STORYTELLING AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT: THE PERFECT PAIR

COMMUNICATION IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF DRIVING CHANGE AND BRINGING TRANSPARENCY INTO BUSINESS PROCESSES.

The world we live in has been overtaken by recent events, and we have spent the past 12 months ‘reacting’ to unprecedented challenges, all of which have transformed how we interact and exist on a day to day basis.

We have all heard the term ‘change fatigue’ used to describe a condition characterised by lingering mental and physical tiredness associated with organisational change. The challenge we face is the appetite for stability and some sense of normalcy is what people are looking for. Change and Transformation are almost trigger words, people are tired and this is why we need to work harder to set up our organisations and our people to cope with change, for the continuous evolution of our lives.

I have a 3 almost 4-year-old daughter, who loves stories. We have built into our daily routines story time, and this is something that regardless of how tired she is, or how tired we are, a story is necessary to close out the day. This reality is something that I now recognise as her way of coping with the changes around her, to have this one element of her day that has not changed. The story itself may change, the location and method of delivery may change, but the experience associated with seeing and hearing a story evolve is one that she finds comfort in.

I began to think about this more as I watched and listened to what was going on around me. We have some great tools at our disposal for managing change. Such as:

• Lewin’s change management model;

• The McKinsey 7-S model;

• Kotter’s theory;

• Nudge theory; and

• ADKAR and many more.

All of these are useful parts of our change and transformation toolbox, however we need more now, we need something that helps us connect differently, or perhaps in a way we have lost as we have become older and wiser.

Stories are an effective way to transmit information and values. Storytelling, is the approach we need, an approach that captures and holds attention, something that ignites our curiosity and imagination. Storytelling gives us the ability to picture what life would be like if we were that character, to imagine and as we imagine we are able to accept the change as we enter the character’s world.

Storytelling has a lot of power – the power to inspire, delight, provoke and even change people. Stories are fundamental to the way we process and experience life events and the feelings that surround them. The ability to create, share and respond to stories is one of the defining characteristics of being human. The human brain is programmed to perceive patterns, and to latch onto the plot sequences of stories in order to store them into long term memory. The brain is an excellent processor of stories, both real and imaginary.

Let us explore this further. Picture books are a convergence of visual art and literature that captivates imaginations and successfully expresses a concept or meaning. They are an important teaching tool because they give the reader/ listener the ability to deal with the strong feelings that we all have, to model effective coping mechanisms and to address complicated topics or conflicting emotions in a comfortable and familiar manner. The picture book complements words with what research tells us leaves the most enduring impression: visual images.

When we share stories in a way to capture a moment, an event or emotion, something powerful and profound happens.

(Source: Canva)

We activate part of our brain that is not triggered when we are just listening to a straightforward presentation. Research suggests that stories in fact can change our brain chemistry – which in turn can change our behaviours.

For example, I worked on a critical program that had some safety and quality issues. We had, as a project team, lost the connection to our ‘’why’’. We had a culture that was resistant to change, that did not see the value in doing things differently. So, I used the power of storytelling to help change this.

I had some of our end users come and spend time with our project team. It was important for them to tell their stories and for us to hear about how this product was helping to keep them safe while they did their job. They told stories about how this gear saved their lives and this connection to customer was established through a story. The team were able to imagine what this character was experiencing and how what they were doing fit into that story. The change that resulted was an almost immediate uplift in quality, in pride in what they were doing and ultimately a connection that meant things would be done right and done better if it could be. The culture shifted from one of exhaustion, isolation and fear of change to one of pursuing excellence, collective effort, trust and customer focus.

Change management can be difficult to implement, with sudden and unexpected change often compounding the feelings of alienation of staff leading to a build-up of resistance. With the fixation on outcomes of the change alone, the business benefits often overlook the needs of the staff and the customer, all of this fuels uncertainty in the workplace, and uncertainty creates the roots for fear, distrust and leads to an unhealthy work environment.

Decisions inform people why change is necessary as well as what they can do and expect during the period of change and once it has occurred. With their proven strength and lasting impact, stories might just be the best way of communicating in our workplaces today. I urge you to give it a go, to become a storyteller.

Author: Caroline Paterson is Director of Strategy and Transformation at blueVisions & Institute of Management. Caroline is a seasoned Project Management professional who established strong delivery foundations in the highly disciplined Aerospace and Defence sectors, skills she later applied to the Transport and Finance industries; successfully establishing high performing PMOs, improving project management capabilities and practices, managing projects and leading several major change programs; focused on digital transformation, technology and business performance and operating model design in Australia and overseas.