The Art of Storytelling in the Workplace: A Catalyst for Change and Cohesion
A report by the American Management Association highlights that storytelling is an effective tool in change management, with organizations that use storytelling in their change management initiatives seeing a 50% higher success rate in achieving change objectives.
Influence of Storytelling
At the heart of every flourishing corporate culture is a compelling narrative, a fabric of stories that shape, distinguish, and uplift the essence of an organization. As a Corporate Wellness Director deeply invested in the well-being and vibrancy of the workplace, I've been privileged to witness the transformative influence of storytelling. It's a tool that not only fosters a dynamic and inclusive atmosphere but also serves as a linchpin in driving meaningful change. This blog post marks the beginning of a series dedicated to unraveling the art of storytelling within the corporate realm, offering actionable insights to craft narratives that resonate, engage, and inspire.
The Significance of Storytelling in the Corporate Sphere
Storytelling is an ancient medium of human connection, a powerful way to share experiences, convey values, and forge bonds. In the professional environment, its relevance takes on several pivotal roles:
Cultivating Community: Stories have the unique ability to unite people, creating a sense of shared identity and purpose that is foundational to a strong corporate culture.
Elevating Communication: More than mere conveyors of facts, stories engage the emotions, fostering a deeper level of understanding and empathy within the workplace.
Boosting Engagement: Compelling narratives have the power to motivate and invigorate employees, nurturing a deep-seated sense of belonging and dedication to the collective mission.
Enhancing Knowledge Sharing: Through relatable and memorable narratives, storytelling becomes an effective vehicle for disseminating knowledge and best practices, making learning more engaging and impactful.
Mastering the Craft: Guidelines for Effective Storytelling at Work
To unlock the full potential of storytelling in a corporate setting, consider these key strategies:
Understand Your Audience: Craft your stories with the listener in mind, considering their interests, needs, and cultural backgrounds to ensure your message hits home.
Clarify Your Objective: Be intentional about what you aim to achieve with your story. Whether it's to inspire, educate, or entertain, your narrative should serve a clear purpose.
Structure with Care: Every compelling story features a clear beginning, middle, and end. Start with an engaging hook, navigate through the heart of the message, and wrap up with a meaningful resolution.
Embrace Authenticity: Authentic stories build trust and foster deeper connections. Share genuine experiences and emotions to make your narrative more impactful and relatable.
Employ Descriptive Language: Bring your story to life with vivid imagery and sensory details, painting a picture that captivates the imagination of your audience.
Value Brevity: Time is a precious commodity in the workplace. Aim for succinct storytelling that delivers your message without unnecessary embellishment.
Foster Interactive Storytelling: Encourage a culture of shared narratives, inviting others to contribute their stories, which enriches the tapestry of your corporate narrative.
Practice Makes Perfect: Storytelling is a skill honed over time. Seize every opportunity to tell stories, seeking feedback to refine your approach continually.
Integrating Storytelling into Corporate Wellness Programs
Our wellness initiatives harness the power of storytelling across various facets of corporate life:
Rewards and Recognition: We celebrate milestones and achievements through personal stories, spotlighting the human effort and passion behind our successes.
Recruitment and Onboarding: The narratives of our company's history, values, and vision play a crucial role in integrating new hires into our corporate culture from the outset.
Team Building: Regular storytelling sessions encourage team members to share both personal and professional experiences, fostering a sense of camaraderie and mutual understanding.
Bonus resources, excellent storytelling books:
Today’s video is here!
Listen to the episode on Kathie’s Coaching Podcast here!
In Closing
Storytelling transcends mere entertainment; it is a strategic asset pivotal in enhancing communication, building community, and nurturing a healthy, vibrant corporate culture. By mastering the art of storytelling, we pave the way for a workplace where every voice is heard, every contribution valued, and every individual is woven into the rich fabric of our collective narrative.
As this series unfolds, we'll dive deeper into specific storytelling techniques and their real-world applications in fostering corporate wellness. Let's collectively embrace the power of storytelling to cultivate a more engaging, inclusive, and thriving workplace environment.
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Episode 154. The Heart of Corporate Culture: The Power of Storytelling
(Transcript)
I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit.
I've always been. In business, doing something on this side and I'm not an hourly type gal. So imagine the day I get called in to my supervisor's office, to, uh, discuss. My hours. And not only that. I get called into this office and human resources in there with her little notebook taking notes. I thought I was getting fired. And I have been one that had believed with all my heart and worked with a purpose of integrity because of that entrepreneurial spirit I had, I mean, I'd been in business for. At least 12 years at this time for myself.
And then on top of that, I had worked for my ex-husband, who was a very successful businessman. And I learned a lot of entrepreneurial things from him. So imagine my surprise getting called in and human resources being there. I had been at this company for. 10 years at this time. And I'm thinking to myself, what the heck. I mean, my supervisor. She's the director of operations. I had my doubts about her.
She didn't really want me there she's even specifically said it. So I really wasn't looking for her approval. Nor was I looking for HR approval. I almost quit my job that I freaking love at this point.
Now I take complete responsibility for everything. I take radical responsibility for everything. I was triggered. Because they were doubting my integrity. They were doubting my work ethic and I was extremely triggered. But how do we transmute that trigger? That.
Is the way out of being a victim and I wasn't a victim of anybody, but at the same time, I realized there was a huge gap in the workplace. I mean, yes, this is corporate America and yes, most people clock in and out, but I was an entrepreneurial spirit. I had just remodeled the gym to be this beautiful place. And I was like, what the heck?
I mean. I specifically said, look, I have entrepreneurial spirit. I'm working on stuff at home. I work all the time. I'm working on weekends. She's like, I never see any of your stuff. I'm like, yeah, I know.
That my friend is the power. of storytelling in the workplace. And that's what we're going to talk about today.
Welcome to my YouTube channel. My name is Kathie Owen.
I've been missing from YouTube. For about a month now. It's been killing me. I've been so upset. I've had trouble 📍 with Descript and more than likely it was my computer that was messing up. But I got it fixed. And now I have a ton of. Stuff in the pipeline to put together. And today is the first of many, and my hope is I'm going to be putting YouTube videos out on a very regular basis. More than once a week for a while. And I look forward to sharing this with you, but it's been killing me that I couldn't get on here.
I had what I called. Recording traumatic stress disorder because I'd recorded so many videos and they would all come up trashy. I mean, trashy 📍 Descript was working buggy on me and it really wasn't totally descripts fault, although it really wouldn't work with my older computer. And so. I got to a point where I tell my video, I'd be like, I don't know if this is recording or not. And on top of that, I'm a firm believer in done is better than perfect because every video I recorded was like, there's something I could have done better there. It always happens that way. And. You know, I'd rather have this done and out there on a consistent basis, but that's the reason I have been missing from YouTube.
And today we're going to talk about storytelling in the workplace and actually have tried recording this video many times. So let's get into it.
Storytelling and corporate wellness. Here we go. I've been trying to record this for so long and I'm so excited to share it with you today. Why it is important to incorporate storytelling in the workplace. Let's discuss.
📍 The American management association highlights. The storytelling is an effective tool in change management and change management. With organizations that use storytelling in their change management initiatives, seeing a 50% higher success rate in achieving change objectives. Keep that in mind. It's a tool that not only fosters dynamic and inclusive atmosphere, but also serves as a linchpin and driving meaningful change. It invites intrinsic motivation, super key here invites intrinsic motivation instead of the common, not useful extrinsic motivation.
And before we go forward, I have to tell you a story about extrinsic motivation. So every 📍 Easter, we have this contest that is a scavenger hunt, and people are invited to search for these Easter eggs. And they are planted around campus and they take a photo, a selfie with the egg and the clue, 📍 and the first person that wins gets a hundred dollars.
And then I think the next prize is 75 and the next prize is 50. So they give away three prizes. This contest is absolutely insane. And if you want to see who's extrinsically motivated, watch who participates in this contest and it is crazy. I mean, okay. For example, they planted an egg in the gym and I had a meeting scheduled at 10 o'clock and I had people running all over the gym, searching and things in my drawers, inside my cabinets. I'm like. Uh, no. I had to ask them where they hit that egg so I can get it out of my gym and put it outside.
I just put it right outside the door. It turns out they're probably not going to do this contest anymore because actually the only people that can participate in the contest are people who don't have to sit at their desk for a certain period of time. Or don't have a meeting scheduled at 10 o'clock or they can't participate.
Because once you get out of this contest, you get behind. And there are people that are just running all over the place. Doing absolutely insane things that don't make any sense. This is extrinsic motivation. Whereas storytelling in the workplace creates intrinsic motivation. When you tell a story. Of a time you overcame a struggle. Or a time where you came through something and there's specific ways to tell a story.
And that's what we're going to talk about today.
The significance of storytelling in the corporate culture is a cultivates community. It makes you feel inclusive. 📍 It elevates communication. I have seen this happen so many times where if you chair a story, oh, you see, Hey, that person's human error. Not what I thought they were up here. All stressed out all the time or something.
It actually elevates communication. 📍 It boosts engagement. Wouldn't you want to tell a story and have others engage in the aspects of that story rather than just have a contest where you're giving away money for finding an egg and not even. Doing your work. Yeah. Makes a lot of sense. And it enhances knowledge sharing. Those are the aspects and the reasons why storytelling is important in the workplace.
But as I said, there are guidelines for telling stories in the workplace and let's talk about those and I'm going to relay them back to my story that I shared with you.
The first thing is you want to know your audience. So my audience is either somebody that's found me through fitness, wellness mindset. Those type of things, but also I'm shifting into becoming a corporate wellness professional, where I'm going to provide my services for other companies. So I'm sharing a story about how my entrepreneurship. Links to my business and how I see integrity as a huge value of mine. I value being treated with integrity and also someone trusting me enough to know that I'm a person of integrity.
When you're telling stories in the workplace, you want to clarify your objective. So my objective of telling you that story today is to let you see my value of integrity. And also to let you see that I had just changed that gym from a dramp. Boring white floor, white wall gym into an inspirational place that people could come to work out at work and it would, you would feel inspired when you walked in the door and I felt like that got trampled on when I got. Mistreated because I wasn't clocking in and out. I was like, what the heck? Do not see the value that I have to bring to the table.
And I was 📍 hit with a roadblock and how I overcame it was taking responsibility.
📍 You want to be authentic. So to be authentic in your storytelling, you need to tell it from a place of vulnerability, as well as a place of. Authenticity. And that word is kind of a buzzword and it's used very often. But I shared my authentic self by telling you how I was scared. I was thinking I was getting fired.
And most likely you could relate to that in some form or fashion when you walk into somebody's office and you're. Kind of being intimidated. Kind of being bullied in sort of a way. That's the way I interpreted it. And that's the way I tell my story. 'cause I told you I was triggered. 📍
You want to use descriptive language. And my story, maybe I use some descriptive language where I talked about how HR was sitting there with a notebook. I mean, just picture that. If HR sitting there with a notebook, what kind of notes do they have to take?
That was my thought. I was like, what the heck? I have no idea. And what blew my mind with that was, I would say about four months prior, I had met with HR to discuss safety measures in the gym. And she was sitting at her computer. And.
Distracted, very distracted. And she goes, I'm sorry, I'm listening to you.
And she's typing away on her computer and I'm sitting over there. Should I run away at her computer? I'm listening. I just got to get these numbers in. I'm thinking to myself. Hmm. Numbers. Have you met me? I do not talk numbers. I can't do math. I can't add seven plus three without counting on my fingers. So I was thought we were talking safety measures. So this person had lost her credibility with me because she wasn't listening to me. At that point.
And so I get called into my supervisor's office. To talk with this person. Who's taking notes now, all of a sudden. Do you see what I'm talking about? You see where the intimidation came in. It was psychological.
And I was using descriptive language to tell that story and enhance it just now.
You want to value brevity? So what does that mean? That means keep it short, keep it sweet. Keep it simple. And that gets hard because a lot of times there's a lot of details that are going on in this story and you can go on and on and on.
I mean, have you ever talked to a person that you're like, come on. Get the story. To get the story out. Get over these little details. I don't need them. Just tell me how you got from a to B. And then they're sitting there telling you this long story with all these details and you're like, hold on. One second. I can't take it.
There's a reason why in Toastmasters or in Ted talks, they tell you to keep it short because you've got to cut. There's so much that ends up on the cutting floor. Like my videos from Descript from three weeks ago. Like those.
And then in the workplace, you want to foster interactive storytelling. You want to foster that to go on inside the community.
One of the things that we just started incorporating at the place I work and that I do incorporate in other workplaces is lunch and learn. And that lunch and learn is just a casual sit down with one of the top executives. And there's a lot of storytell. Retelling that takes place in that. And it's organic and it's natural.
And when these stories start taking place, you start to see other individuals in an interactive way. You see, Hey, I didn't know. This person had been here for this amount of time. And I was there this amount of time, and she's already a team lead and. I mean, there are infinite ways that this interaction can take place.
And then practice, practice, practice, practice.
I have practiced telling that story about my traumatic event. Getting called into my supervisor's office. I've practiced telling that story so many times, because that really hurt me. It triggered a lot of things with my post-traumatic stress. You know, questioning my work ethic, um, questioning my integrity. Um, questioning not trusting me.
I have issues with all three of those things, because those are things that I value. Again, let's go back to radical responsibility. I take responsibility for that. That's not their fault. That they need to work on their communication because I interpreted it that way. But at the same time, I practiced telling that story over and over and over again.
So I don't sound like a victim because I don't want to come across as a victim. I want to come across as a Victor, which is something I talk about often. I will have a link to that in the show notes and description below to my articles that I've written on victim and victimizer. Very empowering stuff.
I will talk about it more on this channel. If you want to see more of that, please let me know. And practice. There's no such thing as.
Perfect. It just takes perfect practice because you're going to practice over and over and over again, like I said, at the beginning of this video, I could record this again tomorrow. And tweak it and make it a little bit better, but done is better than perfect, but it's also practice. So I'm at 155 episodes on my channel right now.
I've recorded more than that, but those are the ones that are inside of this. Podcast that I have right now. And they say it takes about a hundred of them practicing to get crystal clear on what you want to discuss. So those are guidelines for effective storytelling in the workplace. 📍 So how does one integrate storytelling into their workplace? Use it for rewards and recognition. This is going to ignite intrinsic motivation. When you reward somebody for a very impactful story that they tell in the workplace. As opposed to rewarding them for finding an Easter egg and not everybody can participate in that contest.
So when you could tell a story in the workplace about what you, how long you've been here, that's one of the first things that come inside the lunch and learn, and which triggers another conversation and another conversation. And it helps build confidence in the person that's telling this story. Confidence in the workplace, confidence in their job. Confidence in their communications.
This is just going to have a 📍 ripple effect, which is something my work incorporates into the workplace. The ripple effect that will change others' lives and change your workplace and your business.
What about recruitment and onboarding, telling a story when you are hiring somebody or when you're being interviewed in a job is impactful. And it's also important to remember the guidelines to effective storytelling. For example, if they say, why did you get, why did you leave your last job? I got fired. That's not good. That's not a good story.
You don't even want to put that out there. But take example. My story, if I said, well, I left my last job because I struggled with leadership in the team. And I found that there was no cohesiveness inside that leadership. There was no leader that was really treating me the way I deserve to be treated. Uh, seeing me as a person who could be trusted, who had integrity in their job, who also loved what they did.
I was not valued for the way that I worked. I wouldn't tell the story, just like that. I would go back to the way that I told it at the beginning. Where I shared it with you, but I would want to incorporate those aspects of me as a person. I have an entrepreneurial spirit. I am coming from a place of integrity and I value being trusted by you because it's a win for you.
And it's a win for me. And that. Is equal leadership. That's also being treated kindly in the workplace, which I value. And I want to bring that to your workplace. So that's where, when you're talking to somebody, even doing business with them, even when you're dating somebody, you want to tell a detailed story. And I'm going to be talking about this a lot more, like how to tell stories. What's the best kind. Where do you put the impact? Where do you put the message? Where do you put the POW in the story? When do you start it? How do you tell it? Do you just tell it? Oh, my favorite color is pink. No, you have there's ways to go around it to bring an impact.
So you will remember what my favorite color is. So you will remember that I don't like extrinsic motivation because it doesn't last long in your workplace. But rather. Instead of having a scavenger hunt, let's tell stories for that contest instead.
And then team building, not only that, it builds a healthy, happy team when you incorporate stories. So because we started these lunch and learns, I've seen everybody start working differently and their positions because they think, okay, wow. I heard this story from the owner, the CEO of the company. And I see her in a different light.
I see. Wow. She's normal. She's just like me. And I also see, wow, she had this stress and she never told me about that. I didn't know she had to go through this and this and this. And it just has that ripple effect that I am a firm believer in, in side the workplace.
So inside the blog post that I wrote for today's article, I have some bonus resources, but I'm going to go over with them with you.
Now, 📍 Stories that Stick by Kendra hall is one of the best books I have ever read on storytelling. In fact, I've taken pages of notes inside this book to help me get better at storytelling because it's always a journey. It's not a destination. You're always going to improve a little bit at a time.
And. By that remember it's practice that helps, but Kendra Hall's book is a very helpful book on telling stories.
📍 I also like her book, Choose Your Story Change Your Life because that book helps you see the stories you're telling yourself, which guess what? We talk to ourselves more than we talk to anybody else.
And those stories that you're telling yourself can either make you or break you. And we are going to talk about that again very, very soon, but I love her book. Choose your story. Change your life. 📍 I also liked the book story worthy by Matthew dicks. And he is one of the moth champions. He's probably won the moth. Uh, storytelling contest more than anybody else, but he gives very good ways to tell stories.
I love his descriptive stories. I also like his little story book spreadsheet that he creates, which he tells himself a little stories every day. And then he could pull from those, for his content that he needs to do, or he can work on that story for his next contest that he's going to be doing. Another book that I don't have listed here, but I do have listed in the blog.
Post is 📍 Amplify Your Influence. I Renee Rodriguez and I am always studying his, his things because. In his book, he talks about how the brain chemicals that are released, how impactful that is, how it helps others really learn their story. And share their story effectively. All right. That's my episode for today.
I trust that you found it helpful. Ooh, it feels so good to be back. I can't wait to share more things with you. If you found today's video helpful. please share it with somebody who can benefit. And until next time I will see you next time, Peace out and Namaste Bing!
