Business Storytelling for Leaders – What do you stand for?

Recently we facilitated a storytelling workshop for Accenture in Melbourne when Ann Burns shared this story. The story gave us an insight into some of  her values.  Sharing a story like this (Annette Simmons story expert calls these ‘Who am I Stories’ ) lets people know what you stand for. 

Very powerful in leadership, where people crave to know who you are and what you stand for.   Here is Anne’s story…..

“I grew up in England with two brothers.  One of my brothers was learning to ride a bicycle and every Saturday my father would take him up to a nearby hill and he would pedal down,  while all us kids watched and cheered.  He used to do this with a bike that had training wheels and after many Saturdays of this my father took the training wheels off. 

I was determined to repeat his feat and persuaded my father to let me ride down the hill too, on my bike with no training wheels.  My father very very reluctantly agreed.  I was very excited when we walked to the top of the hill.  I could see my brothers and friends at the bottom of the hill looking on.  I got on to my bike and shot off down the hill and to my shock the bike started hurtling down  the hill faster and faster, almost out of control – I could see the stunned faces of the children waiting below and before the bike hit the ground I hurled myself off onto the grass and rolled down laughing, much to everyone’s shock! 

On that day I learnt two important life lessons.  If someone can do something so can I , and no matter what you are trying in life always have an exit plan.”

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!”

How do I know my story worked? What does success look like in business storytelling?

As soon as you tell a story, the first thing you want to know is ‘did it work?’.  We crave that immediate feedback and sometimes, someone will tell us right away or maybe later….if we are lucky.

This would have to be the number one question leaders ask when they use a story.  “Did it work? How do I know it worked?’  We all want to know what success looks like with storytelling.

I love the elegance and simplicity of Noel Turnbull’s measure of success with storytelling. ‘Success looks likes two things – when other people start to repeat the stories and when people smile sincerely.   That’s why you tell a story’. 

Of course people won’t repeat every story you tell – only the memorable sticky ones get this extended lease of life.  That is in storytelling the gold standard! So it still comes to you in a room with your audience wondering…did it bomb?  In that common scenario building on what Noel says trust your intuition.  Look  around the  room when you are narrating your story.  You can always sense the level of engagement in the room.  One of our leaders described it as ’It felt like there was a spotlight suddenly shinning on me and and for that minute I had every one’s rapt attention’.

But this is harder said than done – we are often our own harshest critics.  Another option is to ask someone you trust.  Prep them for it and say ‘I am going to be using a couple of stories can you please look around the room and help me gauge the response to see if they worked’.  This person might also pick up the informal chatter after when people talk about your stories and give you the feedback you crave.  They can also help to validate your expereince or provide another perspective or some fresh insights.

Good stories also have a long tail. We have some clients who thought their stories didn’t work and 6 months later someone told them very casually “I still remember the story you told us about customer service ‘.  Or they get a repeat request out of the blue when someone says “John I really think you should share that story on innovation you told us in last year’s forum!”  And poor John had been wondering all that time if his story had worked.

Of course if you were hoping we would give you some hard measures of success and are disappointed please feel free to check out our Ericsson success story, which does just that.

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.

Only the real thing can do – Business storytelling for leaders

Recently we were leading a storytelling workshop at the Department of Justice and Darren Whitelaw, General Manager, Corporate Communication shared this story:

‘Last month I had the opportunity to travel overseas and was looking forward to it as it would be a break from the routine.  

When I was overseas, my wife set up our laptop on my daughter’s breakfast table and I talked to my daughter daily via web cam.  My wife told me that once when the lap top was lying shut on the sofa, my daughter picked it up and hugged it and said ‘Daddy’.  That moved me and I realised that sometimes in life you can substitute the real thing but sometimes only the real thing can do.  

I am sharing this with you as it reminds us that every day we have that same choice as communicators. We can send out emails or we can go out and talk to our people face to face because sometimes only the real thing can do…’

So what do you do? The Health Services Commissioner and business storytelling that works

Last week I was driving between appointments  and listening to 774 ABC Melbourne.  Waleed Aly (filling in for Jon Faine) was co hosting conversation hour with Health Services Commissioner Beth Wilson. 

Waleed Aly asked the question that was on everyone’s mind after he introduced Beth Wilson ‘Health Services Commissioner – you sound important but I don’t really know what you do?’

Beth Wilson explained her role through a few key sentences (which most people would do) but then she said ‘let me give you an example’ and launched straight into a story that said it all and was memorable. 

Till I heard Beth Wilson on radio, I like a lot of people didn’t know Victoria had a health commissioner.  But now after listening to Beth and the story she told I not only understand what her office does, but will also remember it and probably repeat what I heard to a few people.

So the next time someone asks you that question ‘So what do you do?’ can you give them an example, tell them a story that helps them remember and understand what it is you do?

Read through the whole story below or listen to Beth herself through this link.  You can fast forward to about 38:16, on the time line in the podcast to listen to the story.

‘People who come to my office usually want three things – they want to know what went wrong and why and what happened to them doesn’t happen to some one else.  It’s that third aspiration that really gives us an opportunity to improve the quality of our health services by listening to people’s experiences and learning from them.

My job is to try and resolve complaints through my office through a process of mediation or conciliation. Can I give you an example?

We had a lady who was having headaches and her GP had tried a number of cures none of which was particularly successful for her.  The GP was trained in using acupuncture.  I mention he was trained because sometimes registered doctors don’t think they need training for complementary therapies when of course you do.  He took her down the back room, he explained very carefully to her what was going to happen and how long it would take, he put on lovely flute relaxation music.  Now this lady is in the back room wearing a white gown with all these needles dangling in her head and neck and the flute music runs out and she is concerned with picking the children up from school.  So she called out ‘Helllloooo’ and she got no response what so ever.  She waited a bit longer and by now the twilight is starting to descend very seriously outside the window, so she called out really loudly ‘HEELLOOOOO’  and still nothing. 

Very gingerly she got off the bed and tippy toed out into the clinic not sure if she was going to hurt herself or not and the clinic was utterly completely totally deserted.  Doctor’s gone home, no nurses, no receptionist, no cleaning person, she’s locked in and the phone is on the night switch.  Fortunately she was on the ground floor and she flagged down a stoical passer by who was really good.  He got the police, who got the doctor who lived a long way from the clinic.  The lady was supposed to have been discharged at 4:30 that afternoon but in fact she was released at 9:30 pm, so she was not happy.  Her complaint to me was to try and make sure the doctor never forgot another patient.  The doctor was fabulous, totally cooperative, apologetic, not afraid to say sorry.  He put in a bell and a buzzer and a stopwatch, an alarm clock and some flashing lights, some laser beams and there’s no way he will forget another patient and he gave her two free consultations. 

At the end of our processes she said ‘Beth I can see the funny side of this now and I’m really pleased that he is still my doctor because I really like him’.  That’s what we call a win win situation.’

Business storytelling and your brand – Push Pull Story Strategy

In a previous post we discussed brand stories.  The stories people share about their experience with your company, your people or your products.  So what stories are being told about your company and how can you influence that? 

You can do this through a ‘Push Pull Story Strategy’ to borrow from a common marketing term. 

Pull stories are the organic stories people narrate about their interactions with your organisation.  While traveling in Sydney we always use the same private taxi service. Recently I got off a plane late at night and there was a bottle of water waiting for me in the back of the taxi, exactly what I needed.  Another time, I arrived early one morning into Sydney.  My meeting was delayed.  The taxi driver carefully checked my coffee preference and then bought me a coffee from the taxi drivers’ café at Sydney airport.   A hidden gem and perhaps the best coffee in town.  I often share these taxi service stories with friends and colleagues. These stories that customers like me share, collectively build the taxi company’s brand.  How many positive stories are your customers sharing about your company?

The other option is push stories.  Authentic stories that are strategically found and shared through various mediums.  Stories that are shared between employees and customers, shared by the CEO at AGMs and profit announcements, shared by Corporate Affairs and Marketing through all the formal internal and external mediums.  There is one significant factor though…the most critical success factor…and that is the stories need to be authentic.  They cannot be marketing spin, or inaccessible corporate jargon. They have to be real stories from the coal face, not fabricated.

The pull stories are usually more powerful than the push stories because they come from the coal face and there is an unmistakable authenticity about them.  So think about the pull stories that are being generated everyday but also think of other stories that you can strategically harvest and put out there.

CEO’s of the Future

We were recently sent an article Caring Ceo’s of the Future that featured in the August 2010 edition of Management NZ by Brenda Ward.  It explores how the role of leader is changing and what skills the future leaders of tomorrow need.  The article suggests that amoungst other aspects ”tomorrow’s leaders will… ask only ‘powerful ‘ questions, tell lots of stories and make decisions in split seconds”.

The article states that future leaders will be “reflective, ethical, transparent, authentic and trusted advisor to their team” and that “storytelling is a big part of the new leadership style”.

This article re confirms the trend we have seen  over the last few years -  the rise of business storytelling and the recognition by companies that it is a key leadership skill that needs to be taught and practiced.  We have seen many leaders use business storytelling to achieve real business results.  One such example was of a client of ours called Michael.  Michael managed 20 branches and for 2 years none of his branches ever met their quality sales leads targets.   Michael had tried everything  – logic, reasoning and even attaching their bonus to the targets…nothing worked.  What he did know for sure was that everyone hated that part of their job.

This is the story Michael told…

“When I was a kid I hated brussels sprouts.  When they were dished up for dinner I would push them to the side, knowing full well I would have to eat cold brussels sprouts at the end of my meal because my mother would never let me leave the table without eating all my vegetables.  One day I decided to eat the brussels sprouts straight away and then sat back and enjoyed the rest of my meal.  Do you think we can treat our sales targets like brussels sprouts?  We can’t leave the table until we have eaten them.  Do you think we could eat them fast and early at the start of the week and sit back and enjoy the rest of our week?”

The following week, Michael experienced the best improvement ever for the number of quality sales leads generated. The term “brussels sprouts” also became short-hand within the team for meeting their weekly targets!  They would say “How many brussels sprouts have you eaten? I have had three already!”

So business storytelling is definitely a leadership skill. The biggest mistake leaders make is thinking that the storytelling they do in their personal lives can be transported, as is, into business.  The most common feedback we receive from leaders is that they were unaware of the skill that is involved in storytelling….”this is a lot harder than I thought” is common feedback from our clients.

To read the full CEO’s of the Future article click here

…and to read about what leaders have to say about business storytelling check out our Interview With  section.

Inform or influence?

I was walking my dog yesterday and came across this sign which made me smile and also reminded me so much of what we try and do in business every day.  

So often in business we are stating what we believe is the bleeding obvious and yet we get so little cut through and so little recall.  Most of us can barely remember what we ate for lunch yesterday let alone what was said in a meeting two weeks ago.  What then is the solution?  Research and our own personal experience inform us that ‘emotion is the fast track to the brain’ i.e. how I feel, affects how I think and my performance.

The people who crafted this sign were trying to influence our behaviour with emotion (humour)…and we all hope they succeed!  Often in business we think logic informs people (which it does) but we also expect people to shift behaviour based on logic.   And when this doesn’t happen we get frustrated.    If logic did persuade us to change our behaviour then no one would speed, we would all eat right and exercise every day, no one would smoke etc. 

As business people every day we make choices with our communication – are we trying to just inform or are we trying to influence behaviour?   If it is the latter then what emotion can you tap into to influence your audience?  This isn’t manipulative but shows empathy for your audience as well as an understanding of the issue from their perspective.

Here is a link to some recent work place safety ads that did this really well and tapped into the right emotion with their tag line and message:  ‘The real reason to be safe at work is not at work it is at home’.

Interview with Terry Dwyer

Yamini Naidu interviews  Terry Dwyer (Executive General Manager – Organisational effectiveness CPA Australia) on storytelling and leadership.

Yamini Naidu: Terry why did you consider storytelling as part of the leadership development at CPA?
Terry Dwyer: We embarked on a program to build the capability of our leaders particularly our senior leaders because we feel that senior leaders shape the organisation. So storytelling was part of a broader leadership development program. I think that one of the keys to good leadership is communication and that is where storytelling is of real benefit in being able to communicate effectively. There is nothing like some really good examples and when we put our leaders through the training they could see the value in storytelling, in communicating with their teams, in coaching and mentoring.

YN: When you presented storytelling as a development opportunity what was the reaction?
TD: When you first mention storytelling, it isn’t something that figures in the corporate vocabulary so you really need to explain what it is, but once we talked about what organisational storytelling was, the power and the benefits,  people really got it.  As you know we put our senior executives through the storytelling workshop as were looking for a way of adding value for a seasoned group of executives but also adding value to the business. Our executive team got it straight away and thought this is a real opportunity. We also put our general managers through the program.

YN: What are some of the barriers in organisations that stop leaders from using storytelling? Leaders get storytelling intellectually they connect with stories but something stops them from using stories more often?
TD: For many people it is challenging, probably more than those who are natural storytellers. Sometimes it is a confidence thing – thinking is this story really worth telling?  You have to overcome that feeling and I think there is nothing like success. So if you experiment with storytelling and the lights go on with people then you are obviously encouraged to continue doing it.  I think also from my own experience and people I have talked to, it is good to have a number of stories that are top of mind, otherwise it is too easy to revert back to your old style.

YN: What helps leaders with their storytelling?
TD: I think leaders have to buy into the fact that good communication is the key to good leadership.  Quite often when you see ineffective leadership it comes down to poor communication whether lack of or inappropriate communication.  In leadership communication is so important – once leaders buy into this they look for communication methods that resonate.  I also think there is nothing like good role models, so if you experience good storytellers you  think  “I can do that” and start to develop your own stories. The training we did with One Thousand & One was to draw those stories out.  

YN: Where have you seen stories used well?
TD: I have seen senior executives tell stories to large groups of staff when they are wanting to engage people in change or in a new strategic direction.  When you are addressing a diverse group of people storytelling can be really powerful because it can convey strategic thinking in a very practical way.  I have also seen it work in smaller forums;  in small teams or one on one coaching when you are trying to communicate a principle or to encourage someone to think differently.  For me, I find storytelling has quite a broad application.  We often find it  easier to tell stories in our home life or personal life and it is more of a challenge at work.

YN: We often heard about the ‘Chipped mug story’ at CPA, please tell us more
TD: Our former CEO used to tell this story when he was talking to staff about the organisation’s brand strategy. Our three year strategic plan includes positioning CPA as a “premier global brand”. The CEO tells the story about attending an internal event and discarding a cup that he saw had a chip.  The CEO then used this story to explain how being a premier global brand doesn’t just mean getting the strategy or the big things right but also depends on getting the little things right every time. Sometimes you get a story that has a disproportionate  impact on culture and this was definitely one.

Page 4 of 512345

Contact Us

One Thousand and One
HUB Melbourne
3/673 Bourke Street
Melbourne VIC 3000.

Email Us

Or call us
Gabrielle 0405 144 092
Yamini 0409 856 987

Most Popular Posts

Fly like a butterfly – another example of business storytelling
Last week we ran a workshop for Many Rivers who provide micro financing predominantly for ... Read more » | 14 comments

Is Storytelling the new black?
A new General Manager has joined one of our client’s organisations. And the word has spr... Read more » | 14 comments

The desires that drive us to connect
 Recently we had the pleasure of both presenting and attending the Creative Innovation 20... Read more » | 12 comments