If you want to change a culture or behaviour, stories are a vital tool.
The right story, well told, can provide a tangible example of the behaviour we want to create. It can bring to life a value, help celebrate an achievement, or remember a key learning. When stories are told and retold, they shape the culture we live and work in. They are powerful tools in shifting our perceptions and expectations and, ultimately, changing our habits.
So, when our client asked us to help them change the culture of their business to be more consumer-centric, we designed and implemented a series of story harvesting workshops with each business function.
These would enable us to unearth stories that showed where and how consumer centricity was already being practiced around the business. True stories that made the concept tangible and relatable, which we could share across the company to excite and inspire.
We started by asking people to share a story from outside the business. A personal example of a truly consumer-centric experience they’d had with a brand, product or service. A simple exercise to break the ice, make connections and get us thinking.
The next task was to capture an example of something consumer-centric that their function was already doing or had been involved in. Anticipating these internal stories would be harder to write, we created an exercise to make it feel familiar and natural.
“Create a WhatsApp thread. Message your team to tell them about the approach and activity, and why it was a success.” This simple format reminded the participants that they tell stories to each other every day. And it encouraged them to keep the message short and sweet. Free from the jargon and fluff that often plagues corporate communication. It meant we could be really productive, harvesting many stories in a short amount of time. We would come back and fill in all the details later, with one-on-one interviews to complete the best ones.
People love stories and stories make culture. You just need the right tools to unearth them. That’s why you need a story harvesting workshop.
