Stories Define What Kind of Company You Are

0:01This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+. Listen to the heartbeat. Chevy is called the heartbeat of America for a reason. With SUVs made to move with your rhythm.

0:35The versatile Equinox tackles your entire day. The spacious Traverse fits your crew and your whole weekend. And Trax brings style with value you can count on. All infused with tech that has your back. So your drive always hits the right chord. Chevrolet. Together let's drive. Malcolm, you talk in the book a lot about over stories. How does that apply to leadership? So over stories is this idea that I was trying to make sense of what is known in the healthcare world as small area variation. There are dramatic differences in the way that doctors practice from one community to the next. If you have a heart attack in Buffalo, you are treated very differently than if you have a heart attack in Boulder.

1:19It's something of a mystery as to why this would be the case? And the answer has something to do with the fact that there are these contagious community norms that govern the way people behave in those domains. I think this is a very powerful idea that clearly applies well beyond healthcare. There are norms that apply to cities and to towns and to companies and to professions. And what they are is a kind of what I call the overstory. They are The sum total of these shared stories values, they kind of coalesce and into a set of loose principles and they affect the behavior of those beneath the overstory, beneath the cloud in ways that we may not be aware of.

2:00The takeaway for someone who is in charge of a company is that creating and maintaining and changing those overstories is crucially important, much more important than we may realize. Paying attention to what the shared stories of a company or institution are is crucially important for governing the behavior of those within the institution.