People don’t want more information

People don’t want more information
They want faith, which only comes from trust.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am passionate about storytelling and how you can weave these into the communication tools and techniques we use every day; not just in face to face communications but in on-line and print too. Storytelling, in my opinion, is the one skill which is singularly lacking at every level in virtually every organisation yet is the one that can move mountains In some cases literally. No-one ever made the decision to follow somebody else’s dreams because they saw a Powerpoint presentation nor were carried away on the wings of an Excel spreadsheet. They have their place ( no-where near as many as most people think) but what moves, what engages, what motivates you and me and has for thousands of years is the craft of the story.

Today we have to deal with so much information, too much that is just contradictory or useless and we are simply overloaded. We live in a time of record levels of depression and stress, not just in the workplace, largely because we feel out of control, uninvolved and irrelevant.

Every religion across the world uses stories to maintain, guide and control its followers Churchill’s ‘fight them on the beaches; motivated a nation’. Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ changed the face of a nation that was in itself born from the stories told in coffee shops and street corners across Europe. Story is the single most powerful tool we have, used wisely it can provide the lubricant for change or shift the perception of a generation. Used mistakenly it can lead us into a trillion dollar war. Not convinced ? Those with even short memories can remember 45 minutes to missile launch and WMD.

Our children will be the ones that win the real battle to save our environment, not because of a bunch of statistics ( which no two scientists seem to agree about anyway) but because they have engaged with the story. They can see their role,they see that they can have a influence, no matter how small. But it is not one big story but the small stories which move people step by step. Funny that - isn’t that exactly what Change management. Is all about. Why is it that storytelling seems to have no consistent or formal place in the IC toolbox?

Engagement surveys, Pulse studies, are there for one reason; to show us just how good or bad we are at story telling. It’s a view. Discuss.

I am reminded daily of that old joke- She is so intelligent, she agrees with everything I say.