The four stories successful companies tell

Over and over (and over) again.

Whether you’re a CEO or an artist, you know success depends not only on doing the work to create things that people will pay for — it also depends on your ability to effectively communicate about that work.

Storytelling is the new selling — it’s how ideas grow, spread, and stick.

Here are four kinds of stories that every leader and entrepreneur should be able to tell.

1. Character: who you are as a company

Generous. Innovative. Bold.
Stylish. Quirky. Fun.
Brave. Rugged. Rebellious.

Character is the very essence of a person, a place, or a community. In a company, character is the “story of us” that lives inside the organization — the essential traits that drive actions, decisions and relationships. When you identify and articulate the traits that are most important to you (and truest to your mission), you have an internal compass that’s equal parts authentic and aspirational. It’s a potent mix of “who we are” and “who we want to be.”

Character is at the heart of both brand and culture. Getting clear on this helps align your entire team around a common sense of identity and direction. And when you know who you are, you’re able to make better decisions, faster.

Most importantly, no one else can compete with you on character: it’s uniquely yours.

Writing your character “story”

Start by gathering your team and making a list of all the words that currently describe the character of your organization — both positive and negative. Stick with traits rather than values. Values are principles and standards of behavior (integrity, honesty, quality). Character traits go further, describing a specific aspect of your identity, personality, or how you operate as a company. Think about the different ways you could complete the sentence, “We are…________ [words like: efficient, relatable, energetic, creative, dependable, scattered, flexible].”

Then, do one more round: this time, make a list of the traits you’d want to use to describe the character of your organization in the future. What might be different? Are there traits that will be particularly important to cultivate (for example, inventiveness or empathy) in order to successfully step into the future you see for the company?

Doing this with sticky notes is helpful, because then you can group similar words and start to see patterns.

Then, narrow down the positive traits — the ones you most want to define you—to a list of 5–10 words. Ultimately, aim to narrow down to just three words. I’ve found there’s something almost magical about three; it forces you to prioritize what is most important to both the identity and the future of the business, and it gives voice to the attributes that define you.

Finally, put your three words in a sentence — for example, “We are smart, compassionate and innovative.” Test it with your team. Get feedback, and adjust as needed. Ask, “Does this feel right? Is it uniquely ours? Is it true, and is it motivating? Does it inspire us?” The best three-word character stories are both true and a bit aspirational; they pull you forward and align people around a common sense of being.

2. Origin: where you started — and why

Steve Jobs envisioned a better computer and built early prototypes with a buddy in his parents’ garage in the early ‘70s. Melissa and Doug Bernstein believed that preschoolers learn best through hands-on, screen-free imaginative play, and so they decided to leave their corporate jobs to start a toy company in their basement. Sara Blakely liked the smoothing effects of control-top pantyhose but hated the seams that showed through her open-toed shoes — and Spanx was born.

Every idea starts with a problem.

For the three guys who started Warby Parker, the problem was that glasses are simply too expensive. This problem was the seed of inspiration that led them to start a market-disrupting eyewear company. Warby Parker’s 100-word origin story is now printed on the cleaning cloth that comes tucked in with every pair of glasses they sell — and it’s pretty genius.

In just 100 words on a square the size of a cocktail napkin, they’ve distilled the essence of their mission into a story that is both unique and relatable. It’s a conversational bit of brand magic that manages to be both really substantial — in terms of what they’re communicating about the company — and also unexpectedly cool and comment-worthy. It’s simple. It’s clear. It’s in classic story form (read: memorable, chronological, human). And they’re putting it in front of every single customer who touches their product.

Your origin story

Think about the human problem at the root of your business or idea. Was there an a-ha moment, or a specific experience of that problem that inspired you to solve it? Was there a “moment of truth” when you knew there had to be a new or better way? What made your approach or solution different from anything else that was out there?

A few tips:

• Stick to the truth. Origin stories need to be true, so don’t succumb to the temptation to embellish or fabricate.
• Use contextual details to set the stage. What would you pinpoint as the moment when it all began? Were you in a car, on a plane, eating breakfast? Or, maybe it goes back to a conversation you had with your grandpa in his workshop when you were a kid. Painting a picture of that moment — what you saw, what you thought, and the emotions you felt — helps your audience to see and feel those things, too. It bring us into the story with you.
• Think action scenes. Use a classic Hollywood trick: tell the story in action scenes, rather than narrative. You may have spent three years developing your app, but what was the inciting incident that sparked the original idea? What were the critical experiences, conversations or decisions that put you on the path you’re on now (or, changed your course)? Start there.

3. Community: your customers and clients

The better you understand your customers, the more equipped you are to design products and services they actually want, need, and love. You’re also able to design better ways to reach them — and speak to them in their language.

A trap that a lot of companies fall into is the tendency to use jargon or “insider speak” — language that makes complete sense if you’re steeped in the knowledge of your industry, but is either too technical, too complex, or just too jargon-y to connect with anyone else.

When you really pay attention to your audience, you can flip this script.

Listen to your customers’ stories

Take a human-centered design approach to understanding your customers: get out in the world and talk to them. Be curious. Learn about about their stories and their experiences. Find out face-to-face what’s working for them, and what’s not working. Ask a lot of open-ended questions. Notice the particular words they use. Listen to what they say — and pay attention to what they do. Then you can design your messaging, touchpoint communications, and service experience to meet them where they’re at.

4. Future: where you’re going

“People think in stories, communicate in stories, even dream in stories. If you want to get anything done in an organization, you need to know how to use story to move people.”

— Steve Denning

A recent study reported in Harvard Business Review found that the biggest obstacle to innovation in large companies is a lack of alignment and internal politics. I’d be willing to bet that’s among the top barriers in smaller companies, too.

Change is a given. Businesses must either adapt or die. But today, almost every industry is facing more change, and at a faster pace, than ever before. The need to chart a clear path forward, cast a vision for the future, and create an environment that’s hospitable to (rather than hostile to) new ideas has never been more evident — or more challenging.

Storytelling is essential to innovation. A great story creates breakthroughs, helping people imagine a future they can’t yet see.

Visual storytelling is especially good at bringing people along on a journey, educating them, and creating a collective vision for what’s possible. And it doesn’t have to be fancy to be effective.

Architecting the future

Storyboarding is a powerful visualization tool. It’s also a great way to test and refine ideas in the early stages of the innovation process. By breaking down a complex process, system or roadmap into parts, people can envision what it might look and feel like.

Some storyboarding tips:

• Show and tell. Simple sketches help capture ideas and provoke right-brain (conceptual, creative) thinking. If you can find a way to illustrate an idea, do it. For a deeper dive, this book shares some tricks and basics that anyone can learn and use to capture and communicate ideas more effectively, visually.
• Make it modular and moveable. Summarize each part of the story on a different sheet of paper or sticky note. Play around with different ways to group and arrange them. Remixing the parts can highlight gaps and lead to a stronger narrative.
• Keep things rough and prototype-level. Use rough drawings to illustrate modular story “scenes.” Keeping it low-resolution invites the people you’re sharing with to give honest feedback and contribute new ideas.

Future stories can help your big ideas gain the traction and alignment they need to go farther, faster.

About the Author: Erin Rufledt helps companies develop their strategic messaging and brings it to life with visual design. She’s the founder of Luminary Lab, a communication design company that works with leaders and companies to align their vision, their brand and their marketing to win more business and clearly communicate about the work they do.