What's your story?

As I've said, I love a good story. In successful change management, crafting the story is my favorite part. Everything just seems to flow better after the story is down on paper. And it's easy to understand why. Everyone can make sense of change with storytelling.

Creating the change story gives us a relevant and compelling reason, or reasons, why change is needed and reduces the risk of failure before the effort even gets off the starting blocks. The story can be the cornerstone (or boilerplate) for all future communications to support the benefits of the outcomes and explain the "how, who, and why" to those experiencing the change.

Why do I need a compelling story?

Effective change management requires the creation of a change story. But most importantly, that story must mean something to them to become part of the culture. The first step is communicating it to employees and following it up with ongoing touchpoints and involvement. Solicit feedback on how the story lands. Encourage leadership to weave it into their presentations and addresses to employees. This will provide awareness of the change and give employees a reason to connect and engage with milestones, look for ways to share knowledge of the how and reinforce the change to sustain it over time.

A great story creates stability in the face of chaos – giving people the space to imagine the new, the now, and the next normal – to capture the heart and the mind. The hero's journey, the monster's defeat, and good versus evil have been inspiring and teaching us for millennia. Taking the complexity of a stock report and simplifying it to "the bully is taking our lunch money" can resonate with employees with limited financial acumen. "The bad guy is beating us." This begs the question, "How do we win it back?"

A change story can motivate employees to achieve more than they thought possible. To understand the "why" to activate, they need context to explain "how we got here." We need answers to questions like, "Who is this bully?" and "Why does he want our lunch money?" and for urgency, "Why is now the right time to take it back?"

How can I apply this right now?

Start with these questions:

• Why would a customer or end-user care about this change? How does it make the way they work or access information easier?

• What changes will they see from how they do things today, if any? Will they need to do any tasks?

• What resistance might we encounter? How would we answer it with reassurance?

• What is the Definition of Done (Acceptance Criteria)? When will we know we have achieved what we set out to do?

• Explain the outcome of your project to an industry magazine. What makes this cool? Innovative? And how would you demonstrate this to customers or employees?

Stuck on your story? Reach out to me and I can help. Like I said, I love a good story...