Use storytelling to engage and align employees around your strategic plans

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to help organizational and human resource leaders understand how to use storytelling to engage and align their employees around their strategic planning efforts. Design/methodology/approach – This paper lays out four guidelines organizations and human resource leaders can follow to help ensure their employees not only see the outcomes of their strategic planning efforts (e.g. strategic vision, brand positioning, mission, etc.), but also see themselves in those outcomes and, importantly, understand their role in bringing them to life. Findings – Storytelling is the way we most naturally communicate with each other as social and interconnected human beings. And yet, many organizations and organizational leaders never consider this timeless craft of humanity in their strategic planning efforts or recognize the role it can play in engaging and aligning employees around – and ultimately, implementing – the strategic vision and brand positioning that often result from those efforts. Organizations that embed storytelling into their strategic planning efforts effectively tap into their human nature to bring more meaning, focus and productivity not only to their work, but also their workforce. Originality/value – The concept of using storytelling to improve the impact and uptake of a company's strategic planning efforts will benefit organizational leaders and human resource executives who are responsible for the implementation of those plans and the engagement of their employees.