It may or may not come as a surprise that I am a book worm. I am also chronically curious. Curious about life but maybe more importantly curious about people. For me leaders who are great storytellers ignite passion and inspire action. Perhaps the first thing that springs to mind when you think of storytelling is a childhood experience of being told a story or a story that you have told a child, doing a different voice for every character.
This is 5-year-old me ... cute right?
5-year-old me fell in love with the Roald Dahl story The Twits. I was in junior school and my teachers name was Mr Morris. Mr Morris was a kind and gentle man with a big bushy moustache that he would sometimes suck on when he was concentrating.
Anyway, everyday just after we had had our milk, you know that disgusting warm white stuff in those little glass bottles with a little paper straw, we would gather cross legged at the feet of Mr Morris, and he would read to us. I recall vividly the book that he read from; it looked old, well thumbed. The spine had lots of cracks and the cover was yellow, and right there on the front was a picture of Mr and Mrs Twit.
For those of you who may not know, The Twits is a humorous children's book written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. It is a story of a hideous, vindictive, spiteful couple known as the Twits who live together in a brick house without windows. They continuously play nasty practical jokes on each other out of hatred for one another. They also keep a family of pet monkeys, the Muggle-Wumps who are helped to escape the terrible twits by the roly-poly bird. At its core is a moral of friendship and kindness - My teacher Mr Morris was kind. This memory is wrapped up in my love affair with books – and has had a lasting impact.
What was your favourite story as a child? Got it?
Where are you when you recall hearing this story for the first time?
What were you feeling?
How does it make you feel now as you recollect the memory?
Does it spur you into action? Make you want to ‘Do something’ because of the story told?
Has it changed you in some way?
Storytelling is how history was created and how it has developed. From the primitive art of 30,000 BC to 17th Century Fairy Tales and to the 21st Century media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, the evolution of storytelling reflects how people learn and communicate. Let’s take a look at some examples….
Armed with the inferior weapons of a shepherd, but empowered by God, David killed the MIGHTY Goliath. This tale told us that size doesn't matter, it's HEART, COURAGE, and COMMITMENT that matters. You can apply the same principle and same level of thinking to your leadership and the challenges you're facing. As leaders we need to think bigger than the challenge, be bigger than the obstacle, and act as if it's impossible for you not to fail.
What about the moral of Beauty and the Beast. In this tale we are reminded that we should value inward characteristics such as kindness over other superficial qualities, such as wit and appearance. This moral is presented by showing that Beauty valued the inward characteristics of The Beast and fell in love with him despite his outward appearances. As leaders we must be cognisant of our unconscious biases. There are different types of unconscious bias and the tale of Beauty and the Beast is an example of Beauty Bias.
Finally I take a lesson from The Welsh folk legend of Gelert the dog, a loyal and faithful hound till the end, a story warning against making rash decisions, acting on emotions or reacting too quickly, as it can lead to very bad consequences. Making decisions is a needed competency for all leaders. Some leaders may make their decisions in isolation, based on past experience, with limited data and a gut feeling. Teams need confidence that their leaders make decisions based on solid principles. To improve decision-making skills, leaders need to be self-aware, and understand their emotions to ensure they make objective and rational decisions.
It’s clear that there are lessons to be heard in each of these stories, but what is it about a story that galvanises the reader or the listener to take action, to change the way they think and or do? After all the idea of The Twits was reported to be triggered by Dahl's desire to 'do something against beards” because he had an acute hatred of them. The very first sentence of the story is, 'What a lot of hairy-faced men there are around nowadays.'
So how can leaders use better storytelling to drive/influence culture change in an organisation?
In his book, the science of storytelling, Will Storr states
“There’s simply no way to understand the human world without stories.”
Think about it for a second ......... They fill our newspapers, our government debating chambers, our school playgrounds, the lyrics to our songs, our private thoughts, and everyday conversations.
Stories are everywhere.
Stories are us.
It is stories that make us human.
Storytelling is often the best way for leaders to communicate with the people they are leading. Effective leaders—the Brene Browns as well as the Obamas — tell or embody stories that speak to other people.
Let’s take Obama as an example for a second…… “Fired Up” is a short, animated film that depicts the origin story of President Obama’s famed “Fired up, ready to go” chant. He tells the story of a woman who is known wherever she goes for this chant “Fired Up, Ready to Go” The chant, started by one unassuming woman in a church hat, transformed the audience and went on to become a rallying cry in every corner of America. In the video Obama reflects on the power that this ONE lady harnessed with these words…
It just goes to show you how one voice can change a room, and if it can change a room, it can change a city. And if it can change a city, it can change a state. And if it can change a state, it can change a nation. And if it can change a nation, it can change the world!
– Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States of America
Unlike data, which is often defined, harvested, and interpreted with very little community involvement, storytelling offers an opportunity for much greater agency and control by the story- holders. Storytelling is a way for leaders – wherever they may sit – to embody the change they seek. Leaders can establish credibility and authenticity through telling the stories that they are living. If you tell great stories, then you also have social power and people will want to align with your vision.
So how can we do that?
Everyone has stories to tell, but storytelling is a skill that can be developed and as a tool it can be used to powerful effect. Cognitive psychologists describe how the human mind, in its attempt to understand and remember, assembles the bits and pieces of experience into a story. Stories are how we remember.
Mastering the art of storytelling allows us to reach the hearts and minds of the people we meet. When we tell our story it is about selling the story and inspiring your audience. In the report Storytelling for systems change, which explored how stories can be used in systems change work, the authors highlight that good stories are resonant, warm, and relatable.
According to their work good stories:
• don’t use academic language
• are persuasive and engaging
• are emotional – they capture the heart
• go deeper than data – providing more context and insight than numbers can
• are honest, authentic, inclusive and gentle
Stories are the vessels of culture and culture is networked, so if you want to change an organization then you must change the stories you tell.
Put people at the heart of the stories
A big part of a leaders job is to motivate people to reach certain goals. To do that, he or she must engage their emotions, and the key to their hearts is story. All great stories have people in them. Uniting an idea with an emotion is a powerful way of influencing people, because people remember when they are emotionally connected with your story.
Approach storytelling as a campaign
In an age where our attention spans are divided by an abundance of information, stories can cut through the noise. For your story to inspire change at every level, you must create something that your “audience” wants to be a part of. Whether it’s an internal video that celebrates the diversity of your organisation or new employee badges that feature the company’s mission statement, approaching your storytelling as a campaign gives you a set of goals by which to measure change.
Build a climate that nurtures the sharing of stories
As leaders we must build and maintain processes and practices which make the people sharing their stories feel safe, protected, and respected. By creating environments that foster, stimulate, and encourage storytelling and curiosity that is developed and used purposefully, storytelling can contribute to inclusion and connection, build confidence, and bring about change. But a word of warning………. Stories travel like wildfire.
Create the wrong story and it can break trust and take a long time to recover from. In the absence of a story, myths and legends quickly become viral. It is the leader’s role to dispel these myths. Leadership stories can get inside people’s minds, hearts and affect how they think, worry, wonder, agonise and dream about themselves and in the process create – and recreate – their organisation.
Change won’t happen simply because of creating a story. You must bring the story to life. Leaders need to live by the words, only through our behaviour and actions will people start to believe and hope. When people start to sense this is real and you are really committed to changing the climate people work in, the magic will start to happen. The minute people sniff a fraud, or leaders’ actions and behaviours contradict the message trust will be broken. Re-building trust and creating the energy again from this place will be hard. You must be fully committed to your story, believe in it and make it happen.
Good stories resist bending themselves to fit a pre-existing narrative – they tell the story that needs to be told, even if that sits somewhat in tension with the prevailing narrative . This is essential, because telling stories that challenge that principal narrative helps to displace it. As the Passing the Message Stick Reporthighlights:
“The words we use matter. When we share our vision and truth, we can build powerful movements and win public policy and transformative changes we’ve been calling for... When we repeat effective messages, we can shift public support and win transformative change.”
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