Author: Nailia Tasseel

Business has lost a great storyteller in Anita Roddick. The Body Shop was founded on a great story, and through its evolution has inspired millions through the stories behind its products, its support and campaigns against animal testing and for human rights, ethical trading, the environment and the arts.

Anita herself was a truly great storyteller. In one of her last interviews with Emma Thelwell, City correspondent of The Daily Telegraph, she said “One of the most intriguing things in management and in business is this role of storytelling – people need the anecdotes to do the work that they do. I was saying to Boots recently, my God to go back to the original thinking of Mr Boot, the original thinking of Marks and Spencer – who was Marks and who was Spencer – how did they get together?

“What I’m doing now, for me and The Body Shop, is archiving everything. I learnt that from Boots more than anything. You take the history and instead of dumping it away because its reinventing itself, you take the early thinking and everything that fashioned the company.”

This kind of appreciative thinking is a powerful approach for shaping strategy in boardrooms…identifying what has made an organisation great, mining the stories that epitomise the values and success that will influence its new direction. A true champion in every sense of the word, Anita was a leader who really knew how to make sense of business and the societies in which we live and work, bringing the two together in a way through fantastic role-modelling which others have followed.

I read with interest a recent blog by one of our Canadian partners, Nicky Fried (Strategic Connections), on the loyalty and respect given by immigrant workers. It reminded me of a client’s comment last week on their own issues regarding immigrant workers, and how often their lack of brand awareness can pose a concern of its own.

The client in question is a huge high street retail brand in the UK. I was visiting a their national distribution centre last week (and very impressive it was too), and the subject of their Eastern European colleagues was raised. Despite the gravitas and success of this brand in the UK, most Eastern European workers, whilst extremely hard workers, come with virtually no recognition or pride in the organisation; simply because they are unfamiliar with the brand. Building engagement, loyalty and pride amongst this community therefore depends entirely on their experience in the workplace – certainly until they are fully integrated into the UK way of life, with its associated culture and brands – over time.

This concern demonstrated to me not only the need to communicate the organisation’s journey in a simple and clear way that involves the entire workforce, but the acknowledgement that pride in a brand and a degree of loyalty and engagement exists even before an employee starts to work with that particular organisation – through sheer familiarity and brand recognition. This brand recognition is also a key factor in attracting and retaining talent, so maximising performance and engagement in the business must be a clear priority if it is to achieve loyalty and recognition, both internally and externally.

Whilst traveling to a meeting on the underground recently I came across a wonderful example of storytelling…

For some weeks now, a set of escalators at Waterloo underground station have undergone a full refurbishment which, for many commuters, will have proven a tad troublesome. An A-Frame sign with a grammatically incorrect notice written in marker would usually suffice, but to my joy (and I must admit surprise) a story had been thoughtfully crafted. The message, which was displayed across eight wall hanging advertising boards, not only informed passengers about the ongoing repairs but featured snippets of information, both past and present. This was a breath of fresh (albeit London Underground) air.

One such snippet detailed the story of a one-legged character by the name of Bumper Harris. Employed for the opening day of the escalators at Earls Court, he constantly traveled the escalators in an effort that demonstrated, to the many on-looking sceptics, the safety and overall stability of the new contraption. Of course, his bravery paid off and modern day commuters riding the moving stairs are none the wiser to his efforts.

What amazes me about this story is that Mr Harris has been the talk of our office ever since we learned of him, he’s been included in this blog – I’ve even found myself ‘Googling’ him! All of which just goes to show the true power of stories.

I read a great story on my way to work this morning – which given the aura of glumness hovering over my fellow commuters – seemed timely as well as thought provoking.

Most of us understand that having a positive outlook is preferable to that of a negative one, but how many of us simply react emotionally to most situations rather than consciously choosing to apply a positive attitude to what life throws our way?

I’m not advocating that we all go around grinning moronically (although the entertainment value of this alone may be worth pursuing!) but we do have a choice.

We choose how we react to situations, how to respond to information we receive and how others affect our mood.

Changes happen the instant you decide to choose a positive attitude due to the influence our moods have on those around us. This is a powerful thing in the workplace when you consider the number of people involved. You start to see more openness to understanding, an easing of tensions, others starting to behave positively and things start to happen for the better.

The results as described in Jerry’s Story can be significant. It’s a long story that can be found circulating the Internet but essentially goes like this…

Jerry was one of those people who was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. Working in the restaurant business he proved to be a unique Manager and had waiters who would follow him from restaurant to restaurant as his career progressed. The waiters followed Jerry because of his attitude – he was a natural motivator. His belief was that when you wake up in the morning you have 3 choices – to be in a good mood, to be a victim or to learn from and make the best of a situation.

One day Jerry left the back door of the restaurant open and was held up at gunpoint by three robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand – shaking with nerves – slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. After eighteen hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from hospital with fragments of the bullet still in his body.

When asked what had gone through his mind he replied ‘‘the first thing was that I should have locked the back door! Then as I lay on the floor I realised I had two choices – I could choose to live or I could choose to die. The paramedics were great, they kept telling me I was going to be fine; but when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expression on the faces of the medical team I read ‘He’s a dead man’ in their eyes. I knew that I needed to take action, so as a nurse shouted the question ‘Are you allergic to anything’ at me, I said yes. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled ‘BULLETS!!!’

Go on – be positive…. it could change your life!

I’ve just come back from a fantastic holiday in Dubai. The weather was incredible – 45 degrees each day (too hot for some!) whilst the sea resembled a bath with temperatures holding a steady 35 degrees…Oh, and the skies (in complete contrast to the UK this Summer), remained cloudless for the entire 2 weeks.

Aside from the idyllic weather though, the thing that really strikes you about Dubai is the sheer ambition of the place.

The city’s unofficial motto is: ‘If you can imagine it, Dubai can build it’, and it’s a motto which is evident wherever you look:

From the colossal underwater resort still under construction to the (obviously indoor) real snow slope complete with alpine trees and foliage…
From the breathtaking Palm with it’s hotels and massive skyscrapers to ‘Earth’ – an island development for the rich and famous that when viewed from the sky looks like our planet.

Dubai strikes me as a city writing its own story. It began by defining what future success would look like, then quickly recognised the challenges it would encounter on the journey to get there (making the desert a comfortable place to live for instance!) It has organised itself in such a way that made it possible to achieve incredible things, and it began writing…

The city is rather like a business that has a clear vision and strategy. Success depends entirely on effective communication of the vision to the people that actually make it happen: in Dubai’s case the designers, the engineers and the builders.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that storytelling is an integral part of Arab life…The history of their greatest explorers, pioneers, inventors and investors can be seen in shopping malls, restaurants and on the sides of buildings right across the city. It’s very inspiring and I’m sure conducive to communicating what, as a city it is trying to achieve.

Dubai is a place that is writing its own living story…And I for one can’t wait to see what it chooses to write next.

There are so many definitions of this phrase Employee Engagement. It’s become a mini industry in itself, with a range of companies operating in this field. Web and intranet designers, event producers, pensions and benefits companies, survey companies, healthcare companies – you name it, a vast number of them view themelves as agents of employee engagement.

It has indeed become a buzz word which could become over-used and meaningless if we’re not careful. The truth is that true employee engagement is not down to one single factor. For some it is interpreted as a state of being as a result of a combination of certain processes, culture and behaviours within organisations. For others it is an activity to which whole departments are dedicated and titles given.

Patricia Soldati’s article in Management Issues is a neat, simple synopsis of the definition and drivers of employee engagement. As it is a never-ending subject of discussion there will certainly be more, but this will do for now.

I recall a great story when a little boy, sick from eating so much sugar beet, was taken by his mother in desperation to Mahatma Gandhi for guidance. She walked for days to get there, but was promptly sent home again by the great man and told to return in a month. The reason? Gandhi needed a month of sugar abstinence himself before telling the boy not to eat any more sugar.

Business leaders can take a leaf out of Gandhi’s book. Leaders – right down to team or line managers – need to realise that they are not just responsible for communicating strategy, vision and values to their teams. They need to adopt the actions and behaviours that will reinforce those messages and make a difference to their performance. It’s all very well driving the message of great teamwork, efficiency and customer service home, but since managers are the most trusted and influential people where their teams are concerned, they need to walk the talk, not just talk it. And this applies to every leader in the business – including the executive team.

HR professionals need to work closely with marketing and comms teams to ensure that these behavioural messages come across loud and clear. A spotlight on behaviours needs to form a critical part of the strategic journey – they are the guiding lights to how we deliver the strategy and ultimately our brand promise.

Articles like this one from Australia’s The Age are valuable endorsements for our approach. We agree wholeheartedly that storytelling is a critical and valuable component of change.

However, they give little insight as to how to actually go about storytelling in organisations. Experience tells us that there are many who yearn to develop a storytelling culture (because it makes total sense), but when you have an organisation of 50,000 people, perhaps dispersed all over the world, that yearning turns into a great big bear of an issue.

The answer is to make storytelling practical. Create tangibility around it, with a clear process, with creative tools that make it easy to implement and sustain. Everyone has a talent for storytelling, so you have a captive audience ready and waiting, but like any business you need a plan to make it work. You need a clear structure and process.

You may think I’m deviating here into a big ramble but what I’m about to say about structure is relevant. I don’t watch Big Brother (am I the only one in the country that loathes it?) but I found to my surprise that I was watching it with my 15 year old son the other evening. From yet another evening of drifting, nothing-to-do mindlessness in the House, one of the older ladies (Lesley?) took it upon herself to lead a meeting where they passed a banana round as a symbol to represent ‘my turn to speak’ and discussed the chores and gripes that each one had. Sudden structure. A meeting place (sofas) was agreed, Lesley the Leader facilitated the discussion, hands went up, the banana circulated. An agenda was formed. Actions were negotiated and agreed (even if they did go to pot later – I’ll never know and don’t really care). The discussion was opened up to include everyone – they all had a chance to make their voice heard.

So structure and tangibility (even if it is via a banana) can help make things easy. You’re on our website so if you can’t find another company that does storytelling in structured and tangible way, point your cursor to the top of the screen and have a look!

The leadership meetings we design for our clients usually involve several storytelling sessions, which is an excellent way of helping leaders personalise key corporate messages and priorities, make sense and take ownership of them. Some of the stories are very moving, told with passion and emotion. They are stories about people, how employees have helped or made a difference to other human beings’ lives through the course of their day-to-day work.

You can say ‘we need to make customer service our priority’ a thousand times without managing to really connect people emotionally. Tell a story from the heart about how somebody has helped a customer in difficulty with genuine feeling and care, and you will make an instant emotional connection, sparking the imagination, creating a sense of empathy, sympathy, admiration, inspiration and pride. Others will remember that story, and may well pass it on. Now imagine this technique of storytelling on a grand and sustainable scale within your organisation. Creating a culture of storytelling in your organisation can do amazing things for buy-in, pride and engagement.

Steve Adubato says some good words on the subject. And meanwhile, more and more organisations are turning to storytelling to help their people make sense of what they are doing and why they are doing it.