Going Beyond Storytelling to StoryMaking. Part 1 - Strategy

(Originally published on businessmindfood.com).

We all love a well told story - and for good reason. For thousands of years, stories have been the means by which human society has tried to make sense of the world around us, pass on knowledge, and entertain ourselves and others.  American author Ursula Le Guin has commented that “there have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.”

Business has - unsurprisingly - been quick to catch on to the power of stories.  For years  now, storytelling techniques have been widely adopted by brands looking to more effectively connect both outwardly with their clients, and inwardly with their employees and internal stakeholders.

However, we believe that fundamental changes in our world today mean that traditional storytelling techniques are no longer as effective as they once were.  Instead business leaders need to embrace a new set of principles that impact everything from how we lead, to how we do strategy, to how we communicate our products and brands.  These are the principles of StoryMaking.

I recently had the exciting opportunity to discuss the subject of StoryMakers at Brandworks University event in Wisconsin, a three day bootcamp for senior marketers organized by Lyndsay, Stone & Briggs.  What follows is the first of three posts which will cover the key points from the presentation.

Understanding Traditional Storytelling

The classic storytelling arch was famously mapped out in The Hero's Journey by American mythologist and writer Joseph Campbell.  Campbell’s exhaustive study of classic stories throughout the ages revealed a number of characteristics that appeared over and over again.  Traditional stories are inherently linear - they have a beginning middle and end.  They focus on a heroic protagonist whose journey generally follows a fairly predictable structure of adventure, obstacles, ordeals, rewards and transformation.  And there is generally a clear divide between the story of the heroic protagonist and the passive listener who observes rather than participate in the story.  Linear, predictable, one-way.  Does this sound like the world we are living in today?  .

Why traditional storytelling is losing its power

Of course not.  We live today in a VUCA world - Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous - where hyper-connectivity - of people, things, information and infrastructure - is becoming the new norm, and increasing at a seemingly exponential rate.  Whilst desktop internet connected 1 billion devices, and mobile internet connected 10 billion, the Internet of Things will connect 100 billion devices within just a few short years - transforming how we work, play and do business.

We are now living in a state of “presentism” - an always-on now, where the priorities of the current moment seem to be everything."

In this hyper-connected VUCA world, timescales are being constantly condensed and feedback loops are becoming shorter and shorter.  As individuals we are under constant threat of what NYU professor Clay Shirky has called “filter failure” - resulting from our attention being constantly divided between moments that happen to be occurring at the same time.  In his book Present Shock, Sociologist and media commentator Douglas Rushkoff reflects on how we are now living in a state of “presentism” - an always-on now, where the priorities of the current moment seem to be everything.

StoryMakers: The Key to Succeeding in a Presentist World

In the age of “now” - where new is already old - it is becoming increasingly apparent that thinking and acting like storytellers is no longer enough.  A new set of  skills, characteristics and mindsets are required to succeed in the "all-at-oneness” of life today.  We characterise those who are equipped to meet these challenges not as storytellers, but StoryMakers.

So what does it mean in practice to be a StoryMaker?  What sets StoryMakers and StoryMaking organisations apart from their storytelling counterparts?  To help answer these questions, we will look in turn at how approaches to three critical organisational functions - strategy, leadership, and marketing - are evolving to stay relevant in this presentist world, showing how storytelling frameworks are giving way to new models of StoryMaking.  This post focuses on strategy, with leadership and marketing to follow.

1)  Strategy & Planning:  StoryMakers have a wide angled lens rather than a crystal ball

If we accept that “the nature of change is changing,” this has a profound impact on the way in which leaders practice strategy and planning.  As previously mentioned, the traditional, old world, storytelling mindset is based on linear narratives, characterised by beginnings, middles and ends.  In this world what was prized was the ability to set out strategies and processes for the long-term.

Today’s StoryMakers, however, recognise that our world is much more messy.  Feedback is instantaneous and constant, our environment is characterised by endless loops and mashups - an ever present assault of simultaneous rather than neat, linear, and self-contained projects.  StoryMakers recognise that trying to predict the future is essentially a waste of time.  Instead they focus on mastering pattern recognition, and identifying what is going on under the radar now, rather than what will be going on five or ten years into the future.  To borrow a phrase from management icon Gary Hamel, they “do not have a crystal ball but a wide angled lens.”

Do Experiments Not Pilots

If life was run by six sigma principles we would still be slime."

For StoryMakers long term strategic planning is dead.  Execution is the new strategy.   StoryMakers act rather than plan their way to a solution.  By operating with a mindset where they are focused on doing “experiments” rather than “pilots” - it means that learning replaces failure when things do not turn out as planned.  Another great line from Gary Hamel is that “if life was run by six sigma principles we would still be slime.”  In other words, experimentation and deviations from the norm are the keys to advancement.  The MIT Media Lab’s Director, Joi Ito, is another powerful advocate of experimentation, reflecting that “it is now usually cheaper to try something than to sit around and try to figure out whether to try something.  The product map is more complex and more expensive to create than trying to figure out as you go.  The compass has replaced the map.”

Fast and roughly right is better than precise and slow."

This all means that StoryMaking companies are experimentational by design, with the creative agility to sense and respond, to test and reflect. These companies have cultures that are open, candid and willing to change.  They champion discovery driven learning and as a result they are adapting continuously.  “Fast and roughly right is better than precise and slow” says former Ford CEO Alan Mulally.  As an example of experimentation in practice, look no further than Amazon, which has embraced the philosophy to such an extent that it has made becoming the world’s biggest laboratory part of its corporate mission.  Whole Foods is another company that also walks the experimentation talk, giving each of its stores a $150,000 innovation budget for it to invest in whatever projects the feel could make a difference on the ground.

Act, Learn, Adapt

Infused with the experimenter’s DNA, StoryMakers and StoryMaking companies are also masters of adaptive planning, willing and able to pivot where necessary.  Think of how Pixar pivoted from technology hardware producer to animated film maker, Starbucks’ move from coffee bean producer to reinventor of the coffee shop experience, or Flickr’s pivot from chat room to photo sharing service.  In encouraging a similar capacity to adapt, experiment and improvise in your organisation, you will find yourselves better equipped to deal with the disruptions that you will inevitably face.

StoryMakers is the theme of this year's WOBI World Business Forums taking place in New York, Madrid, Milan and Mexico City.