Stories are fundamental to the way we communicate, learn, and think. Theyare the most efficient way of storing, retrieving, and conveying information.Because hearing stories requires active participation on the part of the lis-tener, stories are the most profound social form of human interaction,

communication, and learning.

Telling stories scratches the surface. Through my research and consulting I havelearned how to use stories as powerful vehicles for eliciting people’s experiences andknowledge, helping people to hear others and themselves in deeper ways to promotereflection and learning in organizations.

In lieu of an imprecise and debatable definition of stories, Figure 1 on page 28 proposesa framework of nine functions. These functions have unique effects that are applicableto performance interventions involving organizational communication and learning.

Organizational Communication

What are the various forms of communication in organizations? If we were to build amatrix of the major targets of communication and the channels through which they move,we would end up with a two-dimensional array of 12 communication areas (see Figure 2on page 28).

The largest percentage of our efforts focuses on areas 1-6. These are clearly identifiedchannels and targets that use standard tools and process that organizations have usedfor some time. By and large, organizations are good at moving information throughthese channels. This leaves potentially 50% of organizational communicationuntapped and unmanaged. In this framework, anything that is a non-specific target orthat moves through the personal channel tends to be ignored.

Internal, external, and partner targets are considered self-explanatory. Formal channelsare “official” pathways through which we communicate, and social channels carrybeliefs, attitudes, and values (i.e., vision and mission statements). Let’s take a momentand define non-specific targets and the personal channel of communication.

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Non-specific Target

Non-specific communications areinformal messages and communica-tions that occur without anorganization’s knowledge and haveno specific target. They simply hap-pen. Think of these communicationsas “word of mouth.” These messagesspread like a forest fire burning out ofcontrol. Once a broadcast has beenmade, it keeps traveling. We can’tavoid it; all our targeted and non-tar-geted broadcasts are out there.

The nature of our organizationalbroadcasts is not so different from amovie. We have no idea which waycommunications will bounce back tous or in what form. Consequently, wedon’t expend any strategic time orenergy determining how to leveragethem. Ironically, more than any otherdeliberate efforts, it is this backgroundnoise found in non-specific targetsthat acts as artifacts of our purposefulcommunications with all the othertargets that impact our organization’sperceptions in the eyes of others.

Personal Channel

Personal channels carry the largestand most dynamic load of all thechannels. These are the people-to-people connections. Whatever mayhave been purposefully broadcastthrough formal or social channelsmorphs and takes on a life of its ownin personal channels. People willdigest and assimilate messages fromthe other two channels, but they willspin out their own interpretations ofthe same information through theirinformal interactions with others.Frequently there will be incongru-ence between information broadcastthrough a formal channel and infor-mation found in a personal channel.

Information found in personal chan-nels almost always overrides anyother information. Similar to non-specific targets, communicationsoccurring in this channel are difficultto tap into and even more difficult to

Figure 2. Array of 12 Communication Areas.

Figure 1. Framework for Defining Stories.

manage, yet they are the most critical of all the channels.Combined, non-specific targets and personal channels arethe two most important forms of communication that orga-nizations and Human Performance Technology (HPT)professionals need to address.

Untapped Matrix Combinations and the Role of Stories

The following approaches will help incorporate untappedareas of the matrix into an organization’s communicationstrategy.

Personal/Internal—Area 7

Of all the areas on the communication matrix, this is theeasiest one to influence. There are plenty of opportunities tointercept these messages. As professionals, we need to be asobservant of how people act as much as we tune into whatthey are saying. Actions do speak louder than words, andcarefully crafted words are never as telling as a narrativeselected and relived by a teller. We need to look at what sto-ries a person chooses to tell. Much about that person’smotivation and intentions can be deduced from the storiestold and the way they are told.

There is a powerful reciprocal climate of trust engenderedby the dynamics of sharing personal stories. Once they areset in motion we do not need to go out of our way to fabri-cate opportunities for people to share personal stories.People within the organization will willingly and randomlyshare their experiences and insights in the form of stories.An organization’s culture must foster a receptive environ-ment that encourages people to freely share this way. Howmany times have you attended a weekly meeting wherethere is some sort of standing agenda item for people to dis-cuss their experiences? Short of a gripe session, this rotestandard practice yields little information and receives littlerespect from the individuals involved. Although these meet-ing rituals are well intentioned, they fall short of achievingany significant success.

Informal communications can be saturated with stories ofthe day and with incessant probing. Pushing out “key sto-ries of the day” results in short shelf lives for thesecommuniqués. Using intranets and daily news or other suchtools to broadcast stories aligned with key business objec-tives has value, but the range of these broadcasts is weakand shallow. What we want to be able to do as analysts andsolution providers is uncover stories while walking the beatand incite others to share them. The puller of stories facili-tates the teller to realize that his or her story is an invaluablenugget that has a relationship to the efforts of other peoplein the organization and the business imperatives of the day.The teller becomes a “signal repeater.” Suddenly realizingthe value of his or her message, the teller takes the story

and, without any prompting, repeats and rebroadcasts themessage throughout the organization.

That’s not even the real value. When there are lots of minibroadcasts, the number of total broadcasts increases. Inother words, when a story is shared, it is more than likely totrigger someone else’s recollection and result in a freshstory. Now each repeater carries not only the original storybut also a story of his or her own. Even if the signal of thefirst story drops somewhere along the way, the new storycarries its own energy.

Here is an image to clarify this concept. Imagine throwingrocks into water. Toss one rock in a glassy body of water andwatch the concentric circles move away from the source. Asthe circles get larger and begin to weaken, imagine throwingin another rock close, but slightly removed, from the firstsource. Now you have multiple waves of concentric circles.The new waves are stronger and will cancel out the weak-ening waves before them. If the waves coincide exactly withone another, the force of the wave will be reinforced. Eitherscenario leads to a strengthened signal.

In this analogy, our first communication functions as theinitiating force. All the other rocks tossed into the water thatcreate new waves are like employees who rebroadcast themessage. There is far less effort and more reflective insightinvolved, and it is a much more economical way of trans-mitting information. The economy stems from the fact thatwe do not need to create perfect communications and thenclog overfilled official channels with additional informa-tion. Pushing out a message to pull out new information inthe form of stories, and then pushing this communicationdeeper inside the organization, is known as a “push-to-pull-to-push” strategy.

HPT professionals can help leaders and managers spendless time writing memos and emails and more time develop-ing quality relationships with their employees through theuse of stories. Stories are one of the best ways to developrelationships. Knowing what questions to ask in this rela-tionship is important. It requires a leader or manager tofocus on the communications that will move people closerto achieving the organization’s objectives. By doing this, themanager is continually directing and redirecting his or herattention to look for gaps in people’s understanding. Whenthere is confusion, employees get stuck and lose momen-tum, which creates negative energy. A high degree ofmindfulness mixed with a sharp analytical mind serves pro-fessionals, leaders, and managers best.

While not every instance of misperception floating aroundthe organization can be reframed, the ones capable of inflict-ing the most damage can be effectively addressed in quickorder. Knowing what questions to ask is also important,because it involves the interaction between the potential

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storyteller and the elicitor. Pacing, thinking quickly, chang-ing tack, entering different frames of reference, sharingpersonal experiences, and using evocative language aresome of the skills required to be a successful elicitor.Discovering a story is only half the challenge. Next the elic-itor must guide the storyteller to recognize the importanceof the story and inspire him or her to retell it.

Personal/External and Personal/Partner—Areas 8 and 9

Areas 8 and 9 of the communication matrix operate underthe same principles as the area of personal/internal commu-nication discussed above. Although the targets differ, thesame strategy of “push-to-pull-to-push” can be applied. Aswe move further from the organization, it becomes increas-ingly important to cultivate strong allies. Depending on ourbusiness, it can be more difficult communicating with theexternal, partner, or non-specific targets described in thecommunication matrix. Direct contact with them may belacking so that others become our eyes and ears. Frominside the organization, HPT professionals must developallies and then act as coaches to model and mold the storyand elicit behaviors required for a successful “push-to-pull-to-push” strategy. Once allies or diplomats arecultivated and coached, they can also help determine areasof confusion and what communications are necessary tomitigate the confusion.

Traditionally, communications operate from the top down.The people in the know decide what information is impor-tant and what information they want to share. Although itis not possible or advisable to share everything, communi-cations must be based on the needs and priorities of thedesired targets, not solely on the vague impressions of afew people. Use the “push-to-pull-to-push” strategy, sto-ries, and internal diplomats to start communications fromthe bottom up. By doing this, all the mini broadcasts standa good chance of addressing most of the targets’ communi-cation needs.

I like the image of our immune system with its army ofwhite blood cells. Lots of little healers go to work to reachall the infected parts of the body. The body’s success lies inits immune memory and decentralized plan of attack. Wecan put the same strategy to work with our organizationalcommunications.

Formal/Non-specific—Area 10

Surveys and focus groups are the principal way organizationsreach the formal/non-specific areas of the communicationmatrix. The tools and strategies employed tend to be very lim-iting in nature. Professionals need to move past numericalrating systems and other forms of constrained feedback. Haveyou ever sat in a focus group and felt like the questions beingasked weren’t the right ones in the first place? Sometimes the

questions are self-serving. Or they may be worded in such away that they do not solicit genuine feedback. It is importantto guard against measuring what we want to measure or bias-ing respondents to give the answers we desire.

How do we get organizations to accept qualitative as well asquantitative data? And how do we process qualitative infor-mation? We do not want to over-react to outliers. There is atendency to assume that single qualitative data points suchas stories can be abused. We do not want to create new poli-cies or practices based on such limited information. At leaststatistics can be validated. Stories can make us uncomfort-able. What if they are not true?

Consider the number of customer interactions that can beused as opportunities to ask people to share stories in theform of personal narratives. Today, technology gives us anumber of new touch points such as websites, email, andinstant messaging. Flowery testimonials in marketingbrochures are common, but most of these come in the formof random communications pushed to us by customers orthrough solicited comments. We need to pull these forms ofcommunications. What if we trained all employees, espe-cially customer service representatives, to elicit and collectstories from our customers? HPT professionals would thenneed to provide mechanisms for them to share the storiesthey gather and would need to help organizations becomeadept at garnering insights from them. Some of this qualita-tive data would come in the form of observations.Employees would be keyed into becoming more aware andreflective of stories happening around them, not just storiestold to them. These stories would be then presented in man-agement meetings, where numbers and canned reportstypically occupy the largest percentage of time.

Decision makers would also need to be trained in how towork with stories. Qualitative trend analysis, pattern recogni-tion, and clear identification of decision-making objectivescoupled with a high degree of self-awareness and honesty onthe part of anyone working with this qualitative informationwill yield amazing results. For example, through stories Ihave helped groups work through difficult decisions, dis-cover the root cause of problems, engage in creative problemsolving, and reach consensus in a fraction of the time it nor-mally takes. You may be questioning the relevancy of storiesand the likelihood of finding trustworthy employees whoeither have these competencies or who you believe candevelop them. However, I have been surprised by people’sinnate capacities in these areas. Yet for this to be achieved,there are a number of competencies that would need to bedeveloped in employees and managers.

Social Non-specific—Area 11

This area of the matrix deals with collective experience.When two or more people randomly discuss an organization,

what do they say? What are their experiences? How is theircollective experience different from their individual ones?How are they influenced by each other’s stories? We are try-ing to understand the combinations resulting from themixing of people’s perceptions. This is the rumor mill. Whenwe tap into this area of the communication matrix, we arenot as concerned with the validity of people’s affectations aswe are with how our organization is represented in theirsocial interactions. If our organization were mentioned in thesame conversation as a competitor, how would we stack up?

“What-if” scenarios are an effective way of predicting howpeople will communicate to others about their perceptionsof organizations. A what-if scenario involves presentingpeople with a situation and asking them to imagine howthey would respond or react. A well-designed focus groupusing story methodologies can capture this information.Think of story methodologies as techniques for eliciting sto-ries. Once again, underlying competencies need to bedeveloped for someone to be effective at eliciting these sto-ries. The same story methodologies employed in a focusgroup can be used by anyone who interacts with knowl-edgeable organizational members. These what-if scenariosalso leave people with the impression that you want to hearfrom them and that you care about how they feel. Peopletend to like the chance to explore alternatives. Furthermore,people like being asked to be an advisor. It provides a senseof importance. HPT professionals can train employees howto extemporaneously construct what-if scenarios and how tointerpret the information they collect.

Depending on the organization, it is also possible to trainemployees to develop keen powers of observation, especiallywith customer behaviors and interactions. The danger lies insomeone over-reacting to a situation. Employees and profes-sionals need to discover how to see things in relationship toone another and not as solitary events. For instance, oneupset customer complaining to another may not be a sign ofsome larger looming problem. In all likelihood, it is one cus-tomer’s experience. In customer services situations, awell-timed and sincerely executed interaction becomes agolden opportunity to shift negative perceptions and leavepeople with a powerful story. There are many exceptionalcustomer service stories to tell about someone who went theextra mile. These stories result in at least short-term and oftenlong-term customer loyalty. A careful audit of business pro-cesses that involve key customer interactions will help anorganization tune into people’s perceptions and improve howthey guide customer communications in desired directions.

Personal/Non-specific—Area 12

This area of the communication matrix deals with personalrepresentations. Individuals are members of social con-structs. When plugged into a social network, they bringtheir stories and perceptions. Remember playing with bat-

teries and light bulbs in science class? When you connectlights in series, each bulb gets progressively dimmer. Whenyou connect lights in parallel, they are much brighter.Professionals have to find a way to prevent important com-munications from becoming diluted as people move furtherand further from the original source of information. This isequivalent to light bulbs connected in series. Lots of differ-ent people are needed to operate in the personal channeland carry key communications to non-specific targets. Asothers encounter these messengers, they become like lightbulbs connected in parallel because they are closer to theinformation source.

This area of the communication matrix is the hardest tovisualize. It is also extremely difficult to picture how toreach these solitary, distant points of perception. How canprofessionals justify an ongoing effort to reach them whenthere is no guarantee of measuring efforts?

This requires a leap of faith. A company must be committedto an ongoing effort that will be difficult to measure.Consider the effects of corporate goodwill. We know it isimportant and we acknowledge that there are other intangi-bles that play a part in determining our organization’ssuccess, yet we would be hard pressed to measure them.This goes beyond obvious gestures of corporate goodwillsuch as philanthropic cash donations. What about thoseindividuals who donate their time to the community withtheir organizations’ support? People on the outside observ-ing these good works are likely to associate the good workswith the employees’ organization, thereby resulting in apositive perception of the organization. It is difficult toplace a meaningful price tag on that.

Competency Map

After conducting an initial round of interviews and surveyswith six Fortune 500 companies and one nonprofit organi-zation, the competency map shown in Figure 3 was developed. Table 1 on page 32 is a summary of the major themes fromthe interviews and how they relate to the competency map.

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INTERACTION

PROCESS

THE COREEliciting

ListeningObserving

ModelingSelecting

ReflectingIndexing

Synthesizing

Telling

Figure 3. Competency Map.

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The rings shown in Figure 3 represent three levels of per-sonal story competencies related to communicating andlearning. Each ring consists of three competencies. Table 2is a summary.

The outermost ring of interaction characterizes the compe-tencies used to engage with the external world. Manypeople mistakenly assume that using stories well requires

little besides knowing what stories to select and being goodat telling them. Although these are useful competencies,they are superficial in comparison to the others. We cancommunicate more by eliciting stories than by telling them.

The second ring of the competency map is the process ring. Itis characterized by the things that we do internally, when weare conscious of our stories and the stories around us. It is

hard to discuss the three competen-cies in this ring in any causal orderbecause these internal processes ofindexing, synthesizing, and reflect-ing happen most of the time inparallel. The reflection competencyis the discipline developed whenone stops to notice stories. To para-phrase a Greek philosopher, “Anunexamined story is not worth hav-ing.” While gathering new insightsfrom our own stories, a highlydeveloped capacity for reflectionmakes us more mindful of others.Reflection gives us a chance tobehave proactively and to continu-ally revise our perceptual filters.

The third ring of the competencymap is the core. It contains the cen-tral competencies that are at theheart of using stories effectively asa communicator or learner. All thecompetencies found in the otherrings build from the central ones ofeliciting, listening, and observing.Listening is the common thread tothe three competencies in the core.For example, eliciting stories fromothers demands sensitivity andattentiveness to the stories aroundus. Drawing stories out of othersrequires astute observation skills.Watching for cues in words andactions can help determine whatquestions to ask or what stories totell in order to stimulate others’story telling. We must be equallyaware of our own thought pro-cesses. Listening ties this togetherand involves more than hearing. Aswe gather information, listeningengages our imaginations. What wehear is fused with our experiences.The new information commingleswith the old to become more rele-vant and immediate.

Table 1. Major Themes from Fortune 500 Interviews and Surveys.

Summary

A great deal of HPT consulting focuses on helping organiza-tions develop these nine mission-critical communicationcompetencies. Each competency has a collection of measur-able personal and organizational behaviors that can bedeveloped in a systematic way. For performance technolo-gists, stories can play a significant role in conductingorganizational and communication research (Boje, 2001).

One of the quickest ways to develop a holistic systems viewof an organization is through collecting stories. Assessmentsthat depend on didactic interviews can produce an inaccu-rate picture of the performance issue(s) an organization faces.Stories are encoded with information. Examining a largearray of stories enables a performance technologist to dis-cover patterns from which he or she can draw conclusions;this also results in a more reliable cause analysis. Creatingsummaries of these stories to substantiate findings facilitatescommunication with all parties involved. People mayrespond more readily to stories that support cause-analysisstatements and performance recommendations than they willto reams of data and complicated theoretical models.

Stories are also powerful tools for developing and nurturingpartnerships. Storytelling is a safe space for creative thinking,negotiating differences, and establishing commonality. As apractice, storytelling empowers performance technologists byimproving communication through speaking and listening.

Note: Portions of this article are reprinted with permis-sion from The Strategic Use of Stories in OrganizationalCommunication and Learning, M.E. Sharpe, 2005.

References

Boje, D. (2001). Narrative methods for organizational andcommunication research. London: Sage Publications.

Gargiulo, T.L. (2005). The strategic use of stories in organi-zational communication and learning. Armonk, NY: M.E.Sharpe.

Terrence Gargiulo is an international speaker, author, organizational devel-opment consultant, and group process facilitator. He is a four-time author, andhis first book has been translated into Chinese. He holds a master’s degree inManagement in Human Services from the Florence Heller School at BrandeisUniversity and is a recipient of Inc. Magazine’s Marketing Master. Among hisnumerous clients, past and present, are General Motors, Dreyer’s Ice Cream,DTE Energy, the U.S. Coast Guard, Merck, Boston University, the cities ofBoston and Lowell, Massachusetts, Arthur D. Little, Raytheon, and Coca-Cola.Terrence is a frequent presenter at International Society for PerformanceImprovement, American Society for Training & Development, and the Academyof Management international conferences. He may be reached atterrence@makingstories.net or www.makingstories.net.

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Table 2. Three Levels of Personal Story Competencies.