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THIS WEEK
What's Your Story?
ALSO IN THIS EDITION
“Let me tell you a story”. There’s something magical about those words. As soon as a good story starts to be told our brains quiet, our brainwaves go into sync with the person telling the tale and we become lost in the words.
Storytelling is one of the most primeval ways of communicating. Before books people would gather around the campfire of an evening, telling tales of the hunt, stories of heroism and adventure and reliving the day.
People passed on knowledge and wisdom through the words they spoke. It is how they remembered their history and planned for the future. With the advent of the printed word, people lost themselves in the books - creating visions of what they read, no longer tied to the voice of a superb storyteller to find their meaning for them.
Many of my earliest memories revolve around books and stories. I remember being rugged up in flannelette pyjamas, with the doona over my head, book on my knees and holding a flashlight, breathlessly reading the adventures of the Magic Faraway Tree. Torn between wanting to quickly absorb the words before I was caught and wanting to savour the words like an ice-block on a superheated summer’s day.
I remember another time almost crawling into the lap of the local librarian who was reading aloud some of Grimm’s fairytales - I wanted to become part of the book and find out what happened next ... and she read so slow. I wanted to know now!
Most of us carry some similar memories of stories in our childhood. And yet we often forget the power of words to weave their magic. We forget that one of the most powerful ways to influence people to buy, to change cultures or to embed a new idea is not a fistful of graphs, but a story carefully crafted and woven and told in the right way.
Exceptional leaders know this. If you look at the best speeches in history, they are the ones where the words seamlessly wove together to create a compelling vision of the future, and were delivered by master storytellers.
And yet, today business leaders and managers rely on facts, cold data and plans to try and compel their organisations forward. They block their ears to the stories being told every day in their businesses from employees and customers about “what it is really like here”.
 Exceptional marketers haven’t forgotten the power of the story. The most effective sales letters and marketing materials all tell a story - either of success after tragedy or hardship, local boy making good, breakthroughs and new ideas, and hope over adversity.
And yet, today many businesses websites have no sparkle, no life and no stories to engage people in their business. They focus their story only on themselves and allow no room for others to be part of their story.
Annette Simmons said “People don’t want more information. They are up to their eyeballs in information. They want faith - faith in you, your goals, your success, in the story you tell ... Once people make your story their story, you have tapped into the powerful force of faith”.
So what is your story? What is the story of you and your business? If you had someone write your tale for others, what would it say? Is your story a comedy or a tragedy?
What is your story for the future? How can you paint your future so bright and colourful that people will fall in behind, to help you create that dream?
What is your transition story? The story between the story - from where you were, to where you are now, to where you will be in the future?
And remember, in the words of Joseph Campbell “If you’re going to have a story, have a big story or none at all”.
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| HR Tip of the Week: Culture Change Via Stories |
 If you want to change the culture of your team, then a great model to look at as a starting point is the work of Edgar Schein.
While there is too much depth to his work to go into here, one of the aspects he suggests people look at when trying to first define and then shift culture are the stories people tell about important events and people.
For example, if you ask team members to tell you about what happened during the last culture change process (and the time before that one), you will start to surface some stories about "how things really happen around here".
If you ask team members to tell you about "who gets promoted", or "what are most of the managers like", you will surface more stories.
When you ask people to tell you what they think the organisation does, and what difference it makes to people, then you will start to get an idea of how common the organisation vision and mission really is.
These stories are currently seen as "fact". You can't counter these stories with "no you are wrong" - all that does is entrench viewpoints and create change resistence.
Use these stories as a starting point and then build towards a brighter, more positive shared future. Allow people space to help co-create their future and build their own stories. Find ways to allow people to tell their stories about what future they would really like - what they would see, hear and experience in their ideal future.
Paint pictures using all of the senses and repeat the stories regularly - in much the same way as beloved parable or children's story was repeated.
And, it doesn't hurt to take a leaf out of the book of the early missionaries - where needed, adopt previous beliefs and cultures and either absorb or repurpose them into the new direction.
 So why the focus on stories this week? Simple, I was introduced to the work of Michael Margolis and his superb free e-book "Believe Me".
Have you ever read one of those books where you can feel the cogs of your mind shifting? Where things fall into place and then all of a sudden you have a new vision of what is possible? This is one of those books!
Michael takes you on a deceptively simple journey into the world of stories and their power to change, influence and shift people. He explores why stories are so powerful, how stories can start to engage and shift thinking, how to build stories for greatest effect and how to add even more oomph to the stories you are already telling.
This is not a dry boring treatise, but one you have to go back to again and again (with highlighter in hand in my case and scribbled notes throughout the margins).
And did I mention you can download it for free (or buy a hard copy from Amazon if you prefer). I am not an affiliate of Michael's and will not receive any money etc from promoting this book - I just love it and want to share it with as many people as possible.
Take just a few minutes now to go to www.believemethebook.com and download the book. It is one of the best things I have done for me this year and hope you find it the same.
In this post I share my experience and observations from watching a few people in groups this week ... and why I have banned myself from saying "what you really need to do is ..."
exuberantly yours
Ingrid
Heart Harmony
Legal stuff: This newsletter is intended as only a general guideline for Australian businesses. You should seek specific advice for your situation rather than relying only on this newsletter
Earnings disclaimer. Some of the content may include advertorial information, which means I may receive financial compensation for the products I recommend. But - unless I know and trust the product, I will not recommend it.
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