The Hindu Business Line : The storyteller

It was an ambitious target — one sponsorship per employee. Our aim was to get every staff member to be personally involved in this mammoth fund drive and own up to at least one surgery per person. After all at Rs 1,000 a surgery, it amounted to less than Rs 3 a day. Would we able to do it?"

Vinitha was addressing 45 new recruits at an induction session and narrating a story about a recent fundraiser in her company. The faces in front of her were eager and curious, wanting to learn everything they could about their new employer. Their minds were blank that moment, but the opinion they would soon form would depend on Vinitha and other presenters effectively transmitting their corporate values and culture to the group. In a span of about 30 minutes, the new recruits had to feel the pulse, and taste the passion and energy that helped bind 4,000 staff into one cohesive unit with shared values and a signature corporate culture.

Medha Global Pvt Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of an MNC with its global backoffice in Chennai. Like other large MNCs, the management devises methods of communicating with the staff on core company values, vision and culture. Theme weeks and storytelling are the communication tools used. A theme week is a week dedicated to engaging the staff in a core corporate message through challenging and creative activities, posters, e-mails and presentations.

A zealous steering committee had been working on the blueprint of one such week in October, an unpredictable month in Chennai. As luck would have it, the dreaded happened just two days before the launch of the event. The rain came down relentlessly and the initiative had to be postponed for a couple of weeks. The task force was understandably disappointed — weeks of hard work and meticulous planning had been washed away in a snap. The mood around the lunch table that afternoon was damp.

Looking out the window at the downpour, a similar scene from the past flashed into Vinitha's memory. "It was October 2002," she started to narrate. "The Board members were visiting the offshore facility for the first time. We had drawn up exhaustive minute-by-minute plans and were rehearsing for every eventuality. But two days before the visit, the rain started... like this, in torrents, making us all nervous and apprehensive."

She then told them about the two plans they had drawn up — Master Plan A and Contingency Plan B, the disaster recovery plan. She narrated the events leading up to the big day, the fabrication of the rain-proof tent for the Town Hall, the shopping trip for huge beach umbrellas, the list of umbrella bearers, emergency lights and fuel for the generator sets, stand-by cars, raincoats, one-size-fits-all galoshes, branded spare T- shirts, even emergency medical kits for unforeseen accidents on the slippery floors.

It seemed like they had all contingencies plugged — the road outside the office soon resembled a river. (Some wisecrack even suggested commissioning boats!)

The story must have lasted 10 minutes — it ended with snippets of the Town Hall — the icing on that evening's agenda, their collective prayers to the rain gods and the commitment of several people who had worked tirelessly to ensure that nothing would go wrong on the big day.

The story was real. It detailed a momentous company event, the passionate engagement of staff and their unified effort towards an eminent official visit. It illustrated the spirit of the employees and their `never say die' approach to challenges.

The effect was instantaneous and spontaneous. The group had sat wide-eyed and absorbed during the narration, soaking in the details. Their faces brightened and with renewed spirits they were quickly immersed in drafting a new agenda, which included contingency rain plans.

This team was relatively new to the company, and yet closely bonded, highly engaged and passionate about their company and the Brand. Now what could this attitude be attributed to? Where was this extraordinary passion coming from? Why were they so unusually engaged? Why were they so different from the `average' employee?

Because this team has the advantage of an in-house corporate storyteller who turns every lunch hour into a story hour - a narrative session of inspirational anecdotes. As a member of the start-up leadership team, Vinitha is a privileged chronicler and has been consistently using corporate anecdotes to inspire a sense of belonging in her team.

A compelling story catches the attention of the audience very effectively. Narrative craft can be effectively used in companies to inspire, spark action, build collaborative teams, give employees a vision for the future and transmit core company values to build a strong corporate culture.

Transmitting values and building a culture are daunting management challenges. Management bears the onus of living the corporate values and since staff members are sensitive to inconsistencies between what is being said and done, it has to walk the talk. Leaders cannot moralise like parents or dictate like despots. At best they can only influence staff behaviour; and narrative is an effective strategy for doing this. Posters on bulletin boards, often used by companies, is hardly the most efficient way of transmitting values within a company — the message does not sink in.

A direct one-on-one conversation style of narration using simple language works best for storytelling. An effective storyteller successfully transmits the value of the story to her audience by simply stating facts without volunteering an opinion. Well-told stories excite the imagination of the listener and spark a state of active thinking.

The storyteller should be lively and natural, use gestures, and stay connected with her audience at all times. She has to be passionate, spontaneous and emote with the gathering and live every moment of the narrative as if it were happening for the very first time in front of her eyes. And she has to do this even if she's repeating the story for the hundredth time.

Effective story telling is very much a performance art; practised and perfected in order to be effective, but it also has to look extempore and spontaneous. Vinitha knew all this, but the challenge ahead of her was nevertheless unnerving. The show had begun; her time was slowly ticking and the new recruits were eagerly waiting. It had to be a performance par excellence. Nothing less.

She continued... "The rain clouds were mercifully far away from the city that October morning. The area around the Labour Statue on the Marina Beach was slowly beginning to fill up with people, all sporting specially designed T-shirts and caps. Branded banners were draped on pillars and poles."

Sitting on the dais, Vinitha was overwhelmed by the response from the staff. She glanced at the thousand or more spirited faces in front of her, waiting for the official flag-off of the walkathon. At 8 a.m. the sun came out and the walkathon began in a fantastic show of strength and commitment. As the walkers filed through the finish line, a huge roar broke out and a zillion balloons were freed into the skies in celebration of a fantastic achievement. "Together we had done it and we were proud... " Her voice trailed off.

Vinitha looked at the trainees. They sat spellbound, their eyes transfixed on her, their faces mesmerised. The room was deadly quiet. She left the room. She knew she had touched them; her task was accomplished.

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