Policies for business improvement
Key Tool For Leadership
When we encounter a complex issue and try to understand it, what we look for is not consistent and reliable facts but a consistent and comprehensible story. When we ask ourselves whether something “makes sense”, the “sense” we seek is not rationality, as scientists and philosophers perceive it, but narrative fidelity.
Does what we are hearing reflect the way we expect humans and the world to behave? Does it hang together? Does it progress as stories should progress? A string of facts, however well attested, will not correct or dislodge a powerful story. The only response it is likely to provoke is indignation: people often angrily deny facts that clash with the narrative “truth” established in their minds. The only thing that can displace a story is a story. Those who tell the stories run the world.
What inspires our employees to say, "I belong here"?
Great companies seek to create a folklore. Stories about the time someone did something that changed everything. And they pass the stories down throughout the years. And companies that seek to be great should do the same.
The first step to creating this kind of folklore is bringing to light great stories of meaningful moments. Companies can publish these stories in newsletters, tell them in town hall and team meetings, and share them at recognition events. They should be communicated during the hiring and onboarding processes so candidates understand the type of work environment they are signing up for and the types of experiences they should seek to create, maintain and enhance.
Hospital in Nature
All hospitals will profess to encouraging their employees to initiate improvements to both employee and patient experiences. In one situation, the staff were tending to a near-death patient who shared that throughout his entire life, he'd felt a spiritual connection to nature, and he didn't want to die in a sterile environment.
The staff decided, against policy, to move the patient and his medical equipment outdoors to a small patio area where he passed away in a peaceful setting in nature. Because their action had broken a hospital ‘safety’ policy, the employees reported their decision and justification to the CEO. In that conversation, they suggested turning the outdoor area into a garden so more patients could have the option that meant so much to one man.
Not only did the CEO like their proposal, but he also celebrated them at the next all-company meeting and committed money from the budget to the garden to make the idea a reality so more dying patients could spend their last moments in a beautiful, sensory-rich environment.
The employees of that hospital are proud to retell the story of when their CEO supported them for the sake of a patient's experience, and contributed money to their idea. They are proud of their garden, which they continue to maintain with care to ensure that it remains a ray of light in an otherwise sterile environment. The CEO believes it has engendered a wider sense of pride in the staff and throughout the hospital.
"Stories are the means by which we navigate the world. They allow us to interpret its complex and contradictory signals. We all possess a narrative instinct; an innate disposition to listen for an account of who we are and where we stand."
"Each time an employee tells the story - to a new hire, to a colleague, to a friend outside the company, or to an audience of peers - they reinforce the company culture and their personal tie to it."