people about it (or not effective at telling
people why it matters).  

Approaching every meeting, sales call, or PowerPoint presentation as a story will make everything you say more enjoyable and more memorable for the listeners. Adding storytelling to your career
toolkit is a must.