I'm not a particularly religious man, however Time Magazine, Life, Fortune and Sports Illustrated founder Henry Luce once said,
Therefore, an easy math calculation suggests that storytelling + collaboration technologies = an engaged, productive, knowledgeable, learned and customer satisfied organization.
Is it that simple?
By flooding (or at least encouraging) the internal ecosystem of an organization with positive and not-so-positive stories, you will undoubtedly create a groundswell of cultural change. As the adage goes, "stories beget stories".
A great example of storytelling affecting change in an external and positive light is via GlobalGiving, a charity organization that gives social entrepreneurs and non-profits from anywhere in the world a chance to raise the money that they need to improve their communities. Since 2002, GlobalGiving has raised $67,930,184 from 271,216 donors who have supported 5,829 projects.
But what this extraordinary organization has learned is that it can do even more good in this world if it developed what they call 'better feedback loops'. Through the web, and open to anyone and everyone, GlobalGiving launched a Storytelling project to collect community feedback that assists in the decision making process, the learning process, and the information process as cycles of investment are positioned and made.
Since 2010 and specific to Kenya and Uganda initiatives, scribes have collected 40,600 stories from over 5,000 community members by asking a simple question: "tell us about a time when a person or an organization tried to change something in your community."
Using the brilliance of Dave Snowden's SenseMaker technology and the Cynefin framework, the stories get mined to assist in the process of providing funding and tangible solutions to their communities' most pressing needs.
If stories are working to dramatically assist the very unfortunate in Kenya and Uganda, surely an organization can find ways to invoke the same opportunities inside their physical and virtual walls to help drive employee engagement, productivity, knowledge and customer satisfaction.
Right?
And frankly, he has a point. Peter Bregman, author of 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done states that an easy way in which to begin changing an organization’s culture is by telling stories. I further posit that if we truly want to improve employee engagement, company productivity, future innovation, and customer satisfaction, organizations should ensure the culture of an organization surfaces and circulates both positive and not-so-positive stories into the conversation ecosystem. Steve Dale also opines that storytelling is invaluable when it comes to knowledge sharing. To me, knowledge sharing is as synonymous with collaboration technologies as it is with storytelling in your organization."We didn't invent the idea of delivering news through stories about people. The Bible invented it."
Therefore, an easy math calculation suggests that storytelling + collaboration technologies = an engaged, productive, knowledgeable, learned and customer satisfied organization.
Is it that simple?
By flooding (or at least encouraging) the internal ecosystem of an organization with positive and not-so-positive stories, you will undoubtedly create a groundswell of cultural change. As the adage goes, "stories beget stories".
A great example of storytelling affecting change in an external and positive light is via GlobalGiving, a charity organization that gives social entrepreneurs and non-profits from anywhere in the world a chance to raise the money that they need to improve their communities. Since 2002, GlobalGiving has raised $67,930,184 from 271,216 donors who have supported 5,829 projects.
But what this extraordinary organization has learned is that it can do even more good in this world if it developed what they call 'better feedback loops'. Through the web, and open to anyone and everyone, GlobalGiving launched a Storytelling project to collect community feedback that assists in the decision making process, the learning process, and the information process as cycles of investment are positioned and made.
Since 2010 and specific to Kenya and Uganda initiatives, scribes have collected 40,600 stories from over 5,000 community members by asking a simple question: "tell us about a time when a person or an organization tried to change something in your community."
Using the brilliance of Dave Snowden's SenseMaker technology and the Cynefin framework, the stories get mined to assist in the process of providing funding and tangible solutions to their communities' most pressing needs.
If stories are working to dramatically assist the very unfortunate in Kenya and Uganda, surely an organization can find ways to invoke the same opportunities inside their physical and virtual walls to help drive employee engagement, productivity, knowledge and customer satisfaction.
Right?
