Are you leveraging business stories that make people think twice?
Business stories provide rich, illustrative palettes upon which to engage people to move forward together. Are you intentionally – or unintentionally – causing people to think twice about their direction, speed, objectives, goals, and purpose?
When business stories catalyze people to think and rethink about the status quo, you focus them on what is new, next, and changing.
Often, business stories enable people to become more empathetic with the project at hand. These stories allow them to discover common denominators within their own experiences. As a result, people buy in to, and comply with, stories where they recognize their own voices. Together, they develop the courage to move one millimeter forward into uncomfortable, unknown, uncertain, and ambiguous spaces.
However, when business stories contain high-level, big-idea information, people may not be able to easily consume what you are saying to them.
Keep in mind that you, yourself, are far more comfortable with the innovations and changes you propose than your colleagues. In fact, some colleagues may never have thought even once about these ideas, let alone twice. Consequently, assume there will be a learning curve when communicating business stories. Otherwise, people may not be able to readily follow along.
Especially when you speak holistically, people anticipate business stories to follow a linear trajectory.
When colleagues do not think (or speak or analyze) in cross-functional and holistic scenarios, their brainpower quickly becomes stretched. As a result, they turn off or tune out. Packing 50 lbs. of how you, yourself, view the world into business stories can be far ahead of where everyone else is operating. Although people initially follow the story, you lose them along the way. Not only are they thinking twice about what you say, they get stuck spinning their re-thinking wheels. As a result, they miss other, perhaps more important, aspects of the story line.
Then again, when your business stories default to conversations solely about specifications, features and benefits, you by-pass your responsibility to create empathetic buy-in.
When there is no empathy in business stories, these become rote, predictable, and sound like everyone else’s. Where is your own courageous buy-in to move one millimeter forward first, even if you showcase your own vulnerability and lack of perfection? Isn’t it time to think twice about how your business stories can become more relevant and valuable to accomplish business outcomes together?
To lead, manage, and follow as you move forward together, one millimeter at a time, adopt, adapt, and apply business stories that make people think twice about the value you deliver to their tables. To learn more about transforming your stories into rich, illustrative, compelling palettes, contact me here!
Need to stop spinning your wheels professionally? Searching for a speaker focused on doing the smallest things with the biggest impact to get you towards what is new and next? Then engage me to present a One Millimeter Mindset ™ program! Delivered virtually or in-person.
I catalyze cross-functional, collaborative, profitable, and sustainable solutions across value silos. | Professional Innovation | Cross Functional Leadership | Complex Problem Solving | Speaker, Consultant, Coach |
Babette Ten Haken’s One Millimeter Mindset™ programs catalyze people who solve problems differently to collaborate more successfully. Become more professionally visible, cross-functionally relevant, and strategically valuable as you create and implement innovative and robust business outcomes together. Babette is a business-oriented STEM professional, qualitative Voice of the Customer facilitator, PMI-certified Wicked Problem Solver, Duke Corporate Education licensed Strategic Agility practitioner, and Six Sigma Green Belt (Quality). Babette is a member of SHRM, PMI, and the National Speakers Association (NSA). Her playbook of cross-functional collaboration, Do YOU Mean Business? is available in soft cover and digital formats on Amazon.com. Contact Babette here. Image source: Adobe Stock.
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