Storytelling = propaganda

I recently told a friend about my passion for organizational storytelling.

His response was: "Hm... Isn't that newspeak for propaganda?"

My first response was, "hey, what are you thinking?

My second was, wait a minute. This question is highly relevant. Also - it's a question quite common amongst people who first hear about organizational storytelling.

I sat down to think about it.

Tried to pinpoint some of my central ideas.

Tried to answer him in my most honest way:

Yes. Storytelling could easily become an instrument of propaganda. A way to deceive or brainwash even. But I see that more as the way Storytelling is applied. Like much else - in the wrong hands, used with the wrong intentions, it can be a devastating weapon.

But for me, it becomes more and more evident that man is made of stories. Big and small, high and low. We tell stories from the moment we wake up until we fall asleep. But even then, we tell stories in our sleep. Stories is a way to create a sense of meaning and context to our incomprehensible and disparate lives. This is where we define ourselves, where we convey our values, create protagonists and antagonists and share our dreams for the future. The stories are within us, around us - if you come to think about it, stories are everywhere.

Similarly, if you go to a company, sit down in an office chair, in the coffee room, lunch room or anywhere - it's all inhabited of stories. There you'll find the experiences, the large and small events - stories about the company's origin, the present situation and the dreams and hopes for the future. If you listen carefully- there's a hum in each corridor. Nothing that is produced from a central propaganda machine.

What would happen if you collect these stories?

Harvest them?

Look at them from different perspectives?

I know that SAS gathered stories from the tsunami. From staff. The way they acted when they received the vulnerable swedish tourists in Thailand. How they (the tourists) hugged the aircraft when they arrived, how they burst into tears when they received a Swedish newspaper and other objects they recognized from their home country. How they felt at home when they stepped on board. How the staff was very physical with the passengers.

SAS has subseguently attempted to use the stories to see what can be used to improve customer relations. SAS staff felt a tremendous satisfaction - they were important, made a difference and felt a fantastic response.

(clearly it would be annoying if the staff came up and hugged you all the time, but something, anything, in their experience could be re-used to improve customer service and staff satisfaction)

This, is for me a way to apply Organizational Storytelling. To use existing stories. Highlighting those who say something about the company. How they want to be perceived - and how stories is a way to reflect those experiences to create understanding and motivation.

Since the stories come from the people's experiences, told from the heart, I'm convinced that they reach the recipient and become significant.

At least more important than that you should save x percent i y years.
That streamlining internal processes will increase customer satisfaction and quality by x percent.
That you should be number x in the market y in the geographical part z.

In short - I view these stories as a way to supplement logic - numbers and statistics isn't enough.

Try to mention a company that does not lay off personell, reorganize, change the product line, outsource or other. What is often communicated is incomprehensible numbers that creates a feeling of frustration, anger - even illness and sickness.

Using these stories, there's at least an opportunity to give a context in an incomprehensible world. A way to let the company's ambitions and dreams leave the boardrooms and become something other than verbos, unintelligible visions or long term goals.

If the stories are not true or credible, I think the result will be accordingly. A subject of mockery and speculation. Something to make fun of as an idiotic edict from upper management.

If, however, the stories are true and credible, the stories can be an extremely powerful tool to create understanding and motivation for change, to strengthen corporate culture or a way to transfer knowledge that is otherwise difficult to verbalize.

In short, storytelling for strategic development - whether it's Change Management, Corporate Culture or Knowledge Management.

(Storytelling can be used in marketing as well. But perhapst that's a different matter. Or att least can be. A way to use true or designed stories to sell products or services. However, my passion is to make it easier for the small man in the office chair, on the shop floor or where ever he or she may be)