Why more than ever we need to capture our organisations’ stories
My grandfather on my mother’s side was a great raconteur and had me hooked as a child with his war stories. How he’d made friends in Belgium serving in the military police. How he’d got in trouble after failing to return to base following his wartime marriage. To a boy growing up in Essex in the 1970s, the Second World War was something other, a different place. My grandfather’s stories brought it closer, helping me understand some of what his generation went through.
And now of course we all find ourselves in times that share similarities with those my grandparents lived through: families separated and regular life disrupted. We are living through a huge swathe of history that as yet doesn’t have an ending. It’s happening now, and we have a plethora of stories already about our strange, lockdown life of spring 2020. Some of the stories are of loss and loneliness, but there are stories too of the wonderful: of standing at our front doors clapping for the NHS, the love for local independent businesses, the creation of WhatsApp groups to support vulnerable neighbours.
As for our work lives, they’ve undergone a seismic shift. And we need to think now - what are the stories we will tell when we ‘go back’ to work?
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Recently our border terrier was hareing around the beach with another border she knows. As the two of them chased each other, the dog’s ‘dad’ and I chatted (suitably socially distanced) about the weekly call his team has. In the call, each team member shares a positive - and it has to be positive - story from their work life.
I like that. Right now there is a thirst for hearing about what’s going on, and also what’s going well. We need stories more than ever to garner a sense of shared experience and to connect emotionally with others.
Change is happening to all of us - both at an organisational and a personal level. We’re all facing uncertainty and instability and will continue to do so. Now is the time to recognise that. And it’s the stories we tell that will help us make sense of this new and strange situation we find ourselves in, and find clarity in the chaos. A company is made up of the 100s and 1000s of people who make a difference, who keep things going in adversity, who devise new ways of doing things. Through the personal we make sense of the universal.
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So now is the time to think: how are you harnessing your stories inside your organisation? Start building a storytelling habit. Uncover what you’re learning about resilience, about implementing rapid change and overcoming obstacles.
Lift the bonnet. Be curious. Ask questions. Unearth the hidden stories. Get multiple points of view: from a customer perspective; from a team member; from a leader. Once you’ve captured them, pass the spark. Share them on your blog. Start an Our Stories page. Use your channels on social media. Fill the windshield with them.
Seek out the heroes in your organisation. Microsoft has created a Responding to COVID-19 together page; one story ‘Quiet Ingenuity: 120,000 lunches and counting’ tells how the company’s dining teams are repurposing Microsoft’s food supplies and facilities for schools and families. On its home page, Ericsson is shining a light on their heroes, the engineers and field staff who are being deployed to keep the networks up and running. Those are the tales from their own trenches: stories of teams and individuals across the organisations who are keeping the cogs turning and providing essential services.
Stories can act in the following ways as:
A record - to bear witness to what happened, to acknowledge the difficulties and triumphs, to create a collective and shared memory of this time
A signifier - of your company’s values throughout this situation - showing what is important to you e.g. being socially responsible
A lesson - a bank of individual experiences from which to learn from and help the organisation grow
A lifebelt - when conditions are rough, stories become your organisation’s lifebelts, giving everyone in the organisation something to grab hold of to stay afloat (Your Story is Your Lifebelt’)
A celebration. Stories champion the unsung heroes, the people who are leaning in and getting stuff done, making sacrifices and doing what they can to support others
And when you ‘go back’ - whatever that may look like - mark the return with an all-hands story sharing session. Turn it into a ritual - to hear those stories, to acknowledge the struggles and to honour the victories (here’s what happened when Thomas Cook Money did that: ‘Stories around the fireside: how personal tales of triumph and trials create a company’s glue’). Use a story sharing session to recognise and celebrate those stories to rebuild team spirit.
There’s a great wealth of tales of triumph and overcoming adversity all around, just waiting to be heard and told. Stories of how we pull together, how we help each other, how we adapt and embrace change - these will become the foundation stones for us to be able to rebuild and grow. These are the stories that will define the shape of our organisations for many years to come.
If you need help unearthing and telling your stories, or to facilitate a story-sharing session please get in touch hello@iansanders.com or see more here: iansanders.com/storytelling
