Stories are everywhere. They can be used to explain, inform and inspire. And, according to Will Storr, author of ‘The Science of Storytelling’, they’re one of the oldest ways we have to communicate, “Research suggests language evolved principally to share social information back when we were living in Stone Age tribes.”
Image: Patrick Tomasso, Unplash
Stories can help us see things from a different perspective, they help spark our imagination and creativity (every one of us will have a different picture in our heads when we hear the same story) and they can help us create community and share experiences too.
Stories are really powerful in helping to embed ideas too. In their book, ‘Made to Stick’, Chip and Dan Health shared an experiment - when an audience were asked to recall a presentation, 63% of them could remember the stories, versus only 5% who could recall statistics. Want people to remember? Then, tell a story.
When a company I was working for in the early days of my career went through a merger, the rumour mill was in overdrive. Every day for weeks, I heard a different story – this or that company was going to buy us, we were buying someone else, or the business was going to be wound up. The fact these were shared as stories (or gossip) meant that I can still tell you, nearly 25 years later where I was when I heard that story and who I heard it from.
So, if stories have this much power, how can leaders use stories when they’re planning organisation change?
Think about stories through different phases of change
When you’re starting to think about change, painting a picture of where you’re heading – your vision for the change - will help people understand where they’re heading. Lay out a clear context and reason for the change - it’ll help people understand why it’s happening.
Don’t forget to make it your vision inspiring and impactful – think Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream.”
As well as explaining the destination of where you’re heading describe how you’re going to get there and importantly, how you’ll all know when you’re there. But, beware of making this sound like a workbook – put your stories into the context of your organisation and the change people will be experiencing, rather than just a dry tale packed with jargon.
Consider how people will engage with your stories through the change. How can you tap into their emotions and feelings? What stories are you telling people about your change and how it will affect them? Why should they be interested in it at all, never mind bothered about it being a success?
Finally, how do you keep sharing examples of progress through your change (especially if it’s a long one)? I’ve shared stories of small and big wins – particularly when behaviours and habits have changed - in newsletter features and on intranets and leaders have shared these in their own briefings too.
And how can you draw others into your story? How about recognising folk who’ve delivered on a change project? If you recognise your employees’ ‘heroes journey’ and celebrate those who have overcome obstacles to reach their goal, these are great examples to show how others have succeeded even when things got tricky. It shows resilience too.
Keep it simple
Stories don’t need to be convoluted. We all share information through stories in our daily so think about what will help people keep moving in the right direction. Here are a couple of ideas to keep you on track:
Talk about decisions and choices you’ve made on the way. Don’t present people with a ‘done deal’ but if you can, share some of the journey about how you got to a certain decision – which supplier you chose or which IT system to roll-out. It helps you take people with you
Share your own stories and make it personal. A CEO I worked with used to share his own fortnightly updates, peppered with stories from his trips out to the shop floor. As well as showing progress against plan, the mini ‘case studies’ he shared about teams or individuals who’d delivered something in a different way or against the odds, were really engaging and motivating.
There is so much to explore in using stories to support organisation change.
But, if you remember the power that stories can have on our brains and emotions, then you’ll be engaging people’s hearts and minds – and that can only be a bonus in trying to deliver change successfully.
I’m always fascinated by the power of stories in change. So, if you try introducing more stories into your change and you’d like to share how it goes, let me know.