Driving Change? Managing Uncertainty? Negotiating? Stories Matter.

Numbers are not enough

Change

Change is hard, and no amount of financial KPIs will ease the pain of having to do things differently. Same when you want to supercharge growth in your company.

Imagine, as a CEO, you find your company suddenly facing significant headwinds in the market. You can’t spend more, but you need your people to step up and redouble efforts.

You can write a memo or give a speech where you outline the x% increase in costs, and the number of new serious competitors eating into your market share, the y% increase in the cost of raw materials, how that’s impacting the business, how much smaller the profit margins will be, how you can’t afford to hire new people and pay more; and show them if they only increased production by z% that would save all the jobs, and keep shareholders happy, and now everyone go and work harder.

I’d guess if you were on the receiving end of this message, you wouldn’t be very happy or particularly motivated. You might even get a bit upset, worried – but not motivated to work more. Maybe motivated to look for a new job.

Even if you understood exactly what the numbers all mean, that wouldn’t make you change your working habits to increase output or put more effort in. You’d feel like a small cog; another number.

Now, let’s do it differently. You are the CEO and an effective communicator at that.

Let’s say as a CEO, you highlight some key numbers, the new competitors or the increasing cost of raw materials, but you also tell the story of the company. Not just what it was but what it can be. Then you, the CEO, highlight how everyone is a key part of the whole business, and you all need everyone on the team to commit to looking for ways to improve efficiencies. Then you end by highlighting how you are all in this together and everyone needs to play their part to ensure the company survives, even thrives. (And let’s assume you, as the CEO, sound genuine and there is enough trust built up previously that people don’t discount your words immediately.) Perhaps you can also demonstrate how your focus has to shift to make it all happen. (i.e. you are modelling change yourself. But that’s another discussion.)

What did this CEO do differently?

This CEO created a story. A story of the business as a community where everyone’s contribution is important. Where they all have a role to play. People do more for a community they feel a part of than for a transactional relationship. By creating the story of a community and a joint future, you can get what no amount of statistics, including % salary increases, can: you make people invested in the future, as it is their own story too.

But the story is key – especially how it explains the present and shows the way to the future. And if your audience has bought into the story, then they will understand those facts and numbers and their impact much faster.

Employees who need to change their work and take on more under more uncertainty will struggle, will often be demotivated, and some will leave. Employees who are invested in a joint future will more likely look for solutions to problems and accept changes.

Negotiation

The same can work