Society for Storytelling

Benefits for Businesses

BENEFITS OF STORYTELLING IN BUSINESS

We heard a story about Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Before he designed the Clifton suspension bridge, he had himself hauled across the Clifton gorge in a barrel. He experienced the gap for himself before putting his mind to how it might be bridged. With this experience of the gorge, he was able to create the bridge in his imagination. Everything begins in the imagination.
This page of the website is about how the imagination, and especially the art of storytelling, can be at the service of companies.

Colonel Eli Lilly opened his business at 15 W. Pearl St., in downtown Indianapolis, in the Midwest, on May 10, 1876. His staff of three included a drug compounder, a bottler and finisher, and his 14-year-old son Josiah K. Lilly, Sr. The business is now a global, research-based company. A 38-year-old pharmaceutical chemist and a veteran of the Civil War, Colonel Lilly was frustrated by the poorly prepared, often ineffective medicines of his day. Consequently, he made these commitments to himself and to society:
He would found a company that manufactured pharmaceutical products of the highest possible quality.
His company would develop only medicines that would be dispensed at the suggestion of physicians rather than by eloquent sideshow hucksters.
Lilly pharmaceuticals would be based on the best science of the day.
Although his business flourished, Colonel Lilly wasn’t satisfied with the traditional methods of testing the quality of his products. In 1886, he hired a young chemist to function as a full-time scientist, using and improving upon the newest techniques for quality evaluation. Together, they laid the foundation for the Lilly tradition: a dedication that first concentrated on the quality of existing products and later expanded to include the discovery and development of new and better pharmaceuticals.
Colonel Lilly’s son Josiah K. Lilly Sr. and two grandsons later served as president of the company. And each contributed a distinctive approach to management. Together these management styles established a corporate culture in which Lilly employees were viewed as the company’s most valuable assets, a belief that is still the cornerstone of the company’s corporate philosophy.

David England reports: As I sit in reception at Eli Lilly, I read this story, prominently displayed in the company’s corporate brochure. I realise this is not simply a piece of history. The story openly communicates corporate values, philosophy and culture. These intangible qualities define the company in a way which more visible but ever-changing characteristics - product catalogues, production processes, advertisements, financial performance - never can. These qualities are the ‘cornerstone’ of the company. The story communicates this using vivid, inspiring and memorable images, the Civil War colonel, humble origins in downtown Indianapolis, eloquent sideshow hucksters versus social and quality commitment…
The benefit of the story is that so much is communicated about the company in a mere 250 words.
Every organisation has a story, though not all have a story expressed so explicitly, clearly and succinctly as Eli Lilly, and the story of many organisations remains implicit. Nevertheless, every organisation has a story - albeit implicit - which strongly influences its corporate values, philosophy and culture. For many organisations, as Bob Marley sings (quoting someone?), ‘The stone which the builder refused has become the head corner stone.’
The benefit of discovering the organisation’s story is that this uncovers the organisation’s cornerstone, those powerful yet intangible qualities, values, philosophy and culture, which subtly determine the organisation’s character. There may be work to do to uncover the organisation’s story. Once achieved, a number of benefits flow from this:
The story provides clarity in developing corporate image, branding and mission statement in line with corporate philosophy. Eli Lilly is an example.
The story helps to facilitate change when the embedded culture is revisited. Moreover, the organisation’s story is the story we tell ourselves and others, and sometimes the story needs to be worked on and changed to facilitate change in response to a changing environment.
The story fosters a sense of community and esprit de corps amongst members of the organisation. The story is a beacon which aligns members with corporate values and standards in their dealings with customers and suppliers.
Broadening the argument, Steve Denning (2001), discussing the benefits of a ‘springboard story,’ says, ‘A tiny story is less a vehicle for communication of large amounts of information and more a tiny fuse that ignites a new story in the listeners’ minds, which establishes new connections and patterns in the listeners’ existing information, attitudes, and perceptions. The new story helps rearrange the huge amount of tacit knowledge already with the listeners so that they can understand the connections between things in a difference sense. The listeners generate a new story.’
In other words, the benefit of the story and the power of the story as a means of communication is that it offers a vision - in Steve Denning’s case the vision of communities of practitioners where there is a safe space for knowledge sharing - whilst leaving the listener free to arrive at their own meaning of the vision and how to apply it to meet their local conditions, their own rendering of the story. The story is a container for whatever meaning it has for each listener.
Much more can be said about the benefits of storytelling in organisations. There is an excellent website called Golden Fleece which lists a wide range of benefits. When used effectively, it points out, storytelling offers numerous advantages over more traditional organisational communication techniques:
Stories communicate ideas holistically, conveying a rich yet clear message, and so they are an excellent way of communicating complicated ideas and concepts in an easy-to-understand form.
Stories therefore allow people to convey tacit knowledge that might otherwise be difficult to articulate; in addition, because stories are told with feeling, they can allow people to communicate more than they realise they know.
Storytelling provides the context in which knowledge arises as well as the knowledge itself, and hence can increase the likelihood of accurate and meaningful knowledge transfer.
Stories are an excellent vehicle for learning, as true learning requires interest, which abstract principles and impersonal procedures rarely provide.
Stories are memorable - their messages tend to ‘stick’ and they get passed on.
Stories can provide a ‘living, breathing’ example of how to do something and why it works rather than telling people what to do, hence people are more open to their lessons.
Stories therefore often lead to direct action - they can help to close the ‘knowing-doing gap’ (the difference between knowing how to do something and actually doing it).
Storytelling can help to make organisational communication more ‘human’ - not only do they use natural day-to-day language, but they also elicit an emotional response as well as thoughts and actions.
Stories can nurture a sense of community and help to build relationships.
People enjoy sharing stories - stories enliven and entertain.
The Golden Fleece site elucidates these benefits in greater detail.