Transformational Storytelling: Building Inclusive Cultures That Promote Purpose and Belonging

The world, and people’s awareness of themselves in it, is changing at a rapid clip, yet many organizations still adhere to an outdated model of culture based on traditional economic logic. This logic assumes that employees act purely out of self interest and incentivises performance based largely on salary and bonuses.

More and more, this no longer works. Especially with younger team members.

The mismatch between employee values and organizational culture results in disengagement. Employees may get stuck in a rut, show decreased motivation, develop tense relationships, and stop performing at their potential.

Conventional responses such as, on the one hand, team building retreats, happy hours, and perks become less effective. As do, on the other hand, tighter oversight and control.

So What Do We Do?
By connecting people with a higher sense of purpose, a feeling of belonging, and cultivating strong interpersonal connection, organizations can inspire their people to bring greater energy, creativity, and dedication to their work. The type of ‘higher purpose’ necessary is separate from economic exchanges or financial bottom lines. Rather, it is aspirational, helping each person working within the organization see how their work contributes to a broader goal, mission, or movement.

How Transformational Storytelling Can Help
Story is humanity’s oldest form of communication. Long before we wrote books, our tribes and communities revolved around myths and legends passed down through the generations. Today, our stories contain the DNA of identity, of what we value most, and of our deeper sense of purpose and community.

Transformational Storytelling harnesses the power of storytelling to build, transform, and reinforce a culture that values the voices and unique contributions of all, cultivates strong relationships between people, and helps build engaged, productive, and creative teams.

Conventional storytelling sees ‘story’ as a tactic. A purpose driven communication tool deployed towards a specific outcome such as ‘raising funds’ or ‘convincing someone to take action.’

Transformational Storytelling embraces the process of storytelling to deepen connections, teach and reinforce powerful core values, and transform how people interact with themselves and each other. 
The Transformational Storytelling Process
The Transformational Storytelling Process has three main components:

1. Experiential Workshops ensure that all team members have a shared vocabulary and frame of reference. The focus is on reframing story as the basic building block of culture, building awareness of the information embedded in our personal and communal stories, and highlighting the values built and reinforced through the process of storytelling.
   
   These workshops also build knowledge and competence around storytelling skills and concepts such as powerful structure, identifying key audiences, the different types of leadership stories, and how to find and shape stories.
   

1. Story and Communication Coaching helps leaders and managers explore their own stories while building on the skills, values, and strategies introduced in experiential workshops. Coaching also presents the opportunity to address concerns, challenges, and opportunities specific to the individual and their team.
   

1. A Community of Practice is necessary to build, maintain, and evolve an inclusive and purpose-driven culture. Over the course of an engagement, key staff receive training on facilitating storytelling experiences and the organization develops structures to support an ongoing community of practice around the developing, sharing, and processing of community stories.
   

Depending on the specific details of an engagement, these elements may be combined in different ways. Please get in touch to explore how Transformational Storytelling can support your people, your culture, and your work.

​