4 stories all CIOs should be able to tell

Master storyteller Doug Keeley was one of the keynote speakers at a major national sales meeting a few years ago when he noticed how miserable everyone was feeling. “Morale was terrible,” he recalls. “A new executive took over and her opening remarks were bombastic. Everyone thought this CEO was cold and lacking in empathy.”

Keeley was convinced the only way to turn things around was to bring the CEO back onstage for a more personal chat. So he asked her to talk about a time when she faced a difficult challenge.

“Her story was maybe five minutes long,” says the author of The mark of a leader. “But she could be vulnerable in front of her people. It made it clear to everyone that she also understood what they were feeling. This short story completely changed the mood of the room.”

The founder of Stories rule!Based near Toronto, Keeley has worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies and CXOs, teaching them how to turn storytelling into a strategic business communications tool. “There are three ways people communicate — with claims, with facts, and with stories,” he says. “Claims are statements or opinions. Facts are the numbers, the data. Stories are the telling of an event or a series of events. You connect emotionally with people.”

Executives in some industries — technology, finance, and pharmaceuticals — are most comfortable making claims and sharing facts, Keeley notes. “These companies are very numbers and science based, so communication is more left-brained. What is often missing is any emotional connection.”

After seeing Keeley’s amazing storytelling talent in action at a recent tech leadership conference, I caught up with him to learn about the enduring power of storytelling, how CIOs can hone these skills, and the four types of stories that all IT leaders should be prepared to share.

Maryfran Johnson: What has changed the most about business storytelling in recent years?

Doug Keeley: When I first started speaking in 2004, leadership was the dominant theme and I used stories to speak about it at conferences. Back then, business people thought storytelling was “woo woo” stuff. Their general attitude was: “We have to get numbers! There’s no time for woo woo!’ That has changed significantly today, not only with the impact of Covid, but also with the challenge of attracting and retaining great talent. The leadership challenges surrounding empowering people and communicating effectively have become much more extreme. Storytelling is really about communication. If you are a manager or someone in a leadership position, a crucial part of your job is getting the best out of your people. One of the most powerful skills in this is communication.

How can CIOs make their stories more memorable or impactful?

The most important thing to understand is that all stories are about people. They have emotional resonance because they connect with others. So you’re writing a story about the impact on people, not the technology, the data, or the change. “Change” is just an abstract noun. What is wrong with the people undergoing the change? That’s what you focus on. It could be another IT person you would identify with, or an end customer who goes nuts trying to solve a technical problem. I’m talking about short, 2-3 minute verbal stories here. Not the “hero’s journey” or big OMG stories.

What stories should IT and business leaders tell?

The four main types of stories leaders need to tell are personal stories, customer success stories, employee values-in-action stories, and perspective stories.

• With personal stories, like the example of the CEO going through a difficult time herself, you connect by showing people what you have in common with them.
• Customer Success Stories should be about the people your solution has helped and how it has made things better for them. The big flaw with case studies is that they’re all about companies and nobody cares. By the way, the customer has to be the hero. You are Yoda, not Luke.
• Corporate values ​​are just abstract concepts with no stories attached to them. For CIOs, what are your employees doing to show these values ​​in action? Give examples.
• Perspective stories usually come from outside your organization and you use them to change the way people see things. Illustrate what you are trying to convey so people can visualize it. In any situation where you want to engage, connect, or bring a new vision using data, “don’t just show up and throw out a bunch of numbers”. Add a story about how the numbers affect people.

How do you create and keep track of a mental library of all these types of stories?

We all have stories to tell, but you have to think about them consciously. What happened? How has it changed or influenced who you are today? Get a capture or storage tool like Evernote or OneNote or the free one MemLife app. Write the details of the story in bullet points: where/when/who/what happened? Add details that help you see and feel it. Use strong adjectives and adverbs. Work backwards from the punchline – every story needs a punchline! – then edit and practice telling them. Her goal is to make the listener feel what it’s like to be there.

What other storytelling resources do you recommend?

There is a storytelling community at network.storiesrule.ca. There you will find tons of tips, stories and videos. I’m also licensed as one of about 60 storytellers worldwide to deliver workshops and training programs anecdote.comwhich also shares many great free resources.

This article originally appeared in CIO’s Career Strategist newsletter. Subscribe today!