Wake Me Up When the Data is Over:
How Organizations Use Stories to Drive Results
Lori L. Silverman, editor
National Storytelling Network, book sponsor
Today’s organizations have myriad challenges – how to engage employees, create value for their customers, and remain competitive in uncertain times. To address these challenges, they are continually looking for new approaches to assist them.
Within the past few years, a timeless approach-storytelling-has started to make its way into the world of business. Why is this? Stories can:
- Captivate people’s interest and makes them more attentive listeners.
- Communicate information faster and make it more believable.
- Make information more memorable and strengthen the accurate recall of key points over time.
- Quickly and successfully convey the meaning of complex concepts.
- Enhance individual and organizational learning.
- Foster creativity and enhances problem solving.
The use of stories can ultimately improve productivity and the bottom line, all without the purchase of expensive processes, equipment, or technology to make it happen.
This book showcases how stories are being applied in over 70 organizations to
address key business issues and manage daily work. Learn from enterprises such
as:
Bristol-Myers, Cele Peterson’s Fashions, Chivas Brothers Ltd.,
City Year, Inc., Hewlett-Packard, Interface, Inc., Kaiser Permanente,
Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Kimpton Hotel and Restaurant Group,
Lands’ End, Levi Strauss & Company, Microsoft Corporation,
Molson Coors Brewing, Lockheed Martin Space Systemes Company, Motorola,
oneVillage Foundation, Procter & Gamble Company, Saatchi & Saatchi,
Shell Exploration & Production Company, U.S. Army,
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Verizon,
California Department of Social Services and more!
Through interviews with 171 leaders from around the world, book chapters cover how story is being used to
- Reinforce founding stories, organizational history and core values.
- Develop strategy and align everyone around it.
- Conduct marketing research and marketing products and services.
- Create brands to be remembered.
- Foster organizational change.
- Engage employees throughout the organization.
- Develop leaders.
- Communicate difficult issues within and outside of the organization.
- Improve customer service.
- Relay financial information and the need for funding.
- Boost project management success.
- Enhance teamwork.
The book also presents insights from those who have conducted research on storytelling in organizations. Interviews with story pioneers demonstrate how to introduce story into an organization. Going beyond how stories are employed in today’s enterprises, the book provides a framework for effectively implementing stories in a variety of organizational capacities. A resource section provides books, articles, and journals that can aid in bringing stories to life.
Who This Book is For
The primary audiences for this book are individuals who are interested in
moving for-profit, not-for-profit and government organizations to a higher
level of performance and enhancing how they personally interact with others
in the workplace. They include:
- Business owners, executives and senior leaders.
- Middle managers and first-line supervisors.
- Members of project teams (cross-functional teams) and self-managed work teams.
- Those working in internal staff functions such as project management, organization development, training and development/corporate universities, human resources, marketing and public relations, corporate communications, etc.
- External consultants in the fields of management/business, organization development, coaching marketing and public relations, career planning, etc.
- Faculty at universities and colleges that provide course on communications, organizational behavior, marketing, public relations, narrative, folklore, and organizational storytelling.
“An easy-to-read, well-organized compilation of stories that
demonstrates their power across a broad spectrum of business needs. Anyone
choosing these techniques as part of their toolkit will appreciate the
insights shared
by the storytellers.”
© ReNual, LLC