What does aesthetic storytelling have to do with successful organizational change? A leadership capability perspective
It’s no secret, change is hard. Changing large organizations is nearly impossible. And if our varied experiences in different industries have taught us one thing, it’s how little organizational transformation efforts change over time. Regardless of the change methodology or framework used, it’s pretty much the same. There is a lot of emotionally taxing communication and a tendency to put processes first and people second at best. Various change management models emphasize the importance of work effort and only briefly mention the emotional aspect of successful organizational development. And yet they all emphasize the importance of people in the process and how much “the heart of change” makes the difference between successful and failed organizational transformation. In this article, we recap our findings on organizational change and how aesthetic storytelling plays an essential role in this process.
Aesthetic storytelling focuses on creating beautiful images with words. This type of storytelling often uses poetic devices such as metaphors and similes to create an evocative experience for the reader. Aesthetic experiences evoke emotions and surpass the mind, which is why they’re more effective and memorable. And in organizational transformation, communication is often rational and easy to forget.
So why not start with a story? Let’s look at an organization through the metaphor of a medieval kingdom, since academic literature mentions “champions of change” as an example of a noble endeavor dedicated to an ideological cause. Although Champions of Change play a critical role in both top-down and bottom-up change processes, we focus here on the old-school top-down approach in which rulers drive initial change. As in a kingdom, three essential elements must be in balance for organizational change to succeed: the king (top management), the champions (often middle management), and the peasants (everyone else). If any one of these elements is out of balance, it can cause chaos and disrupt the progress of the transformation.
The Ruler is considered the most important part of the kingdom because it is the role which provides the vision and direction for the organization. For organizational transformation to be successful, top leadership must be on board and committed to change. They must provide clear direction and support middle management in implementing the change. They must provide resources and appoint champions to drive change.
Champions are responsible for carrying out the Ruler’s orders and overseeing day-to-day operations. For organizational change to be successful, middle managers must be willing to make changes and take risks. They must understand the leadership’s vision and work with employees at all levels of the organization to make the change happen. There is a lot of communication here that is exhausting and intense. The better the communication, the clearer the vision, and the clearer it becomes why someone should put in the effort to make the vision a reality, right?
Finally, the peasants are responsible for all the hard work needed to keep things running smoothly in the kingdom. Unless everyone else in the organization is convinced of the changes and willing to do their part, the project is doomed to failure. Often, peasants (or pawns) are seen as the least important, and change is forced upon them. However, it is human nature to resist enforcement, and the best example of this is the behavior of young children who violently protest enforced rules.
Unfortunately, most peasants, like most human beings, also hate change. So it is no surprise that McKinsey’s research on organizational change reports high failure rates. Regardless of which approach is used to measure or define successful organizational change, the core mechanisms are quite similar and focused on achieving change adoption. Any organizational change inevitably alters the prevailing ideology of the organization that employees must embrace. Sometimes change means a new technological improvement in the way things work, and sometimes change means layoffs after a successful merger and acquisition agreement. The stronger the resistance to the new ideology, the greater the likelihood that organizational change will fail.
Change management is not the same as change leadership
So, what can we do about it? Well, we can focus on change champions because they play an essential role in organizational change success. They are the people who enrol peasants into the possibility of creating a new reality and embracing change, instead of enforcing it upon them. Or at least they should be that type of people. Professors Julie Battilana and Tiziana Casciaro clarified how change leaders’ influence over networks of change agents is essential for successful transformation. But how can change cascade? Well, through effective communication with the people affected by the change to encourage them to accept the new way of working.
People who experience organizational change experience a wide range of emotions that are usually intense and promote resistance to change. Some people even compare the experience of organizational change to coping with bereavement, as suggested by Deone Zell. When people are faced with emotionally intense experiences such as organizational change, they seek comfort. Data can be informative, but human contact provides comfort.
Change leaders who are responsive to this proximity-seeking behavior of change recipients develop stronger relationships with them. As a result, a certain bond develops between change recipients and their leaders, who can exert their influence based on the strength of formed attachment. This prosocial way of influencing change adoption differs markedly from coercive approaches that rely on enforcement rather than free will. It is an example of how change leadership and change management can coexist, rather than being opposing philosophies.
Change management is about ensuring that changes are made in a controlled and orderly manner. The goal of change management is to avoid disruption to business operations while ensuring that all necessary changes are made. Key components of change management include planning, communication, training, and execution. In contrast, change leadership is about inspiring others to embrace change. The goal of change leadership is to help organizations move from their current state to their desired future state. Key components of change leadership include developing vision, empowering others, removing obstacles, and creating new norms.
In other words, change management leaves people with a sense of anxiety stemming from ambiguity, which leads to strong resistance to change when coupled with poor change leadership. And the most commonly reported problem, regardless of the change management method used, is effective communication lacking influential power. Effective change leaders are visionaries who can see beyond current challenges and inspire others to follow them into a better future. They are able to reassure anxious people and turn fears into hope. They are good at networking, so they can build strong relationships with stakeholders inside and outside the organization. Finally, they are often excellent communicators who can influence how their vision is perceived.
Influence can be translated into persuasive communication when someone tries to influence your perception of a particular issue. In marketing, effective communication influences your purchase intent by influencing your perception of a product. In organizational change, effective communication influences your willingness to embrace change by influencing your perception of the perceived benefits of that change. And there are lessons to be learned for upselling benefits from aesthetic storytelling in marketing. It’s an almost magical ability to turn product features into a feeling you want to experience, as Nike has done with its Greatness campaign.
So what does aesthetic storytelling actually do?
Here’s the short answer: Aesthetic storytelling activates both hemispheres of the brain in information processing, making information more memorable and relevant to change recipients. Telling stories that evoke emotionally engaging experiences during times of change helps create bonds between the change leader and the change recipients, effectively strengthening change leader’s positive influence.
We know that stories work. It is one of the oldest techniques known to mankind for building relationships and bringing about change. Storytelling can connect us emotionally with others, inspire them to act, and motivate them to change their behavior. When you tell a story, you engage the listener at a deeper level than when you tell them facts. This keeps the listener’s attention and allows you to communicate your message more effectively. A good storyteller can paint a picture with words that allows the listener to see what is being said clearly in their mind’s eye. This can help listeners understand complex concepts or ideas better than if they are only told about them in theoretical form. And the more this artistic dimension is explored in a story, the stronger the aesthetic experience of the story.
Aesthetic experiences represent felt meaning. They go beyond the purely functional, are subject to human sensory interpretation, and can be triggered by different formats. They are experiences that are enjoyed for their own sake and evoke feelings of pleasure, beauty, or awe, from viewing a painting to enjoying fine food to listening to a stand-up comedy routine. Aesthetic experiences are subject to interpretation and projection of personal experience to give them meaning.
Aesthetic stories involve the appreciation of beauty. They can be perceptual, emotional, cognitive, or spiritual. In other words, they may involve the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Stories that use artistic language to present interesting images and are written in a particular way can evoke aesthetic experiences in listeners by triggering activation of both hemispheres of the brain. Presenting benefits from proposed organisational changes in a way that elicits emotional responses.
The power of stories during organizational change
Stories are about transformation. They depict a protagonist facing adversity on the way to his goal. They lead the listener or reader from a position of knowing nothing about the content to understanding it. The typical Shakespearean structure in three acts resembles the transformation of life, in which the character embarks on a journey, encounters various challenges, and finally arrives at a solution in the third act. Stories teach us something new about a human experience because they are written or told by people who have experienced a unique perspective on life. Stories of underdogs tend to be particularly inspiring in helping us think about how to overcome adversity. They have the power to inspire people to act and motivate them to change their behavior.
The problem with change management is the lack of choice, where employees have a minimum of options and are forced to change. This adds to the natural fear of change that is inherent in all people. People experiencing organizational change are faced with a choice: are they for change or against change. In either case, their decision affects their ideological positioning, which in turn affects their social identity and the way they classify themselves.
This decision has consequences because the individual now belongs to a group of like-minded people who are either for or against change. And expressing one’s ideological social identification triggers a reaction in the eyes of the opposing group, making collaboration more difficult and complex. Sometimes these disagreements are emotionally taxing and lead to high tensions and increased stress response. This is where change leaders are expected to step in and provide support to change recipients by helping to influence change-friendly attitudes.
Adapting to a new workplace is an emotionally taxing process. Whether it’s a new work routine, different reporting lines or the absence of familiar faces, organizational change requires individuals to leave behind previous experiences and, with them, part of their personal identity. And what change managers often overlook: New skills and adapting to a new work environment lead to an adjustment of personal identity before people adjust their social identity. Therefore, it is important to address how change recipients perceive the threats and benefits of change and highlight how such benefits can help manage perceived threats. Sometimes these threats are a threat to an individual’s sense of self-worth and their ability to learn how to adapt to new circumstances.
In this case, fear becomes hope. Great storytellers are able to turn the strong feeling of fear into an even stronger feeling of hope. Rather than using fear to gain control and force adoption of change, a more humane approach to organizational change is to inspire hope. Stories that create esthetic experiences enable information processing in both hemispheres of the brain that goes beyond purely rational perception, so that the benefits of proposed change over perceived threats are more easily remembered through metaphor. Thus, aesthetic storytelling thus promotes early adoption by influencing attitudes toward change, and true champions are able to transform fear of the threats posed by organizational change into hope for future benefits.
Emotion precedes cognition. Aesthetic storytelling can also play a role in promoting change within an organization. Used correctly, it can help employees understand why change is happening and how it can contribute to the success of the organization. It evokes emotion through the use of images, symbols, metaphors and other design elements to tell a story that appeals to emotions and inspires people to take action. It is often used to convey a message or story about an organization or its mission/vision. But change leadership does not harness the power of aesthetic storytelling alone. Storytelling is an essential tool for building a bond between a leader and their followers. When a leader tells stories to his or her followers, it helps create a bond between them and allows followers to develop a sense of belonging to a team or group.
There are many ways that storytelling can be used to build a bond between a leader and respective change recipients. Some of the most important ways are:
- Helping leaders understand the recipients of change: Listening to stories allows change recipients to express themselves. In this way, leaders can better understand what motivates the change recipients, what problems they face, and how they respond to them. This information can then be used by the change leader to improve communication with their followers and influence their attitudes toward common goals.
- Creating a connection between the change leader and the change recipients: Storytelling allows leaders to share personal moments with change recipients and create a bond between them. The shared experiences created through storytelling help followers feel more connected to their leader, leading to greater loyalty and engagement.
- Increase motivation among change recipients: Stories told by change leaders often contain moral lessons or inspirational messages that boost the morale of change recipients. When followers are motivated, they will be more willing to commit to the goals of the organization or team to which they belong.
Closing remarks
Storytelling is a way of presenting experiences in a way that makes them meaningful and 22 times more memorable than mere information, as developmental psychologist Jerome Bruner puts it. In other words: When we tell stories, we are not simply retelling events; we are making sense of them and giving them meaning for our present and future.
Aesthetic storytelling is a technique that can help change leaders influence change recipients to embrace change. It involves telling stories that are visual, emotional, and inspiring, which can create a stronger connection with change recipients and encourage them to embrace the change. Aesthetic storytelling has many benefits when it comes to influencing change recipients’ attitudes towards change. Some of the key benefits include:
- Connection: When a leader tells an aesthetic story that appeals to the change recipient, a strong connection is created between the two. This connection can help encourage the recipient to engage in the change.
- Motivation: Aesthetic stories can be very motivating as they inspire people to take action and change their lives. They provide hope and encouragement, which can be very helpful in times of need.
- Persuasion: By using powerful images and emotions in stories, leaders can persuade the recipients of change to use this powerful tool to bring about social change that benefits everyone involved
What’s the catch?
Although we know stories work, and this has been proven historically time and time again, we shy away from telling stories. There is a serious lack of imagination and freedom to use creativity in the workplace. We are afraid of failing in these experiments, which suggests that we need to work on increasing psychological safety.
The ability and effort to create memorable and emotionally soothing stories by creating aesthetic experiences during organizational change leads to a prosocial method of leading change. Instead of imposing organizational change on peasants, they should be involved in the process and given support during change management activities. Their support is much more important than the Ruler’s approval, but you need royal resources to fund the effort.
As a change leader, focus on providing emotional comfort to people experiencing change and seeking comfort. Address perceived threats from the planned organizational change and emphasize its benefits. In this way, the use of stories can help alleviate some of the anxiety caused by ambiguity. By creating a vivid and engaging vision of the future, fear of the unknown can be transformed into hope that things will improve. And the Kingdom will experience a new era.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Carin-Isabel Knoop, Harvard Business School, for her insights. As a case study writer she hears and tells stories about managerial decision-making and how and why change management and digital transformation efforts often fail.
