When you outsource, instead of insourcing company storytelling, you put yourself in the hands of others. To tell your stories.
Often, the people telling your stories are employees of outside agencies. And these agencies produce lots of marketing and sales oriented materials. For lots of organizations and associations in your industry.
As a result of outsourcing, instead of insourcing your company story, three variables come into play.
First, the individual creating your story may not buy into your company story, at all. Often, these individuals work on deadlines, and not just for you. As a result, they are compensated by quantity of output, rather than quality.
Also, the outsourced author of your story may be telling a business or use case. Not telling a story. Because, more often than not, agency clients are more interested in telling business and use cases to acquire customers and justify stockholder return on investment.
Then, outsourced storytelling materials begin to look, and sound, like everyone else’s stories – including your competitors’. These homogeneous stories fall short in telling your company’s distinct and compelling story.
Insourcing company storytelling begins by leveraging a storytelling culture.
Consider the value of creating a storytelling culture for your organization. When discovering, creating and telling stories, together, becomes part of how everyone works, employee stakeholders feel part of the bigger picture.
In addition, I know of no better way to bridge job titles, pay grades, levels of education and generations than by co-creating stories. Together. A storytelling culture connects what everyone “does” on behalf of better serving each other, and their customers.
After all is said and done, storytelling is about having a conversation: with each other and with your customers. Insourcing company storytelling, by making storytelling a cultural norm, catalyzes improved employee performance and service quality delivery. Because employees understand their role in getting customers to where they need to go.
When that happens, employees oversee the final product when their stories are outsourced to outside agencies, who put the finishing touches on a well-told story. Consequently, the finished product becomes a story your employees are proud to tell. Because they are part of your company’s ongoing story.
What is your company’s story? Is it time to create storytelling culture? Take the next steps.
- Planning your next corporate or association meeting? Engage me to present one of my Storytelling for STEM Professionals and Left Brain Thinkers speaking programs. Contact me here.
- Download my new checklist and worksheet: Six Professional Development Targets to Hit each Month.
- Subscribe to my blog. Share your email address in the red box in the right column of this blog. Never miss another insightful post.
Babette Ten Haken’s One Millimeter Mindset™ Storytelling for STEM Professionals and Left Brain Thinkers speaking programs and workshops are created for organizations and associations, like yours, who want to catalyze employee stakeholder success and customer retention. There is no better way than storytelling to bridge communication disconnects between professional disciplines, pay grades, generations and levels of education. Otherwise, everyone remains very busy, working full time, at only half the capacity of What is Possible. Babette’s programs are forged from her own background as a STEM professional. She continuously facilitated outcomes in teams comprised of both left-brain and right-brain thinkers in new product development, market research and sales. Babette gets everyone to where they need to go. Together!
Find out more about Babette here. Babette is a member of SME, ASQ, SHRM and the National Speakers Association. Her playbook of communication hacks, Do YOU Mean Business? is available on Amazon.com. Babette’s speaker profile is on the espeakers platform. Contact Babette here.
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