Need to add to my LinkedIn something like “company storyteller.” There are individuals in the organization I know to ask the story about why we do what we do.
Why do we have this firewall rule not not another? Why are we super strict about this thing but not another?
I know many of these stories. I find myself in meetings helping others understand policy by connecting them to past events to explain why. I find people are more accepting of policy if they understand the reason we made it. Arbitrary policy no one understands is authoritarian. Providing the story behind it helps make it reasonable.
At least, that is why I think I do it. I think I’ve been doing it for 20 years. Maybe more.
It is a long-time crutch for winning debates. Though, often enough it was only a starting point for understanding what it is that we were changing so we did it in a way that didn’t make things worse.
Either way, I hope it helps.
And, it is something I’d like to see used more. Humans crave stories. We need to tell them more. Because they are so powerful.
They are why we have conferences, workshops, training, etc. Great leaders use them to convey where the company is headed. (Terrible leaders use false ones to create fantasies about where the company is headed: Elizabeth Holmes, Travis Kalanick.)
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