The Power of Business Storytelling

Imagine this: You’re on the treadmill at the gym watching CNN when the scrolling chyron at the bottom of the TV flashes news about your company: “WorldCom executives implicated in accounting scandal.”

Soon, you learn that the company’s CEO and CFO concocted a scheme to inflate revenues and make it appear that the company was far more successful than it really was.

In other words, they cooked the books.

I’m not making this up. This actually occurred when I was WorldCom’s head of corporate grassroots communications. Over a three-month period, my team and our government relations colleagues were faced with a crisis that threatened our company’s survival.

Now, keep in mind that the telecom industry was undergoing dramatic change at the time. Remember being charged for long distance calls? On landlines? With consumer long distance becoming obsolete, WorldCom’s profit margin was heavily dependent upon doing business with the federal government. Given the allegations, competitors argued that WorldCom couldn’t be trusted and shouldn’t be allowed to contract with the federal government. The atmosphere was so toxic that legislators on Capitol Hill refused to even meet with us. Frankly, it was hard to blame them.

Our team’s mission was to find a way to reassure key decision makers on Capitol Hill. We needed to bypass the Beltway media circus, rebut our competitor’s arguments, and tell Congress what we believed was our company’s good story.

We quickly arranged Congressional staff meetings in states and districts in which we had a physical presence. Our ask was simple: Let the legal process play out, punish the guilty, but please do not harm 55,000 hardworking, charitable, and civic-minded employees for the deeds of less than a handful of dishonest executives.

| Persuasive business storytelling helps organizations succeed, not only in crisis communications situations, but in everyday operations. |

In the end, the federal government did not bar us from doing business. We succeeded because we had a good story to tell and we told it well. While our message and communications plan were strong, it was the effort at the grassroots that helped win the day. “Real” employees – not DC lobbyists - were the face of the company and their personal stories were authentic and compelling.

Through this experience, I learned the importance of three critical skill sets:

1. Relationship building. It was vital that my team built trusted relationships – both internally and externally – BEFORE we needed them. When the crisis hit, we relied upon center directors, network engineers, and customer service representatives to fight for our company. Collectively, their stories made up our story. In addition, through our grassroots team’s efforts, many of our colleagues on the ground had previously built solid relationships with the very Congressional staff who would later defend us.

2. Communication. Diffusing a crisis, or even just marketing a product or your company’s policy position, hinges on good communication. No matter how compelling your story is, the entire team must tell it well. This requires persuasive writing and speaking skills and a story that is supported by facts. We provided our employees with valuable data that helped them explain our company’s positive impact in the community. Solid data has its place, but it was the passion and sincerity of our employees’ personal stories that spoke to the heart. These compelling stories made all the difference in convincing Congress that we should be allowed to continue providing service to the government.

3. Problem solving. Corporate crises of all sizes can benefit from creative problem solving. In our case, we needed to convince lawmakers that our cause was not only just, but that the positives of supporting us outweighed the negatives, even in the wake of a corporate greed scandal. My team pulled together to come up with the best solution – one that required both the supportive data mentioned above and candor at every step.

Substitute my old company’s crisis with any organization’s challenge and it still boils down to telling a good and true story. Put a real face to your company’s name. Tap into trusted contacts. Solve problems.

Call it public relations or marketing. Persuasive business storytelling helps organizations succeed, not only in crisis communications situations, but in everyday operations.

If you believe in your company, there is a good story to tell. Tell it well.