CHILDREN love stories and interpret our cultural moral code from those stories. For example, three-and-a-half-year-old Tasha knows who are the good princesses and who is the evil queen in Disney stories.
Her two-year-old brother Nathan learns from Thomas the Tank Engine stories that when you break the rules you go off the rails.
His dad Andrew Bryant observes that Nathan even exclaims very loudly "oh no!" when this happens.
Story lessons
Motivational speaker Scott Greenberg notes: "A lesson disguised as a story is more likely to be absorbed by a student."
He adds: "For example, when we want to teach a child not to ask for help if it's not needed, we tell the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf."
A story with a moral at the end is much more effective than the moral on its own.
It's the same at our workplace
In the wider commercial sector, leadership coach Andrew Bryant states that effective leaders also tell stories that let their followers know what the vision and culture of the organisation is.
These stories get retold and strongly influence the behaviour of the team or workforce.
Andrew recalls that when he was teaching coaching skills at Singapore Airlines he noticed how they regularly used stories of exemplary customer service to validate and reinforce the behaviour of going the extra mile service (GEMS).
Key reference: Self Leadership International
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