How Talk Tells. Companies know that being on the leading edge requires a clear proposition, the latest technology, efficient methods, great design and quality management. But there?s another often-overlooked thing that can bring a major competitive advantage. That's the ability to make sense and define meaning for others. And this comes from how we talk to each other, from the conversations we have and the stories we tell.

Conversation is the medium through which values, purpose, energy and meaning are carried. Constructive and creative talk can send a life-enhancing buzz through an organisation. Negative talk can disintegrate its moral fabric.

Telling stories is one of the oldest human faculties. It's how we engage each other's interest, how we create meaning from our experience. And meaning - more than truth, power, love or even pleasure - is the central human concern. In an information-saturated world meaning can be hard to find. Shaping facts and statistics into pithy stories is an effective way for leaders to illuminate and inspire staff and colleagues.

Everyone loves a good story. As market choice expands it becomes harder for customers to differentiate between products (and companies) on the basis of utility, reliability and quality. Their choices are therefore increasingly made on emotional and empathetic grounds. Such intuitive and feeling-based qualities are most effectively conveyed though stories.

Self-Organising Company. Today the time cycle of change in products, markets and capabilities is rapidly reducing. When something unexpected arises there is often not time for thorough analysis and planning. Companies have to rely instead on the ability of the organisation - at a cellular level - to respond consistently in the face of uncertainty. Only when values, purpose and meaning ' communicated organically through stories - are shared throughout the company can this 'self-organising' response be guaranteed.

Story, consciously or not, is already part of corporate strategy. The question is whether or not maximise its value in a professional manner.

TALKING UP THE COMPANY
A Practical Workshop