by April Karli, Corporate Communications
As I type this I’m waiting for a
tech from our telecommunications company to come fix their service to our home.
I could tell you one story related to my experience with their technology that
might make you think twice before signing up with them. However, I could tell
you another story about their customer service, both over the phone and in
person, that might cause you to come to a different conclusion.
Stories are powerful. They draw us
in, engage our imaginations, and can transmit timeless messages. Recently I’ve
noticed many organizations are harnessing the power of story to help them grow.
Evelyn Clark of Corporate Storytelling
says,"More and more organizations-nonprofits and government agencies as
well as leading businesses-are discovering the power of stories to persuade, to
motivate...to achieve a number of their communication goals."
Another executive who understands the importance of storytelling is David
Armstrong, CEO of Armstrong International. He has authored books and produced
videos and CDs about storytelling. On his blog, Armstrong suggests
steps to creating your own corporate story which include determining a purpose
of the story, thinking of an experience to reflect the purpose, using an
employee’s name and making them the hero, keeping it short and simple, writing
it down, and looking for new stories as time goes by.
How have stories helped your
business? Can you think of a story about someone in your organization and tell
it to us here? We’d love to hear it!
As I read this post, I am also reminded of a PR seminar that I went to earlier this summer where Dave Lieber from the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram newspaper was a speaker. He spoke on the power of storytelling and has recently written a book about this called The High Impact Writer, which can be found on his website's store at http://www.yankeecowboy.com/store. I liked the chapter that he gave away at the seminar as an example on how to formulate a story that people can easily understand.
Posted by: Catherine Brown | July 30, 2008 at 10:02 AM