“I need each of you to become an author,” I said. The management team looked at each other. I saw a set of eyes roll in the corner. I smiled.

“I need each of you to write a story.” I stopped for dramatic effect. “The story will only be four sentences long.” I could see a silent sigh of relief wave across the room. “In fact, we are going to write that story right now. To make it easier, you will all work with a partner. So, pair up. Let’s get going.”

We had been working on how to communicate our list of values throughout the organization. The idea was to create a story, four sentences long, that captured a positive example of a behavior aligned with one of the values the group had selected. Each manager in the group would be an author. In the room, we had vice-presidents, managers and supervisors. All told, twenty-three members of the management team.

Once each week, a story, written by a member of the management team, would be included in the weekly paycheck of each employee in the company.

In the next ten minutes, twenty-three stories would be created and signed. We had a volunteer from the clerical staff to collect and type them all up. We were covered for the next twenty-three weeks. -TF