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The Role Of Storytelling In Creating Your Culture

Published by on May 12, 2017

Every leader is constantly trying to find new and creative ways to communicate the culture of their organization both internally and externally. I have found no better way than storytelling.

The simplest definition of storytelling is when you can link existing personnel, ongoing priorities and outstanding performance then you have a story to tell. This will allow you to reinforce core values and celebrate success by acknowledging over and above situations that give credit to your people and remind everyone of what is really important.

In essence, if you have no stories to tell, then you are not performing in critical areas. The good news is that in most organizations there are character driven people that are doing an outstanding job. The bad news is their stories are not being told.

I have never seen this work informally by just asking people for outstanding results during a meeting or telling a few stories during annual meetings. This will probably require formalizing this entire process to create a system where stories can be routinely asked for and submitted to someone who can evaluate them and then find an appropriate platform for communication.

This must not though feel like a monthly performance review system where everyone is checked against their numbers. It needs to be like what happened great in your area this month that would encourage everyone in the organization to know.

The formula is simple existing personnel + ongoing priorities + outstanding performance = Success. The only missing piece is telling the story.

Categories: Leading ChangeOrganizational Culture

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