Why stories can fuel change
If a story can put a man on the moon — think what it could do for your business transformation.
It’s a story that might just be apocryphal, but oh-so-powerful.
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy was visiting the NASA Space Center when he reached out his hand to a NASA janitor and said “Hi, I’m Jack Kennedy, what do you do here?” and the janitor replied: “I’m putting a man on the moon.”
The janitor didn’t say he cleaned bathrooms — he said he was part of a team with one goal.
I love this story because it says to me that NASA in 1962 was led by someone who saw that his role included being NASA’s storyteller-in-chief. (That leader was James E. Webb.)
The value of having a leader who is a chief storyteller is that he or she understands that stories are a powerful way of getting everyone focused on the ONE thing they need to do to achieve success. (In the case of NASA in the early 60s, it was putting a man on the moon.)
Why powerful? Well, because the best stories are: 1) easy to remember, 2) inspiring, and 3) easily sharable.
Given the power of stories I can’t tell you the number of times I anguish at how little stories are used by leaders. Instead, what I usually hear are shopping lists of activities that need to be done, or meaningless vision statements.
Consider this post a wake-up call for a BETTER way of rallying your people: through storytelling.
Let’s now look at the key constituent parts that sit behind a powerful story.
1. Core
The first point to make is: you have to be focused on your core value stream — what is the one thing everyone needs to focus on to ensure the success of your enterprise? In the case of NASA in 1962, the answer would have been: building rockets and ensuring astronauts survive in space.
For more information about homing in on your core value stream, read this.
2. Compelling
Once you are clear on your core value stream, you need to provide a compelling case for change. Because it’s change that moves people towards improvement — and it’s improvement that will take your enterprise from where it is now, to where it needs to go.
The best approach I know to make a change-story compelling is to be clear how the inside of your enterprise is failing to deliver your core value stream in a way that your current and expected future customers value. In short, your enterprise has the choice of adapting — or failing.
3. Clear
Next, you need to tell your people what you expect them to do to improve your core value stream. What does success actually look like? And when will success need to be achieved by? Be specific.
Make it clear, also, who works on the front-line of delivering the core value stream (in the case of NASA, that would be the engineers) and who are supporting the front-line (the IT people, HR, marketing, the caterers, etc). That way, you ensure people don’t get in each other’s way by thinking they have a right to make decisions they actually don’t.
4. Constant
At this point, you need to keep repeating again and again the key message: we MUST change; here’s why; we all need to play our part; our role is different but equally valued.
You also need to be sure all the leaders in your enterprise repeat this same message.
No leader must go off-message — ever. Leaders need to speak with a common voice.
To reach that level of discipline, of course, takes practice (which is where leadership communications coaching and training comes in — something I do, so get in touch at rohankayconsulting@gmail.com).
5. Captivating
This is the final piece of the puzzle — where you take the constituent parts behind a powerful story (outlined in points 1-4) and start to weave the story itself … where you design a story that is 1) easy to remember, 2) inspiring, and 3) easily sharable — like the one I shared about NASA above.
This is easier than it sounds — and here’s why: because if you’ve followed points 1-4 above, and you’re talking to your people on a regular basis, what you’ll find happen is stories will start to ‘bubble up’ — organically. No need to brainstorm what your story will be.
Your task is simply to systematically collate stories you’re hearing, until you get one that crystallises the four points above. You’ll know it when you hear it: it will jump out at you! Because it will be the story that ticks all three boxes. Easy to remember? Tick! Inspiring? Check! Easily sharable? Absolutely!
And, like any great story, it might even give you goosebumps. If you achieve THAT level of connection, then you know you’ve got a story that can send you to the moon.
Image by SpaceX-Imagery from Pixabay.