Given what I’m about to write, this blog should be a hero story about a frustrated exec who uses storytelling to transform disinterested employees into faithful followers….

Maybe next time.

For now, what I will say is that THE common thread we’re hearing across clients and industries is an interest in learning to tell stories. The secret is out. Something that we’ve known intrinsically from the power of children’s stories and our ability to pass stories over generations is getting the enthusiastic attention of psychology and neuroscience researchers.

The gist of what brain science is telling us is that stories are the most powerful way to change attitudes, motivate, influence, connect with and inspire people.  And this is what has leaders listening.

• But what is it about stories and business?
• Why did 3M ban bullet points in favor of strategic narrative?
• Why are top business schools incorporating story into their curriculum?
• Why does story have the unique power to persuade and motivate?

To put it simply, it’s how we’re wired. When we’re presented with a list of bullet points, our brain activates its language processing capacity- where words take on meaning. And that’s great. But when we hear a story, we relate it to our existing experiences. The frontal cortex, responsible for experiencing emotions, is activated as if we were actually IN the story- tasting the waffles, feeling the panic of an unprepared presentation.  Likely for this reason, studies show that people accept ideas more readily when their minds are in story vs. analytical mode. Uri Hasson at Princeton and Paul Zak at Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center are both doing exciting work in the space.

So what does this mean for leaders? Stories motivate and inspire staff because they “bring brains together” in a way, something narratologists refer to as transportation. The brains of storyteller and listener(s) synchronize in the moment a story is being told. I’m reminded of how getStoried storytelling guru and gothamCulture friend, Michael Margolis, describes the “invisible lines of connection” that stories create between people.

Think of a leader who is trying to help her organization be more risk tolerant. The most effective way to motivate risk-taking behavior is through story – a time she took a risk, the fears she had, how she created something new, and the reward she reaped. This is the difference between getting people to do what you want and getting people to want what you want.

Not to mention that culture IS the stories that we tell. Stories and culture are inextricably linked. To initiate culture change, leaders need to change the stories they tell – and this refers no less to the stories we tell in passing in the hall as it does company-wide briefs.  As deeply embedded as stories are in our history, it’s no surprise leaders are anxious to harness the power of story for positive organizational change. And we at gothamCulture are excited to be involved.

Focus Groups are a key component of an OD consultant’s world. The term might conjure up images of marketing research studies with tables of lively customers discussing a new soda flavor. In our world, where we use them to gather qualitative insights into organizations, they tend to look a little different. Whether I’m assessing an organization’s culture or examining a particular issue, I consistently find that:

1. People need a designated space and time to talk (though they may not have realized it);
2. No matter the problem, it’s someone else’s fault (though that person just happens to not be in the room); and
3. People. Are. Frustrated.

I’ve worked with organizations where things were going well, the campers were happy and the future looked bright, and people were STILL frustrated.  There’s something about a conference room with a closed door and guarantee of confidentiality that opens the flood gates of workplace melancholy.

But I’m not complaining.  A client recently reminded me of something I learned in graduate school: negativity isn’t a bad thing for an organization, but apathy is.  As leaders you’d rather have a workforce that is ferociously pissed off over one that couldn’t care less. Negativity shows interest, energy and ultimately investment in making the organization great.

The trick, however, is pivoting that negative energy into positive change. A few thoughts from an OD perspective:

• Avoid getting defensive by focusing on deep listening. Common reactions to staff feedback range from “That can’t possibly be about us!” to “Who said that?!” to just general hurt feelings. These reactions are very understandable but not constructive.  Part of being a good leader is really (like, really) listening to feedback without trying to find ways to prove the data wrong.  Remember there’s something broken in the system…not necessarily with you as a leader.
• Follow through. There is no missed opportunity greater than not making change in the face of feedback from your people. You owe it to them to, at the very least, demonstrate that you heard them. Negativity can convert to apathy fast if people feel their efforts make things better by raising their voices were wasted. Maybe it’s not your style to indulge “complaints”. That’s fine, but your business will suffer for it.
• Involvement. Be open to building the solution to stated problems together as a team.  Make sure the right people are at the table.

I think I’m a pretty nice person but wowza I’ve been yelled at, dumped on and complained to in focus groups. And this is what we do as consultants, and strangely we like it – in fact, we love it and all the challenges it presents.

Ever wonder why grocery stores push customers to use rewards cards?  I became fascinated with this question recently when I received a booklet of coupons in the mail from my local grocery store.  The coupons were tailored to my purchasing habits and even offered decent savings on items that I purchased only once or twice.  Seemed pretty amazing to me, but I wondered how and why they did it.

After doing some research, I realized that rewards cards serve two purposes (1) to drive customer loyalty by offering discounts and (2) to build customer profiles for the store and region.  It’s the second purpose that is the most intriguing.  Essentially grocery stores use purchase information to understand the preferences of their customers; this helps them estimate demand and ensure key products are stocked at each store.  In a way, they can use the data to custom tailor their services to unique demographic groups.

Grocery stores offer an exchange, in return for using your purchase information, they provide in-store discounts and personalized coupons.  Overall, it seems like a pretty fair trade and an excellent way for businesses to understand their customers.  While most grocery stores are part of national chains (which can afford large business intelligence departments), are there similar ways for small businesses (who often have constrained resources) to capture and analyze this information?

Here are four simple ways small businesses can use data to understand (and better serve) their customers.

1. Leverage Web Analytics.  Website traffic is a great way to understand where viewers come from, how they found the website, and what content they are viewing.  This can help identify if there are key areas of interest (possibly a great article or blog post) and how to optimize content for your audience.
2. Reach Out with Social Media.  Pretty much everyone has a social media strategy, but how much analysis is actually going on.  There are a number of platforms to look at trends, popular posts, “likes”, and “shares”.  While these are simple measures, they allow businesses to see what content is most popular.  Businesses can take this a step further with text and network mining to analyze the content, sentiment, influencers, and relationships between the viewers.
3. Dig Deep into Current Clientele.  Examining sales for current clients is the best way to understand demographic trends, product preference, and customer “loyalty.”  For a small business like gothamCulture, this can be easy as looking at where clients come from, what market sector they are apart of, and what type of services they purchase.  By identifying links and connections, businesses can target marketing and project trends.
4. Understand the Competition.  Understanding where the competition’s customers come from and how it uses social media can be a mirror to allow small businesses to differentiate their products and target new customer groups.

By leveraging current sales, potential sales (website traffic, social media, and the competition), and identifying trends and similarities between the two, small businesses can start piecing together profiles for different customer populations, the products and services they may be interested in, and anticipate future market trends.

Each quarter at gothamCulture we get together virtually and have a discussion about the “Book of the Quarter.” We find this to be a productive culture building practice that supports our desire to be a learning organization—an organization that is continually reflecting, sharing ideas and learning from best practices. 

Why do we do this?

1. This ritual encourages us to discuss some of the more foundational works in the field as well as learn about new concepts in the organizational development world. We discuss how the concepts apply not only to our work with clients but also to our work within our own organization.
2. Regularly engaging with new ideas in a structured way also supports our own professional development as individual practitioners. The fact that this time is put aside during a normal workday reinforces the organizational value that professional development is important.
3. Our book discussions are a great opportunity to build relationships with colleaguesin a lower stress environment and learn from each other. This overall contributes to the sense of team within gC.

This quarter we read (and some of us re-read) Ed Schein’s classic Organizational Culture and Leadership. Despite its 450plus pages, it’s a quick read and organized in an accessible way if you want to focus in on a specific area of culture or leadership. It’s full of Schein’s tales from his real life experience with clients. His observations about these organizations invite readers to immediately make parallels with their own organization; His description of specific components of organizational culture is especially helpful when analyzing your own organizational culture.

I asked some of my colleagues to share their favorite key learnings from the book and here’s what they had to say:

• “Culture is ultimately created, embedded, evolved, and ultimately manipulated by leaders.” – Chris Cancialosi, Managing Partner and Founder
• I like what Schein says on defining strategies as opposed to goals: strategy concerns the evolution of an organization’s mission, whereas goals reflect the short-term tactical issues in order to ensure survival. –Dustin Schneider, Associate
• “Organizations hold implicit assumptions about the role of space utilization in getting work accomplished. Where things are located, how they are built, the kind of architecture involved, the decorations encouraged, etc…reflect the deeper values and assumptions held in the larger culture and by the key leaders. …organizations attempt to symbolize important values and assumptions through the design. “ –Katie Papazian, Associate

If you’ve read this OD classic, let us know your biggest takeaway from this book by posting in the comments section!

Next quarter we plan to read The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki so stay tuned.

I’ll have the opportunity on Monday to co-present Improv at one of the Mega Sessions of the 2014 SHRM Annual Conference. (That’s short for Society for Human Resources Management. And Mega, which is – ironically – short for Enormous.) If you are attending, here is the information on our session: http://annual.shrm.org/sessionplanner/session/6122

Improv is a powerful tool for organizational culture because of the skills focus around teamwork, listening, and being “in the moment”!! And as part of experiential learning through providing opportunities to get incredibly disruptive/creative – AND through participation in a transformational, shared experience. The reason this session (or, this type of session, if you are not at SHRM Monday) might be helpful to you as HR professionals? It provides great skill development for leaders…bringing out the best in employees, getting off “the script” and unlocking new perspectives!

As I was preparing for the session, I wanted to make sure I was armed with the best Improv references for attendees and other interested parties. (Say, for instance, I’m stopped on the street and asked for good Improv blog post references. It’s the nature of the business.) My mentor, the man commonly known as Improv Guru, Shawn Westfall, actually wrote one of the most helpful introductory pieces on disruptive improvisation I’ve come across. In it, he answers “Why Improv?” and how it can potentially help organizations. I look forward to sharing the stage with Shawn Monday at SHRM, as part of my close business relationship with BossaNova Consulting and The Get Real Project.

Another great reference I’ll be tuning people to comes from my colleague and the founder of The Get Real Project (hot link: http://www.thegetrealproject.com), Andrea Howe. Co-author of The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook, Andrea writes about improving business, gaining trust, client relationships and the like. One of her Improv posts gets right to the basic steps of our improv skill development.

We hope to deliver a thought-provoking and improvisation-inspiring session and look forward to questions. If you can’t make the session, but have an interest in learning more about the topic and how it can help your corporate culture, follow me on Twitter: @thecarypaul or, follow gothamCulture on LinkedIn.