the pow storyt

By Mike Scanlon, ICMA-CM

W h y b e c o m i n g a s to r y t e l l e r c
line. to the contrary, those of us in management need to become better storytellers because quite the opposite of blurring the management/governance line, storytelling can actually help clarify and differentiate that line. storytelling and the case for it can be seen in the best-selling book by doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. Goodwin points out how important storytelling was to lincoln in both his political career and his presidency. you can also hear an extremely good argument for storytelling at Icmas senior executive Institute at the University of virginia. sonny culverhouse, city manager emeritus, who presents at the Institute, regales classes with his stories and urges students to make storytelling part of their management toolkit. who are attracted to and motivated by storytelling. so, lets begin with a story youve likely heard before. An inquisitive stranger was walking down a street when he noticed three bricklayers working just off the sidewalk. He asked the first one, What are you doing? The first bricklayer said, Im laying bricks. The stranger walked a little further and asked the second bricklayer, What are you doing? The second bricklayer said, Im building a wall. The stranger walked a bit further and asked the third bricklayer, What are you doing? The third bricklayer stopped, stood up, and using the trowel in his right hand outlined in the air and described with his words what he was building. He was building the most magnificent cathedral, and he felt so lucky that he got to build it. the stranger encountered three people doing the exact same job, but each bricklayer had a different vision of what he was building. how can that

s we go through our careers, we pick up management approaches and philosophies that contribute to our success. one such tool, storytelling, has been highly effective in moving organizations in the nonprofit and private sectors toward excellence. we havent fully embraced storytelling in the local government management profession, however, in part because some believe storytelling blurs the management/governance

Takeaways
words weaved into stories can create community action. stories can inspire community
creativity and optimism.

storytelling can provide relevance

and context to a difficult situation.

An Inherent Ability
we all have it in us to be good storytellers. we also have people in our organizations and communities

storytelling can turn words

into action.

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wer of tellinG
a n m a k e yo u a b e t t e r m a n a g e r
be? what if I added to this story that the job foreman told only the third bricklayer what they were building. would it change your view of the first two bricklayers? then what if I asked you as a city or county manager, have you ever failed to communicate the organizations big goals to your employees? have there been times because of time or resource constraints that you simply said to your staff, lay the bricks and build the wall.? weve all done it. Probably more than we care to remember. and how about the managers and the line supervisors below us: what are they communicating? what if you, as a manager, could use this story to explain the importance of communicating the big picture and how it motivates people to see something different or more important? could it change your organization? thats the power of storytelling. city manager I worked for offered me advice that has turned into a story for me. his words to me were: Time and place matter. Theres only one combination of time and place that will ever work. You need to remember that. You can do something at the right time in the wrong place and Ive used this sage advice over and overand it never wears out. Its about examining the context of a decision and weighing it. Its about taking that step back right before you decide and saying, Is this the right time? Its about understanding that decisions are complex and there are

Good stories Get retold and recrafted for different purposes. If a story has relevance today, It wIll have relevance tomorrow. Good stories last.
you will fail. You can do something at the wrong time in the right place and you will fail. And if you really want to fail, do something at the wrong time in the wrong place. To succeed in local government management, make sure whatever youre doing is done at the right time in the right place. Do that and you will be successful. multiple outcomes. Its about defining what is right. Its advice that will endure well past my lifetime and can be used by members of your governing board. In a former city where I served, we were wrangling over whether to have a cellphone ban for drivers in the community. the issue got contentious and

Turning Advice into a Story

when I was starting out, the first

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became a favorite of bloggers and talk radio, even though staff was simply asked to study the issue. To my surprise, when the issue bubbled up under public comments at one of the council meetings, a councilmember was ready with a response to a questioning resident. His response was, Theres a time and a place for a ban. I think the timing might be right for a ban, but I think this needs to be enforced across the entire metropolitan area, not just in our city. Time and place matter with this issue. Yes, I agree that it does. As you can see, a good story or advice can have multiple applications. Good stories get retold and recrafted for different purposes. If a story has relevance today, it will have relevance tomorrow. Good stories last. Annette Simmons, author of The Story Factor, put it best when she said:

Stories are more true than facts because stories are multidimensional. Truth with a capital T has many layers. Truths like justice or integrity are too complex to be expressed in a law, a statistic, or a fact. Facts need the context of when, who, and where to become truths. A story incorporates when and wholasting minutes or generations and narrating an event or series of events with character(s), actions, and consequences. It occurs in a place or places that give us a where. Even if a story is not literally true, it is a very good representation of what is true, because it can weave the relational aspects of facts with space, time, and values.

interested in becoming a better storyteller, here are two books to get you started: The Story Factor by Annette Simmons and Lead with a Story by Paul Smith. Its interesting to note that The Story Factor was ranked in the book The 100 Best Business Books of All Time written by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten. As with anything, practice will improve your storytelling skills. Practice your stories on your peers and friends. Once you get the hang of storytelling, your management style will rise to an entirely different level. So dump the PowerPoint presentations and take up storytelling instead.

Getting Started
All I can tell you is this: Ive become a much better manager now that Ive become a better storyteller. If youre

Mike Scanlon, ICMA-CM, is

town manager, Basalt, Colorado (mike.scanlon@basalt.net).

Profiles of

Leadership and management in action

Being a Credentialed Manager keeps me on my toes! It helps
me approach learning opportunities throughout the year knowing that Ill be recording what I learned, what difference it made, and how it will improve my effectiveness as a leader and manager in my organization.
Susan K. Thorpe
Deputy City Manager, Peoria, AZ ICMA Member since 1981 | ICMA-CM since 2004

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