Category: Stories for Speakers and Trainers

The Secret of the “Story Premium” in Marketing: Guest Post by Andrew Nemiccolo

How Stories Increase the Perceived Value of Your Offer

Guest post by Andrew Nemiccolo of Seven Story Learning

This past week, my mother visited us in California from the East Coast. With a superb memory and deep interest in genealogy, Mom is a treasurer of family history.

Around the dinner table last weekend, she told stories of her immigrant Swedish grandmother who was an accomplished seamstress living with the wealthy Guggenheim family in New York city. Another night, Mom shared how the Japanese lacquer miso soup bowls we were eating from had come into the family. The wooden bowls were purchased in Asia by her father who remained in the Navy in the Pacific through 1946. As a young girl, my mother described how she would play house with these “exotic” items he had brought back to New England.

After we heard that story, I noticed my kids pausing, looking, and beginning to pay more attention to the bowls they had eaten from, without much thought, so many times before. Knowing the connection to their great-grandfather and Japan (a country they have been fortunate to visit) made the lacquerware much more meaningful for them. More than a simple container for food, the bowls now represent a thread from the past to the present.

Calculating the Story Premium

This blog post isn’t only about family keepsakes, though. It’s about how stories can bring tremendous value and meaning in the business world, too. But exactly how much return on investment do stories offer?

In 2009, Joshua Glenn and Rob Walker, the founders of the Significant Objects project, tried an experiment to calculate the “story premium.” They wanted to see how much value interesting backstories would contribute to the random objects.

They purchased 100 inexpensive items like coffee mugs and pepper shakers at thrift stores at a dollar or so each, for a total of $128.74. Then they recruited writers to create interesting fictional backstories about the origins of each item, before selling the items on eBay. (Bidders were clearly told that the stories were fictional and that all proceeds would be donated to charity.)

When everything was totaled up, the 100 objects had brought in an astonishing $3612.51 in winning bids, for a 28X return on investment. Glenn and Walker pointed out, “Stories are such a powerful driver of emotional value that their effect on any given object’s subjective value can actually be measured objectively.”

The Business of Stories

While Significant Objects wasn’t a scientifically valid study, an astonishing 2800% return is definitely something worth paying attention to. If you sell a product, are you engaging customers with the story of the product? Or are you merely overwhelming their brains with all the technical features of your gizmo?

And this isn’t just about stories augmenting the value of physical objects like the products you design and sell. Stories work in the service business, too.

If you run a service business or provide a client experience, you know that the potential value of stories is even greater in this case. After all, with no physical product as a reminder, it is the memory of the story that will linger long after the service itself has ended.

World class organizations like the Ritz Carlton reinforce exceptional customer service with their WOW stories, told at daily stand-up meetings at their properties across the globe. They recognize that their customers aren’t just renting a bed for the night—they are looking for a meaningful experience—and are willing to pay a premium for it.

Stories work well because they combine logical and emotion. When you look at your organization, do you only complete projects, or do you also deliver memorable client experiences?

As Dan Pink wrote in A Whole New Mind, “Story is having another important impact on business. Like design, it is becoming a key way for individuals and entrepreneurs to distinguish their goods and services in a crowded marketplace.”

When you think of it that way, sharing stories is serious business!

Now Apply the Story Premium

Imagine how you can release the power of story to distinguish your business in a crowded marketplace.

Review your company history, past projects, and successes. Even be so bold as to look at how you’ve recovered from failures. What about your future plans? I call this process StoryMining. Are there additional opportunities to share stories inside and outside your organization?

Here are Four Types of Stories to Get You Started:

Origin stories for your “About Us” page. How did you get started? What made you want to get into your line of work? What challenges did you overcome? Have you encountered forks in the road along the way?
Stories of employees going the extra mile. Forget the corporate manual and bland mission statements on the wall. What does great customer service really look like?
Product or service stories. What is the backstory of the inspiration behind your newest offering? People love gaining insight into the creative design process.
Client success stories. Let your clients tell, in their words, how your product or service helps them. Clients are more credible and often know your solutions better than you do.

So go ahead! Leverage the emotional impact of story. People will remember these kinds of stories long after your latest brochure, power point slide, or “service specification sheet” fades from their minds.

Andrew Nemiccolo is founder of Seven Story Learning and author of Aizuchi Playbook: Brand Your Business with Story. Andrew gives talks and workshops on stories for business and develops client success stories into B2B marketing content. For more resources, visit http://sevenstorylearning.com and connect on twitter or Facebook.

Jun 09, 2013 | 0 comments View Post

Telling Your Story with Video: An Interview with Explanify’s Eric Hinson

David: In a recent interview titled How to Tell Your Company’s Story in Under 90 Seconds, you noted how agencies are missing the boat because they aren’t telling stories. I see the same thing with employers who think they are engaging in employer branding by saying things like “When you work here, you get to work with great people with high integrity, you get to grow professionally…” etc etc. and all sorts of Corporate Speak. The end result is one company’s message is interchangeable with another’s. How does storytelling help employers set themselves apart?

Eric: Stories make things exciting and memorable. The most exciting companies right now are the ones that tell stories about their culture. They convey their culture through blog posts, on their social channels and even on their website – not just by saying “1 week of paid vacation, benefits, etc” – we’re all use to that – but by showing what it’s like to work there.

Feel free to ride your scooters among offices and stop in at our cereal bar for some Frosted Flakes before that 1 o’clock meeting…er…I mean, ‘get together’. On the way, have a go on our colored slides, use our private phone rooms or chat about geekery next to our Star Wars decorated walls, among other things.

We’ve all seen pictures of Google’s awesome workplaces and share them because they’re memorable and exciting. It looks as though their culture is the DNA of the company, that work really isn’t “work” because it’s so fun. Work that isn’t work – Who can’t get excited about that? The stories (and images) are what get a prospect excited to work there. That sets their company apart from the “other guy” and is a lot more memorable (and potentially viral).

David: What about companies wanting to break through the media clutter, how does storytelling help them do that?

Eric: Stories are the way we all learned and connected to ideas since we were children. Almost everyone on the planet grew up listening to stories. Story defined us and were our form of entertainment. Our favorite times growing up often centered around storytime, and that hasn’t changed much. Storytelling stimulates more parts of the brain than any other communication.

What we hear is immediately connected with our personal experiences and we’re more likely to understand, remember, etc. Remember your grandpa’s war stories that brought forth feelings of anxiousness and nervousness? They kept you on the edge of your seat and you couldn’t wait to tell the other kids at school about how heroic Gramps was.

Tell a good story (a story that others think is good, not just you) and it will surface above the rest.

David: Can you talk about Explainify and how you are helping clients use visual stories to make their message more “sticky” to use Chip and Dan Heath’s term?

Eric: You can’t sell products if you’re not able to get a potential customer’s attention. We realized with businesses, there’s an epidemic of whitepapers, long business plans, and credentials being thrown around like confetti – but there isn’t anything being said that gets us as prospective customers excited enough to warrant that confetti being used. In fact, there’s a big gap between your boring business website and me signing up.

At Explainify, we wanted to address that gap and inject some fun into it. We help businesses capture the essence of what they do and turn it into a remarkable 60-90 second animated explainer video (or explanatory video) packed full of fun and strategic writing that converts and sells.

David: Why video and when might you use written story instead?

Eric: They say a picture is a worth a thousand words, so that makes video worth 1.8 million, according to Forrester Research. Can’t argue with proverbs mixed with research like that! Seriously though, 90% of online shoppers say that video helps them in their purchasing decision and 82% of internet users watch video online. We’re surrounded by video in our lives, so it’s a medium where we’re likely to get and keep their attention. In fact, a more illustrative style benefits information recall significantly over text. 80%!

That’s not to say written story isn’t effective, it’s just not our focus.

David: What would you like to say about what makes a story fascinating and what makes one Ho Hum?

Eric: A memorable story has to be simple, easy to follow and easy to recall. The problem with most businesses stories is that they think every detail has to be included. Think about a memorable billboard you saw driving down the road or an ad you saw sitting in the dentist’s office. What was remarkable about it? Its simplicity! It evoked emotion and wasn’t full of boring facts or details. Those aren’t too memorable. Facts are great, don’t get me wrong. Take those facts and spin them into one cohesive, memorable story.

David: Anything else you want to say to a business wanting to communicate in a more compelling way, whether to the marketplace or to the labor market?

Eric: You’ve got to break up the monotony. You’ve got to do something different than your competition. Be adventurous. Be bold. Be daring. Be offensive. Be creative.

We’ve seen simple animated explainer video facilitate quick understanding and interest among potential customers which leads to increased conversions, search engine results, and ultimately, real dollar sales. It’s pretty amazing what a well packaged (and presented) idea can do for your business. Don’t underestimate it and don’t undervalue it.

Eric Hinson is the Founder and CEO of Explainify, which specializes in short, engaging, remarkable explainer videos for businesses. You can see a wide selection of videos they’ve produced in their portfolio. If you’re interested in learning more about how Explainify helps companies tell their stories, sign up for the newsletter on their homepage.

explainify.com

eric@explainify.com

Jun 05, 2013 | 0 comments View Post

For Better Employee Testimonial Videos, Don’t Spout Platitudes, Tell Stories

In the program on using storytelling in talent management I did at the ASTD 2013 conference, we discussed one of the areas where most employers could hugely benefit from adding stories to their talent management efforts: the employee testimonial video.

If you go to youtube and type in “Employee Testimonial” and watch a few videos, you will notice something very quickly:

They are all rather interchangable.

While each video highlights qualities that employees are looking for–like the chance to grow professionally, work/life balance, the chance to innovate, etc.–they all come across as the same. There’s no differentiation.

There’s no differentation because they don’t offer anything but the “take away message”. There’s no memorable story to back up the employee’s assertion or illustrate why the employee says that their employer has a particular attribute like “encourages and enables us to grow professionally”.

Put yourself in the shoes of the highly talented job seeker that you want. Would you remember any of these testimonials five minutes after you left the site?

Differentiate Yourself, Make Your Company Memorable By Telling Stories

Here are two short videos I shared with workshop participants to illustrate how to use stories in your employee video testimonials. In this first one, you will notice that Lynne McGhee, from the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland, starts out by sharing in general terms why she loves working there.

But then, she gives a few examples (i.e. she tells some stories) of what she means. Notice how it makes the message more engaging and memorable. By telling stories you help the job seeker bond to your company or organization, because they’re getting to know you at a more real level than if your employees simply list positive attributes.

You will also notice in this video, that I put some simple commentary that was designed to speak to the things that their target audience cares most about. Also, since you want fun people to work at an animal shelter, a little quirkiness was thrown in to speak to that person.

In this next video, you will hear Whitney Duprey of International Association of Privacy Professionals share an exmaple of why she loves working there.

Notice how her short story communicates in a clearer, more memorable way than if she just said “I love it that they encourage you to grow professionally here”.

Notice how this short little story gives you a more intimate feel for the personality of this organization than slickly produced videos that deliver what could be perceived as platitudes and scripted selling points.

For other blog posts on using storytelling in Employer Branding, check out:

Storytelling in Employer Branding – Steam Whistle Brewery

Storytelling in Employer Branding – Avis Budget Group

May 22, 2013 | 0 comments View Post

The Real Power of Positive Praise: A True Story

by Bill Zipp, President of Leadership Link, Inc.

I had just taken over a small group of radio stations, and we were cash-starved.

Due to poor management of those who had preceded us and rapid industry de-regulation, creditors were knocking at our door on a daily basis and paychecks were routinely 1-2 weeks late.

A new surprise—not the good kind, like an IRS agent paying us a visit asking for unpaid withholding tax—seemed to pop up at every turn as sales swooned. Yet, amazingly, morale was high.

The staff understood the reasons why we had these problems, and, every individual was committed to helping solve them. At our first staff retreat, held at a hotel whose rooms we bartered for radio air time, I presented an award that through the years became one of the most coveted awards to receive in the company.

The Golden Sandals

In preparing for the retreat, I thought of the people who had worked extra hard to get us back on track. One person came to mind who had in the month prior really gone the extra mile. She worked extra long hours, took on extra responsibility, and shown an extraordinarily high level of commitment to our recovery.

A saying from the Bible popped in my head, “If someone asks you to go with him one mile, go with him two.” I was inspired! I took an old pair of my wife’s sandals, spray-painted them gold, and glued them to a wood plaque covered in red velvet I found in the garage.

The next day I made the presentation. I recounted the incredible things this person had done and presented her with, ta-da, The Golden Sandals!

This is the Corniest Story You’ve Ever Heard, Right?

All right, I know what you’re thinking. This is the corniest story you’ve ever heard. And I would agree with you, except … except what happened next. The Golden Sandals began to take on a life of their own.

At our social events every three months or so, each recipient of The Golden Sandals was given a chance to pass them on to someone else in the company who, like them, had gone the extra mile. In doing so, they had to tell why this person earned the award and what they appreciated about this person.

People would stand up, both men and women, and start talking with tears rolling down their cheeks what another person on our staff team meant to them. The recipient would take the award, display it proudly in their work area, and give it away with the same reverence with which it had been received.

At one of our events, as a complete surprise, a staff member gave a typically touching Golden Sandals speech and gave the award to me. I felt my throat tighten, my eyes well with tears, and thought to myself, “This is a stupid pair of sandals my wife never wore and a block of wood I found in the garage!”

But it really was more than that. It was a workplace revolution. It was the triumph of positive actions over negative circumstances by intentionally focusing on what people were doing right, instead of focusing on what had gone wrong.

The Real Power of Positive Praise

That’s the real power of positive praise, it brings out the best in people and energizes them to give 100 percent effort 100 percent of the time. When you consider the fact that disengaged employees cost businesses $350 billion a year, this is no mere “soft skill.”

And while it’s nice to receive recognition for being a great place to work, it’s even better to cash the checks that come as a result. Because, quite simply, leaders who consistently encourage their people create employees who are fully engaged who, in turn, win customers who become raving fans that bring significant growth to your business’ bottom line.

So go out to your garage, find a block of wood and a can of paint, and start your own revolution.About Bill Zipp

About Bill Zipp: Bill Zipp helps leaders in small and mid-size companies accelerate the growth of their business.

Since 2002, Bill has spent thousands of hours working with hundreds of business leaders worldwide, from Fortune 500 companies like Automatic Data Processing, Cisco Systems, and Agrium, Inc. to more entrepreneurial firms like Concur Technologies, Extra Mile Media, and Tunnel Radio of America.

In the process, the growth of small and mid-size companies has become Bill’s professional expertise and personal passion.

Contact Bill at:

BLOG: http://www.billzipp.com

EMAIL: bill@billzipp.com

May 17, 2013 | 0 comments View Post

Another example of how to use employee stories in Employer Branding and New Hire Orientation

In a previous post, I shared with you an example of the difference between a trite employee testimonial and an employee story. We explored how the latter does a much better job differentiating you from other employers in your efforts to attract talent.

Employee stories also make who your Employer Brand much more understandable and interesting.

Employee stories also make your new employe orientation programs more interesting and inspiring, and….help communicate your cultural norms and values-in-action.

Here’s another example with commentary by moi:

Apr 26, 2013 | 0 comments View Post

How NOT to Lose a Sale: a Self-Disclosure Story by Peter Bregman

Note from David: Before you get to the story, if you want to learn more about Self-Disclosure Stories and the Hows and Whys of using them, read How to Use Self-Disclosure Stories to Foster Self-Awareness.

Also, please note, this post is like all the stories I share or ask others to share on this site. It is meant to teach on two levels.

First, the content itself is meant to be helpful. That being said, not every topic covered in every story is relevant to every reader. However, the STRUCTURE and USE of that story genre is relevant to anyone who wants to learn storytelling.

That brings us the second, and main purpose, of sharing the story in this post.

Each post is designed to demonstrate story genres you can use and how to use them. So even if the content does not directly seem relevant to you, you can use the example as a prototype for coming up with your own versions. So for instance, even if you think “Well, I’m not a sales person, so losing a sale is not relevant to me”, the structure and application of this story will still be very useful to you.

This post is by Peter Bregman, author of 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done. He is an strategic advisor to executives, a keynote speaker (see his TedTalks on Youtube) and columnist for Harvard Business Review.

OK…now for the story….

How NOT to Lose a Sale

by Peter Bregman

Robyn*, a close friend of mine and senior leader at a large pharmaceutical company, referred me to work with Dan, the CEO of one of her company’s subsidiaries and someone she knew well. She would arrange for the three of us to meet. The lead wasn’t just warm; it was hot.

During the sales process I made a series of decisions, all of which felt — in fact, still feel — eminently reasonable. Here’s what happened:

With Dan’s permission, Robyn and I met several times before the meeting to discuss Dan and his situation. Dan was new to his role as CEO and needed to step up in tricky circumstances. By the time I met with him, I understood his challenges and it was clear that they fit squarely in my sweet spot as an advisor.
The day of the meeting, Robyn and Dan were running behind schedule. We had planned for 60 minutes but now only had 20. “No problem,” I told them, “I’ve been briefed about the situation, so we can cut to the chase.”
I sat down in an empty office chair which happened to be uncomfortably low to the ground and I instinctively raised the seat to the level at which I normally sit.
Dan started the conversation with a compliment about my latest book and told me how much he enjoyed my blog posts, which reinforced my decision to “cut to the chase.”
I explained briefly what I knew about his situation and when he acknowledged that I understood it, I launched into how I would approach it.
At one point, Dan asked me a question and I hesitated before answering. Robyn suggested that we discuss it later but I didn’t want to disappoint so I thanked her but said I’d be happy to share my thoughts and I did.

Nothing I did or said or thought or felt was dramatically off base. In fact, each step — each choice I made — was practical, sensible, and appropriate from my perspective.

Which is precisely why I crashed.

I was operating from my perspective. But Dan wasn’t. He was operating from his perspective. And from his perspective, the fact that I was operating from my perspective was a deal-breaker.

The problem? I wasn’t attuned.

Daniel Pink, in his excellent book To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, calls attunement one of the three most valuable qualities you need to move others. (Pink talked about this in a recent HBR Ideacast.)

Essentially, attunement is being in synch with who’s and what’s around you. When you’re in attunement, you’re curious. You ask questions, you listen to the answers, and you empathize.

I might have been attuned to the challenges Dan was facing — but everything I did and said indicated that I wasn’t attuned to Dan. Or even to Robyn.

According to Pink, the first rule of attunement is to reduce your power. You do that by letting go of your perspective, which opens space for you to share the perspective of others. Pink quoted one highly successful salesperson who related this to humility. Great sales people, she said, take the attitude, “I’m sitting in the small chair so you can sit in the big chair.”

I did the opposite. I raised my seat, literally and figuratively. I took control of the conversation, sidelined Robyn when she suggested we talk later, and spent what little time I had trying to prove to Dan that I understood it all and I was the right guy to help.

I was too easily flattered by Dan’s comment about my book, too rushed by our time crunch, and too eager to impress both Robyn and Dan. I tried so hard to prove my competence that I came off as incompetent. Maybe not in terms of my solution, but certainly in terms of our relationship.

I acted with the sensibility of an extrovert, which is typically assumed to offer a strong sales advantage. But Pink’s research suggests that being extroverted can actually be a liability. Why? Because too often we talk when we should be listening.

To the extent that I listened at all, I was listening to gather enough information so I could make a case to Dan that I could solve his problem. In other words, I was listening simply to empower my speaking.

But why didn’t that work? Wasn’t Dan looking for information about me and what I might do for him?

Maybe. But he as much as told me told me he knew enough about me from my writing, just like I knew a lot about him from my conversations with Robyn. No, Dan didn’t really want to hear me speak. He wanted to hear me listen.

What Dan was really looking to figure out — what most people are looking to figure out — is what it would feel like to work together. And what I showed him in our brief conversation is that it would feel like some expert coming in and telling him what he should do.

If I were Dan, I wouldn’t hire me either.

What would I do differently next time? I would sit in the chair I was offered and listen to Dan tell his story. Then I would ask him a number of questions to make sure I could see the situation with his eyes, analyze it from his point of view, and feel his emotions. I would attune to him.

That would require that I let go of my agenda, stop trying to get hired, give up trying to quickly and smartly summarize what Dan needed, and cease trying to prove myself.

My goal, the entire purpose of my presence, would be to connect.

If I did that well, I wouldn’t have to worry about showing him what I was capable of. There would be plenty of time for that later — once we started working together.

*Names and some details changed

Article originally published in the Harvard Business Review

For another one of Peter’s excellent stories check out the post Using Stories to Foster Vulnerability and Self-Discovery

About Peter Bregman: He is the author, most recently, of 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done, winner of the Gold medal from the Axiom Business Book awards, named the best business book of the year on NPR, and selected by Publisher’s Weekly and the New York Post as a top 10 business book. He is also the author of Point B: A Short Guide to Leading a Big Change and co-author of five other books. Featured on PBS, ABC and CNN, Peter is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Forbes, National Public Radio (NPR), Psychology Today, and CNN as well as a weekly commentator on Fox Business News.

Apr 20, 2013 | 0 comments View Post

How to Use Storytelling to Make Your New Hire Orientation and Employer Branding More Inspiring

If you want your New Employee Orientation program to be more inspiring, if you want to communicate to your new employees “You can be proud to work here”, if you want them to understand what your cultural values look and sound like in the real world…

Tell stories.

If you want your Employer Branding message to be more powerful and memorable, so it stands out from the competition…

Tell stories.

Here’s an example of the kind of stories you want to tell:

Apr 19, 2013 | 0 comments View Post

Use Ritz Carlton’s “Wow” Story Approach to Remind Employees of the Importance of their Work and…

Ritz Carlton is probably the best example of an employer who consistently uses storytelling to inspire and remind employees what excellence looks like.

In this excerpt from the program Ritz Carlton’s Diana Oreck and I did at the ERE Conference titled Strengthening Your Talent Acquisition, Onboarding, and Employee Engagement Strategy Through Storytelling, Diana shares an example of the wonderful “Wow” Stories Ritz Carlton managers share during their daily line-ups. Each week, two of the daily line-ups include such stories.

Sharing stories of customer service excellence as well as other stories that illustrate employee excellence accomplishes several important objectives.

They provide inspiration – When people hear stories of excellence, it inspires them to be their best.
They recognize and demonstrate appreciation for greatness — Recognition and appreciation are two of the most powerful human motivators. Sharing stories of employees doing great things addresses both human needs.
They communicate your Behavioral Vision in a clear and compelling way – Your Behavioral Vision consists of the employee behaviors that make your Vision, your Mission, your Brand Promise, and your business goals possible. When you share stories of excellent customer service in action, you reinforce your vision of what great customer service looks like. When you share stories of employees engaging in behaviors that make your Vision, Mission, Brand Promise and business goals possible, you create a clear “Line of Sight” between their actions and performance and your business goals. This helps them understand exactly how they can contribute the most effectively to your organization’s success.
They increase the likelihood such greatness will be repeated — Because what gets noticed and appreciated gets repeated, sharing Wow Stories increases the odds that other employees will engage in such behaviors.
They foster pride — Employees–especially A Players–want to be proud of where they work. Sharing “Wow” Stories helps remind people they are part of a great team.
They keep employees connected to a sense of meaning and purpose – By sharing stories of employees doing great things and the impact of what they do, it helps them infuse their daily work with a sense of meaning and purpose. This is HUGE both in terms of employee engagement and in employee resilience. Employees are far more resilient, they have a far greater capacity to deal with stress and challenge, when they feel like what they do makes a difference in the world.

So you don’t have to scroll through the closing comments and questions again, here they are:

So…how will you use stories to connect your employees to the difference their work makes?

How will you share customer stories with your employees, so you infuse their work with greater meaning and purpose?

How will you capture and share stories that communicate your Behavioral Vision of what equals “Wow” customer service and expands your employees’ perspective on how to create memorable, brand-building experiences?

Capture customer stories.

Share them.

Inspire your employees.

Build a stronger brand.

Apr 17, 2013 | 0 comments View Post

“You can be proud to work here”: One of THE most important story themes to tell in new hire orientation

“You can be proud to work here.”

That is one of THE most important messages your new employee orientation program should communicate.

This is so crucial because people of the caliber you want to attract and retain place a high value in working for an employer of whom they can feel proud.

So, make sure you communicate to your new employees — both explicitly and implicitly – that they can be proud to work at your organization.

You communicate the message “You can be proud to work here” implicitly by conducting a well-designed, well-organized, effective onboarding program. They see by the way you deliver the onboarding experience that your organization does things right. Conducting a high quality onboarding program engenders both pride — “I’m part of a great organization” –and respect for management — “They know what they’re doing here.”

You communicate the message “You can be proud to work here” explicitly by sharing stories that demonstrate why your organization is worthy of pride.

“Pride Story” Themes You Can Draw From

These include stories with the following themes:

What makes your product or service great.
How your product or service has made a difference in the lives or businesses of your customers.
The good things your organization does in your local community, or for the world community.
Examples of employees performing at elite levels, such as providing over-the-top customer service that blows your customers away.
How your organization is run with integrity, respect for its people, and competence.

A Story About Integrity

I recently heard a great example of a story demonstrating the last theme on the above list from the Director of Claims at a property and casualty insurance company. While her story was part of an interview I did prior to a leadership retreat, it is a perfect example of the kind of story you want your leaders to share with your new hires during orientation.

You also want to put brief video clips of such stories such as this on your recruiting website.

When I asked this director, Barbara, what she liked about working at the insurance company, one of the things she mentioned was their high level of integrity:

“It’s not one of those companies that does things you feel uncomfortable about. I can sleep well at night working here.”

She went on to give an example. Whenever an official hurricane warning or watch is announced, the company reimburses their marine clients for the cost of removing their boats from the water. It’s in both their customers and the insurance company’s best interest that customers don’t gamble with this, whether it’s worth the cost to pull their boats out of the water versus risk the potential damage caused by a hurricane. Thus, the insurance company reimburses them to do that, if it’s an official hurricane warning or watch.

During last fall’s Hurricane Irene, the storm gradually faded as it reached New England, losing its status as an official hurricane. However, given the vagaries of weather, it could have easily ramped back up to hurricane status when it reached Maine.

The leadership team found themselves facing a decision that would affect both their customers and themselves.

“Technically we didn’t have to pay for boat owners to pull out their boats, because Irene was downgraded. But … what was the right thing to do? If we waited until it reached Maine to decide, they never would have gotten their boats out on time. We talked about what was the right thing to do. We decided it was to fund it. That’s one of the things about this company that I love, the high integrity.”

As she told this story, her expression and voice tone beamed with pride.

This is a perfect example of the type of story you want to collect, catalog, and share at your new employee orientation programs. You also want to use these on your recruiting website, at job fairs, and in your interviews. Not only does it communicate “You can be proud to work here,” but it also communicates your organization’s core values, an important role of your employee orientation program.

Sharing stories that inspire pride as part of your new employee orientation program not only will make your program more inspiring, it will also help “seal the deal” in your new employees’ minds that they made the right choice. So start collecting and using stories that communicate “You can be proud to work here.”

So How Can You Put This Into Action?

Collect stories from employees at all levels, about Moments of Truth that illustrate why they are proud to work in your organization.
Collect and catalog these stories in a database. Note what message they communicate, what value they personify, and use these as searchable keywords in your database. That way, you can easily locate what stories communicate the specific message you want to communicate.
Start including these stories in your new employee orientation program, but don’t stop there. Include them also on your recruiting site, have your recruiters share them at job fairs, and include them in your hiring interviews.

Note: this article was originally published in ERE.net

Apr 17, 2013 | 2 comments View Post

Using Storytelling in Talent Management: News from the ERE conference

A couple of hours ago, Diana Oreck from Ritz Carlton and I finished our program on using storytelling to make your Talent Management process more compelling and effective. It was a fun group (way to go gang!) and way fun working with Diana (thanks Diana!).

She shared some of those amazing Ritz Carlton stories that provide a great example of how stories provide both “inspiration and simulation”–to borrow from Made to Stick’s authors Chip and Dan Heath.

Here are two examples of the stories we shared.

More to come…

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Apr 15, 2013 | 0 comments View Post