Bedtime Stories For Your Organization
Organizational Stories Enhance Cultural Change and Create
Understanding of Values
Summary:
We have all watched the nightly
news and seen extraordinary people profiled. Laughing or
crying as their stories unfold, we take a look at
ourselves and wonder what we could do to improve our
world. These "triumphs of the human spirit" motivate
people to change the way they live and positively impact
the world around them. The same can happen in
organizations.
Although changing organizational culture presents
many obstacles, Fredricka Joyner believes that the task
can lessen in complexity by shedding light on those
extraordinary people. Storytelling provides a much better
base for new culture growth and old culture
transformation than easily forgotten, confusing
statistics. Instead, the key to change lies in the
stories that go untold everyday. Read on to see what may
help your company in current or future
situations.
“A funny thing happened on the way to
...”
“Perhaps you’ve heard the story of
...”
“Once upon a time a ...”
Storytelling
is as new as the current best-seller and as old as the
stick-figure drawings that decorate cave walls. For
centuries, public speakers have found an anecdote an
antidote for audience ennui. In the nineteenth century,
story lessons in the “McGuffey Readers”
provided a moral compass for a generation of young
Americans. Millions of viewers were recently drawn to
television’s “Survivor” by the
vicarious thrill of watching the personal lottery of a
“real-life story” unfolding.
According to Fredricka Joyner, a specialist in
organizational development, storytelling can be equally
successful in changing the cultural context when
implementing change or new strategic initiatives.
“By culture, I mean the basic assumptions,
the overall values or norms affecting an
organization,” she explains, adding that these
factors are subtly formative, but seldom stated.
“As a company or an institution grows, these
unwritten rules of ‘how we’ve always done
it’ become ingrained to the point of blocking new,
and often necessary, initiatives.”
Organization Effectiveness Coach at the Columbus Regional
Hospital in Columbus, Ind., Joyner earned her Masters in
Organizational Management on the Los Angeles campus of
Antioch College, and the dissertation topic for her Ph.D.
from Cincinnati’s Union Institute focused on
community formation.
Joyner has been with Columbus Regional Hospital
for the past ten years and began her work in the health
field at Cedar Sinai hospital in Los Angeles. Prior to
that, she was first a classroom teacher and then served
with a large utility company.
Changing Organizational Conversations
“In my experience, I have found that
organizational changes often fail not because of an
inherent fault in the program per se, but because new
ways are being introduced into a culture that is not
sufficiently supportive. If you want to change the
culture to support strategic work, the organizational
conversation—its basic assumptions and group
attitudes—may need to be edged into new
directions.”
One of the best tools for influencing attitudinal
change, Joyner stresses, is through storytelling.
“Storytelling is one creative, energizing way to
change earlier conceptions and to introduce new ideas or
information.”
As an example, Joyner tells of an unfortunate
disagreement that occurred between two principal officers
of the regional hospital with which she is
associated.
“The dispute became public knowledge, and
although the incident was quickly resolved, rumors and
misunderstandings not only made the affair out to be more
than it was, but continued to tarnish the
hospital’s image as well.”
In response, Columbus Regional Hospital began to
assemble true stories of exemplary hospital service:
stories of dedicated employees or volunteers, of
continuing staff and community member support.
“We began publication of a series of success
stories with accompanying photos in the local paper, and
each year these are collected into a booklet. The
hospital holds an annual community dinner honoring those
who have been cited and their stories are retold. It is
images such as these,” Joyner points out,
“that shape how we think.”
Creating Legends
“Facts and figures,” she goes on to
say, “are important, but they are seldom
remembered. We can report statistics about hospital
growth or how many newborns arrive each month or year,
and these are momentarily newsworthy, but they’re
seldom remembered. On the other hand, stories about
friends and neighbors tend to become almost
legendary.”
Pointing to one of the most contemporary changes
affecting the context of community culture, Joyner cites
the hospital’s online nursery web site.
“Via the Internet, we show pictures of our
new babies. As a matter of privacy, we use only a
baby’s first name or perhaps the parents’
initials. However, the public response has been
overwhelming. People love baby pictures, and some
viewers, recognizing an infant, even reply on the web,
extending best wishes or offering messages of
congratulation to the proud parents.”
A Wall of History
Another image-building venture at the Indiana
hospital is its history wall.
“Our hospital has grown rapidly,”
Joyner explains. “Not long ago, we had 700
employees; now we have double that number. The original
building was replaced, and the new facility has 325 beds
and expanded out-patient and clinical facilities. Some of
our longtime employees felt unappreciated and passed by
in this evolutionary process of change. So we developed a
history wall in recognition of the hospital’s
service history and its dedicated staff members. We
collected and now display photographs of then and now; we
even have some artifacts from the old building and a few
pieces of its early equipment on view.”
By bringing the past into the present, this
story-telling effort underscores the hospital’s
continuing spirit and longtime community service,”
Joyner adds.
Never Ending Story
If one succeeds in changing cultural attitudes, is
the work completed? Not at all, Joyner replies.
“The organization itself is always changing.
Just think of how ways of doing business and corporate
images have been altered by e-mail and fax and web sites,
for example. Think of company mergers, new locations and
product changes. There are always new stories to be told,
new opportunities to be reported, and new people to be
profiled.
Joyner’s way of doing things as Organization
Effectiveness Coach at Columbus Regional Hospital has
also undergone some changes.
“Currently, I am focusing on leadership
development. In specific programs, I can call upon the
aid of external consultants, depending upon both local
and national expertise. The presence of Cummins
Engineering in Columbus makes it possible to use
top-notch local assistance, and we strive to provide
‘cutting edge’ programs,” Joyner
explains.
“I work on training leaders who carry personal
development training back to their individual groups or
departments,” she adds.
As the mother of four boys, ages 12, 10, 7 and 2,
Fredricka Joyner has also adjusted her own work schedule
as both career professional and homemaker.
“My hospital staff includes an RN clinician
who works on curriculum design, and an office secretary,
so my time is relatively flexible. After my
two-year-old’s birth, I down-shifted to 26 hours
per week. Now, I am again full-time, but I have a work
station in my home.”
In addition to developing meaningful personal stories,
Joyner also recommends examples that can be used as
metaphors effecting a change in culture.
“It has been said that ‘Culture trumps
strategy every time,’” Joyner recalls. In
that case, an appropriate metaphor would seem a suitable
conclusion. As Fredricka Joyner says metaphorically:
“Before planting a field, the ground may have to be
turned and fertilized. When trying to plant the ideas of
new initiatives, first make sure that the soil of
organizational conversation has been
well-tilled.”
Issue Highlight -
Remembering What Matters
