A corporate story enhances employee engagement since humans in general tend to learn better through stories because they provide a conceptual framework for the brain to organize and manage information.
“Storytelling is a natural mental organizing device”
A story sets the scene, invites employees to imagine an alternative reality, and allow them to see themselves as actors in the plot. Thus, you will give them the opportunity to think of the possibilities, threats, challenges… they might face to reach the ‘happy ending’.
By doing so, you will help all workers “envision a new organizational reality and their role in bringing it to fruition”.
Additionally, a story enables engagement and strategy execution by overlaying strategic planning with strategic thinking. In other words, a story paves a clear way to act according to a well-developed plan and in the same time, engage people in that plan, or “in the spirit of the journey”.
How Can You Develop a Powerful Corporate Story? Tips by Marzec (2007):
- Make sure your story connects to your employees in meaningful ways. Otherwise, it will fail to motivate them;
- Make sure that an interaction or interchange between the ‘narrator’ and the ‘receiver’ happens while telling the story;
- It should have the same characteristics as any regular story. Make sure it includes:
- A vivid setting,
- A compelling plot,
- A dramatic tension,
- Character development,
- Good pacing,
- A well-determined target audience.
- Focus on the identity to which the firm aspires, its current reality, past experiences in addition to its perceptions;
- Maintain a balance between the aspirations and the practical capacity for change;
- State your market challenges, in addition to your vision, objectives, and the “passageway”; i.e. the action path you drew to reach your goals;
- Do not forget to invite readers/listener to participate in this passageway;
- Include your company’s motivators that will make your story actionable;
- Focus on positivity rather than negativity in order to inspire people to take action (talk about pride, teamwork, commitment…);
- Do not make your story complex but prioritize and stress on the necessary;
- Provide enough details to clarify direction and inspire action;
- “To invoke retelling, the corporate story must be written as a story to be told, not read”
- The most important recommendation is to ensure that everybody in the company is prepared and able to act in support of the story; otherwise, you will lose credibility and damage your reputation.
Source
Marzec, M. (2007). Telling the corporate story: vision into action. Journal of Business Strategy, 28(1), 26-36. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1108/02756660710723189
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