The Power of Storytelling: Aligning Behavior and Habits

What stories are being told that are helping shape your culture?

Helping leaders and teams change counterproductive habits may be the greatest challenge for our coaches. We have all learned that telling people they are doing the wrong thing does not create change. However, stories seem to be the most effective way to change habits and to allow team members become role model leaders in service of the organization at its best.

We are wired for storytelling. Before the written word, storytelling was the primary way to communicate significant information to the next generation.

As leaders, you work hard to create clarity by setting goals, defining strategy, and adjusting to meet expectations. That thinking happens in what we call the wise brain. The challenge we face as leaders is that, under pressure, decisions are made in the primal brain, where feelings reside.

The primal brain senses the emotions in stories that help it make decisions aligned with good sensations. If something in the story feels right to us, it will influence how the primal brain reacts in the future. Stories we heard from our grandparents at the Thanksgiving dinner table about how they made decisions influence us when we face similar decisions. As we learn and grow, storytelling helps us act more purposefully because it feels right.

“What does this look like when we are at our best?”

Without stories, your Purpose, Vision, and Guiding Principles are just words on the wall. The stories you tell and the actions you take shape how people respond under pressure in the future. The words do not inform decision-making under pressure.

With stories, your Core Identity comes to life by sharing what it means to be part of something with a unique identity, while the words on the wall may apply to many organizations.

In our work, we are not asking organizations to become something they have never been. We are asking them to recognize when they have been at their best and set that as the standard. We create wonderful Core Identity statements that share Purpose, Vision, and Guiding Principles; however, it is the stories told during the process that change behaviors. It is the stories that bring the organization to life and give it its brand and identity and sustains it during the most difficult times.

Example Story: Compassion Allows Growth

During one of our large organizational clarification retreats, one of the organization’s best managers shared a story about how the company could have fired him but chose to invest in him.

He was just out of high school, in his first job, when he had too much to drink and wrecked his car, his only transportation to work. When he arrived at work and apologized, expecting to be fired, he found that leadership understood. “We make mistakes, but do we learn from them?” Not only did he not get fired, but he also received a loan from the company to buy another car, with monthly payments deducted from his paycheck. Today, he is one of the best leaders in the organization, and you can feel how much the organization means to him, as well as how proud it is of him.

There were many Core Identity components in this story. Words that could be applied to their Guiding Principles were caring, learning and growing, and responsibility. Words that might apply to building their Purpose were challenging people and seeking growth opportunities on their journey to becoming all they could be. Words that might apply to their Vision could include individuals fulfilling their potential and building a sustainable mentoring culture.

The Leader’s Responsibility

Storytelling begins with you the leader when you share:

• a mistake
• a lesson learned
• a moment where someone lived their values

Then you grant others permission to act similarly, reinforcing your organizational identity as  being your best selves. This does not come from perfection but from purposeful learning and growing.

Stories for Leaders to Tell

Great leaders are intentional, consistently reinforcing their culture at its best by sharing:

• Purpose Stories — What difference can we make today?
• Vision Stories — What difference do we ultimately hope to make?
• Values-in-Action Stories — How we exemplify our best under pressure.

If culture is “how we do things around here,” then stories are how people learn what “around here” really means. Over time, these stories become your culture’s guidance system.

A Final Thought

Team members will remember stories that reinforce an internal sense of what is right deep inside themselves, and that will help them respond more purposefully under pressure in the future.

Reflection Questions

• What stories are being told that are helping shape your culture?
• Are they reinforcing your peak-performing Core Identity?
• What is the story your team needs to hear?