One of the aspects I love about my job is when I work with clients to co-create something wonderful. So, I’d like to share an example which occurred when Chris Freund, the Founder and Managing Director of Mekong Capital, contacted me after reading Stories for Work.

An Ambitious Plan

Chris had an ambitious plan of finding and documenting 100 stories over a 12-month period. The stories generated would be shared by him and his team to communicate and demonstrate the company’s values and guiding behaviours. Chris knew that these stories would be immediately helpful, but he also had a five-year plan to publish a book containing these stories.

I love a good challenge, so I was really excited about what Chris wanted to do.

Investing in Storytelling Skills

Chris also knew that skilling his team in how to find and share stories was critical to the success of his plan. So in March 2018, I travelled to Ho Chi Minh City and spent three days with Chris and the leadership team teaching them how to share stories more effectively. Every day the team would come with more stories and practise sharing them using the framework I taught them. By the end of the three days over 60 stories had been identified for sharing. This was bloody amazing considering the goal was 100 for the year.

Achieving Targets

The team decided to set themselves targets to find and document more stories. When I returned six-months later for another two days, they had already reached their target. Now, three years on, they have well over 400 stories documented, that they share internally and externally.

Brand Storytelling

I believe what Chris and the team are demonstrating is brand storytelling at its best. I have not seen any other company implement brand storytelling as well as the team at Mekong Capital. Their commitment and consistent momentum to find and share stories are truly a part of how they connect and engage with not only their employees but also their clients and investors.

If you are interested in this process, download the chapter that showcases how Mekong Capital went about implementing brand storytelling.

P.S. You may be interested in discussing how I can work with you and your leadership team to implement brand storytelling. If so, please contact us to discuss.

P.P.S. I also featured Chris on my podcast that you can listen to here.