Suze Bragg

You are the story you tell others
September 8, 2008

Your company's message is a story; one you repeat over and over again without realizing it.  Your attitude, the inflection in your voice, and the words you use all provoke an emotional response from your audience without your conscious necessarily registering it.  Being able to accurately describe the story can be the difference between disaster (hostility, blockades) and acceptance.  

There are 4 parts to the storytelling structure:
1.  Conflict
2.  Transition
3.  Climax
4.  Close 

Translating this to a business scenario:
1.  Conflict => What needs to be changed / what is the business case for doing so?
2.  Transition => Benchmarking where you are, what you've accomplished to date: keep it positive
3.  Climax => Current business priorities and what you're going to succeed in this year
4.  Close =>  Mission statement, vision and plan to gain acceptance and trust

Once you've organized your story, you need to receive buy-in from your team/company by:
1.  Conflict =>  communicate the problems opening and coherently.  Speak the issues that affect the group at large so they know you understand what they're going through.

2.  Transition => list the accomplishments the company/team has achieved to date and how much they've contributed already

3.  Climax => Tell the audience what the tools they will need to grow/succeed and the changes you believe need to happen and consequences. Once you've done this, open up the floor for discussion.  Engagement is essential to acceptance.

Jim Champy, author of Reengineering Management and The Arc of Ambition said, "Storytelling is how human beings relate to each other.  Not through business plans.  The more senior you are, the more you learn through storytelling."   

What's your story?

Posted by Suze Bragg on September 8, 2008 | Comments (0)