How to talk about your company values so that people listen and take action

Ever feel like you’re just yelling at your audience?

Maybe it is just a dump of information, facts, and details.

Maybe it’s reasons why you are better than your competition. 

Maybe it’s on video, maybe in person, maybe on the phone.

And even you know it isn’t really working. It isn’t really telling your story. 

Back when I was a little nugget of a corporate trainer a national sandwich chain, I was responsible for teaching our values.

And I was always bummed when people when spend a full day in orientation to only not remember the values later on during a test or during on-the-job training.

So I got curious.

And I realized that we were teaching values in a way that made them sound like a dictionary definition. You’ve seen it (and you might be guilty of it in your trainings and even in your client presentations).

We believe in integrity which we define in this way. Or we go above and beyond for our customers.

It wasn’t working.

One night after a new restaurant opening in Chicago, I strolled into the Barnes and Noble down the street.

On the front table I saw Aesop Fables with the story of the tortoise and hare on the cover. You remember “slow and steady wins the race.”

And it clicked — we need to use real stories to talk about our values. We need the stories to help deliver the insight — to make it memorable.

Honestly — we need to story to make it believable to our clients, prospective clients, and employees.

So how can you imbed the lesson of your values inside a real story that highlights your and your team getting it done?

Who do you think does this well?

This post originally appeared on the StoryCraft blog at www.mikeganino.com/blog.