Stories & Customer Experience

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of being a guest on Michelle Romanica's BlogRadio show on Customer Experience.

How stories come into play with customer experience is a rich area to explore. Our conversation dove into some ideas and practices that are powerful yet subtle.

Listen to internet radio with Customer Experience on Blog Talk Radio

Among other things we discussed how customers experiences can start with catalyzing the internal experiences of employees with a variety of communication and strategic initiatives employing the natural power of stories.

How are you do you architect customer experiences with the disciplines of organizational storytelling? Add your voice to the conversation.

"Go With the Flow..."

Sounds groovy to say, “Go with the flow” but what does it mean?

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi talks about flow as being in the moment. What does this really mean? How might it be relevant for the day to day challenges of organizational life?

How do we move in organizations? Do we give into tides of constraints dotting the shores with recognizable successes and failures? How do we discern the faint melodies of possibilities offered by shifts of how and who we are… and what place should we assume in the ecological menagerie of conditions, gifts, talents and opportunities enlightening our constellations?

Story-based tactics, processes and tools help us probe the complexity of organizational life.
It sounds so groovy to say, “Just go with the flow…” What does it mean? In my new short conversational starter with a flare of organizational poetry I take a stab at stirring the pot. I'd love to hear your thoughts....

Organizational Flow from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

Here's a comp white paper that is a guide for helping others make sense of stories that surface in meetings, conversations, or workshops:

CLICK HERE FOR WHITE PAPER

I've setup a Voice Thread link where people can easily post audio comments, text comments, documents, images, even record video reactions to my video all from the website without any fuss (you can even use a telephone to dial into and leave your sound bite. Please consider adding to the conversation:

Organizational Judgment

Judgments separate us from others. They hold us secure and tight in assumed positions of superiority.

What if we let the scaffolding of being judgmental drop away?

Can we really halt our knee jerk reflexes to label, categorize and evaluate people’s actions and words based our individually constructed value driven world view?

While good intentions and self-awareness are a start - they're not enough...

Stories help me quite.

Take a moment and please watch this short video...

Organizational Judgment from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

I've posted this video on my Voice Thread site - this a free service that allows people to post comments in a vareity of ways including audio (recorded either from your machines mic or even by dialing a phone number to record your comments), video comments, text, and the ability to upload images, documents, presentations, etc...

I'd love for you to share your thoughts, ideas and reactions with me and each other. Here's the link:

These are skills that can be developed. Organizational cultures can weave these into the fabric of their cultures and reap the performance benefits. Interested in learning more about these skills?

Check out my model of story-based communication skills:
Interested in learning more - consider giving me (Terrence Gargiulo) a call - 415-948-8087.

Organizational Priorities

What are the priorities in your organization? Are you caught in the cogs of performance pressure? Has constant acceleration become a way of life in your organization?

A recent experience with dolphins works as backdrop in this video to explore how we might meet these challenges and realities of speed and purpose with equanimity and even joy.

Organizational Priority from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

What happens when we move past thinking of stories as tools of persuasion?

We unearth a Rosetta stone for critical thought, deep conversation, and emergent possibilities…strategic organizational story work creates an environment that enmeshes people into networks of meaning that leads to adaptability and performance…this integrative pattern of interrelating produces a wonderful by product of joy.

Consider this video's working metaphor and then be a part of the conversation.

Share with us experiences of what this looks and feels like for you in your organization. What things are you doing or think you could be doing in your organization to bring about "the dolphin effect?"

I've posted this video on Voice Thread to allow folks a vehicle for responding with comments, audio, video, documents, etc... (all of these things can be done for free from the website):

Organizational Light

Can you envision your organization shedding light into the world?

We’re precious in how we do what we do…nothing needs to be without the simple clean intention to be and give the most we can. Even in our worst moments of glorious failure we can sail through our darkness to brighter shores…

Might we see our organizations as oil lamps to be lit by our shameless individual and communal efforts?

Chopin's music and a story about one of his famous poloniase's work as back drop in this video conversation starter:

Organizational Light from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

I'd love to hear your voice. How do you and your organization cast light into the world? What's the intersection between the idealism of generating light and the reality of organizational life? Do you have any success stories to share? What have been your challenges and struggles?

Learnings from Webinar with Shawn Callahan & Participants

Flexing Your Business Storytelling Muscles with Deliberate Practices

Collaborating with other story practitioners is a special treat. When Shawn Callahan and I of Anecdote regroup to share our latest ideas it's always stimulating. Wish it was easier to reveal all the behind the scenes conversations and work that go into pulling together a session.

Business storytelling is really more than a trend. People are hungry for connections whether it be in the workplace or even in their personal relationship. "The shortest distance between two people is a story" (you can quote me on that one :). While we're all natural storytellers there still needs to be purposeful attention and effort made to tap into "the natural power of story" (you can quote Shawn on that one :).

There's some good news. Since we're involved in various degrees of storytelling/storylistening/story triggering all the time we don't need to start from scratch and put in the 10,000+ hours of practice Malcom Gladwell suggests we need for mastery.

I've developed some specific practices, tools, and techniques to help people gain better access to their innate capabilities. Among other things, I have research/evidence based model that identifies nine story-based communication skills, an assessment instrument, book of self-development exercises, group process activities, and organizational interventions I use with clients.

If you haven't had a chance to checkout Anecdote's website with its new face lift be sure to pour through the rich coffers of their blog and wonderful collection of ready to go stories for business in their Story Finder Tool.

I digress let me share with you what we did during our August complimentary webinar...

Have you wondered why you are not making better progress at becoming a storyteller at work? Are you finding it difficult to find good stories to tell? Are your stories relevant to your colleagues or do they look at you blankly wondering what planet you're on?

Spend an hour with master business story practitioners Shawn Callahan of Anecdote and Terrence Gargiulo of MAKINGSTORIES.net as they share deliberate practices you can employ today to be a better storyteller.

This session was conducted as conversation with participants. So there are lots of wonderful ideas and experiences shared by all. Be sure to add your voice by chiming in with your ideas, experiences, and of course stories below.

Here's a recording of the webinar...

WEBINAR: It's a Marathon Not Magic: Deliberate Practice Approach to Developing Business Storytelling Skills from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

Now it's your turn, please take a moment and add your voice to the conversation...