What are the most successful storytelling campaigns for driving culture change?

Storytelling has been from all times. It is still here because it works over many generations. It is easier to align people behind a vision through a story than to give them dry objectives. A story gives them something they can believe in.

People relate to storytelling because it typically involves an arc of a problem, solution, and resolution - we all seek resolution in life - known as the Zeignark effect - it gives us a sense of pleasure to know we or others have accomplished something. Stories give us that opportunity to fully feel the content, and thus increases our chances of recollecting the information later.

Stories possess a unique capacity to distill intricate and abstract concepts into relatable, comprehensible narratives. They serve as a bridge between complexity and clarity, appealing simultaneously to logic and emotion. As a visionary architect, integrating narrative intelligence into your strategic approach can be transformative.

Sir Davos in Game of Thrones says “Everyone man is fascinated by a story” Stories are usually so relatable because they tap into fundamental aspects of the human experience. Narratives often revolve around day to day themes like love, loss, overcoming challenges, and personal growth. When people listen to stories, they can connect emotionally and empathize with the characters and situations presented. This emotional engagement makes the experience of story telling resonate with individuals on a personal level.Hence stories not only makes us think but generally also spurs us into actions!

Storytelling is a powerful tool that can be used to drive culture change. When done effectively, stories can help to: Highlight desired behaviors and values. By sharing stories of employees who embody the desired culture, organizations can help to reinforce these behaviors and make them the norm. Build emotional connections. Stories can evoke emotions and make the desired culture more tangible and relatable to employees. Create a sense of community and belonging. When employees share their own stories, it can help them to feel more connected to each other and to the organization as a whole.

Crafting narratives that catalyze cultural change is an art that hinges on four pivotal elements: audience, purpose, structure, and delivery. Delve into these elements with precision, and you pave the way for stories that not only resonate but also guide your organizational evolution.

To create and write really good stories that help change the way people think and act start by thinking about your audience - what do they like and what might they resonate with. Then, decide the key message or moral of your story - what is it that you want people to think, feel or do? Now the fun begins. Take time to reflect on your own experiences, or stories you have heard before. Ask yourself, “What story best conveys my key message or moral?” When you’re writing your story, start by setting the scene, add detail so people can create a picture in their mind. Ensure your story builds to a high point at the third quarter. Then, link and close your story with the key message or moral.

There is no magic formula in creating a suitable story. In fact, they are everywhere!! The story must present and make feel “My part in its success”. A good metaphor in the story will bridge from the fantasy to reality of the life. A good story should make reflect with optimism in dealing with the problem. In my opinion presenting the personal experiences has a great impact if “the story finds them”. I also fell, stories with humor are very potent, positive, evoke enjoyable emotions and if it aids the learning process can create a positive emotional climate. Finally, a well-crafted story presented truthfully (success and failure ones) is found to be a very powerful way in helping people to visualize future for themselves or to their team.

Storytelling is still transgenerational today- it appeals to multi-age audiences. To craft an effective storytelling, it should be involved in educating and the transfer of cumulative wisdom. An effective story telling should be compatible with the organizational behavior, counselling and should be therapeutic in nature. To get the ultimate impact, an effective storytelling should address the cultural change. Should help in learning process in identifying a pattern maker or pattern detector. Finally in my opinion, stories by themselves are nether positive or negative- it depends on how they are used and for what “purpose” and “intended outcomes” (including emotions and understanding the patterns or “Perceptual map” of individual or team.

I started with the "Hero's Journey" framework. I highly recommend it. I also listened to breakdowns of TED Talks and how they all follow a similar storytelling pattern. Storytelling techniques are all around us. You need to look intentionally.

Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth is arguably the most successful story telling campaign against climate change. He argued the case for climate change not just with scientific data but also personalising the tragedies that resulted from climate change.

There are a lot of amazing indie brands that do great story-telling campaigns. Sadly, they often get neglected and less heard of because all the media attention goes to companies which has big budgets. One of the most successful campaign my team has worked on was for lottie london in celebration of our Vampire Diaries makeup collection launch ( Halloween 2022). We have partnered with the agency Manifest. Their research showed the insight that Gen Zs do not donate blood. So we launched a campaign called Blood for Beauty where during the month of October anyone could go to any blood centre to donate blood and tag us on social media to receive our new collection for free. Incredible uplift in engagement/following/reach as well as selling out.

To me, the three examples mentioned here are a bit misleading. If the goal of the campaign is to affect millions, then sure. I've learned you can go slow to grow big and fast eventually. All it takes is to recruit another person into the story and get them emotionally invested in culture change. In other words, if you want to change everyONE, you must start with the ONE. When I craft a story, I tell the story to one person. Then I let them take ownership and tell it to one other person their own way. We're not all in advertising so that context changes the techniques greatly. Plus it's way cheaper and easier to experiment.

Few of My Favourite - Dove's "Real Beauty" challenged beauty standards "Jaago Re" by Tata Tea raised social awareness "Daag Achhe Hain" by Surf Excel challenged stereotypes "Touch of Care" by Vicks promoted inclusivity Nike's "Dream Crazy" promoted social justice "Share the Load" by Ariel addressed gender roles Always' "Like a Girl" fought gender stereotypes Coca-Cola's "Share a Coke" fostered personal connections

Real people in a story create a relatability - when the personas are customized to your audience, and story arcs are those that are desired by others, you will be better able to relate your messages. Customize your stories to your audience member's "why's" and desires for their own individual forms of success, and you will have a greater chance of communicating your message effectively.

The most crucial advice is simple clarity. It's the simplest and clear stories that take root the fastest. I learned this by watching Netflix. My wife and I, being Korean, like to watch Korean shows. However, she is an immigrant and I was born in Canada. She is already immersed in Korean culture, where I'm still learning. So, the shows I like are simple. Then they draw me into a deeper narrative. Whereas she can just go straight there. So, I keep things simple and make sure it's clear. I seek clarity by getting feedback.

For thousands of years, people have been passing on their knowledge and skills to others using storytelling. Accepted, valued, tried, and tested means of passing on knowledge, skills, and wisdom to other people. In my personal experience, I have grown using storytelling to influence the personal and org changes. Helps leaders in managing issues such as trust, empowerment, intuitions etc., Storytelling as a medium is a cost-effective method of learning, use people capabilities, correct unsatisfactory performance, envisioning and goal setting, reframing a situation, building self-esteem, stimulate thinking and problem solving. Storytelling raises the bar of Emotional and Spiritual Intelligence, people’s values and beliefs. Great mgt tool !!

As we craft our stories to inspire specific actions, it's important to ensure that a clear measurement framework is set-up in advance. My advice would be to ask yourself before launching a story: 'How would I define the success?'. It might sound very obvious, however quite often teams and organizations are so focused on what needs to be done that they totally forget about setting specific thresholds for measuring success. After it's clearly defined how the success looks like, leaders need to incorporate this definition in the original story. It will allow to achieve strong transparency and trust within teams and on a broader organizational level.

One time, I sat with Dr. Edgar Schein and listened to him take questions about organizational culture. Whenever someone asked, "How do we change our culture," he would respond, "What problem are you trying to solve?" It was profound. Because I realized that measuring culture change is easy if you have a problem that you can measure. In other words, all culture change must lead to achieving strategic objectives. For example, if the sales team is not selling enough, you can measure it. Then, you can find the story, the narrative, within that culture that is undermining the results of the objective. Then, it's a matter of changing that story and measuring the results in sales as the story changes the culture.

nice tips for creating effective stories. In my experience, the most effective stories (that lead to new ways of seeing and, most importantly, ACTION) are those that leaders and their people create themselves.

I agree you need to measure/Devine goals, collect facts & report on progress - not all occasions equal improvement of results! It’s the transparency of the individual stories that will help people connect- & having employees as ambassadors with their segmented perspectives can drive the vision to cultural change as they bring the story to life!

A few things I've found helpful in dealing with driving culture change comes more from a practical perspective. In answer to point 6 with what else to consider, and point 1 with why story telling matters: Here's some often overlooked points. 1. Consider the varied cultural backgrounds, diversity and inter generational mix of your team. 2. Train, teach and promote the values, vision and mission of your organisation and align it with their values. If it doesn't align with their own values etc, and they're not engaged with it then they're probably not a good fit. 3. Each one of your team member will have a story of their own to share. Encourage this and take notes of how that can be implemented in driving the organisational change.

The most successful storytelling campaigns that drive Culture Change are the ones where a Company’s actions begin to match the story. Where there is concerted effort to transform the DNA and not just the outward facing tale. Where there is focus on implementing new behaviors, patterns, alliances, processes, operations and supply chains that reflect the storytelling, that embrace and exemplify the culture desired.