Reflection – Storytelling

Challenge & Selection

Working in the space of Organisational Development for a client in the Telecom Surveillance and  Integrated Systems business, the Leadership team was facing some resistance from the Senior  Management Team in the need for remodelling the Performance Management framework within  the organisation. Their belief was that since the old framework has worked for more than 2 decades,  why change it at all!

I used Storytelling to build a case for change and more importantly inspire the Senior Management  team by re-kindling their emotions and help them visualise the Organisational goals and challenges  that they might face en-route.

Application

In one of the launch meetings for a Proposed Roadmap for Leadership Development and  Performance Conversations, I happened to tell them the story of Dave and Jim from Zig Ziglar’s book  “Secrets of Closing the Sale”. The audience could identify with the characters, place themselves into  their shoes and the suspense that the story built till the end made them glued on to anticipating  what comes next!

The least they expected was an insight or a reflection at the end of the story! But – that’s exactly  what they were required to do. Reflect upon whose mind-set are they embodying - Dave or Jim and  what does it take away from their Goal-focus and commitment from bringing value to the table.

It made them realise the criticality of a Growth Mindset and looking at change as the only constant  in an ever-changing and dynamic business world.

Insight & Approach

Every manager in the group committed to a Personal Leadership vision, aligned the same with the  Organisation vision and pledged to inspire their teams with the vision and purpose.

“Be the change you wish to see in the world”, as popularly coined and embodied by Mahatma  Gandhi became the mantra for the whole team.

The organisation made tremendous progress on understanding Performance and development  driven conversations and within a week from the Launch meeting, 30% of the managers successfully  conducted atleast one Continuous Performance Conversation with their reports. This simple action  had a cascading positive impact across the organisation.

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” dawned upon the leaders as they realised the futility of driving  an effective strategy without positively driving an enabling culture.

Had it not been for Storytelling, this profound impact could not have been created within such a  short period of time.

