Control the Narrative

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People tell stories about your workplace. These stories reflect experiences people have had or expect to have. Simply put, they tell how things happen. They also reflect the values and culture of your organization and, most importantly, predict outcomes for the listeners. As a manager, this can make change harder. The good news is you can use storytelling to help make change easier.

What Is a Story?

A narrative or story is a sequence of events connected by how they affect those involved. In the workplace, these events have meaning in the context of your organizational culture. Events and incidents are recounted as success or failure. The stories you tell each other and to new hires mythologize your workplace.

You tell a lot of stories to build these myths, good and bad, without realizing it.

• "A patient came in this morning because she heard our phlebotomists hurt less than at Hospital X. She enjoyed her experience and is never going back there."
• "Last weekend Mary was on call. When she was called in for stat work on a new admission, the patient's nurse collected the samples and had them waiting. What a great help!"
• "We have asked for a new cell washer in blood bank every year for three years. That thing is on its last legs! It's so frustrating! Why can't we get what we need?"
• "John always gets the time off that he wants. I asked for a weekend off to go to my sister's wedding, and I was told I needed to find my own coverage. This place doesn't care about us!"

As organizational storytelling expert Steve Denning puts it, "Stories fill our lives in the way that water fills the lives of fish. Stories are so all-pervasive that we practically cease to be aware of them."¹ Denning, author of The Leader's Guide to Storytelling, writes in Forbes that storytelling are essential leadership tools, because they are more persuasive and compelling than dry facts, charts, and a "Just tell 'em" approach to implementing change.²

Telling a story answers the question "How does that affect us?" while assuming listeners are aware of cultural assumptions. And if not, the story will teach them.

Stories and Narratives 

As a manager and leader in your organization, you can use stories deliberately. The use of storytelling to implement an action plan is called a business narrative. According to management consultant Ruth Halpern, a narrative must include people, action, and outcomes, which is the opposite of abstract, fact-based statements outside our experience. "A business narrative uses conversational language, concrete examples, and plenty of action," she writes.³

Stories and narratives illustrate your organizational Mission, Vision, and Values better than any chart, poster, or business card. Halpern points out that business stories need to tell who we are, how we got here, and where we are headed, to effectively win audiences. She writes, "Stories build bridges between people, helping establish the relationships that all successful businesses thrive on."⁴

Film producer and author Peter Guber says telling what he calls "purposeful" stories is a crucial management skill. This isn't intuitive, since we tend to see business as a rational endeavor based on facts and figures. But as Guber points out, data alone is unmemorable and unlikely to move people. In business, a story is told to make the customer a part of it. "Without that story," says Guber, "you have only transactional elements and no relationship."⁵

Finally, storytelling can tame the sheer amount of performance data collected, what Ron Thomas of the TLNT human resources blog site refers to as "human capital analytics," methodology that quantifies employee value. While metrics can catalyze change, it isn't clear what to do with the data. "By marrying the narrative and the data," he writes, "we can help drive performance consistently from one year to the next."⁶

Tell Your Story

Luckily, we are born storytellers. Most of us do it without thinking about it and often to make a point. In your workplace, managing how and what you tell for stories can help control the narrative that affects decision making.

According to Steven Denning, the trick to effective storytelling is to choose the right story for your purpose. It isn't always necessary to enthrall an audience if you want to transfer knowledge and promote change. The right story can focus attention. Denning describes basic types by their objective:⁷

• Spark action. Describes change while leaving room for imagination.
• Share knowledge. Focuses on mistakes, why they happened, and what was fixed.
• Lead people into the future. Evoke images of the future you want to create.
• Foster collaboration. Recount an incident or event and ask people to share their own stories about it.
• Transmit values. Tell a story consistent with your actions and prompt discussion about values.

While there is no best way to tell a story, Denning points out common mistakes. For example, telling a story showing your hospital will lay off people, cut back services, or shut its doors unless change happens -- what Denning calls a "Burning Platform" story -- doesn't inspire, although it grabs attention. Others include focusing on traditional personal stories, success stories that lack details of how something happened, knowledge stories about problems, and future scenarios that don't tell how the status quo is changed.⁸

But it needn't be complicated in your work environment. Another online storyteller recommends two steps to get started:⁹ 

• Start a small booklet of good stories about your workplace. If necessary, this can be delegated. Stories should include the status quo, challenge, and resolution.
• Start every meeting with a story. Ask everyone to share a quick story that changed their opinion or viewpoint.

With practice there is greater participation from staff, who will learn how to use the stories themselves to inspire confidence and make change easier. Good business stories can be used to tell who you are as an organization, enhance your brand, share knowledge, tame the grapevine, and prepare people for what lies ahead, leading to better patient care.

Scott Warner is lab manager at Penobscot Valley Hospital in Lincoln, ME.

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