PRINCIPLE SEVEN:
If you don't tell your story, someone else will
Every organization already has a story in the minds of their audience.
Being intentional about that story helps people understand why you matter and remember you for the right reasons.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Start with telling a better story
When I started at Yale Hospitality, I found out someone else
had already written part of our story. The Yale Sustainable Food Project had
built a powerful narrative around food on campus. Local farming, responsible
sourcing, culinary education, sustainability, all of it tied to their name.
More than that, they'd been telling people for years that they were the ones
shaping what students actually ate at Yale. Compelling story. Wrong story. That
was the problem.
Yale Hospitality was serving roughly 11,000 meals a day,
backed by dozens of professionally trained chefs and a wide network of sourcing
partnerships. But campus perception was being shaped by an organization running
a small teaching farm, part of which was growing flowers. We could've spent
years arguing over who deserved credit. Instead I decided we needed to tell a
better story.
So we stepped back from the collaboration and started
showing people what Yale Hospitality actually was. We brought students into our
kitchens. We brought in vendors and culinary partners. We built Foodie events
around global flavors, responsible sourcing, local farms, giving students
something they could see, taste, and actually talk about. The story changed
because the experience changed. We didn't need to convince anyone Yale
Hospitality mattered. We just gave them more reasons to believe it.
That whole experience taught me storytelling isn't about
controlling the narrative. It's about being intentional with the truth you put
out into the world, and making sure the experience gives people something worth
repeating.
What this taught me...
If you're not telling your story, someone else is probably filling in the blanks.
Don't fight a better story. Create a better experience.
If the experience doesn't support the story, eventually the audience will rewrite it for you.
