Inspiring corporate purpose in 5 steps

Step 1 - It starts with the Why

Most organisations are mainly focused on their strategy, products and services. They use multi-year plans. These are often 'technical' plans in terms of market share and financial considerations. How inspiring are these really? Do they demonstrate a common goal? What could be better than an inspiring dot on the horizon? The nice thing is, a dot on the horizon does not need to be financially substantiated. You don't have to express it in FTEs. While dreaming, you can come up with the dot yourself. Such a story tells itself almost by itself. How inspiring do you think it is for your employees to make the travel plans together with you? That connects us enormously. Everyone works with the same goal and feels part of the whole. Could that make a difference in the success of your organisation? The first question you need to ask yourself is why your organisation is on this earth in the first place. That sounds confrontational, but this courage is rewarded. After all, there is one clear difference between generic organisations and excellent performing organisations. Like everyone else, excellent organisations talk about 'how' and 'what', but they do have the 'why' as their starting point. The 'why' is an ideal image; the dot on or even over the horizon. The reason why everyone does their utmost, in a way that no money can pay. That intrinsic 'why' is the added value of the organisation. It tells about what the organisation wants to mean for consumers, employees, suppliers, stakeholders or, even broader, for society. An inspiring corporate story is the natural result.

Step 2 - No big data, but storify data

Robert McKee, seen worldwide as one of the best storytellers, advises: 'Storify your data'. According to McKee, too many companies rely on Big Data. They see this enormous collection of data as the solution to all their questions and problems. Of course, Big Data offers added value in countless situations. Except where an appeal is made to people's empathic capacity. Big Data does not tell whether something reminds someone of his or her childhood. Big Data does not tell that someone associates a product with the person from whom he received it. Stories can. Companies like Nike and Coca Cola are well aware of that. They recognise the value of Big Data, but combine it with the power of corporate storytelling. So use your data to underpin your corporate story and storytelling to let people experience what this data means.

Step 3 - Core concept and core story

With the 'why' in mind and the dot on the horizon on your retina, it's time to think about the core story, actually the corporate story of your organisation. Your core story or corporate story tells in a clear story why you do what you do. Where you come from and where you are going. What your values and standards are. In this way, it is your strategic compass towards your dot on the horizon. After that, the trick is to distill a storytelling core concept from that story. A narrative concept that will become the guiding principle for all storytelling by and for your organisation.

Step 4 - Align story and behaviour

On paper or digitally, you can express your corporate story beautifully, excitingly and convincingly. Still, if the behaviour of the organisation or the employees is not in line with it, it doesn't really make any headway. Inspiring corporate stories are not the result of a good brainstorming session. Deeds count for more in behaviour and attitude than words. Indeed, corporate stories that only reach consumers through communication and advertising are all too often distrusted. Stories that are reflected in the behaviour or authentic stories of employees are all the more successful.

Step 5 - Different storylines and the common thread

A story only really comes to life when it is told. When new storylines emerge. When new chapters are added continuously. This is no different with your corporate story. A corporate story gets more and more colour and meaning with more and more personal stories from yourself, your customers, employees or even from your suppliers and stakeholders. But are they allowed to do that haphazardly? Corporate storytelling lives on 'freedom', but also requires a certain amount of direction - to prevent the red thread from getting lost in the story. A storytelling implementation plan is a suitable instrument for the internal and external activation of storytelling. This ranges from workshops to digital storytelling. Corporate storytelling focuses on dialogue and interactivity and is therefore ideally suited for connecting people and building a community.

Getting Started

Do you want to start storytelling right now? You can start by taking a look at our websites storytellingpeople.nl, storytellingpeople.com or corporatehistory.com.

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For more than 30 years Storytelling People has been recording corporate stories and bringing them to life with storytelling and community building.

Storytelling makes the abstract corporate story accessible in stories by and for people.

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