A Story About Not Having a Story
Here’s the irony: I am writing a post about storytelling, and I cannot for the life of me think of a story to start this post. So, let’s just get to the point.
One of the best ways to communicate with people—and connect them to their work—is through storytelling. People’s feelings about work are only partly about the work itself. It’s also about how they frame their work. Change the frame, and you change the feeling. And nothing changes a frame faster than a story.
Every story has three simple parts:
Normal
Explosion
New Normal
Normal is life as usual. Then comes the explosion—something that changes everything. Finally, the new normal—the world after the change, and what we learned from it.
And please—set your story in a location. “Once upon a time in a conference room,” or “When I was starting out in this business” both work just fine. A setting helps people picture themselves there.
As a manager, your job isn’t just to assign tasks—it’s to create meaning, to help people see how their daily efforts connect to something bigger. Stories work because they do what data can’t.
Stories humanize your message. People connect to people, not data.
Stories make the abstract real. A personal story brings your vision to life.
Stories create emotional impact. Emotion drives decision-making more than logic alone (sorry, spreadsheets).
Next time you’re making a point—don’t just explain it. Tell the story behind it.