Rehearsing The Future:
Introduction: People have told and listened to stories for as long as we have lived together in groups. Stories fit the way the brain works so well, they have always been used to teach the fundamental truths of the community, and to pass on wisdom.
They are entertaining and create cohesion among people.
They told us who we are, and how we are different from others. How we’re special – our shared values, our shared purposes. As people shared these ideas together they developed a powerful collective identity.
A collection of individuals became transformed into a cohesive group, an Us.
Since we’re capable of imagining events that haven’t occurred yet, stories are also a vehicle for rehearsing the future and becoming prepared ahead of time for an eventuality. For example, we teach our children what to do in case of a fire.
By telling stories, we enact how to handle such events. Stories also enable us to prepare people to respond to our leadership in times of stress, without having to waste precious time convincing them of the wisdom of our choices.
In a situation in which the group as a whole may need to pull a rope to be successful, not having to convince people that pulling, rather than pushing the rope, is the better strategy may make a lot of difference to the groups’ survival.
In a sense, when a group of people listens to the same stories over time, they develop a shared memory of the future. They know how to behave in such an event because, through the use of stories, we have mentally rehearsed what to do.
In this sense, stories can give people guidelines for how to work together – and how not to.
Stories also serve to help people understand events from a big picture perspective, instead of seeing events only from their own intimate perspective. The storyteller can help a person get a bird’s eye overview of an event or set of circumstances.
Stories can help people to relate their own predicaments to the perspective of the enterprise.
Stories can be used to achieve these same outcomes in the business world, as well. They tell your employees who you are as a group, and how you differ from others.
They communicate your business idea, from the game plan perspective of how we function as a team, and why, to the perspective of your brand promise---what you offer, and how that makes you different from your competition.
People come to know and expect the integrity of your business idea, and trust that your decisions are made within a well though out context.
Then, in times when you are forced by circumstances to make decisions that may not be obviously aligned with your business idea, your history of integrity, which has been communicated through your stories, can help your people to accept the unusual without undue resistance.
In times of crisis, having been prepared by your stories, they will be primed to follow your leadership without question. Stories can help customers, partners, and allies, as well as your own workforce, to connect with your vision and understand your purpose.
If you look at the things that stories can do for people, you’ll find that they are perfectly aligned with what it takes to develop the warrior spirit (link) within yourself.
Stories are the perfect tool for building these critical components into the heart of your company, too.
This is why this learning system is peppered with stories from Main Street. Stories help you envision yourself in the situations described throughout this work. They help you develop memories of the future, preparing you for what’s to come.
Telling Stories:
It’s amazing the number of stories that family business people have to tell about their business adventures. Their stories run the gamut of human experience. Talk with family business people and you can always count on hearing great stories –laugh together, scratch your heads, or cluck in awe at some of the things you’ll hear.
It’s equally amazing how little storytelling occurs on a day-to-day level in family businesses. People are told what to do, are informed of plans or priorities, are “taught” in off-sites, but seldom through the vehicle of your mental library of the stories unique to your particular experience in your particular business.
Everyone’s A Storyteller:
All people tell stories. They tell them everyday. They often think in terms of stories. Our daydreams are often snatches of stories, if not complete stories, of what we’d like to have happen. How good you are at storytelling has a lot to do with how much interest you have in doing it well.
Like everything else, you won’t be a good storyteller until you begin to see yourself as a storyteller. After that, it depends on the time and effort you commit to learning how to do it well. You can use your stories to create the future you want for yourself, your people and your enterprise.
You can see an example of what I mean in the Creating a Family Business History tool. You’ll also find some story references at the end of this section, but look at the guide below to take you through the steps of creating compelling business stories.