How to communicate purpose and values through stories

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Now you want to make sure that this purpose doesn't stay as a buzz word, it doesn't say, abstract you want to know. And you want to make sure that you tell people how you're going to live your purpose.

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alist, and training more than: 1000

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Nowadays, purpose is such a buzzword, we use it in such a abstract way, especially when it's translated in a few words for each organisation, when they're trying to when you're trying to make sure that you have your own purpose spelled out in a particular way. And it so often becomes something that you cannot really touch that you cannot really see.

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So I really want to go back to the meaning of purpose for a second here. So purpose really is, it means the reason why we do something, the reason why something is done. So for instance, I'm thinking about the company created by Rachael Rogers, she is a US based entrepreneur, and she has a company called Halo seven, the purpose of the company is to make sure that black women and people who have historically been marginalised become millionaires. So this is why the company exists. This is why they do what they do.

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Another example that comes to mind, is the conversation that I had with one of my clients in the past two years, they had created a startup, and they really wanted to make sure that they articulate what the startup did and why he did it. And it took us a very long time, because we often make this mistake to focus on what you actually do. But then we, after many conversations, where they come out with was that the purpose of their startup was to make work more agile, more, to make work easier for people. And that was the purpose of the of the startup. And then when the work gets easier, people are happier, the work better, and you know, you're not miserable, as well. But I can think about also my purpose, the purpose of my business, which is to include storytelling, as a company culture. And then if I articulate that, there is a why. And the reason why is that storytelling really brings the emotional part, the authentic part, and the meaning of things. And when we have that meaning, as humans, as employees, as team members, we are happier, we are more fulfilled, we understand why we do what we do, and that helps us. This really leads to a follow up question, why should we care about purpose at all? And in a way even mentioning why I do what I do start to answer this question. So there is a psychological reason we as human beings, it is in our nature, to have a meaning to be fulfilled to know why we are doing what you're what we are doing. And there are several studies that show that when people have a very strong sense of why they do what they do or their purpose they generally have also a better health, both mentally and physically.

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ogist, the book dates back to: 1946

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So as humans, we need purpose as employees, we need purpose, organisations need purpose, and they need to articulate it, because purpose is what leads the ship. So if we are thinking about this board, this vehicle that needs to go somewhere, purpose gives us the reason why needs to go somewhere. And we need that as humans as team members as employees. So let's say that you have your why you have your purpose. Now, you want to make sure that this purpose doesn't stay as a buzz word, it doesn't say, abstract, you want to know, and you want to make sure that you tell people how you're going to live your purpose, which is why you need to articulate your values. So your purpose is your wine. And then your values are your how, how are you going to achieve the purpose? How are you going to achieve the goal.

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And this is something that is usually written for organisations, it's something that it's usually written in the company culture, and I am such a big fan of company culture, I really like to read the documents the memo and how the culture of the company is described, I think that it's really interesting. But one thing that they really miss from the company culture and from them, this written document, is how values really look like in real life. So we have this set of values, these we have these lists of things, we believe in the we have these lists of things that really make up the the culture of the company. But in reality, like when I do join the organisation, how do those values translate? And these are questions that often candidates might have for the HR team. But it's also a question that employees and current team members can have as well. Because it's not something that you assimilated very beginning and then it's done. It's not that you know, the values of the company, and then it's done. It's something that you need to be reminded of, you need constant reminder of what your values look like. And the realise from several conversations that I had with people that sometimes when I say what do they look like? People don't really quite understand. So what I mean, when I say, what do these values look like? Is how do they translate in real life? If we believe in inclusion, if being inclusive is part of our company culture? What does that look like? Does it look like we using gender neutral terms all of the time, like we effortlessly? Does it mean that when we have particular policies, when we when we share questionnaires, or when we hire people, does it mean that we have a parents room? Does it mean that we give parents flexible parental leave, you know, what does it look like? And you want to have those stories told? Because really, the way in which you translate the buzzwords and the abstract words and the culture into practice and into something that people can really see our stories. You obviously need to be strategic in the way you share stories is not

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Just Oh yeah, okay, I'm gonna share stories about inclusion and diversity, I'm going to share a story about how we are accountable for our own actions, I'm going to share stories about how we are independent in our decision making, or I'm going to share stories about how we are open and we listen to each other need doesn't really, really work like that. I mean, it's definitely worth to experiment and start somewhere. But you need some ingredients to be strategic in your storytelling when you want to communicate purpose and values. And some of these ingredients are listening, vulnerability spaces, and storytellers.

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So you need listening skills to share those stories, because you need to listen to those stories first. So you need to source those stories, you need to find the place where those stories are coming from. And there might be several different places, it might be that you have employee resource groups. And you know, you give them an opportunity to share those stories, it might be that you have Instagram channels that tell the story of your employees, it might be that you have simply a conversation with your colleagues. And they share a very interesting story that really shows how the company culture translates in real life, it might be that you have a newsletter, it might be that you have events, internal events, whatever that means you need to be listening to those stories, you need to be sure that you have constant access to the sources of those stories. You also need vulnerability. And this is something that I repeat over and over again, because storytelling, it is is about being vulnerable as well. And it's not the vulnerability in the only in the very emotional sense. Like it's not about just going very deeply into your storytelling, if it is comfortable for you or for any one of your team, that's fine, you can go deeper, and you can be very emotional and whatever feels like safe for you. But vulnerability is also accepting the fact that you might not excel in some areas, and you just want to try out and it's okay to try out. Because your team, you believe in your team, and you believe that they're not going to judge you, they're just going to give you feedback to support you. And to help you to get better as well. So vulnerability, it's also that it's about not having all the answers and admitting that it's about trying it out and not being afraid of failing, because you never really fail, right? You always learn something. So vulnerability is about all of these aspects. It's about being emotional, it's about learning. It's about accepting the fact that you don't have all of the answers as well. And also, sometimes you want to be vulnerable when you ask the questions. So even the fact of asking your colleagues, you know, how do you feel about the company cultures? How do you feel about how we live our purpose, you know, it sometimes takes

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being vulnerable to ask those questions as well.

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So vulnerability is a huge piece of the storytelling puzzle. And it's a presence that we welcome. We want it and we need it. But you also need spaces. Stories are everywhere, within the company, within the conversations within your communication tools that you're really already using. They're everywhere. The fact is that we obviously have

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a day to day work to cover, we have task deadlines, you probably have so much going on. We have hybrid work, we have policies changing, we have frontliners we have hiring new people communicating so much. There is so much going on all of the time that really stopping to search for stories might seem like okay, I'm not doing my job, or this is not what I should be doing right now. So you need dedicated spaces, where you give yourself and your team the chance to source for those stories. Whether it's something that you do once a month, whether it's something that you do once a quarter, which is actually what I would suggest you need those spaces you need a time precisely dedicated to source

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For stories, and it's not just about sourcing for stories, it's also about having those conversations around those stories and having those events linked to storytelling. So whether it's something interesting that you read, whether it's something that you would like to see implemented, whether it's just having a conversation between team members and line managers, or managers, or the CEOs or the C suite leaders, even if it's just the conversation between the different groups in the organisation, that's usually helpful. But then you also need storytellers with if you want to be telling those stories in a strategic way. And I don't mean that you need selected people who are storytellers, although it can be that way. Sometimes, because oftentimes sharing purpose, it's something that probably your internal communication team does, or it's probably something that your HR team does. Or if you have a dedicated people and culture department, that's what they do as well. So they probably are the chief storytellers in the in the team in the organisation. But then there are other storytellers as well. And there are storytellers in the people in the on the front line. They can also be storytellers, if there are people in your comms team, they can also be storytellers. But the thing is that because we have this constant need to fulfil our job, which is normal, we sometimes forget, or we don't create, again, the space to train our storyteller, storyteller is not something storytelling is not something that you just do, I mean, you can start doing it, for sure. But like any kind of art, you need to practice it, you need to do it several times. And you need someone to guide you to understand how you can do it better, where you might have to add something, how you can really focus on your audience how you can go over your fears and really reach the another level. And they do know that this is something that employees need and want. When I did the research for my white paper on how storytelling really can improve employee engagement and external communication. I also asked people, what would I like to see in their organisation in terms of storytelling activities, and there were three things that people mentioned. One, were business storytelling trainings, so the opportunity to learn how to be storytellers. The second one, we're TEDx like events. So events where there will be one person from the team presenting a topic or sharing a particular story, or focusing on one particular issue. And those kinds of events really bring out the vulnerable parts of ourselves, because we really have to be the storytellers embrace that role, and tell the story. So those are fantastic events. And also, so many organisations are doing that as well. And the third thing that people asked were storytelling, leadership coaching, and that's something that they specifically mentioned, when I followed up, they specifically mentioned, because they want the leaders as well, to be able to share the purpose and values in an effective way, but also in an emotional way. So it's, it cannot be the I don't know whether you have watched a TED talk, death by PowerPoint, you know, it cannot happen that can help happen having these PowerPoints with loads of words on it. And this complete emotional detachment when you're telling the when you're sharing the annual report or when you're sharing the new strategies, that that cannot happen, because people will not connect to that will not relate to that. They will not engage with that. And when you don't engage with something, then you're not really motivated in your work as well. And also, when it comes to storytelling, leadership, coaching, it's also about making sure that the leaders communicate in an effective way with their teams. So it's about making sure that they create that framework where they listen, the shared, Inspire, Inspire story, and then they take action. We need those stories, to be reminded of why we do what we do. Your team needs to hear those stories to be reminded of why

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They do what they do, because a team member that has their voice heard, that is inspired is one that is happier is a person who performs better. And it's also person. It's also the kind of person that says, Thank God, it's Monday. Now, does that mean that you have your stories, you have your purpose statement? You have your values, clear. You have your storytellers, you have your listening, you have the spaces, you have the vulnerability, you have all the ingredients, everything is done. Does that mean that it's going to be a smooth, easy, no bump journey? No, it's not. It's obviously always, in all of these something that is really exciting is that things evolve, they change. And change, obviously, is not smooth. But that's good. It means that something is getting better, something is changing for the better. So that's something that we welcome. Also, does it mean that I say, Oh, thank god is Monday and then work is not difficult anymore? Again? No, because as much as you are focused on your purpose, as much as you are happy with your work, that doesn't mean that work will stop from being difficult or from being hard. You know, as Trevor Frankel said, if you're wise, very strong, then you can bear almost any how. So yes, it's going to be difficult. And it could be difficult. And yes, it work doesn't it's not going to become easy peasy. But because you have that strong attachment, that strong, also visual idea of what purpose and values look like in your organisation, you know, why you're doing what you're doing,

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then the difficult part, the tiredness becomes easier, because you know that there is a meaning for that. And that's really the necessary step to take to get to excellence. So now, I want to turn these back to you. I want you to think about what we talked about today and about the purpose about values, how you visualise values for your team. And I want you to let me know to share any takeaways that you had from this conversation. And you can email me directly

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at comes@kabutakapua.com. That's comes at KBUTAKP ua.com. You can also find me on LinkedIn, just search for Beatrice storytelling, I will come out and you can send me a message on LinkedIn or on Twitter. Let me know what does this bring to mind?

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I am Beatrice Ngalula Kabutakapua and you have been listening to thank God, it's Monday. Now it's time to share your key takeaways from this episode. Connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter. And if you haven't yet, subscribe, rate and review this podcast. Thank you for listening

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