Importance of storytelling and leveraging storytelling tools

- We're all wired to love stories. As kids, we cherish them and as adults, we're constantly entertained and inspired by them. It's no surprise then that storytelling has made a significant impact in the business world. As a PMO leader, why should you care about storytelling? When you're leading the communication on your PMO's performance and it's projects, providing just facts and figures will only inform your stakeholders, but sharing stories will engage them. I remember leading a project where our team would fix 800 defects in two and a half months. Some might get impressed by this, but what might make it more memorable is conveying it with a luring start, a solid middle and a powerful finish. Something like halfway through the project, the client almost gave up and threatened to fire us. That's when I joined the project, kicked off its recovery and led the team to fix 800 defects in two and a half months. Not only did we complete the project on time, but also won the follow on support work. That's quite a turn around from when the client was thinking about firing us. So you see, stories can be so much more powerful than plain facts. If you struggle with storytelling, consider these three tools to help you out. The first storytelling tool is words. Make your stories easy to understand by avoiding grammatical errors, acronyms, and functional jargon that stakeholders aren't aware of. And don't forget to give context and provide calls to action so your stakeholders explicitly know what to do. For example, if your project overspend it's monthly budget by 20%, explain the reason behind it and specifically ask the help you need to get it on track. The next storytelling tool is images and charts. Did you know that people retain 10% of what they hear after three days? But when the same information is paired with a relevant image, 65% is retained. This is particularly useful when you have a lot of data points and can guide your audience's attention using bar charts, line graphs, or even infographics. I generally use graphs when showing the trends of progress, whether it's the budget spent or the number of defects fixed over a period of time. The last tool is the medium you use to convey your story. It could be PowerPoint slides or Word document, email, or even a conversation. As a PMO leader, you may have to provide your team with the right mediums like templates for status reports, or even meeting minutes. To control the narrative and get your point across, choosing the right medium for your audience is important. A program manager may need a detailed PowerPoint report on the project, but an executive might need the report and a 30-second verbal update. We're not just wired to love stories. There's a storyteller in all of us. As the leader of a growing PMO, use these three tools to unleash the storyteller within you. It will greatly benefit you, your team and yes, your PMO as well.