I had an interesting experience recently that I feel sure will cause each and every one of you to shake your head in dismay. While entering a hotel where I was meeting someone, I happened to see that there was some sort of big corporate training event going on. There was a big sign that said LECG Register Here, or something like that.
It was on a long table where a few people sat with piles of folders and name tags and all that kind of thing. Since I’m always interested in learning about companies I’ve never heard of, I wandered over, took a look, and realized I was none the wiser. So…I asked the people at the table what the company did.
And they couldn’t tell me! The first answer was…”we’re consultants”. All of you know this gives you exactly zero information. I tried to drill down to what they actually consult about and found myself unable to find out. After a couple of questions it was clear that the table people were getting flustered by this so I thanked them for their time and wandered off.
As I thought about this I realized how strange it is to have employees sitting at a table giving out information to event attendees and being totally incapable of telling a prospective customer or partner or writer what the company does in a short, simple way.
Executives often tell me that everyone in the company knows what they do. When we ask “everyone” we often discover it really isn’t true. They really don’t know the story. They share something that can be close or that can be diametrically opposed to the message the company is trying to present. It can be quite the wake up call to the executive.
So we’re back to story. What’s your story? Is it clear? Do all your people know it? More importantly, if they don’t know it how can they be passionate about it, share it, live it?
And now that I think about it, do you know your story? Do you even have a story?
