I am always on the lookout for a good Creation story and regularly read them on websites. Sadly, many are far from stories and read more like a timeline.

My Definition of a Creation Story

Creation stories are often called Origin stories. In my latest book Magnetic Stories I write about the five types of stories organisations should share; Culture, Customer, Community, Challenge and Creation.

I could have used the title Origin but as all the other words started with C, I went for Creation. I suggest that a Creation story should be how a company started or how a product or service started. One example I give in the book is about the creation story of Barbie as opposed to Mattel. But more on the Barbie story next time (especially in the wake of Barbiemania with the release of the new Barbie movie last week).

The Pint Shop

I came across a good creation story while on holidays in Cambridge. We were looking for some places to eat and drink when I found the Pint Shop. I’ve included the creation story from their website below. I would rate this as one of the better creation stories I have come across.

“The original ‘Beer Houses’ or ‘Tom and Jerry Shops’ as they became known, are viewed by many as the birthplace of today’s pub. At this point in time beer was a rich man’s drink because of its high tax levels. The poor drank gin and lots of it, mostly in illegal gin shops.

Then in 1830, in an attempt to reduce public drunkenness, improve the health of the nation and encourage free trade, The Beer Act was passed. The act allowed anyone that paid a small fee to brew beer and sell it in their home, Beer Houses were born. It even allowed a low ABV beer, called Table Beer to be brewed for children, women and servants as the tap water was so unsafe!

In early 2013 we found an empty grade two listed office building in the centre of Cambridge and fell in love with it. The building dates from 1830 and was once a house (E.M.Forster once lived there). It felt like the perfect place to open our very first Pint Shop. 10 months later in November 2013 we poured our very first beer…”

What makes it a good creation story?

Now that is a good creation story and let me tell you why I rate this so highly.

• It’s interesting and we can learn a few things from it.
• We know it’s a well written story when people read all the way to the end. Keeping it short also helps.
• The story doesn’t focus on the company and only brings in that information at the end.
• It shows their passion for the building.
• Finally the story only references necessary detail (dates/years). This is where most creation stories fail and start moving into a timeline.

Tips for improving the Story

My only suggestion is to add an additional line about their passion for beer and gin alongside their love of the building.

So, well done Pint Shop and if you come across a good creation story, I would love to hear about it.

The photo shows the first two gins we tried (they have over 70). I can testify they also do a brilliant Limoncello and Steve tried out a couple of the 20 plus beers on tap.