Telling the Story

In the latest issues of Fast Company, they asked Business school Deans to answer one of the questions on the Student Application. Here was the answer of Paul Danos
Tuck School of Business
Hanover, New Hampshire

Q: What is the most important thing you have recently learned?
A: Progress cannot happen without a good narrative. When I became dean, I learned how powerful the well-communicated idea can be as a tool to inform new directions and inspire new energy.

Eight years ago, we faced an organizational growth imperative. On the basis of bringing in world-class scholars who were also good teachers, we grew the faculty by more than one-third over a five-year period. We also grew the student body by one-third, from 180 students to 240.

Of course, people were afraid of such changes. Tuck is a place steeped in history, spirit, and small-scale community; naturally, they didn't want to lose those things. They needed convincing.

And at first, I didn't realize that it was my job to be the articulator. But I quickly learned. My strategy statement has been at the heart of all of those changes, and I rewrite it every year. The basic notion stays the same: Tuck can be both highly competitive and highly distinctive. But I articulate that message in different ways.

Leadership is an unbelievably hard communications job. You must have a firm grasp of your competitive environment, encapsulate the spirit of an organization, package it in strategic statements, and then emphasize those statements repeatedly, so that the message becomes part of the conversation.

I can't stress enough how important this is. A story will develop. If you aren't careful (and even if you are sometimes), the story will become, "This is no place to be. The congregation (employees) is bitter. The leadership is controlling." Ychh.

But if the story starts from the beginning -- This is a place where you will feel at home. This is a place you will enjoy. This is a place where you can make a difference. And this is a place where a difference will be made in you.

Then the story needs a narrative that moves the people you want to move. Our church is having trouble getting men to come. They just don't see Sunday morning as worth their while. Though the music is contemporary, fast moving, and moving (in my opinion), it doesn't move them. My belief is that what would move men is again, stories, stories of changed lives.

Our multimedia team needs to film several stories and put them into a form we can use on Sunday morning. So part of our "Story" is that we tell stories.

If that doesn't work, we'll try something else! (Note that Danos above says he rewrites his narrative every year.)