Why executives should tell more stories

Diane Morello and Mark Coleman, both analysts at the market and trend research company Gartner, ventured a look ten years into the future in 2017:

»By 2027, employees will be able to work and speak with team members across languages, borders and cultures, using avatars, language software, conversational interfaces and real-time dialect translation to translate and interpret with almost no loss of context or meaning. In this kind of system where people may not know one another, everyone will be rating each other (and being rated, in turn) on trust, competence and ethical behavior.«

This scenario is now becoming reality more quickly than we thought. Forced by Covid-19. But even when we return to our everyday lives, megatrends such as globalization, digitalization, work virtualization, new and agile work will continue to dramatically change our working world.

(...) All this goes hand in hand with a change in information and communication behaviour, which must adapt to the new working conditions. Three areas are proving - in the future - to be more and more neuralgic points that require new communication methods and techniques:

Elimination of hierarchical structures: Hierarchies (in virtual teams and in new work structures) are losing their importance and are even being dissolved in some cases. In terms of communication, however, the question arises: How do you get a team behind you without disciplinary enforcement principles?

New team constellations: Teams of the future will be put together in new and interdisciplinary ways to suit the task at hand. This can become a problem in terms of communication, as each of these teams must quickly agree on a common working method. How can you agree on common values and guidelines with very different colleagues when there is not enough time and everything has to be done very quickly?

Target corridors instead of precise specifications: In the future, targets will be defined more openly in order to be able to react flexible to changes. This demands a different type of communication: What do project descriptions look like if they do not define an end point? How do you describe a goal without wanting or being able to define too much?

Campfire instead of hierarchy: Storytelling as a management tool

»The best way to show themselves to their team is through storytelling.« – Lisa Johnson

In the past, companies rewarded loyalty and experience. The hierarchical system of most companies was based on these two principles. Many supervisors are still in charge of their team, because they have been with the company longer or because they are more experienced than the other team members. Leaders usually have a "head start" and can thus justify their exceptional position.

But this is the past. More and more companies pick new and young colleagues as team leaders because they bring fresh knowledge and unbiased perspectives. Other companies dissolve hierarchies completely and replace them with unconventional, participatory decision-making principles.

Self-control and self-organization are the order of the day. But the claim for leadership has not completely disappeared. Even though work is decentralized and less formalized in flat organisational structures and highly specialized special interest communities, in the end someone has to make a decision. Even in peer-to-peer constellations it is important to assert oneself. Of course, traditional management instruments such as “command and control” no longer work. Instead, group discussions are used to weigh up and vote. But what sounds rational and logical also has disadvantages: Discussions usually do not take place objectively, and they take time.

In 2006 the economist Stephen M. R. Covey pointed out the importance of speed as a decisive competitive advantage for companies. And he gave a surprising answer to the question of how to accelerate productivity and innovation: In his book "The Speed of Trust", Covey cites the factor "trust" as a decisive criterion for increasing the speed of decision-making in a company.

According to Covey's theses, a company gains massively planning and implementation speed if a strong culture of trust can be established.

Those who want to assert themselves in the new working one thing above all else is necessary: trust. Trust is the legitimation to inform, inspire and motivate. Teams will follow the person they trust. But how to gain trust? Creative coach Todd Henry has a simple advice for that: "Do tell a story.

Henry challenges leaders to introduce themselves to their team with their own story - and to become truly storyteller in this process. »Leaders should reveal something about themselves, that the team may not have previously heard. The goal isn’t just to tell stories, it’s to provide context and connection for your team. (...) Do tell a story.« – Todd Henry (“Herding Tigers. Be the Leader that Creative People need”)

Narrative instead of instruction: Storytelling as a teambuilder

Since the beginning of the 1980s, communication scientists have been using the term "narrative" for more than what is written in the dictionary. Today, in the spirit of Jean-François Lyotard, the founding father of postmodernism, the neutral word "narrative" has become a "grand récits", a meta-narrative.

These are heroic or developmental stories that are significant and community-building for communities, nations or teams. Narratives work similarly in companies. Like the narrative and story of a product team struggling all night with a presentation that the customer spontaneously cancels the next morning. The work was in vain, but the team spirit has grown like never before. Or the story of a sales representative who is invited to the wedding of his customer's daughter. He traveled 200 miles to attend. The order volume is not large, but he treats each of his customers like his closest friend. Or the story of a colleague who is deaf but plays the violin in the company orchestra – a colleague like no other. And the story of a bank board member who returns thoughtfully from a family celebration at the weekend to his board office. A family celebration at which he had to justify himself to his own son and nephew about the ethics of finance - all stories I heard in my Storytelling workshops. "Narrative management" is the art of tracking down real stories among employees, customers and partners, adding new stories and using them to create meaning and team spirit.

In the working world of tomorrow, where teams are composed in an extremely inhomogeneous and variable way, where colleagues have to communicate asymmetrically and be flexible across different areas and departments - in such a complex environment it is crucial to quickly agree on common values and guidelines. Traditional information systems such as organizational charts, work instructions and specifications are increasingly failing in this context.

»Perhaps the most powerful role of stories today is to ignite and drive changes in management policy and practices.« – Booz Allen

Narrative stories - stories that create community - are an alternative solution. They are already the unofficial points of reference in teams and companies. The stories told at the water cooler and in the office kitchen demonstrate the true values of an organization and make it clear which values are actually appreciated and which not. These narratives should not be left to chance. Instead, you should consciously help shape them and use them skilfully to strengthen your team and commit yourself to a common goal.

Narrative space instead of a fixed point: storytelling as a navigation system

»Stories enable us to create order out of our world.« – Tham Khai Meng, Chief Creative Officer Ogilvy & Mather

Market conditions are changing rapidly and the pace of innovation is constantly accelerating. The result is a constant reorientation and realignment of business areas and business models. Instead of dogmatic plan organization, agile, flexible project management is required. Today, companies must react spontaneously and flexible manner to new requirements. Instead of immovable, fixed target points, it is necessary to define decision areas and guard rails. But how do you control an open, dynamic process without losing direction?

Patti Sanchez, Chief Strategy Officer of the communications agency Duarte, recommends storytelling as an adequate communication strategy: »Storytelling can (...) help us conceptualize the future. In leaders’ hands, great stories can help guide teams through long-term changes. (...) They see their companies’ journeys as grand stories, with their teams playing an active role in the narrative. Just as a narrator guides readers through a novel, offering enough information to understand what’s happening and stay interested, a good leader serves as a torchbearer, lighting the way for a group of people and keeping them moving toward a common goal.«

Stories help to point the way. (...) Often it is even the small anecdote and individual story that clarifies a goal. Agile work requires a core story, a story that serves as a kickoff at the beginning of a project and that acts as a motivator and meaningful point of orientation between sprints. The goals of the future are not immovable end points, but narrative decision spaces and worlds. They are user stories that explain why a team is working on a project, what the framework conditions for success are and what added value the project will ultimately offer.

Why executives should tell more stories

»People don’t want more information. (...) They want faith – faith in you, your goals, your success, in the story you tell. It’s the faith that moves mountains, not facts.« – Annette Simmons

Are you curious? Could I arouse your interest in storytelling in a business environment? Would you like to expand your communication techniques and tools and get to know storytelling as a rhetorical technique? Then you are most welcome. (...) No matter whether web conference, video message, PowerPoint presentation or elevator speech ... the decisive factor in all these forms of persuasion is no longer just the pure transmission of information. It is no longer enough to simply pass on knowledge. If you want to communicate successfully, you have to succeed in anchoring knowledge in the listener's mind, storing it in a memorable way and classifying it in a motivating way. So do it. Tell a story.