Postcards from the Field: Story Shaping

Postcards from the Field is where I share brief field reports from my work with real leadership teams. Rather than polished case studies, these notes surface the moments that stop me mid-session and point to the everyday habits that shape performance when conditions are uncertain. My aim is to translate what I’m seeing in the field into practical value readers can apply in their own teams.

Earlier this week, I spent time with a major commercial construction company that has experienced extraordinary growth over the past several years. The organization is taking on increasingly large and complex projects, expanding into new markets, and competing aggressively for the talent required to sustain that growth. The session brought together employees from across the business who all share a responsibility for helping prospective employees, current employees, clients, and partners understand who the company is, what it stands for, and why someone would want to build a career there.

The final exercise of the workshop asked each table to wrestle with a deceptively simple question. If someone asked why this company continues to invest so heavily in its people and culture, how would you answer?

The assignment was intentionally practical. Rather than producing polished messaging or marketing copy, each group was asked to develop a short explanation they could imagine using in an actual conversation with a colleague, a job candidate, or a project partner. The goal was language that felt natural, credible, and connected to the realities of the business.

When we began sharing the responses, something unexpected happened.

The first few groups presented thoughtful answers. Then another table built on an idea that had just been shared. Someone across the room suggested a different way to frame a particular phrase. Another participant connected the conversation to the company's hiring challenges. Someone else pointed out language that would likely resonate more strongly with skeptical colleagues. Before long, the room had become remarkably animated. People were applauding ideas, laughing together, offering suggestions, and respectfully challenging one another to make each explanation a little stronger and a little clearer.

What I found myself watching was no longer a storytelling exercise.

It was a story-shaping exercise.

No single table produced the definitive answer. Every version became stronger because other leaders contributed their own experiences, challenged assumptions, and connected the conversation to parts of the business the original group had not considered. The exercise gradually produced something that belonged to everyone in the room rather than to any one individual.

That distinction stayed with me after the workshop.

Many organizations invest considerable effort in defining their mission, values, and culture. Senior leaders refine language, communications teams develop messaging, and recruiting teams build materials designed to explain what the organization stands for. All of that work matters.

At the same time, most people will never experience an organization's culture through a strategy document or a careers website. They experience it first through everyday behaviors, as well as conversations with managers, colleagues, project leaders, and recruiters who explain, in their own words, what the organization values and why that work matters.

Those conversations become far more effective when leaders have had the opportunity to shape the story together.

Over the years, I have facilitated many sessions that asked leaders to communicate an organization's purpose or values. This week reminded me that the most valuable part of those exercises often isn't the first draft each group produces. It is the collective refinement that happens afterward. As leaders hear different perspectives, test different language, and build on one another's ideas, the story gradually becomes clearer, more practical, and easier to carry into everyday conversations.

For leaders looking to strengthen that capability inside their own organizations, three practices stood out from this experience.

First, begin with the reality your organization is navigating today. The strongest stories in the room did not begin with values statements. They began with the context the business is operating within. Growth. More complex work. New expectations from clients. Competition for talent. When people recognize the challenge an organization is trying to address, the organization's choices become easier to understand.

Second, explain the problem before explaining the investment. Every initiative exists for a reason. Stories become more compelling when people understand the challenge first and the organizational response second. That sequence helps listeners connect the investment to a meaningful business need rather than experiencing it as a list of programs or activities.

Finally, create opportunities for leaders to shape the story together. Shared language rarely emerges from a communications plan alone. It develops as leaders compare perspectives, challenge one another's assumptions, borrow phrases that resonate, and gradually develop explanations they genuinely believe and can comfortably use in their own conversations.

As I flew home from the workshop, I found myself thinking less about storytelling than I was when the day began.

Organizations certainly need good stories.

What they often need first is a process that allows leaders to build those stories together.

When that happens, the language becomes more authentic, the reasoning becomes stronger, and the story becomes much easier for others to carry forward.