We all love stories – whether its telling stories, listening to stories, making up stories or finishing stories, the fact is that we, as a race love stories. Right from childhood, when we make our parents read out stories to us, to the most read fiction bestseller; stories have a way to ignite our imaginations.
Then why not make use of this penchant and love for stories to try and use it to build employee connect. Easier said than done – because employees like only interesting stories, and not all of them become bestsellers within the organization. But just like we have the huge rows and columns of shelves in large bookstores, and we choose the books we like, employees do lap up stories that affect them, that strike a chord with them, that make them laugh.
So, what does an HR person do.
Step 1) Find out the folklores within the organization. Easier for legacy organizations which are 100+ years old, lesser for startups which might be a 100 months/days old. But try and build these tales around personalities – the ones who have been able to survive the years of onslaught the organization has gone through / who are stars in the organization and employees look up-to them
Step 2) Have a catchphrase for your story a.k.a, brand your initiative. Take help if you have a marketing agency working with you or you have an in-house art/edit team. The visuals should be eye-catching and the tone must reflect the feel of the story.
Step 3) Market the story. Ask the people in the story to explain formally and informally (to juniors and newcomers) what they went through, how they were able to do what is showcased, and how things have changed.
Once you have this in place, you will find people aspiring and contributing for your next set of stories. And slowly and steadily, you will see a cultural shift towards the kind of stories you are showcasing. What one needs to be careful of is that the stories should focus on the direction in which you want your employees to think.
Each story we like leaves a little bit of it in us. Because we all love stories..and we remember them…like the race between the rabbit and the tortoise..:)
