What story (im)mobilizes you and your team?

Remember that first assignment in your first job?

You labored to create the perfect deliverable. The presentation was perfect. The report perfectly researched. The design was truly remarkable.

Or so you thought.

Then your boss, in frustration, took over, completely redoing it and ignoring everything you did.

He turned to you and said decisively, “Here is your first lesson in business. If you want it done right, do it yourself!”

And just like that your whole college tuition felt like a complete waste. Welcome to the real world.

The wrong wisdom to remember

Like millions of others, you committed this piece of wisdom to memory and followed this advice for many years to come.

This cliché advice and many other old stories that you picked up from former bosses shaped your management style and probably frustrated many of your employees. Time has passed, technologies are radically different, but stories persist.

That piece of wisdom, even if it was true, was relevant in its time and place. But somehow, you carry it without question and continue to apply it even if it has already outlived its relevance. You, like the rest of us, become trapped in the story, and overtime embolden it.

Old stories must leave before new ones can enter

At a client’s request I designed a workshop to help executives and managers engage in a future transformation. The CEO requested that we focus the workshop on the skills required to embrace the new direction. Instead, I opted to focus on the past. The workshop focused on what convictions and old stories they needed to let go of in order to let new ones enter.

“I can’t believe I just said that,” one of the participants murmured after responding to a question. “I guess I need to look for another job.” She was afraid of speaking her mind and others agreed with her. Apparently, the story she followed was that the company does not want to hear contrarian opinions. Many participants agreed that this was one of the old stories they needed to let go in order to usher in the new era of transformation.

“How many people do you know who lost their job because they spoke up?” I asked.

Silence.

Not a hand was raised.

“No really,” I insisted.

The answer was no one.

Yet the story was stronger than the reality. And for years people followed the story, not the truth.

Same strategy, different results

If you introduce the same strategy at three competing companies, you will receive very different results. Despite the fact that the objectives and measurements are the same, the scope and speed of execution will be different. One company will rush to execute while their competitor will slow down and execute in small careful measures. The third competitor will be busy discussing how to execute, while never doing anything. Why is that? The answer is the stories that run their performance.

Performance is not driven by facts, numbers, and instructions. It is grown from past company stories. Leaders and companies are often trapped in stories that shape employee performance which hold the organization back from moving forward. If you want to change a company’s direction and performance, you ought to write a new story.

Don’t deny the story—author a new one

In my client’s case, with the “don’t speak up—you will get fired” story, a simple denial would not help. The fact was that no one could name a single person let go for speaking up, and yet the story persisted. The antidote to old stories is new stories. You need to dilute the negative impact of old stories with positive new stories that illustrate the new environment you want to foster. The new stories will become the proof point that will produce the permission to perform differently. They will be both the inspiration and the safety net to try something new.

Together with executives from the client’s team, we selected 20 new stories we wanted to author within 90 days that would illustrate the new way of doing business. We combated old stories and convictions by creating new stories that represented the culture and performance we were seeking. The new stories delivered proof that the old stories’ time had ended.

Stories are more impactful than facts

Stories carry a stronger impact than facts because they come attached with emotions. It is amazing to notice how memos are hardly remembered by employees. But stories that are freely shared with a great level of details have impact. The reason is quite simple—stories are human. The emotional aspect of the stories creates a stronger stickiness and a sense of inspiration (or sometimes, unfortunately, desperation).

Authoring your story is the process of converting experience into future strength and resilience. In a leadership setting, the right stories illustrate the values that should lead the decisions and the team’s performance. If you wish for your team to elevate their performance, start by examining what story they are trapped in. What stories pave their performance patterns. Don’t belittle their stories or deny them. These stories were part of their behaviors for years. Respect them and then offer an alternative story you can create together. A story they will be proud of, rather than fear.

Lior Arussy is the chairman and cofounder of ImprintCX. and author of the upcoming book Dare to Author!