The movement I can believe in

I have been doing a lot of chatting with people about leadership and how they build teams.

One of the things that is getting clearer and clearer for me is that a central missing ingredient when a team isn’t growing, is a vision or a story.

I came across a story about Pixar and Disney studios, in H.R. Leader magazine, and what they said I really found helpful:

According to (Bill) Capodagli (a culture expert), it’s all to do with creating the story of the organisation. The motto in Pixar and Disney is: “The story is king.”

One of the ways of creating this culture of fun is ensuring that every person in the organisation knows what their own dream is and what the company’s dream is. Therefore they become excited about what they’re doing and where they are going, and while they are having fun in work they are still working towards a common goal and vision.“

At Pixar they say the story is king. And every team has a story and revolves around telling that story,” he says. “The same thing needs to happen whether you are publishing books or making refrigerators or selling hot dogs; what is the story of your organisation, does everybody know what the story is, the mood and how to engage your customer, and how to make your customer part of that story – whether it is making a product or providing a service so that every one on the team knows their role in that story.”

Capodagli equates it back to the show business model that Walt Disney created. Although your role may be a supporting role backstage, Capodagli says you know how important it is to the entire production. “When people know what they are doing within the organisation then the mood within the organisation needs to be collaborative, and the way to make it happen is to make it a fun experience.”

The greatest leader who ever lived came and told a story. He told a story of the Kingdom of God that was so radical that people dropped what they were doing, changed their life priorities and followed.

One of the lines from U2′s song “acrobat”, says “I’d join the movement if there was one I could believe in”. I think that is true of most people.

When people aren’t coming it may not be their problem, it may be that we need to find a way to tell a story that they can believe in.