• Instead of presenting too much on technical and financial details, use stories to resonate with your team so that they are committed to take the necessary actions;

• While everyone can tell stories, one would need substantial amount of skills, preparation and training to tell stories that will resonate and are meaningful to the audience

• While many companies and executives have many opportunities to engage and inspire their people with the many presentations they made, but because they don't have a story to resonate with their audience, such opportunities are wasted.   Read on... ...

Storytelling is a highly effective, precise tool to energize teams, refocus and revitalize demoralized companies, envision the future and create winning environments.  It also gives life to abstract values and mission statements, and helps business speakers engage their audiences and more clearly frame their presentations.

And it has helped some companies deal with very challenging change, including mergers.

But like any tool, the question is how to use it, under what circumstances to solve what problem or challenge or further enhance the efforts of a great team.

In 1981, in his first year as CEO of General Electric, on a field visit to GE’s nuclear reactor business in San Jose, Jack Welch faced leaders of that business unit who resisted change.

The leadership of the business projected a bright outlook for reactor sales based on healthy sales for the 1970s.  The leaders projected sales of three new reactors per year, as told in Welch’s book “Jack: Straight from the Gut,” and retold in “Lead with a Story”.

Looking back to the 1970s, the projections seemed reasonable, Welch recalled.  That business unit had sold three or four reactors each year in that period.   But two years prior to his visit, the US experienced a major disaster at a nuclear power plant in Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania.  The public’s already cautious appetite for more nuclear power plants vanished.  The company had not sold a single nuclear power plant in the two years since the accident.

After listening politely, he shocked the leadership.

“Guys, you are not going to get three orders a year. In my opinion, you’ll never get another order for a nuclear reactor in the US. Instead, he said they should focus their business on selling nuclear fuel and services to the 72 active reactors they already built

The leaders argued if they removed orders from the plan it would kill morale, and they’d never be able to mobilize the business again when orders come back.

Welch was unfazed.  GE re-staffed the business to focus on the service model he proposed.  Earnings grew from US$14 million to US$116 million in just two years.  And by the time he retired 20 years later, the company still had not received even one more order for a nuclear reactor.
 

In his career at GE, Welch retold this story numerous times when he needed to get his leaders to face reality. Getting people to accept change is the first obstacle to change.

In your organizations, when your team faces change, you may consider retelling this story to prepare your audience before delivering your own reality check on the need for change.

“GE never did get another order for a nuclear reactor. And the reality for us is, we cannot face another year of uncertain government support (or whatever is your situation).

Increasingly, storytelling in organizations is attracting serious attention in books, blogs and social media, demonstrating its value.  Still, not everybody is convinced.

“We work, we don’t tell stories”

“When we come to the office, we work and then we leave.  We don’t tell stories,” one senior manager at a multinational told me when I announced what I do.  A department head at another multinational bluntly told me “that won’t work here.”

Why the disconnect?

What people fail to understand is that storytelling usually requires guidance or training and practice in discovering, creating and delivering stories at a time, place and situation to achieve specific objectives.

“Lead with a Story: Guide to Crafting Business Narratives” describes five broad categories of storytelling with more than 20 specific scenarios, such as creating an environment for winning, envisioning success and energizing the team.  The author was head of consumer research for a $6 billion global business at The Procter & Gamble Company.

“The Leader's Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative,” lists eight narrative patterns, with purposes such as building trust, overcoming resistance to new ideas, instilling organizational values.  The author was inspired to write this based on his years of work at the very conservative, report and PPT-fueled World Bank.

In addition, there are the obvious storytelling applications related to branding, sales and business presentations.

Power Breakfast Hour:  18 Sep 2014

Using Storytelling to Rally Your Team to Overcome Tough Challenges

• How you can use stories to resonate with your team so that they are committed to take the necessary actions;

• What kinds of skills, preparation and training you need, so that you tell stories that will resonate and are meaningful to the audience

• How to capitalise on the many opportunities to use stories to engage and inspire your team... ...

The boss that was mentioned here, although micro-managing for how certain things need to be done in his way, without flexibility of any kind, seems not to care how it was done.  He just want to see numbers and didn't care how it will be achieved (bad for setting strategic goals in the first place), and why it needs to be achieved.  He was not clear about the end objectives of achieving such goals.

 

Here are 3 things that will happen to such bosses:
 

1. Subordinates will fake the numbers, or provide meaningless numbers (such as sending the company brochure to a prospect who will have no chance of buying), since the boss has got no idea nor interest to find out how things are done.  This boss is simple asking to be hoodwinked;

2. Responsible managers working under such bosses will identify what are the end objectives of this boss and deliver those objectives, WHILE trying to fake the numbers if they believe those interim numbers are unachievable or meaningless (or both).  After all, such bosses are unlikely to forgive his managers even IF his orders are followed BUT the end objectives are not achieved;

3. Irresponsible managers will then try to be "yes-man" and play up the office politics by following orders to the "T", and make reports about those whom are not "following orders", just to curry favour from the big-bad-boss.

Hence, on the one hand it's not an easy task working under such bosses, and it really will be a test of courage, will and wisdom when working under such bosses.  On the other hand, such bosses are rather easy to hoodwink, especially when he's not working next to you.

 

More importantly, such bosses usually are not able to retain the best people, and are most likely to result in employees to be disengaged at work, even if one has hired the most engaged employees for him.
 

In some ways, working with such bosses can be stressful and make you feel very unappreciated.  On the bright side though, it will give one plenty of learning opportunities, be it in solving unsolvable problems and challenges or in harnessing your reality distortion field.

Need help in dealing with nasty bosses, you can e-mail info@directions-consulting.com or call +86-136 7190 2505 or Skype: cydj001

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Directions Management Consulting

 

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