A good story well told,…

…though necessary for a stage play, tv show, or movie may be just as important internally for the organizations that are creating them.

And, might even be useful for companies looking to rethink or redesign their operations to keep up with the pace of change.

A well-told story, as defined here, is not so much a narrative from above, or the marketing brand of a company, but the conversations and stories happening throughout an organization.

Processes, work, and outcomes are usually related in some fashion to how people within an organization view the company; and that view comes from the conversations and stories people have about, for example, what is possible and what is not, what can change and what can’t, or who’s in and who’s out, etc.

Since a company is comprised of people, at least for the moment, it’s a platform, or a web so to speak, of conversations and stories. Good stories well told within an organization could therefore be where change can happen and spread.

So, a good story well told can be about an organization’s people and a company’s work as well as about what’s on the stage whether that stage is in a theatre, on a screen, or in the marketplace.

Paying attention to both might be a different way forward not usually considered.

And maybe, ‘good stories well told’ are useful for just about everything we do in life.

Written while listening to Emerson, Lake, and Palmer.

(Thanks to Raymond Chandler of Middle Kingdom Entertainment for the phrase, “Good stories well told.”