We’ve never had a policy manual in this company. The way we share our values is to sit around a fire in the Boma* every Thursday evening after work and share stories. It is our way of seeing where we are all at, how the week has gone and what the next week coming up looks like to all of us”
Do you want to ignite action and shift hearts and minds? Start to find and tell stories that embody the essence of the change your want to create. These should be true stories with a positive outcome giving the listener an opportunity to put themselves into the story. Also, it is important that these storytelling sessions occur in a safe context. How did you react when you read the quote?
- Great idea! Get rid of the policy manual – no-one reads it anyway.
- How can someone get away without having a policy manual?
- How could I use stories to pass along our values?
- Wouldn’t it be great if we could sit around a fire and really talk to and get to know each other?
Whatever the response, you were probably more engaged than reading an academic work entitled “A quantitative research on 2000 companies in the manufacturing sector and their approach to using storytelling to extend values”
*Boma – traditional African circular structure with walls but no roof in which people sit, dance and talk around a central fire.
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