Applied Management
Use story to improve productivity and performance
by Andrée Iffrig
Meet Rick, a busy manager hard-pressed to meet the organization’s production objectives. His team needs to grow to meet demand, but finding the right talent is tough with the labour shortage. There are deadlines to meet, sometimes with too few staff. In spite of these hurdles, Rick’s team is loyal and hardworking, and most of his projects come in on time. Quiz him about this, and you’ll discover Rick is a master at engaging employees. His magic ingredient? Storytelling.
Rick uses stories to motivate, coach and solve problems with employees. For the neophyte storyteller, Rick has five tips to facilitate the use of storytelling in a workplace setting:
1. Learn to listen: Good storytellers are even better listeners
Rick takes time to listen to his employees. This means not interrupting, and leaving his ego at the door for the duration of a conversation. Understanding where his employees are coming from, even if he doesn’t always agree with them, makes it possible for Rick to narrate stories that are meaningful. He listens carefully for what gets said, and for the "white space" that tells him he isn’t hearing the whole story. His employees know they can trust him to hear them out.
2. Use stories from your own experience
Most of Rick’s stories are pulled from his recreational and volunteer pursuits. These narratives are like a second skin, they’re so familiar to him. If one of his employees is struggling with a customer or another department, Rick might tell a story from his work on non-profit boards. “In my board experience, I’ve seen people shift apparently fixed positions in the course of deliberations. Sometimes, they actually did an about-face," he explains. "When I tell the team a story about one of these encounters, it’s like flipping a switch. Team members think about the times they’ve been in adversarial relationships with customers or other departments. And then they consider what would happen if they were willing to shift from a particular position to seek a common solution instead.” Employees remember his stories better than his more formal presentations.
3. Be real: Your employees can’t relate to a superstar
In coaching sessions, Rick sits down one-on-one with employees. To encourage or motivate an employee, he uses stories. Not all of Rick’s stories put him in the most flattering light, but then real storytelling from real managers shouldn’t be the stuff of fiction. By owning his past mistakes and relating how he worked his way out of them, Rick achieves two goals: he encourages the employee to try "harder and smarter" and he establishes a connection with that individual.
4. Stories are ideal for peer learning situations
Rick uses storytelling to capture best practices from his team. If one member of the group is feeling stuck, other members can exchange stories about how they’ve solved similar problems in the past. Rick might ask, “When you faced a situation like this, what did you do?” These conversations get at innate or tacit knowledge team members possess, knowledge that is both technical and experiential. Drawing out this information makes the most of each member’s strengths and affirms his/her individual contributions.
5. Use storytelling to plan proactively and avoid fires
Staying strategic is the cornerstone of the team’s success. Rick conducts regular project audits to maintain the group’s strategic advantage and contribute to future planning. These reviews are opportunities for more storytelling, as employees share their war stories and accomplishments. Sometimes, project players from outside the team are drawn in, enriching the learning with their stories.
Relying on storytelling to enhance learning, team cohesiveness, and sense of purpose, Rick is riding out the current challenges of the workplace. In the process, he’s proving that you can weather the labour shortage, one story at a time, and that there’s nothing remotely frivolous about storytelling in contemporary organizations.
Andrée Iffrig, M.E.Des., has been working with participatory approaches and peer learning techniques in organizational settings for more than 20 years. She is an expert at engaging adult learners and teaching them how to communicate more effectively. The author of Find Your Voice at Work: The Power of Storytelling in the Workplace, she designs and delivers courses in leadership development. To learn more about the book and peer learning, visit her Web site.
Questions? Comments? Feedback? E-mail us at training.matters@sait.ca
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