Story Telling

1.  Challenge

Story telling is a very powerful tool which I use all the time.  As a professional I work in a  highly complex and challenging environment, being responsible for sales teams, engineering  teams, support teams as well as administratively functional teams providing our customer  base with solutions in the engineering space, through Industrial Digital Transformation.

I have found that when my management team has decided and agreed on a new strategy  (for example X) with a end-goal to increase customer satisfaction (where every single person  in the organisation can contribute either positively or negatively towards customer  satisfaction ratings, the best way to get a point over to all, irrelevant to where you fit into the  organisation, is through story telling.  Story telling provides the means to an end.

2.  Selection

One of the recent interactions which was spurred by story telling, was the required to  become ISO (quality certified) as a company.  On a managerial level we have decided that in  order to become more qualified for specific projects, we would require an ISO certification  and would need to make such investment.  However, there were some internal personnel  who did not share the same positivity around ISO (negative mindset).

I have decided to utilise a story telling method to deal with individuals and groups internally  to resolve the issue.

3.  Application

It was clear which internal “clicks”, groups and individuals were against the ISO certification  initiative.  Having been through an ISO initiative as part of another organization in a previous  role, I have understood the requirements and the importance of change management.

Individual sessions with groups and specific individuals were scheduled, where the “story”  was presented, based on hard data (from previous experience and market analysis), had  facts as well as recommendations – all gelled into a story of future vision for the organisation.

4.  Insight

Once the story telling was in place, the most common kick-back and element opposed from  all was the fact that ISO certification was seen as a “paperwork” exercise, and most people  was against paperwork.  Once the story has highlighted this fact, it was clear that if one could  find a way to eliminate the implementation of any paper-trails as part of implementation, the  complete buy in would be achieved by everyone.

Our management team has gone back to the drawing board and agreed that a no-paper  certification methodology will be implemented.  Story telling spurred design thinking for  business innovation in this case, to understand the “What Is” and “What If” stages, and  based on the what-if (i.e. no paper) we have successfully implemented a no-paper (system  based) ISO/quality management system.

5.  Approach

I believe that story telling creates the framework and basis for communicating a desired end- state to staff (and clients), but also provides the platform for interaction and trust for internal  staff to provide valuable insight on “what is” and “what if” questions, as part of the design  thinking methodology.

I will use story telling as a toolset/skill again and again.

