I’ve recently given lots of blogspace to storytelling as communication, engagement, and management tools in the past few weeks. I’m even offering an audio conference next week on the topic.

But where do the stories fit in all the communication that management produces? What are the stories to be about and what purpose do they serve?

Ryan Matthews, founder of Black Monk Consulting, has written What’s Your Story? Storytelling to Move Markets, Audiences, People, and Brands. He also has a related  article in the May issue of Chief Learning Officer, about storytelling as a valuable management tool.

I believe Matthews’ list of possible story functions is the most valuable part of the article. It’s the list that can stimulate your and your people’s thinking of where the stories can come from. Matthews writes:

Stories can be used to establish, renew or promote brands, help
position corporations and build and communicate internal corporate
culture. They can scale, too, doing everything from helping individuals
demonstrate they’re the right person for a job to selling the value
proposition of entire industries.

Storytelling has 10 essential functions or roles, any or all of
which have application in the world of business. It can be used to:

• Explain origins.
• Define individual and group identity.
• Communicate tradition and delineate taboo.
• Simplify complex issues and provide perspective.
• Illustrate the natural order of things.
• Overview complex history in a concise way.
• Demonstrate moral and ethical positions and transfer and preserve core values.
• Illustrate relationships with authority.
• Describe appropriate responses to life or model behavior.
• Define rewards and detail the paths to salvation (or success) and damnation (or failure).

Each one of the 10 "functions" reveals how storytelling contributes to awareness and communication of the organization’s culture. Such stories personify and personalize the organization.

Culture gives reason(s) for employee engagement. Employee engagement provides the ABC (attitude-behavior-commitment) for performance that leads to results. Results mark the organization’s success.

Ready to start working on some of the story areas above? Don’t forget to involve your team. Their insights and experiences may be invaluable.  Feel free to join me for my Manage Magic with Stories audio conference next Thursday, 5/22.

 

 

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Tags: engagement, Management, Performance, story, story-sharing, storytelling