Authenticity in business storytelling

I’m a great fan of the Gruen transfer, a show we have here in Australia.  In one of the episodes they talked about marketing spin and  said in marketing spin you take one truth and spin everything around it.  I was immediately struck by how business storytelling is the complete opposite of that.  Because for your storytelling to be successful, everything about it needs to be authentic. 

So in this video let’s explore authenticity in organisational storytelling.  One of the first things to consider and this comes to us from Steve Denning, is your stories need to be both factually true as well as authentically true.

To illustrate this, Denning shares this example….’On the Titanic’s maiden voyage 700 people arrived in New York’.  This is factually true  but it leaves out the detail that the ship sank and 1500 people died.

So your story needs to be both factually true and authentically true.

The other thing to consider with authenticity in business, is that you as the storyteller need to believe in your story and its purpose – your intent needs to be authentic.

A few years ago we did some work with a leadership team that was outsourcing some of their work overseas and they were looking for stories to accompany  this.  When no stories emerged we asked them ‘can you honestly put your hand on your heart and say you believe this is the best thing for your company?’…..and they couldn’t.  So unless you believe in the purpose you are not going to have an authentic story.

The other point we want to draw from that example is not everything needs a story.  So use stories only if it is authentic to do so otherwise just go with the data….which is what that leadership team did.  They just went with the data about outsourcing their operations.

The last point to make about authenticity is congruence.  There needs to be a connection, there needs to be a congruence between your words and your actions.  When Cameron Clyne, (current CEO of National Australia Bank) became CEO, one of his early promises was to be open and approachable.  When Cameron Clyne was fairly new he attended one of the NAB’s internal events and took a seat down the back.  A lady who worked in IT approached him and said ‘Excuse me you are sitting in my seat’.   He immediately apologised and vacated her seat.  As soon as Cameron left some of the lady’s colleagues said ‘Do you know who that was?  The new CEO!’.  She said ’You are kidding, no way why would he sit up in the back?’.    That story became one of the stories that started circulating in the bank and it showed people the congruence between Cameron’s words and his actions.

So just to recap …authenticity in storytelling is everything.  All your stories need to be authentic and when we are talking about authenticity we are asking you to consider these things. 

Your stories need to be both factually true and authentically true.

You as a storyteller need to believe in the purpose of your story.

Use stories only if it is authentic to do so, otherwise just go with the data.

And finally for authentic storytelling you need congruence between your words and your actions.

We would love you to make a comment of when you have seen leaders who have been authentic or not with their storytelling.

Struggling with launching into your stories? Easy story segues for business storytelling

We are often asked ‘How do I launch into a story in the middle of a meeting or in a presentation?’.  In this video Yamini provides some practical advice on smoothly launching into your story and what segues to avoid…like the plague.

And she thought she was just skiing – another example of business storytelling

A client of ours, Liza Boston,  runs a bleeding edge company in social media and her constant challenge is dealing with companies that are often tentative in venturing into the brave new world of social media.  Liza came to us as she needed a story to help them understand, that with Liza’s company guiding them all the way, they would avoid all the risks and gain all the benefits.  This is the story we helped  Liza develop.

“A few years ago I went skiing with a friend on Mount Hutt in New Zealand.  One night it snowed heavily and we awoke to a perfect  day of skiing.. but only on half the mountain.  You see half the mountain was closed as they conducted all the potential avalanche tests.  So we would catch the chair lift up to the summit and to our right we could see the whole half the mountain still closed.  It was perfect snow but we could not reach it.  One of the times coming up the ski lift, there were two instructors in front of us and when they got to the summit instead of going down the side of the
mountain that everyone was going down they skied over the other side and turned the ‘closed’ sign to ‘open’.  We immediately skied over to follow them. We were both unbelievably excited but really anxious because of the risks of
being first down the mountain.  But after a slight hesitation we just skied down the mountain following in the exact path that the ski instructors were making as they were heading down the mountain.  As we flew down the mountain
screaming with delight, the instructors tracks acted as our guide..allowing us to avoid all the dangers while reaping all the benefits of being first.  I feel like we are on top of the summit with you and there is a whole side of the mountain we can help you explore.  Like those ski instructors we will be your guides, helping you avoid all the risks while enjoying all the benefits.”

Liza  told us this after her meeting “I had just finished taking them through the benefits of our proposal but I could still feel this reluctance to proceed.  Although I was a bit tentative myself in telling the story, I thought I may as well give it a go.  As soon as I started the story there was one women, who I kid you not had been sitting through the whole meeting with her arms crossed, as soon as I started telling the story she unfolded her arms, leant forward in her chair and her entire body language changed.  for the first time she smiled.  After the story they all started talking to each other about how they could get this through the Risk department and how they could get funding.  I seriously could not believe the turn around.  My whole experience with storytelling was both exhilarating and energising at the same time.”

Business Storytelling – The Myth of the Natural Born Storyteller

In the work we do with business leaders on organsiational storytelling, we are often asked about ‘natural’ storytellers.  Granted some people are better at it than others, just like some people are better at tennis or singing than others……but everyone can get better at it with preparation and practice.

In this our first video blog, Yamini Naidu explodes the myth of the natural born storyteller. ..and shares their success secrets with you.

Out of the mouths of babes – business storytelling by leaders

Our early example about Only the Real thing story sparked some reactions from some of our followers.  One such reaction was from Alan Doyle, who is a Data Specialist at the NAB’s, Group Data Management team.  Alan did our workshop earlier this year and this is his story….

“In 1997, my son Finn was a cute three year old toddler who simply never stopped, from before the dawn, until way past his bed time !  In some ways I envied him – so much energy and such a sunny disposition, and with apparently nothing to worry about except whether his favourite teddy was close by him at all times.

My world was, at least in my eyes, so much more complex and full of worry, with so much to do and not enough time to do it.  I was working amazingly long hours, trying to ‘make the right impression’ with my work colleagues, and often went days without seeing Finn, or my beautiful five year old daughter Jessie and my lovely wife Sarah.  I loved the precious moments we did spend together, and made a huge effort to spend ‘quality’ time with them, reasoning that I could make up for the lack of ‘quantity’ by trying to do lots of things with the them in the little time we had.  Funny how maths equations like that make sense to an adult – pity they don’t ‘add up’ for the children.

One day at breakfast Finn excitedly showed me his latest family portrait in all its primary coloured crayon glory.  He was always very artistic, and his drawings were remarkably clear even at three years old.  My heart sank when I asked him to tell me all about his wonderful drawing as he bubbled with joy telling me “this is me, and this is Jessie, and this is Mummy !!!”  I asked Finn “…..and where is Daddy?” to which he replied “ooops Daddy, I forgot to draw you ! “.  I knew immediately what that meant, and I literally came apart at the edges soon afterwards.  I had no illusions about what I needed to do……work life balance finally had a real meaning to me.  That day, Finn changed my life forever!”

Business Storytelling at WorkSafe

Last Friday we attended the IPAA Writers Forum as guest speakers and had the privilege to hear Bernie Dean, who is the Executive Director of Marketing & Communications at WorkSafe Victoria.  We have for a long time used WorkSafe Victoria  as example of using business storytelling right and it was great to hear first hand from Bernie how Worksafe have strategically used storytelling to influence and persuade.

Years ago when workplace safety was not high on people’s radar,  WorkSafe used negative ‘shock’ advertising to raise awareness to the problem.  That is the power of negative stories.  They raise awareness of a problem.  If you don’t abide by safety procedures, people die.  If we don’t change our strategy, we will become irrelevant.  If we don’t outsource this division, we may go out of business…in essence they create a burning platform. 

However, negative stories can only get you so far.  Those familiar with the workplace adverts over the last couple of years will notice that they have started using positive stories .   One such advertisement is about a boy sitting on the step waiting for his dad to come home, his mother is getting increasingly worried and all the time you are thinking the worstthen his Dad pulls into the drive way and the tag line reads ”The most important reason for making your workplace safe, is not at work at all.”  View the ad on YouTube 

The workplace safety ads often get criticised for their graphic content but again Bernie emphasised that you should not dumb down the message.  He said he learnt this from reading to his two young children.  When he moved from reading Enid Blyton to Treasure Island with them, they were introduced to some rough characters and language.  He thought he needed to ‘tone’ down the language but realised that as soon as you start to do that you start to diminish the impact.  So don’t underestimate your audience.

So the lesson we can learn from Bernie Dean and the success of the WorkSafe advertisements is that you need to understand that negative stories will raise awareness to a problem but will only get you so far.  Introducing positive stories will have more impact on encouraging the change of behaviour you desire.

What is a story?

We did some work for a company once, to convert their case studies into stories.  On sharing this with a friend, she asked ‘Isn’t a case study a story?’.   A case study is definitely not a story and we realised we were looking into an abyss.

People often think they are telling a story when in fact they have just pulled together a statement of facts in sequential order.  This is in a way a form of narrative but in its most basic form and unsurprisingly not very engaging.

Trying to define what a story is, is like trying to nail jelly to a tree.  But we are bravely and boldly going to narrow down the definition to what is important for business.  If you want more information about ‘what is a story’ we highly recommend ‘Story’ by Robert McKee.

For business purposes here are three key features that make a story a story.

1.  A logical sequence (beginning, middle and end)

Aristotle, the famous Greek Philosopher, way back in circa 350AD stated that story should have a beginning, middle and end.  So any story would have a sequence but don’t be seduced by sequence.  Just because something has a beginning, middle and end does not make it a story.  This is where people fall into the trap of thinking a case study is a story because it has a sequence.  Just a sequence is not enough….and unless you are Quentin Tarantino, don’t mess with the ‘beginning, middle and end’ structure.

2.  Is a specific example with specific reference to time / place and context.

Have we said specific enough?  You have to talk about a specific time or place or incident, for your story to be a story.  Generalities lots of ‘I’ statements do not make a story.

3.  Has emotional and sensory data

So, stories can still be statements of fact, set in a context, however this is just the basics.  Having these two things doesn’t mean your story will be effective, let alone compelling.  An effective story also has another critical component, emotional and sensory data.  A good story makes you feel something (the emotion) and a good story makes you see something, it paints a picture. (sensory data).  Interestingly it is quite often the specific incident that generate this.

This last feature is probably the acid test for a good, effective story:  Does it make me feel something and can I visualise it?

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