Story by Debora Dragseth

When Pamela Schmidt wants to explain why she left a career in television to start one of the first longterm care insurance agencies in the country, she tells the story of her grandfather’s pride; when Randy Hatzenbuhler wants to inspire 300 seasonal employees at North Dakota’s largest tourist attraction to rise to a higher level of customer service, he tells a story about feeding elk; and when Nancy R. Willis wants to remind the staff at St. Alexius of the importance of the medical center’s mission, she tells a story of nine young nuns bringing health care to the Dakota Territory.

Storytelling is a tool used by leaders when they wish to inspire and engage employees, transform cultures, and communicate the values of their organization in a powerful and memorable way.

Business Watch interviewed five North Dakota business leaders, consummate storytellers who believe that storytelling has the power to lift their organizations to a higher level. Every organization has a story and we hope that these examples will help inspire you to tell yours.

Stories Bring Meaning to the Work We Do
Pamela Schmidt, Storyteller and vicepresident of SIA Marketing and Schmidt Insurance
As a child, Pamela Schmidt’s grandparents were her world. Unfortunately, her grandmother developed Alzheimer’s disease and required nursing home care for 15 years.

Her grandfather required nursing home care for five years prior to his death.

Schmidt tells her employees that her grandpa was a very proud man, and while it was common for people to transfer their assets and let the state pay for their care, her grandfather never considered that as an option.

“He paid for every single day of his and his wife’s care,” Schmidt recalls. “Very shortly before he ran out of assets, my grandfather died. We believe that he didn’t want to rely on anyone else to pay his bills. The work that I do is a tribute to my grandparents.”

SIA Marketing has 15 employees headquartered in Bismarck who serve over 8,000 agents nationwide. “We will never leave North Dakota,” Schmidt stated.

“In the heartland we have built a culture of people who care about making a difference.”

Stories Convey a Legacy to Future Generations
Randy Hatzenbuhler, Storyteller and president, Theodore-Roosevelt Medora Foundation
In the fifth chapter of Max Dupree’s book, Leadership Jazz, the author describes the water carrier in early Native American tribes as the tribal storyteller who communicates the culture and traditions of the people so that they can pass down through the generations.

“The mission of the TR Medora Foundation is ‘Preserve, present and serve,’” Hatezenbuhler said, “and because we, as the water carriers, communicate that mission every day through the story of our founder, entrepreneur and philanthropist Harold Schafer, by the end of the summer all of our 300 seasonal employees get that.”

Employees who never met Harold Schafer (1912-2001) continue to tell stories about him as if they knew him, a powerful example of the institutional memory still alive at the Foundation.

One story that is heard often on the streets of Medora is told this way: An 80-yearold Harold would ask a visitor, “Have you ever seen an elk?” If the visitor hadn’t, Harold would tell him that he would pick him up at 6:00 at the hotel and then he would take this person from New Jersey, or wherever, up to the elk pasture to feed the elk.

Stories Convey Mission and Purpose
Nancy R. Willis, Storyteller and vice-president of Government Relations and Marketing, St. Alexius Medical Center
“For us,” Willis stated, “the founding of St. A’s is our most important story.” In 1878 a group of nine sisters from St. Joseph, Minnesota traveled to Bismarck to establish a school for girls. They were asked by the town to redirect their goal and to instead build a much needed hospital.

In 1885, the sisters purchased the Lamborn Hotel (now Peacock Alley Restaurant) and converted it to a hospital at a cost of $30,000—funds that were raised by the community. St. Alexius became the fi rst hospital in the Dakota Territory, charging $1 a day for each of its 15 beds.

In the early years it was the rugged west with rugged men, but the young, brave sisters persevered in order to serve the community.

“We share this story,” Willis said, “because we are proud of being first; but more importantly, we are proud of being called upon nearly 125 year ago to meet a community need. We want our employees to understand that our purpose is serving those in need and they are expected to continue that service based on St. A’s long tradition of mission.”

Today, St. Alexius boasts 2,100 employees and 309 hospital beds. St. Alexius also uses storytelling to communicate current examples of service. A four-year-old program called “Journey Beyond Excellence” is, according to Willis, a celebration of customer service based on mission.

Nominators write a story about an individual he or she believes should be given the “Higher Standard Award” and these stories, as well as the stories for group award nominees, known as the “Mission Monarch Award,” are shared regularly in the employee newsletter.

“A lot of what we do is storytelling,” according to Willis. “Our employees are encouraged to share stories that exemplify our mission.”

Stories Build Team Spirit Mike Mabin,
Storyteller, president and founder, Agency Mabu
One of Mike Mabin’s favorite stories to tell is the answer to the commonly asked question of how the marketing and advertising agency got its unusual name. Mabu was Mabin’s nickname in high school.

When their first child was born, he jokingly said to his wife that they should name the baby Mabu. She didn’t think much of the idea, but several years later when he began his own company, his wife suggested that he name this “baby” Mabu.

Today, Mabin’s employees identify personally with the name. They are “Team Mabu” and refer to themselves as “Mabu-ites.”

“Storytelling is a way to pass on the culture of the company in a way that builds community. Because we are in a business that focuses on projects,” Mabin said, “it’s too easy to forget about celebrating accomplishments.”

In order to make sure that all accomplishments are honored, each quarter Agency Mabu employees gather to accept their Big Accomplishments Recently (BARs)—actual metal bars engraved with the name of the successful project.

At the quarterly meetings the Mabu-ites tell the story of the project and celebrate together as a team. Employees also are given a Mabu pin upon which to attach their bars as a visual reminder of their success.

Stories Build Community in a High Tech World
Vern Dosch, Storyteller, president and CEO, National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC)
Vern Dosch was challenged with finding a way to communicate to the hearts of his employees, half of whom are located in North Dakota with the rest based in Missouri.

“We knew that simply sharing facts regarding numbers and dollars was not going to connect our employees and create the kind of community that we wanted for NISC,” Dosch said.

“Then, two years ago, we stumbled onto the idea of using a blog.” A blog (short for weblog) is an online journal. Although the main components of the NISC blog are Dosch’s stories, insights and observations, the blog is not just a one-way communication tool. Employees are encouraged to post questions to Dosch.

“I like the idea of having conversations with employees,” Dosch said. “We view the blog as a sort of 21st century fireside chat. I want employees to feel that I am sitting across from them having a cup of coffee.”

“One of our challenges,” according to Dosch, “is that we are a 40-year-old technology company. We are older than Microsoft, for example. We have employees working for us that are only half as old as the company. Now, if you think about that, it is very unusual.”

Using stories as a way to express NISC’s legacy to new employees is an important tool in maintaining the culture of the company. Dosch believes the blog is a way to take the impersonal world of high tech and make it personal.

“The blog is very candid. Employees will fi nd I write about failings and frustrations as well as victories. The blog is brutally honest with the business realities that we are facing every day. I strongly believe that we build trust by telling stories with honesty and candor.”

Happily Ever After
Forget charts and graphs—they don’t have the power to make your company great. Stories of beginnings, leaders, successes, and even failures, are what tie people together as a community. Like the stories we learned as children, business stories can teach, strengthen and inspire.

Dr. Seuss’s book, The Cat in the Hat, emulates the way that change takes place in many organizations. Like the Cat and his accomplices, Thing One and Thing Two, sometimes chaos will “move in” to your business world before order once again prevails.