In Ty Montague’s book, “True Story: How to Combine Story and Action to Transform Your Business,” he states …
“the best-run and most successful companies convey one clear, understandable story through every action they take, not solely through their marketing.”
Why are these companies more successful?
Because, they maintain complete alignment in their vision, mission, values and corporate messaging — and as a result, they deliver a superior employee and customer experience.
The ability to deliver “one clear, understandable story” has become essential as companies battle to secure and retain not only customers, but the best possible talent.
But how can executives establish alignment? Montague says …
“Make understanding and telling your company’s story both a shared responsibility across the whole organization and a core value of the company. If you do this, you — and your shareholders — will reap the rewards.”
Many executive teams are acting on his advice and investing in organizational change and internal communication programs that align “their story on the inside” (i.e., vision, mission and values) with “the story customers experience on the outside” (i.e., messaging, positioning and promise). They are going through the process of creating a unified story and breaking down the barriers that have been preventing that story from being shared consistently inside and outside of the organization.
One of those barriers is isolated ownership, as Montague mentioned. Most of the companies that we work with have separate stakeholder groups managing each of these stories, and there are no formal processes in place to ensure the stories are aligned. What we find is that the executive team, in partnership with human resources, owns the vision, mission and values … while marketing typically owns the corporate positioning, promise and messaging. This results in different stories, to varying degrees, being shared internally and externally.
The end result: mixed messages and confusion in both the employee and customer experience. The business impact: less-than-competitive employee and customer recruitment, retention and loyalty.
The opposite is also true. When employees fully embrace the corporate vision, mission, values and corporate story — it positively influences business performance. Employee productivity and loyalty increases because they feel they are contributing to something larger than just their job. Their decisions and actions also align with the company’s higher purpose and promise to customers — dramatically improving the customer experience.
So, if you want employees and customers to buy into your story — it must be aligned. And it must be brought to life consistently inside and outside of your organization. The stronger the connection and consistency between these stories, the stronger and more positive your employee and customer experience will be.
In the end, creating a fully aligned internal and external story matters. And what matters even more is having an intentional and sustained communications strategy in place that brings that story to life.
This is what Montague was talking about, and this is what ultimately separates high-performing companies from the also-rans.
What story are you sharing with employees? What about your customers? Are they aligned? If not, you are leaving money (recruitment, retention and loyalty) on the table.
