Using story intentionally to lead culture change

Executive overview

Leaders managing organizational transitions typically focus on logistics — who reports to whom, what changes, what stays the same. This misses the human dimension that determines whether a culture shift succeeds or fails.

Story is not a communication tool; it is the mechanism by which culture and identity are created and changed.

Two story types drive intentional culture work: the embodied story (what leaders live first) and the received story (what surfaces from employees when prompted well). Together they form a top-down and grassroots-up model for lasting culture change.

The cost of leading without story

• An organization sale announced with two hours of logistics but no "why" left employees confused for months.
• Without a framing story, people piece together their own narrative — often one of opacity and distrust.
• Contrast: a leader facing a beloved manager's departure told a story about landing unexpectedly in Stockholm. The team referred to "Stockholm" for over a year; the transition went smoothly.
• Stories are fractal — a single three-minute story reveals the broader culture of an organization.

Why story shapes culture

• Neural coupling (mirror neurons): listening to a story that works is neurologically similar to living the experience.
• Behaviors encountered in stories are held in the body almost like muscle memory.
• Anticipatory principle (David Cooperrider): organizational systems move in the direction of the stories continually placed in front of them.
• Pro tip: identify the behaviors you want more of, then tell stories that contain those behaviors — and keep telling them.

Embodied stories: leaders go first

• An embodied story is not one you tell — it is one you live first, then let others tell.
• Three characteristics of culture-defining embodied stories: surprising, countercultural, repeatable.
• Example: WD-40 CEO Gary Ridge posted his 360-degree feedback publicly for all employees to see. His quote: "If I expect you to grow, I have to be willing to grow as well."
• Result: WD-40 achieved some of the highest employee engagement scores in the world.
• Research finding: no successful culture change has ever begun with an announcement that a culture change is happening. Announcing it has no correlation with success.
• The leader's countercultural behavior creates the story. Intentional amplification of that story spreads the behavior across the system.

Received stories: surfacing stories from the system

• There are stories inside your organization that you have not heard. They define who you actually are.
• Sending an email asking for stories almost never works — people don't know what "a story" means and don't know what good looks like.
• Run story circles: groups of four or five, in-person, with a specific prompt.
• Design prompts around values in action: "Tell me about a time a team member embodied [value] in a way that inspired you."
• Add an emotion word to the prompt: "Tell me about a time you were proud of the way [value] showed up." The emotion word shifts how people search their memories.
• Listening to each other in small groups builds social connection — not just a data collection exercise.
• Curating these stories creates a bank that defines the real culture and builds storytelling capability across the team.

The Chewy example

• Chewy (online pet food and medication) systematically surfaces and shares customer service stories internally and externally.
• Example story: a customer service rep, Ashley, responded to a grieving pet owner with deep empathy. Chewy sent flowers unprompted. The story went viral.
• VP of customer service: "We don't feel like we're talking to customers. We're talking to pet parents. We're feeding their children."
• The mechanism: telling these stories causes the behaviors in them to emerge across the system — the stories are not just a reflection of culture, they are creating it.
• Common mistake: "If I had cool stuff like that happening, I could tell stories like that." It is the reverse — the stories cause the cool stuff to happen.

Scaling intentional culture story work

• Traditional model: skill-building with a team of 24 leaders at a time.
• Emerging model: licensing and certification to bring the same capability to 5,000 people across an enterprise.
• The shift is from individual skill development to system-wide culture change through story at scale.