“People don’t want to hear a bunch of info. They want to hear a story.”
That’s what my buddy Jono said to me a few days ago when we did a short profile film for Achata Coaching. Jono has a little film company and is especially talented in creative storytelling.
When he asked me what I wanted to communicate I told him that I was especially interested for people to know that happiness, fulfillment, well being etc… are a bi-product of reaching a goal. His response? “What story can you tell that illustrates that?” You’ll have to wait a little before the video is out, but you can know this much; we ended up telling a story about a mountain bike ride I did once in Colorado about 10 years ago. The story I tell in the video illustrates my point perfectly. I’ll be posting the video when it’s done. But until then, here’s a pic below of some of the footage:
This got me to thinking about what sets apart successful organizations from organizations who are just spinning their wheels. It’s the same thing–a great story. In organizational terms, the story is the vision. It’s the place you are headed. It’s what you want. It’s an aspiration. It’s the context in which everything else finds its meaning.
Seth Godin wrote a little blog about this once. He says that if a person or organization hasn’t figured out a good story yet then the work becomes random because when the story is confused or bland, it doesn’t spread. But, he adds “if you decide what the story is, you can do work that matches the story. Your decisions will match the story. The story will become true because you’re living it.”
So the question is, “what does it take to get you from here to there?” A really good story. Take 15 minutes and watch David Lecours, a Creative Coaching/Designer, tell the power of a story and how to use it to move your organization or team forward. Not having a story makes for confusing work. Having a story puts a context to why you are doing what you are doing. This ends up making the work.