I love telling stories.

But what if you’re an engineer and don’t know where to start when it comes to telling a story?

A colleague of mine was nervous about presenting a customer story to the team. She was completely out of her comfort zone, so I stepped in to give her some storytelling coaching.

“I’m just the person who fiddles with the wires behind the scenes.” She said.

The story centred around a Public Sector customer in healthcare, and I suggested that without her team’s expertise, vulnerable patients could have been put at risk.

“D’you know, I’ve never made the connection between what I do and how it helps people.’ She said.

I saw a lightbulb switch on as she suddenly saw herself in a totally different light. The next day, she didn’t tell a story about technology, she told a story about people.

She asked her teammates to imagine Betty, an elderly widow who lived alone and needed to go into sheltered accommodation…
And her family, wanting her to be nearby…
And a care home, who needed their technical platform to be ready…
And the VMO2 team, who made it all possible.

In that moment she stopped being an engineer.

She became a storyteller. 🧚‍♂️

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