YOU Have a Story To Tell!

Hallelujah and Peace on ya! I have seen the light...

Have you ever had the experience of someone having a spiritual awakening or religious transformation because of a chart? Exactly! But many are the time I have felt a collective moment of growth, change, or transformation in an audience after having listened to a compelling and moving story.The power of storytelling cannot be overstated.  Stories move us, compel us, and make us take action far better than any chart, statistic, graph, or piece of data ever could.  

There are ZERO reported instances where a
Pie Chart was a Game Changer.  ZERO.

Such was the case with my Leader on Loan group recently.  Leaders on Loan is a program with the United Way of Denton County where local businesses “loan” their organization’s leaders to the United Way for a nine-month program centered on professional leadership development.  I have the good fortune to be the facilitator for the development part of this innovative program. 

Three weeks ago our LOL’ers were tasked with creating a ten-minute presentation targeting specific aspects of the United Way to share with the group at our next meeting.  That meeting took place just three days ago, and I am still “high” from the experience.  This group of eight people were moved and transformed from one another’s presentations in a way that no other activity we have completed to-date has accomplished.  You see, in the context of their presentation they were told they had to share at least ONE story.  They took their task seriously and each of them brought to their presentation stories that humanized them in a way that we could not help but be changed for the better.  These stories revealed a part of who they were to one another and gave them a new level of credibility that their titles, degrees, and work history had not done.

And Now you are THREE DIMENSIONAL TO ME...

For example, one of our LOL’ers told a story about a young boy whom a moving vehicle struck. The damage this boy endured was unfathomable, and the response of his community who came to his family’s rescue with love, support, food, babysitting, encouragement, and more was a testimony to the power of what people can do and will do when there is a need to be filled.  The best stories are those where a happy ending presents itself, and we all sighed a breath of relief when we learned this young boy healed and grew and became a successful man both personally and professionally.  The REVELATION occurred when we learned that this man was our very own LOL’er--Tyler Hurd.  This was HIS story, and he shared it to draw a similar distinction between his childhood community and the United Way community. 

What did Tyler’s story accomplish?  Good question.  By using this story Tyler was able to create a parallel between his community and the good work of the United Way. Tyler’s story also added to his own credibility.  Like the president of Hair Club for Men, who is not just the president but also a customer, Tyler’s story made him more than a Leader on Loan.  Tyler was now someone who, through life’s circumstances, had lived out an experience where COMMUNITY changed his life and his family’s life.  Suddenly as someone in the audience, I felt the psychological satisfaction of knowing that Tyler knows what it feels like to NEED HELP.  I felt closer to Tyler having heard this story.  Forevermore, Tyler will not just be a guy who works at the City of Denton.  His is three dimensional to me, and I like to work with and alongside people who are three-dimensional.  I suspect you do too.

Stories are a universal language.  Anthropologists, archaeologists, biologists, and linguists agree that what separates us from other forms of life is not just our ability to use language but to TELL STORIES. 

A great story lets us get to the heart of the matter.

If you are under the impression that stories are only appropriate for the Sunday morning church service, the inspirational speaker, or topics that are naturally inclined toward the “touchy and feely” know this: Stories are Necessary and good anytime, anywhere, and for any audience.

Architects need story.

Engineers need story,

Accountants need story.

IT people need story.

You need story.

All this begs the question: how can I tell better stories?  Here are FOUR BIG ideas to get you started. 

1.  Get to know TED.  No, Ted is not a friend of mine.  TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a genius movement of people who get together across the globe to share their ideas in a presentation format.  Their motto is “Ideas worth spreading.”  Go to www.ted.com and start with my favorite speakers: Sir Ken Robison, Jamie Oliver, and Benjamin Zander.  STUDY them as presenters and notice how pivotal STORY is to their presentation.  (If you are like me, grab a few Kleenex before you watch Ben Zander.  I cry every time, and I have watched this presentation about twenty times.)

2.  Get more academic about telling stories.  You can view my slide presentation on storytelling at http://www.slideshare.net/BravoCC/the-stories-wetell to learn more about TELLING stories.

The stories we_tell from Libby Spears

3.  Learn from the masters: Advertisers.  The world of advertising is about telling stories that stick visually, textually, and through rich and interesting characters.  Here is my favorite from the great minds at Toyota: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql-N3F1FhW4.

4.  Have a storytelling lunch and learn with your people/co-workers/team/family/colleagues.  Organizationally it is essential that everyone from top to bottom can “tell the story” of the organization.  Can you tell that story?  Can your people tell that story?  Grab some sandwiches and drinks, get around a big table, and spend some time telling stories. 

There are stories in you just waiting to be shared and told to others so that they may connect to you and your purpose.  As you embrace your inner storyteller you will find that you are becoming more successful in your pursuits.  Why? Because people want to connect to you on a human level and know that you are real.  Degrees, titles, corner office, and fancy charts and graphs--while they serve their purpose--they fall short when it comes time to truly connect.  Don’t abandon those things but give them context and meaning with your story. 

One of the rock star celebrities in my former world of academia is communication scholar Robert McGee.  I love this quote: (feel free to cut and paste and put this on your desktop!): “Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact.”

Share your story today with me at www.facebook.com/bravocc.

Is Your Open Door Policy the Real Deal or just a CLICHE?

How many of you have been hired on with an organization that seems too good to be true, only to find out that in fact....it was too good to be true.  Far too often the distance between who we (the organization) say we are and who we really are is deep and wide.  Take for example the ol' "open door policy" promise that many people are told upon being hired.  The Real Deal or just a CLICHE?

In my experiences, one of the most common complaints from the people I work with is the lack of two way traffic between themselves and those who sit at the top of the totem pole.  Color me uncomfortable, for example, when in a workshop on how to have better and more productive conversations, I see my workshop participants exchanging knowing glances.  Being that I am a teacher, I don't usually let these knowing glances go without asking.  "Hey is something interesting, confusing, funny or what?  You guys have a funny look on your faces" to which I hear "We are just all wondering if our bosses have to come to this workshop".

As the outsider who is inside the organization to create teaching moments with team members, this is never a great experience for me as I the answer is almost always "No your boss is not going through this workshop".

I know what everyone is thinking in their head when I tell them this: "Then why are we here" and "This doesn't really matter then does it" and "Typical, they think we need to be fixed but our bosses have it all figured out".

Does your organization boast an open door policy?  Do you tell new hires that when they join the organization they will have easy access to their boss to share their thoughts, ideas, opinions and ask questions?  Now, go up and down the hall of your organization's decision makers and ask them how many real, authentic, conversations they have had today, this week, this month, this year--with their employees.

CONVERSATION is the heart beat of any organization.  Without it, you don't know what is going on.  The rule of thumb is that the higher you climb in an organization, the less easy access you have to what is actually going on in the organization. That means then that if you are a decision maker in the organization, you will have to work that much harder to make sure you are having conversations with your team members.

So, commit yourself to real, authentic conversations with your people today.  How?  Take a look at "Honoring the Open Door Policy"for some GREAT ideas on why conversation is important and how to have better conversations: Click Here

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Conversation is an art form.  It takes practice, commitment and COURAGE to have authentic conversations with your team members.  Now, go out there and get to talking....