Telling Stories or Writing Manuals?

On my first day helping to install kitchens, my job involved attaching the knobs and handles used to open the cabinet doors and drawers. I'd done a lot of carpentry work and had a lot of experience with power tools so I was pretty comfortable with the task. I made a jig, held the jig onto the door with my left hand, and then proceeded to drill holes in the cabinet doors. On the third door, because of the way I was holding the door, I proceeded to drill through the door and right into the middle finger of my left hand. As I bled all over the lovely new kitchen, I learned a safety lesson that I don't think I'll ever forget. There's still a little scar there twenty years later.

I've told this story to various friends over the years, and was surprised to get feedback on it recently. Chatting with a long-time friend who works at a large technical school, he described a new ten-page manual that the safety committee just released for operating an electric drill. We joked about this, as we were both pretty sure that nobody will ever read that manual, let alone use it in any meaningful way. He then mentioned my story, which pops into his head every time he uses an electric drill, especially while holding the workpiece with his other hand. He credited my story with saving his fingers many times over the years.

Whether you're trying to convey your safety messages to employees, or to clarify your personnel policies or company values, many companies are using "company stories" to augment or completely replace their comprehensive written manuals. We humans are naturally drawn to engaging stories, and we remember them easily, unlike a boring, lengthy manual that we don't ever read.

When you want to develop a certain style of customer service, capture and share some stories about what you consider to be really good, and really bad, service experiences. To convey how you'd like your managers to handle employee situations, capture and share stories of what happened when it was done particularly well, or particularly poorly, in the past.

Tell more stories. Write fewer manuals.