Research indicates that story telling evokes strong neurological responses and that the human brain produces cortisol, a stress hormone during tense moments of storytelling which allows people to focus; while the human emotional factor releases a feel good chemical that promotes connection and empathy. Power points or corporate talks do not have such effects, stories do. Any time is not any story! Different organizational purposes require different stories. If you want people to know what kind of leader you are, tell a story that reveals strength/ vulnerability from your past. Let your audience experience how you see the world and how you deal with challenges. If you are talking about organizational values, you need to tell a story that stretches a dilemma, described in recognizable and believable way showing the difficulty of navigating through this moral dilemma.
Composition of an Organizational Story
It is important to first identify past corporate events within the organizations that are good illustrations of what the future of the organization should look like. One way of collecting stories from employees is around a corporate campfire during events like team building, staff parties and culture change programs. Stephen Denning refers to them as “springboard stories”. These are real stories which employees are part of. Employees own them. Secondly, it is important that habits that are not aligned to the organizational strategic goals are left behind and only the successful stories which will help the future of the organizations. Thirdly, use a timeline on which all stories can can be collected and plotted on the corporate campfire and together with employees reflect and agree on which stories can serve as an inspiration for the future and which ones should become history.
Look and Feel of Organizational Stories
An organizational story constantly builds up to a point whereby all the dots connect. In addition, an organizational story needs to show that a problem is solved, whether a challenge was overcome or not. Throughout the story, the audience wants to feel the promise and that it is worthwhile listening to the story until the end and learn a thing or two.
For more more information on organizational story call +245722605629; or drop us an email on antoinettebonita1@gmail.com or visit us at our offices at Park Place, old mutual building 3rd floor. You can also follow us on twitter @antoinetteboni, facebook@antoinette.
AntoinetteDM124 