This week is National Story Telling Week! Providing employees with meaning and a compelling purpose at work, is one of the key enablers of employee engagement. This can be done through a strategic narrative.

Stories are incredibly powerful ways to communicate; we are hard-wired to respond to stories and remember them. Put simply, stories make us feel something, when we listen to a good story we share in the experience, which is what makes stories so powerful.

Neural activity in our brains significantly increases on hearing a great story. It’s this activity that helps us to remember so much more information, compared to say a presentation with a load of bullet points.

A great story will also trigger the release of the neurotransmitter oxytocin, which increases our empathy and helps to make us care – and the research shows that the empathy we feel on hearing a good story is transferrable to other areas of our lives.

Stories are not just about sharing information in an entertaining way; they can also shape our behaviour. For example, one study showed that seeing acts of altruism in a movie lead to increases in this behaviour in everyday life.

So stories are a brilliant way to communicate, and a great way to tell a story inside your organisation is to begin with your strategic narrative.

A strategic narrative is a clear, compelling story of where your organisation is heading and why. But this is not about presenting a load of facts with bullet points, detailing info such as projected turnover, profit and loss, and the need to maximise shareholder value. It’s hard to retain information presented in this way and to make it meaningful for your people.

You may have heard the story about the janitor at NASA who, when asked what he did, replied that he was “helping to put a man on the moon”. This is a great example of a successful strategic narrative: he understood how his day to day job was part of the bigger picture.

Having a compelling vision, and direction, that employees understand, feel part of, buy into, and can contribute to, is one of the building blocks of an engaged workforce. So, to help you create your strategic narrative, we’re sharing some of our top tips.

What’s your story?

A good narrative always starts with you creating a strong structure, one that can answer the key questions about the journey the business is on. It’s useful to start with these questions and these could be as simple as ‘where are we now?’, ‘where do we want to get to?’ and ‘how will we get there?’. And perhaps most importantly, why are we in business?

Get your leaders involved in the creation of your narrative

If leaders have had an opportunity to contribute to the creation of your narrative, they are far more likely to support it. Identify your key stakeholders and leaders that and involve them from the start. One way to do this is through individual interviews followed by a group session, where all contributors can help craft the key messages, themes and ideas.

Keep it simple

Many companies have a vision, a mission, ambitions, values, behaviours, objectives and principles, as well as other ‘key messages’ – and it can be tempting to throw them all at your narrative. But to land what you need to, your narrative needs to be clear and simple, focusing on the core message you want to get across. The challenge can often be not what you put into it, but what you leave out, so be tough on yourself and set limits as to what you will include.

Help your leaders to make it their own

A strategic narrative will always contain some elements that are non-negotiable, however leaders and managers are more likely to help you bring it to life, if they feel it is authentic to them and will resonate with their teams. If you start with your framework, you can then facilitate a conversation that enables them to personalise the messages and make it real for their team.

Keep the narrative alive

Employees are more likely to focus their energy on the narrative if they believe it has longevity. Use your internal communication channels Encourage leaders to reference the narrative in their interactions, meetings and announcements. “awesome example of one united team putting the customer first!”And use consistent language, connecting business decisions and initiatives back to the story.

If you would like help uncovering your business’ compelling narrative feel free to drop us a line hello@HROptimisation.co.uk

 

 

 

Hannah Powell