I must admit I love the storytellers at work.
They bring to life the legends, the myths, the laughs and the disbelief.
Typically I induct a new team member with work stories of the past. Stories paint our culture; they immerse the listener into the same atmosphere as the established team members. Over time group decision-making is becomes effortless; teams work as teams.
I love the social gatherings we have because someone always tells more than one story from the past. With each retelling, these stories get embellished and become more fantastic, and no one corrects the latest fanciful version. That’s OK, and no damage was done, and it’s bringing the culture alive.
We also tell stories about our customers. These stories remind us who we serve and apply real-time experiences to our job, explaining how we respond to our typical community.
We use a story format to share IT enhancements, and the non-IT audience gets it straight away, and they retell the same story to others. A technical innovation has a story behind it, which translates into a customer experience and highlights how the experience improves.
We use story metaphors to illustrate improvements to our service offer.
To have the ability to tell a story in your business is a stand out skill.