Introduction
THE POWER OF STORIES
It was a cold morning when I opened the blinds in my home office and saw that the world outside had been transformed overnight into a blaze of sparkles. As the conditions had been optimal for engendering a hoar frost, every needle of the nearby pine tree was covered in ice crystals. The morning light peeking over the eastern horizon was stunning. I sat down, turned on the computer, and then the phone rang. “Hello. Morning Star Associates,” I answered, “Geery Howe speaking.”
“Oh my God. This is amazing. I got right through to you,” said the woman’s voice on the other end of the line. I smiled at her words because I personally answer the phone about 99% of the time. As I have had a home office since 1986, long before it was popular or a trendy choice in business, when I give people my phone number, it is my personal number. If I don’t answer the phone, the only other person who will answer the phone will be my wife. And she does not take kindly to being called my secretary.
“Good morning.” I responded. “How can I be of service?”
“We have some problems in our company, and I cannot figure out how to solve them,” she replied, before launching into an in-depth explanation. As it turned out, her entire company had recently been broken into teams, and all of these teams were connected to a specific business unit. Nearly all of the business units had written mission statements, which included discussing roles and responsibilities. They had defined external customers and internal customers, had metrics for everything, and the support departments were figuring out how to be supportive. The international office in Dallas had even designated a VP of Teaming, who was supposed to help everyone move through the four stages of the team process: forming, storming, norming, and performing.
“Wow. Sounds impressive,” I commented. “It seems that you’ve read nearly every book on The New York Times Best Seller List and followed up on all the experts’ suggestions and solutions. Congratulations! So how did you happen to call me? I don’t advertise and I live in a small town in rural Iowa, with a population of less than 1,200 people.”
With a big sigh, she responded, “Our new strategy is just not working. We’ve tried everything we can think of, but most employees think our new strategy is just another program. I don’t know what to do next. An executive from another company gave me your name and said you could help. So then, Geery, how do we begin to make our new strategy work?”
“Well for starters,” I responded, “I am sure you have already cut down some trees, if not a whole forest, and flattened them into paper. And then, of course, you’ve printed out a lot of material about this process. So, why don’t you just send me a copy of this material so I can look it over.” She wrote down my address and said she would send me the team leader’s binder ASAP. It was a good first step.
As previously mentioned, I live in rural Iowa. There really is no ASAP delivery method out here in our small town. We do have a United States Post Office, where the mail comes in once a day, usually by 11:30, unless stormy weather delays it. The UPS truck and the FedEx truck make it out where we live sometime in the afternoon. We are not the starting point for their delivery routes. Anyway, the next morning at shortly after 8:00, a FedEx man knocked at the door. I was surprised by his early arrival. He handed me a big package and I asked him, “Are you alright?”
“Yes,” he responded. “This package is getting the special white-glove delivery service. It landed at the Cedar Rapids airport about an hour ago. I don’t know what’s in it, but you are my first delivery of the day. This must be super important.”
I signed for the delivery and he entered a code into his hand-held computer and walked back to his truck. The moment I recognized the sender’s name on the package, I thought to myself, “When this woman said ASAP yesterday, she really meant it.” I walked back through the house to my office and opened the package. I had just taken the binder out of the box when my phone rang.
“I see you have the package,” she said. “So, what do we need to do next?” I think she probably had been hitting refresh on her computer every couple of minutes to make sure I received the package on time.
I smiled and said, “How about giving me a couple of hours to review it all?”
“Do you need two hours or three hours?”
“How about calling me back in two and a half hours? I should be ready to visit by then.”
“Great. I will set the alarm clock right now,” she replied. And I dove into reading the binder.
It just so happens that I have created a fair number of binders in my day. A long time ago, I was a high school history teacher, and later I became a leadership trainer. Therefore, I could see that someone had spent a lot of time and money creating this particular binder. It was definitely impressive, with five tabs and seven colors, and included many graphs and charts. I had a lot of material to review and, in exactly two and a half hours as we had agreed upon, the phone rang. She answered my initial questions in a thoughtful manner and explained the history related to creating the binder. She also spoke a little about how they had rolled it out to the whole company. Then she asked me, “Where do we begin given all this information?”
“Well, the best place to begin will be by sitting down together in person, and visiting with the leadership team.” I had already foreseen this next step.
“Wonderful! How soon can we do this? I have this Thursday or Friday open.”
“My calendar is packed for the next two weeks,” I told her. “However, I have a small window of time open in the week following. We can begin then.” After discussing the details of our first meeting, I worked out my travel plans.
At the appointed time, I spent most of the day traveling. The following morning, after a fairly restful night of hotel sleep, I drove to the company headquarters. Right away I spotted a young man standing outside holding a placard with my name on it. He looked quite cold. I parked quickly and hurried over to him. He was so relieved that I had made it on time. The poor fellow had been standing outside for 30 minutes just in case I might have gotten there early. After I signed in, the young man led me to the conference room where the first meeting of the day was to be held. He asked me if I needed anything and I told him I was good. Just then the door opened and the leadership team walked in.
I have spent many decades in conference rooms. Some are big and some are small. Some have weird decorations and some are designed with an eye to elegance. This one was just normal, with several large chairs situated around a long table. Now, when you have spent as much time as I have in conference rooms, I always check on two things. First, how big are the containers for warm or cold liquids? Some companies have fancy china and others have company mugs. This place had huge, 64-ounce, gas-station-like mugs. Apparently, we were about to imbibe some serious caffeine during this morning meeting. Second, I check out the quantity of the food. Some places have chef-created, tasty hors d’oeuvres on fancy plates. Others have boxes of donuts the size of small tires. This place had more than enough 5”x7” chocolate bars for an entire middle school of preteens.
Once everyone was seated around the table, I opened the discussion by asking a straightforward question. “So, what is really going on here related to your overall change process?”
An hour and a half later, there was finally a pause in the sharing that followed my question. The woman who had hired me turned to me and said, “Wow, a lot of this information I did not know before. What do you think is going on here, Geery?”
“You have three basic problems,” I replied. “First, no one likes what is happening and how it is happening. People are also pretty upset by how difficult this work really is. From my experience, I have learned that if no likes the journey of change or understands what is normal in the journey of change, they then will not like the destination. Second, no one around this table is walking the talk or even talking the talk. One problem is that they do not understand the “new talk.” Therefore, they cannot translate it into meaningful explanations to those they work with, or into action that actually gets something done. Third, no one here understands yet what the destination actually is, let alone the desired results. If this whole process was working, what would it look like? What difference would it make? If the answers cannot be found at the leadership table, then they are not going to take hold throughout the rest of the company.
“Let’s begin by creating some clarity about what you are trying to achieve and what is normal within change. I first want to share a personal story about moving outside my own comfort zone that may help all of you, given the challenges before you. A long time ago, …” And then I shared a story about my moving to Iowa from the East Coast to be a high school history teacher. This simple story further led into a meaningful discussion about real change and how real people move through real change.
One of the challenges of being a leader is that we think our job is to come up with all of the answers. We are supposed to fix every situation and solve every problem. We are to get everything done before we rest. Having worked in the world of leadership and organizational change for several decades, I have learned many important lessons and shared many important lessons learned. Navigating the rich and complex topography of leadership and change has opened my eyes to unique perspectives and experiences.
For example, in the discussion following my story, it become clear that those gathered had focused the most on what needed to get done and had not explained why it needed to be done in the first place, as well as why everyone needed to be involved. Unfortunately, there was a lack of Big Picture thinking. There also was no clear strategic direction for either the company or the change process. People were outside their comfort zones as a result of the changes being made, and without a sense of strategic direction, they ended up feeling lost, while simultaneously trying to protect themselves and their teams from further changes. Additionally, there was commitment without any solid understanding about what was normal. People wanted balance, order, and security -- and they were frustrated when it felt like chaos.
By the end of the day, those around the table realized they needed to become a functioning team who supported one another, before they asked others to become a part of the team. They needed to gain strategic perspective, and they needed to build safety zones for engaging in strategic-level dialogue throughout the company. Only then could they transform their sense of chaos into a challenge. As it turned out, the initial personal story I had shared had opened up the group to a whole new level of sharing.
In my journey through the land of leadership and organizational change, I have come to the conclusion that the best leaders understand two very simple, but not always that easy to fathom, key concepts: First, questions are the language of coaches and strategic planning. Ask better questions and you will figure out how to move through organizational change better. Second, stories are the language of leaders. Share just the right story and you will help yourself and others gain perspective and move forward together. I know this to be true because I have been sharing stories with leaders for many decades. I also share research and statistics when needed, but I have learned something very special about helping others become better leaders. No one remembers all or even a handful of the statistics or the research. However, they will always remember the story and the lesson learned. It can be 10 years, 15 years, or even 20 years later, that someone will come up to me after a training, consultation, or executive coaching session and say, “Remember when you shared that story about moving to Iowa and being outside your comfort zone? I still think about that story and the lessons you learned from that experience.”
I believe the reason why people remember a story more than research or statistics is because we are wired that way. We are built for remembering relationships and stories. Statistics, graphs, charts, and research certainly help, but from my experience, a story is a long-term anchor in the midst of change. It becomes cellular and integrated more quickly than anything else. Therefore, the more I teach, consult, or coach, the more I find myself sharing a story. It builds perspective. It builds understanding. It builds a common ground where we realize that we are all travelers moving through a constantly changing and unfolding landscape.
What follows are the stories I share with others to help them become better leaders in the midst of organizational change. Some are from my own personal journey. Others are stories shared with me. Whatever the source, the lessons learned are powerful. So, let’s begin with the story about my coming to Iowa and being far outside my comfort zone, a normal experience for any leader planning to make change happen in their organization.
What follows are the stories I share with others to help them become better leaders in the midst of organizational change. Some are from my own personal journey. Others are stories shared with me. Whatever the source, the lessons learned are powerful. So, let’s begin with the story about my coming to Iowa and being far outside my comfort zone, a normal experience for any leader planning to make change happen in their organization.
Geery Howe
May 2018
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