Storytelling as a Critical Success Factor in Design Processes and Outcomes

Design Management Review, Summer 2004 by DeLarge, Craig A

In many organizations, storytelling is an untapped design management resource. Craig DeLarge, with colleagues George Allen, Phil Cole, and Janet Carlson, define the nature of this tool and explain how it can be used to refine strategy, build cultural awareness, promote teamwork, convey lessons learned, and strengthen communications. Their analysis concludes with a compendium of tips for effectively exploiting this device.

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Stories have great potential for improving design processes and outcomes when they are consciously leveraged as a design management tool. As part of my MBA studies at the University of Westminster, I conducted research into the potential of storytelling as an enhancer of design practices and relationships with clients. The importance and power of stories lie in their ability to make sense of events, call up memories, teach lessons, inspire empathy and enthusiasm, and suspend disbelief. They are powerful tools.

Stories: Definitions, Types, and Forms

Writer David M. Boje defines a story as any "oral or written performance involving two or more people interpreting past or anticipated experience."1 He further asserts that stories are "the preferred sense-making currency of human relationships among internal and external stakeholders in organizations."2 Bringing this concept closer to home, David Philmlee says that "design is the simple conveyance of a story."3 If this is the case, then one might say that designers are storytellers and that design managers fundamentally manage stories. Stories give life, context, and order to facts. A bit of study reveals that stories come in a variety of forms. Here are a few of the main types:

* Hero stories, feature characters who demonstrate high levels of skill and savvy and achieve great things.

* Survivor stories, talk about how things go wrong but are repaired in the end. These can be the antithesis of the hero story, which often sends a message that the organization and its leaders are incompetent, but that "we found a way around them."

* "Steam valve" stories, reduce stress and build camaraderie and loyalty, often in a humorous, dramatic, and irreverent manner.

* "Kick in the pants" or "learn from mistakes" stories, tell of pending or present threats we should change to avoid, or of lessons we learned because of past threats gone unheeded.

* Trust stories, build affinity, heal conflict, and facilitate change.

Aside from the basic verbal and written narratives we hear every day, stories come in other, often abstract, forms such as:

* Rites (events), which reenact important narratives in cultures. Examples include rites of passage, which denote promotion or progression; political rites, in which people or practices are validated or invalidated; calendrical rites, which call us to remembrance; rites of exchange, which accompany important transactions; rites of communion, which solidify alliances and partnerships; and rites of affliction, which commemorate loss.

* Physical objects, in the form of logos, symbols, art objects, buildings, and so on, are abstract stories that "express the underlying character, ideology, or values of an organization.''4 popular example of this is the Apple iMac, which represents a rebirth of the Apple brand.

* People, particularly leaders, are stories when they embody and live out a narrative that inspires admiration and imitation or warns against a way of being. Currently, for instance, the stories of Martha Stewart, Dennis Kozlowski, and Bernie Ebbers represent narratives that warn us about the negative consequences of greed and avarice.

* Games, in the form of simulations, roleplays, and exercises, are also abstract stories that teach lessons and allow experimentation with actual or alternative realities. (One such game, depicting the workflow process in a design department, is described later in this article.)

It is important to note that any story form can carry any particular story type. Indeed, the point of this research was to uncover where and how these forms and types are used as critical success factors in design and client service situations.

Storytelling in the Design Process

In this research, I examined whether and how Storytelling served as a critical success factor in design client-consultant relationships. To do so, I took a reporting sample of approximately 100 designers, design managers, and clients and studied the use of stories, as well as the witnessing of the use of stories. This research concluded that stories are used as a critical success factor most often in situations involving change management (88 percent), strategy presentation (82 percent), team building (80 percent), and innovation seeking (77 percent). This research further concluded that stories are used most beneficially to build trust, achieve shared understanding, simplify what is complex, and offer examples and models.

In organizations, stories can be applied in many ways, which I have generally categorized into: 1) strategy articulation and execution; 2) cultural development, of which team building, knowledge management and training, and change management are a part; and 3) client service and development. Research respondents reported that, applied in these ways, stories have benefited them in situations of strategy presentation, training, negotiation, team building, conflict management, role clarification, futures exploration, and more. Below is a more detailed explanation of these applications, with examples.