Cairngorms National Park Authority
The Cairngorms National Park Authority asked us to run an organizational development day that would help employees at all levels find ways of talking about the organization.
It was an opportunity to explore not just what the organization does but also what it stands for. And at the same time to share perspectives and instil a sense of shared purpose and pride. In other words, the workshop tackled a range of corporate branding issues but with people rather than graphics as its focus.
the thinking behind the workshop
The main thrust of the workshop we designed was to examine the relatively abstract language the Authority tends to use when describing its role, and the distinction between it and the Park on whose behalf it works.
Our work took the form of finding real frontline stories of the role being lived out in different settings. We employed a variety of storytelling techniques, some quite physical (a lot of standing up, moving about, bodily engagement) to help move people to different points of view and explore the feelings (not always easy) that result from fresh perspectives.
We also had our client identify a handful of participant-listeners who’d tune into the smaller conversations and the plenary sessions to spot what stories and language worked for them and could work well on behalf of the wider organization.
further possibilities
The workshop we designed can work for all sorts of organizations wanting to explore the potential of storytelling to help people talk about their organization from the point of view of their own experience rather than in dead corporate speak. In fact we’ve since re-run a variation on it for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
