How to take charge of the story?

Leadership, who should be able to take an objective view of everything that is happening in an organisation, usually become increasingly removed from the inner story circles. And often when they hear the stories, they will have been sanitised and edited because thats what everyone wants leadership to know. By their absence from the day-to-day story-sharing opportunities, they may lose touch with the nuances of happiness, unhappiness, uncertainties and resentments that generally circulate among employees. Making a conscious effort to stay in touch with the general drift of stories is a helpful way for leadership to deal with genuine trouble, send a clarifying message if it’s needed or encourage employees to air their concerns in forums where they can be addressed. Change agents are excellent channels for this process, as long as they understand that it’s about the stories and not to find and punish “culprits’ and the tellers of the stories. There is no way in which anybody can stop stories from being told and re-told.

The most potent way of preventing damaging stories, is to shape a Grand Narrative for the organisation. This Grand Narrative is the ‘big story’ or organising principle of the company. It tells about what it adds to the life of employees, customers and the country and what its motives are beyond making a profit. We all live with some kind of hope that we can leave the world a slightly better place than how we found it. People are quite prepared to put extra effort into tasks that could make a difference.

Such a story would have a positive ending that should be described in great detail. It would describe the kind of difficulties that may be encountered and the kind of personal qualities necessary to overcome those difficulties. And quite apart from keeping everybody on the same page, there’s reliable evidence that suggests that clearly seeing or envisioning an outcome and talking about it as if it is already happening, contributes significantly to reaching the wished-for ideal.

We are lonesome animals. We spend all of our life trying to be less lonesome. One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say and to feel, “Yes, that is the way it is, or at least that is the way I feel it.” You’re not as alone as you thought. (John Steinbeck)

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