The Source for Communicators

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August 8th, 2007 Storytelling proves a big hit at Summit

As we finalize the program for this year's Strategic Communication Management Summit in London, I'm reminded of the speakers from last year's event who made a big impact.

One of these was Susan Jackson, head of internal communication at Parcelforce Worldwide, who spoke about how the organization was using storytelling as an engagement technique. Here's a summary of the approach.

Employees losing enthusiasm
Following a prolonged phase of operational restructuring, employees' enthusiasm for the ongoing change effort was waning. Working with The Storytellers, an engagement campaign was designed called "Making The Next Big Difference" to communicate the business plan and stimulate a "call to action".

A StoryMap was created – a simple narrative framework structured into a series of chapters that explained in easy-to-understand language the journey the business was on: where it had got to, the vision for the future, a reminder of its values, what was required to make this work, and the specific priorities they wanted people to focus on, such as improving service and growing profitable revenue.

The StoryMap was brought to life through a comic-book style visual identity, which a diverse audience could easily relate to. The messages were also supported by a series of real-life stories from within the business that gave them meaning, made them relevant to colleagues' daily tasks, explained what success looks and feels like and added an element of human emotion.

The StoryMap was then rolled out across the organization with the help of senior leaders and managers, supported by interactive employee sessions, posters and an employee recognition program.

Find out more about the impressive line-up of speakers at this year's Summit.

See you next week.

Mandy Thatcher
Editor
mandy.thatcher@melcrum.com

P.S. The latest edition of the Melcrum Podcast is ready to download. This week we've got interviews from the recent IABC conference in New Orleans, with Angela Sinickas, Shel Holtz and Roger D'Aprix.

Further reading
And Finally - Unlikely leadership hero? Case studies - Blogging with customers at Southwest And Finally - How do you spend your lunchtime?