Story Matrix

As you may have noticed by now, my thinking has been influenced by some very smart, insightful people. Here's another example, from Annette Simmons; "Our intelligence is enhanced by the number of stories we know and the quality of indexing we attach to those stories."

Some people are natural joke-tellers. For some reason, whether it's intelligence or just a twisted synapse, they seem to remember a thousand jokes and be ready to tell them at a moment's notice. In essence, they somehow "index" the jokes. Enter the matrix...the Story Matrix. This is the second tool in our toolbox, and its purpose is to give leaders ready access to their own stories so that they can be more consistent and intentional about weaving those stories into their communications. Here the connection is made—connecting desired outcomes to the stories that will help shape behavior and action.

Think of the brain as a storage room. We are constantly accumulating information and knowledge, putting it in boxes, and throwing these boxes into our storage room. Because so much information is coming at us in a never-ending wave, we just prop the door open and throw stuff in as fast as we can.

But look at the room. It's a mess! The boxes are lying all over the place and they are piled up near the entrance. Because they haven't been consistently well organized or even labeled, we have no idea where to find anything, and we are not using the space wisely. Boxes are piled up inside the doorway and the back of the room is nearly empty. We have to step over all of the boxes of junk in the doorway just to get to the stuff we really need.

Along comes the Story Matrix, which serves as the shelving, labels, and containers for your information and knowledge—your stories. It is the organizing element that makes our knowledge and information accessible and useable.

It's one thing to have a repository of stories, it's quite another to have them organized so that they become useful. Think of some of the other artifacts of your life, such as your music collection or those photos you took on your last vacation. These are very useful to you only if you can find what you are looking for when you need it!

The Story Matrix represents the turning point where our stories become tools to tackle our challenges and ignite performance. We have captured the stories in our Win Book, and now we must think deliberately about where a specific story will have the strongest positive impact.

Here is a blank Story Matrix:

The Story Matrix is a simple spreadsheet that places a leader's stories into different categories. The stories themselves come from the Win Book (and other places) and they spread out like batter onto the waffle iron of the Story Matrix. Day by day, as you use your Win Book or comb through past books, stories become apparent and are captured on the Story Matrix. Now, in retrospect, information and events that looked like only data points at the time they were happening become key puzzle pieces of a larger story.

In order to serve as a tool to organize your stories, the Story Matrix is structured as a grid with two axes. The vertical axis is where the nature of stories and the different types of impact they have on performance comes into play. Although not set in stone, the vertical axis is meant to be more rigid.

The categories of success, failure, fun, and legends are the broadest four categories that still have key distinctions between them. In order to ignite performance, leaders need to be telling all four types of stories, because each type of story has a different impact.

Unlike the vertical axis, the horizontal axis is designed to be more flexible. Each category on the horizontal axis is designed to capture one of your main areas of influence. If you are a professional salesperson, you will likely be using your stories to influence "clients," "support," "process," "execution," "follow-up," etc. If you are a senior executive, your areas of influence will be more broad. Your Story Matrix would likely include "operations," "sales," "financial," "governance," etc. An entrepreneur might have areas of influence like "partnering," "business development," "teamwork," etc. You get the picture! Another way to figure out what truly belongs across the top of your Story Matrix is to ask yourself this question: "What are the five most common functional or performance areas that I have to influence?"

Here are several examples of different types of Story Matrices for different types of leaders:

In the preceding examples, you will notice that a "layer" of each Story Matrix has been "peeled back" to reveal the story underneath. The actual story, its "lessons" (or morals) and its "applications" helps you think through where that particular story might positively impact your performance or the performance of your team.

Click on this link and you can download a "starter" Story Matrix. This file is simply an Excel spreadsheet designed to provide a place for you to capture your stories and keep notes about them. Don't waste any time—start building your Story Matrix now!