Vision is Storytelling

The gong sounds.
The trumpet blasts.
Everyone gets ice cream!

You’ve seen it before. The Corporate office sends out the updated company vision with great fanfare (usually minus the ice cream). Corporate expectations are high. The boss is convinced this new vision will guide the company through treacherous competitive waters to lush profits on the shores of the new world. Most of this mush consists of some concoction of the following elements:

• Offer some product/service
• Provide more value to customers than our competitors
• Meet Growth/Profit Targets
• Do all of the above in a positive, ethical, discrimination free, and environmental manner

WE ARE DOING VISION WRONG! If vision is so important, let’s start doing it right.

Vision in its current form communicates poorly. Case in point:

Name the vision of:

• Your company
• Your church
• Your favorite non-profit, or even
• Your family

Could you do it? This lack of recall for most of us does not invalidate the vision itself. The vision still represents a desired future. But a vision must motivate to be effective. If a vision doesn’t persuade me to action, how effective was it really? So how do we communicate vision from the boardroom t the backroom, and ultimately to the living room?

The best visioneering is storytelling.

• Storytelling is fun.
• Storytelling carries a message.
• Storytelling is participative
• Storytelling is communal.

The Greeks and Hebrews wove storytelling into the very fabric of their cultures. In fact, some scholars now believe the ancient Hebrew Scriptures may actually be the earliest recorded plays. Take that Shakespeare (and Zeus, for that matter).

The team at the Arbinger Institute continues to use stories to teach corporate lessons. Their book, Leadership and Self-Deception continues to be a favorite of mine. I learn without the baggage of boredom a textbook often brings.

But how is storytelling a better way to convey a vision?

VISION STATEMENT:

• What the organization will Be
• Vague
• Focused on the Organization
• High-level Summary
• Received Passively
• Defined
• Forgettable
• A Statement on a wall
  

STORYTELLING:

• What the organization will Do
• Specific
• Focused on the Customer
• Example Driven
• Received Actively through Participation
• Evolving/Growing
• Memorable
• A Culture lived out

Consider the following example:

Butlers Café & Coffee is a growing gourmet coffee chain the Midwest. They are committed to sharing their corporate vision through storytelling (see if you can guess their vision through their storytelling). Butlers brings fresh flowers into the ladies bathroom everyday. During the spring, they wash the windows of drive through customers. Their seating area includes a floor-to-ceiling wall of books (500 provided by Butlers, 500 provided by the community on opening day). The guests have the opportunities to vote on changes to the menu. There is a waterfall in the bathroom for goodness sake!

With a name like Butlers (think Top Hat and Bow Ties”), it is not surprising to hear their corporate vision statement includes “extravagant service.” But what if that phrase, “extravagant service” was handed to you as a new store manager or employee (by the way, Butlers calls their employees, “Servants” in case employees had any questions about their job description). As a manager, how would you implement this element of the Butlers’ vision? Without stories of extravagant service to set the bar, the vision would be reduced to platitudes on the wall, regardless of how often repeated, actions would drift toward the hollow. Without stories, the valiant attempt to change the world is quickly scoffed at for its hypocritical tendencies.

Now that I have shared the story of Butlers Café & Coffee, I bet many of you could not only get excited about implementing this component of the company vision, you probably have even more ideas of how to enhance the work Butlers is doing (send emails to info@ButlersCoffeeOnline.com).
Storytelling also includes company lore. A Butlers servant conveyed to me a story of 100+ degree day last summer where a Butlers manager stopped mid-sentence while leading a company training session. While his servants wondered at his actions, they watched as the manager took a smoothie out to the man mowing the grass out front of the building. Upon his return, the manager apologized for the delay with the simple statement, “He looked Hot.” The retelling of this story sets the bar high for authentic, passionate, implementation of one’s vision!

Storytelling promotes organizational involvement and buy-in. And as we discussed previous posts, storytelling is a powerful tool to overcome organizational cynicism.