Story Telling & Organizational Change

Posted on September 28, 2010 by Ronald T. Brown, Ph.D.

In the process of promoting needed change in an organization, wise leaders make use of carefully crafted stories which engage their followers - not only at the rational level, but (more importantly) at the emotional level.

These wisely crafted stories weave together ideas, values, and preferred modes of behavior… they build cases for organizational change and clearly describe what a winning future looks like.

To accomplish this, successful leaders regularly use 3 types of stories:
1) “Who Am I?” stories
2) “Who are we?” stories
3) Stories which envision a preferred future

These stories are careful to cover 3 essential elements:
1) The case for change
2) Where we are going
3) How we will get there

Organizational change is more of an “art” than a “science.” And the art of story telling is one tool effective leaders need to learn, and then use regularly, to navigate the process of change.