We humans seem to learn best, relate best and connect best, with stories. As children we learn the culture and norms of our society from fairytales and fables told by our parents. In the beginning of communities and societies, we told stories to the members of our “tribes” to initiate them into the tribe.

In organizations, we learn the culture and norms of our company from stories. For our teams and our customers, the stories they hear about the company and the stories they tell about the company matter. And today they share stories within their social networks, spreading the stories so much further than was possible before (via Yelp, Glassdoor, Twitter, to name a few).

The questions that come to my mind are:

  • What stories are you telling yourself, your team, your customers?
  • Are you intentional about the content of these stories and who you are telling them to?
  • What greater impact could you have by telling stories and fables of your own?

Why Vistage Works

Elisa K. Spain

 

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1 Comment

  • Elisa,

    You bring forth a most important element of communications – the ability to use stories to help your audience remember the message and to support the message with examples of success.

    When I work with my students (and CEOs), we talk about the point of (oral and written) communications is to string words together that create an image in your mind, string the images together into scenes and then into a total story. Stories have the most lasting impact on our audiences or followers.

    The hard part is the story needs to be carefully developed and practiced to achieve the ultimate impact.

    Thanks for sharing this message.

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