Make 2024 the Year of Walking Your Talk
Stories are Everywhere
We hear stories all the time. We tell stories. We are stories. Think about your own name. What is the story of your name? Why did your parents name you what they did? We have asked thousands of people these questions and have been captivated by moving, funny, nonsensical, and often unforgettable stories. Harvard Education Professor, Howard Gardner, states:
“Stories (narratives, myths, or fables) constitute a uniquely powerful currency in human relationships... It is stories of identity – narratives that help individuals think about and feel who they are, where they come from, and where they are headed - that constitute the single most powerful weapon in the leader’s arsenal.”
At On Your Feet, we use stories to help brands and organizations communicate who they are and what they value. In fact, we’ve written extensively about the science of why story is so important.
Values But Inaction
Almost all organizations spend time, energy, and resources on plaques, banners, and letterheads with statements describing their values. We see statements like “We value passion, integrity, and imagination.” You could describe these as “Fat Words”: language that is so universal it loses its power. It is easy to fall into judgment about the use of “Fat Words”, but the more we encountered them in organizations, the less judgmental we became. We started to notice that for the most part, this language didn’t come out of nowhere. Words like PASSION, INTEGRITY, IMAGINATION seemed to be based on real beliefs, founder visions, and organizational philosophy. But there were some issues that arose as this language started to be used:
Often, this language was aspirational, describing what the organization WANTED to be rather than who they were.
From company to company, the language all sounded alike (all advertising agencies value creativity). So the language did not help differentiate the brand.
But most importantly, the language didn’t seem to help guide and motivate employees. The organization would spend an awful lot of time and resources to craft the language and then stop there.
In 2017, we worked with Swift, a world-renowned boutique agency with clients like Google and Starbucks. From humble beginnings, the firm grew rapidly and became a formidable player in the digital space. It's no surprise there were growing pains.
When the company leadership realized they needed to relaunch Swift's values, they hired On Your Feet. We were brought in to help refresh these values through stories, as the values were foundational to Swift's culture and needed to be top-of-mind again.
On Your Feet's Story Plotter Framework
As we kept interacting with other organizations, different kinds of stories emerged. We worked with a professional basketball organization, a global advertising agency, and a Hollywood studio.
We heard stories of gritty reality that also communicated invaluable learning. As we looked at these stories, we asked ourselves a question - could there be a simple, sensible way of organizing and classifying stories that could be useful in helping organizations live their brand, find alignment, discover new actions, and look beyond language? The Story Plotter emerged from this inquiry. We identified three kinds of stories and designed it as a tool to help organizations and brands do the following:
Talk about who they are by telling stories of what they do.
Make employees and customers feel heard by incorporating their stories into their communications.
Create meaning and belonging within an organization.
Align their values with their actions, thus demonstrating authenticity.
Effectively communicate their brand and build stronger connections with more customers.
Transmit their culture, especially to new hires.
A Story of Fact: Walking the Talk of Customer Service
We were working with a large group of managers at a global overnight shipping and delivery company. They were talking about excellent customer service. When asked what that meant, a few people recited the tagline on their brochure. But when asked to tell a story of this language in action, a woman in the back of the room grabbed the microphone and told this story:
“I work in the Rocky Mountain region. One of our carriers responded to a pick-up call halfway up the mountain in a remote area. There was an author who was working in one of the cabins who needed his manuscript to get to New York the next day. The driver arrived just as a typical Rocky Mountain snowstorm was assaulting the cabin. Indeed, when he tried to start his truck in the cabin driveway after picking up the package from the author, he discovered that his truck was stuck. The driver calmly looked at the author and asked, 'What is your shoe size?' The author replied '9.' The driver then asked if the author had any skis. He squeezed his 9.5 feet into the author’s boots and skied the package down the hill to the road, hitched a ride to the distribution center, and delivered on time the next day.”
Everyone in the workshop was surprised when they heard this story. Someone on the other side of the room even stood up and said, “We did that?! Fantastic!”
This woman’s story got us thinking, what other stories were embedded in the company? After some sleuthing, three types of stories emerged:
Stories of Fact
These are stories of things that have actually happened (though they may be embellished). These stories capture actions that flesh out and make real whatever language the company uses to describe itself.
Stories of Contradiction
By contrast, these stories capture actions that contradict or work against what the organization says it is. Stories of contradiction point out areas where the organization is inconsistent. They do not always lead to reversible action. The NBA team we worked with wanted to live the value of being more open. However, they had no desire to reveal their draft considerations. They knew this contradicted their stated values and decided that they were fine and that it made good business sense.
Stories of Possibility
This is where brands explore and play with the future. We ask a lot of 'What if...' questions. Ideas for new actions and possible futures spring to the forefront. Stories of possibility are 'quick wins'; they capture actions that really ought to be happening and for some reason (possibly trivial), aren't. By asking people to create new stories of possibility, you can find the cheap and easy things you should be doing. Here is an example:
The baggage handlers at American Airlines noticed something obvious, but something that no one had yet realized, and that was that the bags that go into the plane first are the last to come out of the hold. The handlers suggested that the first-class bags be put in last so the first-class passengers could get their bags first upon arrival. The company implemented the idea immediately.
Conclusion
The Story Plotter provides a framework within which stories can be identified and synthesized to help an organization aligns its actions with its brand, and connect more effectively with its customers. These stories can be used in onboarding processes, conferences, marketing materials, or wherever it’s paramount that an audience understand the brand. By hearing and telling stories they can translate whatever language is used to describe the brand into action and behavior, including their own. Stories are not prescriptive or patronizing, they can be interpreted by individuals in their own context. And by using a grid we give structure to the stories. This structure gives guidance and form to what would otherwise just be seen as anecdotes of incidental importance. It thus helps both the individuals and the organization to learn, improve, and communicate through action.
About Us
At On Your Feet, we partner with the world's most innovative brands, including Nike, Apple, and Disney, to harness the power of storytelling. Our approach enhances collaboration, elevates communication, and empowers brands to live their values more authentically.
