266 Part IV: Using Words to Entrance
✓ Give the listener the benefit of the company’s wisdom
✓ Help teams to evaluate options and make decisions
Stories engage people more fully, which is why customer examples,
testimonials, and case studies work so well to reinforce a business message.
They’re so much more powerful than a pure product promotion.
In many businesses, stories develop about the history of the birth of the
company, which keep people in touch with the fundamental values. During
our early days working at Hewlett-Packard (HP), all the employees connected
with the story of how Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started out in a
Californian garage, the struggles for survival on the way to success in Palo
Alto, and their continual dedication to the core principles that were written
down and related to all 100,000 employees as The HP Way.
Corporate tales such as these engage people and align them to a common
sense of purpose. They help to retain the same sense of teamwork and unity
of a smaller business even as an organisation grows into a corporate giant.
In HP, employees respected the founders because they were able to identify
with two fellow human beings who became renowned corporate leaders
thanks to their skills, grit, and determination. They felt that Bill and Dave
continued to value people as well as business performance in a way that was
outstanding in the demanding ‘hire and fire’ world of business culture.
We remember one ex-CEO, Lew Platt, speaking at an HP Women’s Conference
and telling the story of bringing up his children as a single parent after his
wife died. He talked about the worry of getting a phone call telling him that
his child was sick just as he was going into an important business negotiation.
Lew knew how to connect with the heart of an audience by speaking from his
own experience.
Storytelling isn’t a skill to confine to business leaders. At work, you can begin
to develop your own stories as a tool for getting your message across to
colleagues and clients as well as to your bosses. But don’t make your stories
long-winded or amazingly elaborate. You may begin by noting some of your
successes or interesting experiences and building them into a relevant
anecdote to pull out of the bag at the appropriate moment.
Stories from your own experience can dramatically enliven an explanation of
a dry subject such as customer service, quality control, software programs,
or safety procedures.
In a similar vein, if you want to influence customers to buy your product or
make the right decision, they’re more likely to listen to you when you tell
them how another customer solved a similar problem. This less forthright
approach can be more effective than putting forward a direct opinion on
what you want them to do.
