When is the last time you updated business stories? You know, the ones you tell to acquire and (I hope) retain clients? And the stories you tell to engage and retain employees?
Are you still using the same business stories, investor pitches, technical use cases or business cases? From Yesterday, which may literally be yesterday?
The stories which you depend upon to show and tell and compel and sell and explain your solution?
This may be news to you. Yesterday’s stories are nowhere close to being either current or relevant. Because your competition for attention, energy and funds happens to be the biggest story on the planet: a virus. And your competition from this virus is not going away any time soon. Really. Seriously. Relevantly.
That is why your updated business stories become mission-critical for future business relevance.
And there is no one else but you to capture, discover, articulate and tell your stories. So instead of waiting around for someone to hand you a story to tell, take a good look around you. Working from home or ignoring the obvious? Wearing a face mask or tempting fate? Doing business like it’s the day before today or facing the reality of what’s going on in your community?
These are the stories employees and clients really need to hear, about the stuff they really need to know. So we get to where we need to go. One millimeter at a time. Together.
You may not consider yourself a very adept storyteller. Or, you may rely on telling stories which worked great yesterday, before the world went sideways. You see, updated business stories extend beyond product and features focus and reach out across our emotional connections.
Because, let’s face it, everyone is in high stress mode now, regardless of whether they manifest it or not. This is the reality of the current and future state of employee experience and customer experience. Even if you are upbeat and motivated, your employees and clients may not be operating at that same energy level. Updating your stories in response to where everyone is at, virtually in most cases, is far more important. More important than continuing to pitch and explain using formats and language that do not even come close to addressing what is front and center in everyone’s brain.
So instead of ignoring or denying who your real business competition is, leverage an arsenal of updated business stories.
And OK. If you have no idea where to begin or how to retool stories or discover new ones, contact me right here. Let’s have a two-hour working meeting. Shhh. I won’t tell your boss or the rest of your team. Just a you-and-me work session. Anyway, it is time to innovate your stories into vibrant, nimble and flexible stories employees and clients can relate to. You know that. I know that too.
The actions you to choose to take today to become business-relevant tomorrow and future forward make all the difference to retaining employees and clients. What are you waiting for? What are the future business stories we can co-create, together?
Babette Ten Haken’s One Millimeter Mindset™ storytelling programs translate across communication disconnects between people and professional disciplines. Build trust as you wrestle with today’s continuously changing, Internet of Things technical, regulatory and professional environments. Optimize strategic business and human capital value in your organizations. Get everyone to where they need to go. Together. One millimeter at a time.
- I have some great tools in my book, Do YOU Mean Business? to help you discover the untold stories you have yet to tell.
Image source: Adobe Stock
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