THE JOURNEY STORY

Are you about to communicate a change that feels like just another change in an endless stream of changes, then the Journey Story Format is powerful to reboot the motivation for the change.

The Journey Story Task

  1. Choose a message and a target audience

  2. Watch Steve Jobs using The Journey Story Format (3 minutes)

  3. Study The Journey Story Format

  4. Prepare your Journey story

  5. Present the Journey Story by Walking the Timeline (or illustrating it with your hands).

Placing the Now

You have the choice of choosing where you want to place “Now” in the upcoming change . There is a tendency to form a narrative where “now” is placed BEFORE the first step, but it is much stronger to place “now” as the NEXT step in an already established and ongoing successful journey.

2. Watch the Video

When Steve Jobs launched the Iphone in 2007, he launched it as Step 3 in an already successful journey:

3. Study the JOURNEY Story Structure

4. Prepare Your Journey Story

  1. What's your change message?

  2. Which previous successes have you created so far that you can link to this change?

    Example: If your change is to introduce Agile Working Method, your journey could be about “Work Smarter Together”, and you can tell about two previous initiatives where you have succeeded with working smarter together. Now, you can introduce Agile as a logical next step.

  3. Which results did the previous initiatives have?

  4. Impact: What did it enable you to accomplish?

  5. Now, formulate your Journey Story using the Journey Story Structure above.


5. Present Your Journey Story by Walking The Timeline

Standing:

  • Establish an imaginary timeline in the meeting room.

  • Begin at the “Now-station” and say: “We’re on a [Working Smarter Together]-Journey. Let me take you back”.

  • Now, say: “Two years ago we did… and it resulted in..”. (Move to “2-years-ago-station”).

  • Now, say :Then one year ago we did … and this resulted in…”(Move to “1-year ago station”.)

  • Today we introduce…. (Move to “Now-Station):

Sitting:

Illustrate the time with your hands, and mark each point in time clearly with your hands.

 

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