Category: Storytelling

As any company tries to reinvent itself in a competitive market, it is often necessary to offer large-scale strategic changes. However, in such moments, there is the chance that change fatigue arises. This was the challenge facing one international courier, who were struggling to engage employees. 

By using the inspirational power of storytelling, however, they were able to stress the relationship between strategy and shopfloor, briefing and behaviour: between process and people. 

Creating Christmas cheer

As the festive season nears, millions of people will look forward to connecting with their loved ones.

For one recently divorced father, however, his Christmas promised no such pleasure. His new life had taken him far from his old Suffolk home, and his festive period would be spent in Glasgow, alone.

Yet he wanted his to children know that his thoughts were with them at this family time. He carefully selected a series of books, wrote heartfelt notes to accompany them, and sent them.

Soon, however, he realised that they had not been delivered, with Christmas approaching fast.

Concerned, the father called the carrier, worried that this children would feel forgotten on Christmas Day. His calls revealed that the books had disappeared, and nobody could locate them. 

After a final attempt to find the parcels proved fruitless, one of the carrier’s employees spoke up. They’d heard the father’s story, and wanted his family to receive the tokens of his love. 

With time running out, however, it was not possible for the father to rebuy and resend the presents. So one last call was made: to ask him exactly what he wanted to send them, and what he’d written in his notes. 

The carrier’s team sprang into action: a swift city centre visit to ensure that exactly the same gifts were bought, and that the parcels were sent to Suffolk – just in time for Santa’s visit. It was a unique example of the carrier’s employees going above and beyond – making a difference – and saving Christmas for one affectionate father.

A company transformed

Shortly after placing narrative – storytelling – at the heart of their organizational revamp, the carrier realised that employees were feeling more engaged, and that the role of their day-to-day work in achieving better things was clear. The changes were as measurable as they were impressive: reduced absenteeism (6.7 per cent to 4.7 per cent), an 11 per cent reduction in staff turnover, skyrocketing Employee Survey scores, and, two years after a loss of £190 million, a healthy return to profit: all acting as a testament to the power of storytelling to transform an organisation. 

To discover how storytelling can transform your business, download our e-book, Storytelling: how to reset an organisation’s narrative to inspire change

Innovation is imperative for any company seeking to retain their leadership position in competitive markets, but drives to innovate can all-too-frequently forget the end-user. For one globally renowned commercial aerospace provider, they knew that they needed to remind their most important innovators – their engineers – to foreground user experience if they were to restore an ailing reputation. As this client began a company wide transformation, the power of storytelling illustrated the importance of considering customer needs when innovating.

Unforeseen floods in the sky

For the leadership team at our aerospace client, it was high time to take urgent steps to adapt to their changing, expanding market – and remain competitive in the duopoly that they inhabited. This was no small ask: this adaptation would involve expanding their global industrial operations, clearing a decade-long production backlog, and meeting historically-high demand for air travel. In doing so, they hoped to restore customer confidence in their services, enhancing both quality and punctuality. 

Speedily strategising, they placed innovation at the heart of these efforts. They convened their brightest engineers, and asked them to devote their ingenuity to re-purposing a lightweight, short distance aircraft in ways that would allow it to meet the soaring demand for long-haul flights.

Enthusiastic and expert in equal measure, their engineers got to work. Undaunted by either the complexities of the task or the tight deadlines constraining them, they were soon designing, experimenting, iterating, improving, painstakingly projecting the increases in engine capacity, fuel requirements, and other technical tweaks needed to equip the aircraft for extended journeys. Soon – and on schedule – they were rolling out their enhanced aircraft for their first test flights.

After careful trials, all conducted without any obvious flaw, the new craft were released for commercial travel. With no small amount of satisfaction, the engineers applauded their efforts: a difficult job executed excellently.

A short while into the first flight, however, as the plane neared the last ninety minutes of its ten-hour journey, passengers across the cabin began to complain. Seeking to make necessary use of the plane’s amenities, they had soon realised that doing so would be too much to stomach. For all bathrooms, having seen no increase in capacity, had begun to flood. Soon, numerous reports of the same problem were reaching senior management. The client’s engineers had taken great pains to consider the challenges involved from a technical perspective – but had failed to factor user experience into their planning.

Considering customer needs

For a client seeking to improve their reputation for quality, this bathroom blunder was highly embarrassing. However, it was also a perfect starting point for their efforts to train their engineers to consider how their services would be experienced by end-users. The story was placed front-and-centre of a company-wide strategy designed to improve design processes, modernise outdated assets – and clear a decade-long production backlog. 

As emotive and memorable as it was embarrassing, the eventual results – a consistent reduction in design issues and cross-company improvement in production quality – stand as a testament to the power of storytelling to change design practices across an organisation. 

To discover how storytelling can transform your business, download our e-book, Storytelling: how to reset an organisation’s narrative to inspire change

Bringing values to life

All companies want to find ways of turning their abstract values into concrete corporate actions. For one major bank, they knew that they wanted to place caring for customers at the heart of their organisational mission. As the ongoing pandemic posed problems for some of their most vulnerable customers, the power of storytelling was used to illustrate how they could go beyond, and build a business based on care.

Boldly going beyond

To do so, the bank acknowledged two aspects of their customers’ realities. First: that COVID-19 restrictions were making life particularly difficult for the elderly, who were less likely than their younger clientele to have access to online or mobile banking services. Second: that such customers were also more likely to suffer from a lack of access to immediate support networks – which might have devastating consequences.

Insistent that not a single client should sink without support, they quickly chose to launch an empathy-driven, highly-personal ‘Reaching Out’ service, which would see dedicated staff commit to contacting, connecting with, and caring for any customers found to be struggling – in any way. 

The calls commenced, and staff soon found that their offers of support were as timely as they were well-intentioned. A few calls in, one staff member spoke to a surprised, but deeply thankful eighty-year old client. In the last day, he said, voice troubled and weary, he’d been unable to get out to the only open local shop. There was no obvious source of assistance, living alone. When asked if he had enough in the house to see out the weekend, he admitted that he perhaps had enough to last the rest of the day.

Taking immediate initiative, the caller sprang into action. Within ten minutes, three different charities had been called, and the elderly gentleman’s situation explained. Within another ten minutes, Age UK had reached out to him, promising him personal food deliveries not just that day, but throughout the pandemic – and beyond. By the time the sun had set, the gentleman again had full cupboards, a full fridge – and no small amount of gratitude.

Putting customers first

The elderly gentleman called wasn’t the only at-risk customer assisted by the ‘Reaching Out’ programme, but he was one of the most in-need. Though the initiative required extra resource and a number of keen staff willing to add to their weekly workloads, all employees agreed: this was what fostering a culture based on care looked like to them. For a company seeking to share obvious examples of its social impact, the ‘Reaching Out’ initiative also offered an outstanding one: customers put first, cared for – and secured against the pandemic’s deepest disruptions.

To discover how storytelling can transform your business, download our e-book, Storytelling: how to reset an organisation’s narrative to inspire change. 

Welcome to the age of meaning. 

Today’s world is like nothing we’ve ever known.

The forces of change – health, technology, globalisation, demographics, climate – transform the way we work, live and learn.

In an age of staggering human connection, networks thrive, world-views are overturned, the power of personal testimony builds empathy with billions. But by living plugged-in lives, we struggle with isolation, anxiety and a rising politics of division; physically disconnected from our communities, we battle to connect action to the moral imperatives of our time.  

Our future is fragile. As nation states withdraw their benevolence from our lengthening lives, we look to work as our long-term security. Yet our skills are threatened, in a talent pool expanding at the rate of digital connection. 

It’s an astonishing shift. As the digital divide disappears, our ability to adapt will see us sink or swim. 

We urgently seek meaning: new narratives to anchor us in disorienting waters, to give us a reason to evolve. We’re sceptical of the myths that bind us to thoughtless work, to old forms of power. We distrust, but we hope. There is a new social contract to be struck.

We need authenticity from our leaders: we’re tired of the gaps between words and action. We want our work to align with our values: we see it as an extension of ourselves. We seek purpose: we’ve watched the world burn in the name of profit, and we want to be part of something more valuable than a pay check.

We crave a story about who we really are.
A story we’re proud to tell.

Welcome to the new age of leadership.

The currents are unpredictable. Old maps are useless, hierarchies invalid. You will navigate transformation, disruption, upheaval; shocks, disasters, pandemics. The rise of the new, the decline of the old. 

And shareholder expectations haven’t shifted. The City never sleeps. 

Your business has responded. The engine of management has kicked into gear. The air feels thick with change, but it’s hard to see open water in the darkness. Your teams are overwhelmed. You sense panic gathering like a storm: whispers of fear and frustration, gaining a momentum that just might breach the hull.

There is no going back. Your crew need to see the epic potential of the voyage. New lands of possibility are ahead. New territory to claim. An opportunity to make a difference.

The game is transformation, not just tenure. Sustainability, not just shareholders. Purpose, not just profit. You can lead a revolution – and that power resides in your people. In the face of automation, true resilience lies in human capital: communication, creativity, and collaboration; the ability not simply to compute, but to empathise.

It’s a battle for hearts and minds – and they’re looking to their captain. They need a vision of a world made better because of the part you help them play. 

This is our new normal. And you need a radically new way to lead.

Welcome to the age of Story.

We call it the age of possibility. The age of resilience. The age of engagement. 

Leadership is not just a toolkit. Storytelling is not just a skill. 

Storytelling is fundamental, because the leaders of the new age can articulate, embody and realise a shared story of possibility.

Storytelling is coherent, because it provides the motivation, means and momentum to shift behaviour, take action and navigate complex journeys of change.

Storytelling is smart, because it empowers people, your biggest source of innovation. 

Storytelling is sustainable, because its dynamic structures help us adapt, while anchoring us to the meaning we need to stay afloat. 

Storytelling is human advantage, because it helps your teams align behind a shared mission, enabling the collaboration that fuels real progress.

We are The Storytellers. We move people to do great things through the power and influence of storytelling.

Our approach is simple. Stories are survival, our most primal means of learning, communicating and evolving. Every story takes us on a journey of change, using the universal structures of all cultures. 

To lead is to be the storyteller: to create the conditions for a journey of change. This is no easy task. But there are three simple conditions that need to be met.

By helping us find meaning and purpose in a shared context, stories give us the emotional motivation we need to take action.

By teaching us the lessons we need to navigate change, process complexity and retain information, stories give us the means we need to adapt.

And by defining and amplifying the norms that shape our identity, stories build momentum behind the behaviours we need for a new world.

The Storytellers’ unique approach helps leaders inspire their people to transform and accelerate performance.

Our integrated storytelling programmes are delivered by an interdisciplinary team of experts in narrative and narrative-driven events, virtual events, leadership development, learning solutions and award-winning creative campaigns.

So step aboard. Navigate the thrilling seas of this challenging new world with us.

Join the movement. 

To find out more about the power of story, download our e-book: Storytelling: how to reset an organisation’s narrative to inspire change, and get in touch with our consultants today: connect@thestorytellers.com.