The usual suspects

“If someone appears boring, you’re not asking them the right questions.”

This quote from the latest IC Podcast with Katie Macauley and Chuck Gose really stood out for me. I’ve long said that everyone has a story to tell and often the most extraordinary stories can be found it the most ordinary places, you just have to know where to look.

As internal communicators we need to ask the right questions to draw out the hidden stories that bring our content to life. It’s a skill and one we need to hone.

It also got me thinking about how often we put the time into finding stories or do we simply go the usual suspects inside our organisations? Do we have a personal bias to more extroverted types who are always up for sharing a story? There’s nothing wrong with sharing those people’s stories as long as we aren’t doing it exclusively.

Our more introverted, quieter and unassuming colleagues will all have powerful stories to tell, they might just need a bit of coaxing and the right questions to draw them out. We need to look beyond the obvious and dig a bit deeper to find some of the gems hidden away inside our organisations - and never write someone off as boring.

What do you think? Are internal communicators guilty of this?

This week I blogged for Alive with Ideas for #NationalStorytellingWeek2020 about how to find great stories in your organisation – head over to their blog to have a read.