 Coaching, Consulting & Training
One of the most common complaints we hear from change management leaders is that their change narrative is failing to cascade. Their disappointment frequently sounds like this:“We’ve tried hard to craft a story that our leaders, managers, and employees can connect with, but a lack of ownership is creating obstacles and undermining our progress.”
Cascading change management narratives are fraught with potential challenges, including message dilution or inconsistency as information moves through layers of management. When cascading communications, there is also the danger of misinterpretation which leads to confusion. Additionally, the further down the communication flows, the more likely it is for employees to feel disconnected from the original message, reducing its impact. Often leaders overestimate how much the employees are inclined to agree with their vision and plans.
When this disconnect occurs, senior leadership often grows frustrated and begins to deviate from storytelling, instead resorting to blunt directives and mandates. While this may feel like taking control, it often has the opposite effect. Pulling back from storytelling poisons the process, as it erodes trust and undermines the shared purpose that stories create. Employees who once had the potential to connect emotionally with the narrative now feel like cogs in a machine, further disengaging them from the change effort.
The reality is that storytelling is not just a tool for engagement; it is the backbone of identity within an organization. To succeed, leaders must resist the temptation to abandon their story at the first sign of trouble. Instead, they must double down on ensuring that their narrative is communicated with clarity, consistency, and emotional resonance at every level. Stories that are well-told and consistently reinforced can align identity with action, enabling the organization to overcome even the toughest obstacles to change.
As a leader, your most powerful tool isn’t a spreadsheet or a strategy document—it’s the story you tell. Stories have an undeniable power: they shape how we see the world and how we see ourselves. The stories we tell ourselves, and the ones we repeat to others, form the foundation of our identity.
When organizations embark on large-scale change efforts, they often focus on two key elements. The first is the end goal: the specific outcomes they want to achieve. These might include higher revenue, greater efficiency, or a stronger customer focus. The second is the systems and processes—the operational mechanisms that pave the way to those outcomes. But there is a third, equally crucial element that often goes unspoken: the organization’s identity. Change cannot take root unless people believe they are capable of adopting the systems and processes that will achieve their goals. Identity serves as the bridge between aspiration and action.
While much attention is given to the organization-wide narrative and senior leadership’s role in delivering it, true change happens when leaders and managers at every level take ownership of the story. These individuals need support to step out of their comfort zones, adopt the change narrative, and make it part of their own professional identity. By helping them connect personally to the story, organizations can ensure the narrative resonates throughout all levels, driving alignment and engagement.
Many organizations have found success by prioritizing storytelling training and coaching at all levels, especially for middle managers and front-line leaders. These people need to develop the confidence and skills to own the narrative, turning it into something they champion rather than simply deliver. By helping them reframe their aspects of their professional identity and see themselves as agents of change, organizations can create alignment from top to bottom. Ultimately, storytelling is not just about communicating change—it’s about transforming identity at every level, enabling the entire organization to move, evolve and excel together.
The post Change Management is Failing. Success Depends Upon Storytelling appeared first on Decker Communications.
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