PUT THE FUTURE IN YOUR FUTURE STORY

I helped a woman leave her marriage.

That wasn’t my intention, but it happened when she changed her future story.

Many years ago, she (I’ll call her Louise) and I, along with ten others, attended Dr. Fred Mitouer’s Body Transformation Workshop to become certified masseuses.

I had no desire to practice professionally, but I wanted to learn from the experience and to gain the ability to help my family and friends with their body challenges.

At the workshop, Louise listened with great interest as I shared my experience leading companies, universities, and city leaders through Future Vision exercises that led to significant, positive organizational change.

During the afternoon break, Louise asked if I could lead her through a personal guided visioning exercise, which I agreed to do.

After a grounding meditation, I had her close her eyes and begin to envision her future through a story stimulated by image-making and questioning prompts.

Afterwards, Louise opened her eyes and shared the story of what she saw for herself in the future.

With great smiles and excitement, Louise shared a beautiful picture of travel, personal agency growth, creative productivity, and warm friendships. Her face looked open, happy, and satisfied.

Then suddenly Louise stared out and shouted in shock…“Oh, my God! My husband is nowhere in my future vision!”

She had completely changed the story of her current predictable life into a future one that was wonderfully fulfilling but profoundly different…and challenging to manifest.

The Transformation Workshop had helped Louise clear out old traumas and stories that no longer served her. This prepared the way for the change story she created. Her current story had run its course, and she deeply yearned for a new life story.

Months after the workshop, I learned that Louise had made the final decision to leave her husband and her previous life story and livelihood. She said she was on an unfamiliar but exciting new path to a future story she knew in her heart she had wanted for a long time.

I share Louise’s story to show the power of Story to make change.

In our consulting business, we call Storytelling one of the four competencies essential to Future Shaping…along with Creative Innovation, Zooming Out/In (to handle complexity), and developing Full Potential.

Storytelling and story-making impact our small and major decisions. They can give us a picture of our future change success and a new way to approach everyday living.

I believe it’s time we become much better at incorporating Story in our work and lives.

WHAT UNDERMINES YOUR FUTURE STORY AND HOW TO AVOID IT

In the world of work, business/organization, and brands, we often find that storytelling is woefully weak or just plain wrong. As a result, stories don’t communicate the essential message of transformation and authentic value to their audience.

Here are a few shortcomings we see in the work world, and some suggestions for improving your story:

The Story Doesn’t Transform Anything — Any story that deserves the title of Story must transform something in the audience; otherwise, it is just information.

Too many brand stories lack a message of transformation. They don’t provide experiences that awaken a new feeling in the person, a new way of being and doing.

Example — Years ago, Apple transformed the world’s relationship to computing and phone connections. They told and lived this future story better than any others.

Suggestion:

First, determine the transformation/change you want to evoke in your audience. Second, build the story, messaging, and experience needed to create a strongly felt change by your audience. Third, carry out a campaign to reinforce the change story over time.

Brand Bragging Creates the Wrong Response — Listening to Brand Bragging is akin to being cornered by someone at a networking event, ceaselessly working to impress you with how brilliant they are. Two sips into your clinched, watered-down cocktail, and you are ready to dump it on their head.

Websites and ads are mostly brag stories…it’s all about how great they are and little to nothing about you, the so-called “valued customer”. B2C companies can be guilty of this, but B2B brands are even worse…perhaps a few should be tried for brand messages of high crimes and misdemeanors.

Suggestion:

Instead of leading with how great you are, focus most of your brand story on your customer’s transformation and their critical issues, problems, and opportunities. Then make them the Hero in a story of solutions. Help them visualize the better world they can have and become heroes to their people and customers because of what you can provide them. Finally, elevate the story from the lower level of “meeting needs” (price of admission) to the higher stage of “fulfilling the vision” of aspirational success…this is what humans yearn for.

The Story is Not “Future Authentic” — Some stories are not authentic to the brand promise to the future. They tell you all about their history and their past cred…“For over 60 years we…” but fail to help you understand how they will play a major role in your future success by keeping their true brand promise.

Your future story needs to change how people hold and view you.

Caterpillar is a construction equipment company…right? Not now. It currently sells more power turbines for data centers, and that is where big growth will be in the future.

This means they must help their future customers understand the significance of this big change by providing their new Future Story.

Even if the stories are future-focused in tone, they can be inauthentic to the brand of the future.

Repeatedly, we find that brands don’t truly understand their brand authenticity and its role in shaping the future for their customers.

Too often, they talk about the features and benefits of their products ad nauseam, but rarely tell their story of the future that will change the customer’s story. That is why their stories can have the smell of inauthenticity, foster doubt, and make no deep connection with their customers.

Customers need to clearly understand and value how your future story changes their future success and their future story with their customers.

Suggestion:

As you begin, take the time to clearly define your pathway to Brand Equity Building (from brand differentiating competencies to brand archetype/purpose to brand character/values to brand messaging and positioning in the customer’s mind).

Then express the brand pathway living out in a story of your “brand of the future”. Use this to tell the authentic future story in the market.

Untrue Purpose-Driven Brand Messages — Today, more customers want to buy brands that are sustainable/regenerative, socially responsible, and life-enriching.

Just claiming “We believe in sustainability” is not sufficient, nor is it seen as true.

Brands must SHOW their story, showing what they and their audience are doing together to make things better. Then authentically live their story over time. It takes time to earn authenticity.

Example — Remember the famous Patagonia Ad…“Don’t buy this Jacket”? Patagonia does the right thing and works with their customers to participate in their story of doing the right thing for the planet.

Suggestion:

Once you clearly define what your brand stands for and “Why you are the one and only” that can deliver on your promise…dive deeply into how you will authentically live the promise and values. Discover how you will partner with your stakeholders to collectively deliver on the authentic promise that adds value and enriches life.

Being Too Slick or “AI Perfect” — Stories that don’t reflect the human touch send out questions about the authenticity, quality, and truth of the message.

When I was in my twenties, I was a retail manager of a China Shop. We taught our sales staff to tell stories of the value of bone china dinnerware. When customers questioned the tiny flaws in the expensive plates, the salesperson would say, “Yes, of course, isn’t that wonderful? It is made by humans. Only plastic plates, made by machines, are perfect.”

With a tsunami of AI smooth, slick, quick storytelling washing over brand messaging today, it brings up the question of what human-made story brings to the game.

The short answer is a depth of meaning, taste, and visible human touch.

AI slick, quick storytelling may produce a lot of content and appear more efficient, but human creativity and touch will be lacking, and people will sense it.

As my daughter, a professor of creative writing at Columbia University, recently told me, “I can smell AI in a student’s story a mile away.”

Suggestion:

Increase and accelerate the human basis of creating an authentically compelling Future Story.

Tell the Story at all points of contact — from brand/organization messaging, to providing products and services, to working with others to create a better future.

The signals of human touch and taste come from a complex range of human sources — the value of human creativity, uniqueness, and imperfection; emotions, soul, and spirit; impulse, intuition, and imagination; deeply felt experiences, ritual, and future images of human change.

Advice — Use AI for research and verification, if you want, but always ensure the power of the human touch is felt in your Future Storytelling.)

How we make and tell our Future Stories will be up to us. However, always remember that the stories we choose to embrace now will shape future decisions and outcomes.

Article by: Dan Beam, CEO of BEAM, Inc.

Illustration by: Drew Beam, CCO/Partner of BEAM, Inc.