The Power of Storytelling in the Workplace

Stories are contagious. The easiest way to get a story is to tell one.

The thought of “where to begin” is our clients’ number one roadblock to getting started.  Where on earth am I going to find compelling, relevant stories to send off into the universe? This is why when one of our clients hire us, be it a business owner, an HR manager, or the founder of a non-profit, the first story we help tell is their very own. There is a ton of research out there to support this theory of the viral nature of storytelling, but we are going to post a compelling article in the body of this post that you should definitely check out.   

If we are going to capture genuine stories with real emotion for our clients, our first step is to make sure trust exists within our client’s culture.  

For example, say you are a hiring manager who wants to use storytelling in their recruiting and retention efforts.  You’re probably going to want to use your own employees’ stories to establish a connection with perspective employees. The power of sharing stories within the workplace is enlightening. One company figured this out and began to have their team members share their own stories at team meetings. This soon became a competition of who expressed the company’s values the best!

The Ritz Carlton Experience

At team meetings at Ritz Carlton the hotel staff were encouraged to share a story from the day where they went above and beyond for a guest or another co-worker. Simply by sharing their own stories with their co-workers they began to form stronger relationships within their workplace and the companies values and messages were something to brag about rather than be forced to listen to in a presentation.

If you want to get your message across to your employees, let them help you by sharing how they live by those values. As you begin to publicly acknowledge the success of these people more and more employees will follow suit!

That's great but I don't know any great stories.

So where do we find great stories? It’s simple.  We start with you.  If you want real genuine stories from your employees, you need to tell a real, genuine, story about yourself.  About your VP of human resources, your company’s founder, about the employee that everyone looks up to, who has a real connection to your business’s culture and values. 

So, what’s your story?  Where can you start to inspire your colleagues, your volunteers or your clients to share their own experiences, challenges and triumphs.  And if you need any help figuring out how to tell your story you can reach out to us, the experts.