The Story-Sharing Method: Mining Your Past for Future Possibility
Your organization's history holds treasure you have not yet discovered. Buried in the stories of your best moments are patterns that reveal your unique gifts and point toward future potential. Most leaders overlook this resource, treating past success as history rather than as a map for what becomes possible next.
The stories that matter are not the ones in your marketing materials. They are the specific moments when your organization was at its best. When a team solved an impossible problem. When you delivered extraordinary value to a customer. When people felt energized and aligned. When the work felt meaningful. These moments contain DNA worth replicating.
Start by gathering stories deliberately. In leadership meetings, department sessions, or company gatherings, ask people to share a time when they felt the organization was at its best. Not abstract descriptions but specific stories with details. What was happening? Who was involved? What made it special? What impact did it create?
Listen for patterns as stories emerge. You will hear certain themes repeat. Maybe multiple stories involve people stepping outside their roles to help. Maybe innovation appears when someone questioned the standard approach. Maybe breakthrough results followed periods of intense collaboration. Maybe your best work happened when purpose felt clear and compelling.
These patterns are not random. They reveal conditions that enable your organization to thrive. They show you what you do naturally when you are operating from your strengths. They point to values that actually guide behavior, not just words on a wall. They demonstrate the unique contribution your organization makes when firing on all cylinders.
The four-step process for harvesting these insights starts with collection. Gather stories systematically from different parts of your organization, different time periods, and different types of success. Technical achievements, relationship wins, culture moments, and service excellence all matter. You want diversity in your story collection.
Second, identify themes. What shows up repeatedly across stories? What conditions were present? What behaviors appeared? What values were being lived? Look beyond surface similarities to deeper patterns. The stories might seem different but share underlying elements.
Third, articulate your gifts. Based on the patterns, what does your organization do uniquely well? Not what you aspire to do but what you actually accomplish when at your best. These gifts become the foundation you build on rather than trying to copy someone else's strengths.
Fourth, connect to future possibility. If these gifts are real and these patterns enable excellence, what becomes possible if you leverage them intentionally? What opportunities align with your gifts? What future would let you operate more consistently from these strengths?
Story-sharing creates energy that strategic planning presentations cannot match. When people hear stories of their organization at its best, they reconnect to purpose. They remember why they joined. They see themselves as part of something meaningful. This emotional connection drives commitment more powerfully than logic alone.
The method also builds connection across the organization. People hear stories from departments they rarely interact with. They discover colleagues doing remarkable work they never knew about. They recognize that excellence happens throughout the organization, not just in highly visible roles.
Leaders who practice story-sharing discover insights they would never find in data. Numbers tell you what happened. Stories tell you how and why. A declining customer satisfaction score is information. The story of why your best customer almost left reveals the real problem and points toward solutions.
Use stories in strategic planning. Instead of starting with gap analysis and problem lists, start with stories of peak performance. Ask "What was working in these moments that we want to amplify?" rather than "What is broken that we need to fix?" This shifts the conversation from deficit to possibility.
Integrate stories into your regular rhythms. In weekly meetings, invite someone to share a recent win story. In quarterly planning, review stories from the past quarter before setting new priorities. In annual retreats, dedicate time to harvesting stories and extracting insights. Make story-sharing a discipline, not an occasional activity.
Your stories contain wisdom about your organization's purpose, gifts, and potential. They reveal what energizes your people and what creates your best results. They show you what to preserve as you grow and change. They point toward a future that builds on your actual strengths rather than someone else's template.
Most organizations suffer from amnesia. They forget their best moments and the lessons those moments contain. They chase the next shiny strategy without understanding what has worked for them in the past. They try to become something they are not instead of becoming more fully what they already are at their best.
Mine your stories. Find the patterns. Name your gifts. Build your future on the foundation of your actual excellence rather than theoretical models. This is how organizations maintain their essence while evolving, how they scale without losing soul, how they grow without forgetting who they are.
Learn the complete framework for building on your organization's unique gifts in Supercharge: A New Playbook for Leadership. Order your hardcover or paperback copy here.
