An effective method for developing values is “Story Telling”. Stories can be used to persuade, motivate and inspire in ways that cold facts, bullet points and directives can’t.

“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” so said Peter Drucker

and Edgar Schein divided an organization’s culture into three distinct levels: artifacts, values, and assumptions. 

A clear set of values communicated to employees what the organization stands for. It guides them how to go about working. Employees who understand the values of the company would seldom make wrong decisions not in keeping with the company culture. 

However, developing values are easier said than done. 

Organizations induct employees to their values by walking them through the vision, core values and the <name of the company> Way. Giving people facts as a method of influence can be a waste of time because facts are neutral until human beings add their own meaning to those facts. Human beings make their decisions based on what the facts mean to them, not on the facts themselves.

In contrast to all other methods, one effective method for developing values is “Story Telling”. Stories can be used to persuade, motivate and inspire in ways with cold facts, bullet points and directives can’t.

From my experience I have seen stories which are absolutely outside of the work context work the best – these could be folk tales, Akbar Birbal or Tenali Raman tales, tales from our mythology, Zen stories …….wherever. 

A good story influences people to reach the same conclusion that you have reached but through their personal interpretation and experience. And needless to say every person values his / her personal conclusions more than anyone else’s. 

And once people turn “the story” to “their story” the impact is indelible. Then if you share facts after the story has been absorbed, your facts slide into new slots in your listeners’ brains. Purpose achieved?!

The Culture guru Edgar Schein said “Culture is a product of Social learning”.

Use stories to build values, build culture. You will be surprised with the impact of the influence that they can have.