SPRADLING GROUP: A story of cultural engagement and transformation

For the past few years, this multinational had been facing various challenges: top leadership changes, growth in international markets and a need for continued innovation in products and processes. They needed to cultivate change ambassadors from within to mobilize the culture and bring them into the next phase of their group. In partnership with the consulting firm Story Inc., I had the privilege of heading up a cultural change project that lasted over a year and half, starting with forming a select multi-disciplinary group of leaders in storytelling for situational leadership, then a second group who helped in a knowledge management process. In the second year, we implemented different narrative-powered initiatives within the country, original internal marketing and leadership campaigns led by the leaders formed in storytelling and measured the changes of perspectives of the intended internal audiences. More than 50 leaders were formed in storytelling techniques and prepared to be effective cultural ambassadors and change agents.

BUNNY studio: Storytelling for internal branding & employee engagement

This inspiring tech company has had a big goal since their inception: to shape the future of creative digital outsourcing. Over the past few years, Bunny Inc. has gone through incredible growth spurts with clients, professional talents and employees, and in 2018 the company underwent some important restructuring and expansion of business lines.

And while Bunny Inc. has become a point of reference for their successful work with remote teams, at this junction point their CEO knew it was the right moment to make sure the whole team was on the same page regarding the Brand’s identity and story. Any company that is making something new, in this case, opening up this field of creative services that are outsourced through their platform, well it can be easy to get lost in that world.

So we started our work in 2018, gathering information from the leadership team, processing and debating until we had, in early 2019 a well put together Brand Storytelling Guide. The day the CEO presented it to her team in their virtual Town Hall, when she finished telling their origin story, their characteristics, their vision of the future, all in story terms and interlaced with her own personal journey, her team all unmuted their microphones and clapped and cheered at the same time: understanding their Brand Story and identity in such succinct terms was a happy moment for them, and even so it is only the beginning of everything this company is going to achieve.

You can check out Bunny Inc’s origin story here:

www.wearebunnyinc.com/story

UTIPEC: Un sindicato alternativo e innovador con una misión grande

UTIPEC is an alternative union of the Oil & Gas industry in Colombia. They call themselves alternative because their philosophy is different from the traditional unions the country has known; each one of its pillars is the antithesis to the traditional schemes. Through their work, speech, attitudes and leadership, the UTIPEC is on a mission to tell their industry and country a completely different story about what it means to practice unionism in Colombia and what relations between employer and employees could and should look like.

In 2017, when we were first introduced to the organization, it was hard not to be impressed by how much they had already accomplished in six years, but their president and his key leaders were also aware that in order to continue writing this new story, all of their leaders needed to be skilled in storytelling skills. So we began on a project that had two objectives: to align their philosophy in easily understandable narrative terms, and to train a group of leaders in a variety of storytelling skills so that they could hone their social-emotional skills and lead countrywide initiatives based on their storytelling knowledge.

This group of 25 leaders was passionate and eager to grow, after 4 months of weekly formation sessions in storytelling skills for leaders, and a culminating event where they presented their group initiatives, not only the president, but outside community leaders praised the growth they had seen in these leaders and the innovative initiatives which were being presented. UTIPEC continues to thrive, their leaders are still masterful at telling their Story and the work with their stories and their philosophy continues.