“Building the story from the inside” by Daniela Poch

“The more you grow and evolve, the more your story must be in tune with that growth.”

As a leader of an organization, have you ever had the feeling of evolving with great speed? Are you aware of how this situation affects the narrative chain of the organization? Here at StoryMind Inc. we say: The more you grow and evolve, the more your story must be in tune with that growth.

All organizations need a cohesive story that looks towards the future, but that it is anchored in the present.?

This is a common situation that happens in healthy businesses: when the capacity of growth outshines the capacity to update a company narrative; as a part of an internal strategy. This situation, if not addressed, can lead to misunderstanding and lack of alignment both inside and outside the organization.?

At the beginning, as leaders, managers, directors, we may think that the story is going to naturally re-compose itself. But no, it won’t.?

Over time, a lack of aligning the story with the evolution of the business begins to shake the very foundations of the company, and puts at risk the sense of inclusion of the employees.

Maybe this sounds familiar to you.

Let’s look at this situation using the real case of a client. The name of the company will not be mentioned.

The scenario is a biotech company, pioneering new AI tools. They started as a small group of engineers envisioning a better healthcare system, one in which medical imaging became AI-empowered to allow doctors greater decision-making capacity.

Imagine now that this small group of professionals with their small company began to have a healthy series of investment rounds and rapid success. Money in, recognition, hiring, growing, hiring, welcome aboard!

Until, boom! They are a company of 70 people.?

Now what?

The solution in eleven words: the origin story needed to transition into a matured company story.?

Many people in the team would have to lead important communication scenarios or sales meetings, and they needed a common language and vision regarding their company, products, services, and purpose.

Right after any important organizational change, our narrative chain becomes automatically weaker. So we must work to strengthen it as quickly as possible. The faster you grow, the faster your story must be aligned.

Change can best be understood, collectively, through the process of narrating it. That’s why StoryMind Inc. proposed a two-month team-inclusive project called “Building the story from the inside”.?

Here’s how it went:

The goals were multiple. As a starting point, it was vital to understand the key audiences in order to connect with them — from their perspective and current knowledge. The next step was to clarify the company's unique purpose and build the story of their current and future products and services. Their success had also driven the evolution of their products and services. That meant that they had to rethink and add new angles to their purpose, their offer and the bold company values that were emerging.

Also, they were opening new partnership opportunities with different stakeholders. They urgently needed to find a simple and singular language to make highly technical information accessible to their key audiences.

And, finally, but of the highest importance, there was the mission of anchoring a sense of inclusion with all of the 70 employees in the company through their participation in the shaping of the narrative, and its future use.?

The first part of the program was focused specifically on inclusion.? We built a live lab in which all the employees could participate in the story conception. Here they could make use of their best thinking and analysis — everyone needed to feel heard and seen by the others.?

Picture this in your mind:

You see a large room, chairs and tables in groups of four, there is a rising murmur, guided conversations — and the increasing sense of emotional inclusion. The scenario of collective narrative creation. A full employee experience. 70 people from different nationalities participating in the first steps of a pivotal creative transition.?

All of this, of course, was orchestrated using our method of narrative-creation. With visual tools that allow people to work in small groups. Tools to address strategic questions and give space for thinking and decision-making.

The last part of the creation process involved a selected group of the executive committee from different areas inside the company. They worked using the method and tools of? StoryMind Inc. to build the final narrative, based on what the larger team had established as the foundation. Together with the StoryMind Inc. facilitators, they built a new company narrative.

The wonderful story they created contained inviting content about their purpose, their products, their vision of the future, and a clear definition of the kind of interconnection they offered to support new partnerships with their unique technology.?

The response was quite emotional when everyone listened to the final narrative. It was clear that the employees felt that they had truly participated in the creation of a powerful company story that was meaningful to their own work and purpose.

At StoryMind Inc. the title of “building the story from the inside” made perfect sense, and became a unifying spirit.?

It was crucial for the emotional and intellectual involvement of the whole team, and also to make the implementation of the narrative outside the organization easier and more fluid.

This case is a wonderful example of how a company can become story-driven. Any organization can get to their own story strategy, which then leads to a rich interconnectivity between internal and external communication.?Shared meaning.

Perhaps this moment has arrived for you.

Written by Daniela Poch

StoryMind Inc. team

Creator of the series: The ways narrative and story-creation can serve your organization