STORYTELLING HAS ALWAYS been a way of communicating a particular agenda to your audience. However, telling stories has also been associated with people who are being distant from the truth. Interestingly enough, in recent times, storytelling has become a major method of communication in corporate life.
More and more, storytelling is seen as a powerful and effective means of promoting a specific agenda/message and connecting with your audience, in this case, your employees, on a level that engages their emotions and feelings.
This approach ultimately seeks to solicit employee acceptance and support of organisational objectives which may or may not be in their best interest.
While the more traditional objective and business-like way of communicating is obligated to adhere to the use of facts, figures and to present the advantages and disadvantages, then give recommendations as to the best path to take, storytelling is far more subjective as it allows the teller to indicate only that which will get their point across and achieve the outcomes they desire.
In essence, leaders can use stories to share particular values and norms that are important to the organisation and on which employees should pattern their behaviours. Therefore, in organisations, storytelling is seen as a means of communicating the leaders’ perception of what is important to the growth and development of the organisation which employees need to emulate. In order to remain relevant, stories may have to change.
The challenge is when the initial story promoted a specific set of values or way of resolving challenges and then due to whatever reason, the complete opposite is required. In such cases, while employees across the organisation would have come to thoroughly support or become enamoured with these stories, they find it extremely difficult to re-adjust to the new vision. This may make the leaders, the communicators of the initial norms, values and tacit knowledge, appear fickle at best and not totally honest.
The changing of the story, especially if it was compelling, is comparable to breaching the psychological contract between employee and employer. This usually results in erosion of the trustworthiness of the storyteller and the stories themselves.
This has a negative impact on employees’ continued commitment to the organisation as there is a disconnect between what they had believed was required as opposed to what is now being communicated as the new norms and values.
In an age where employee engagement is such an elusive achievement, it has become mandatory that employees’ interests be reached by whatever means that is most effective. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that stories do not remain static. The need for change must be communicated in the stories themselves so that change is treated with less suspicion.
While storytelling is a great way of connecting with and engaging employees’ emotions, emotional change is even more dangerous and difficult than traditional change to manage. Remember to liken the experience to the loss of a loved one and therefore the employees must be allowed to go through the various phases in the grieving process which are disbelief, anger, negotiating, disinterest or disengagement and eventually acceptance.
Alternatively, the employees should be free to have their complaints, reservations, concerns and grievances and even disputes fully ventilated as the company goes through the change. However, it is preferable that such discussions take place prior to the change and such discussions be heard by the chief storyteller (CEO), because, unlike the normal grievances, the nature of this change fundamentally transforms the way in which employees are expected to operate within a short space of time.
In essence, it takes as much time to change the emotional bond that the corporate story facilitates as it takes to build and this work must not be underestimated.
If storytelling is your preferred method of employee engagement via the sharing of company experiences, norms and values, understand that any changes, especially if they are fundamental, will be challenged.
Many organisations purport not to have the time to even engage in the consultative process that fundamental change must go through, in order to ensure that people are on board. Instead, they require immediate implementation and the attendant results.
Such an approach will make the organisation appear to be a stranger to the truth as it would be perceived that these values that had been previously cultivated and revered are now just the flavour of the month.
Such an approach will alienate employee engagement and render the organisation in breach of the subtle psychological contract and the division known as management versus staff will re-emerge. Therefore, how change is communicated and implemented determines how successful it will be in the short term and eventually in the long run.
If this is indeed the case and employees become disillusioned, then storytelling would be seen by the employees for what it really is, not reality, but a presentation of the agenda of the teller and is fundamentally at odds with reality of the organisation and employees’ experience with the organisation.
Little girls are conditioned to believe that love will triumph despite all the odds and they will have a fairytale wedding and live happily ever after. However, companies are strongly advised not to set up alternative realities for employees where the stories reflect what management would like, that is, what should be as opposed to what employees actually experience in the organisation day to day.
Clearly, you are causing more harm than good as employees are now left to negotiate their survival in the organisation on their own as they experience extreme difficulty in reconciling the authenticity of your initial story because it is not only distant from, but also fundamentally at odds with, the reality of the organisation.
Consequently, ensure that employees are not left to negotiate the reality of the organisation on their own, as many will not survive and your retention rate will be reduced tremendously. As a result, your recruitment and training budgets will suffer for it.
I recommend that the corporate story be reflective of the real story!
Geri-Ann Austin is an experienced human resources and employee relations professional. Email: developmentalga@gmail.com.