Small Talk

August 1, 2010 »

What’s Your Story?

The childhood game of telephone shows how over time, when messages gets passed along, the story is often not the same as when it was first told. That’s kind of fun when you’re a little kid, but can be problematic in a business environment.

Last week, I gathered my entire staff for an all-team meeting.  The theme was about ‘defining our future’, but it really centered on one key idea: telling the right story. I pointed my staff to All Marketers Are Liars, a great book by Seth Godin about the power of telling authentic stories in a low-trust world.  If you have yet to read it, I highly encourage you to grab yourself a copy.

Before we went too deep into our meeting, I paused and asked each person to write down three statements about themselves – two items that were true, and one that was false.  This little game we played – Two Truths & A Lie – gave everyone a chance to tell their own story to their co-workers, with a free pass to be dishonest and false, just for that moment.  It revealed how well we knew each other (or not, in some cases!), and was a good segue into the point of our real meeting – the importance of telling a good story that is authentic and true.

As the business has grown from a solo operation to a staff of twelve, it underscores the need to re-visit that story now and again, and make sure that everyone is telling it the same way.  What is the story we tell potential clients and current ones, and does that ever differ?  What is the story we tell to potential consumer participants of our programs?  And what’s the story we tell potential future employees about our company?

After a couple of hours together as a team, I’m certain our story is as consistent as ever, as all of us walked out with a more clear sense of direction and understanding for what we do, and why. 

August 2010 is a milestone that marks three-and-a-half years since HealthTalker’s inception. And when I look back at the business plan I wrote in February 2007, I am so pleased to see how consistent our story has been, and how true to the original mission we have stayed.  Well, at least that’s my story – and I’m sticking with it! 

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