So now you know that words can function as condensation symbols. They're capable of calling up powerful feelings. Just the way other dominant symbols do. In this video, I want to add and additional element of that insight. Within teams very often there are stories that get told. They pass from person to person. New members hear them when they join the team. They are part of the team's culture. Here's what I want you to remember. If you hear such stories on one of your teams, it's probably of interest to people because of its value as a condensation symbol. That is, it probably taps into some strong feelings. And most likely, strong feelings that have to do with the team and the team's motivations. Correspondingly, telling good stories often helps to motivate the team, so remember that when you're a team leader. I'll give you an example. I heard the story from someone who is in one of my executive education classes. We were discussing the role of stories. He said that, when he first arrived at the company at which he was then working, he heard a story about another recently hired employee. And here I'll stop to note that the movement of the story between people, this was not about the individual who told it to me, but about another individual. And the story was apparently fairly widely known and discussed within the company. It goes like this. The company had its annual holiday party. People gathered in a large room. And you can imagine it. They sip drinks while waiters brought around hors d'oeuvres. Fairly common type of corporate party, especially for the executive parts of the company. The new employee was in attendance. A waiter walked by carrying a tray on what sat a plate of sushi. The new employee though the sushi looked appetizing, and so he plucked one out off the plate and began to eat it. Immediately, two security guides approached him and escorted him from the festivities. They explained to the new employee that he should never, ever touch the sushi. Those were intended only for the company's owner and current CEO. Whoa, so let's think about that story. Why would it be of interest to employees of the firm? Firstly, of course, it's rather startling. Who would imagine two security guards accosting someone at a holiday party because the person had taken a piece of sushi off a plate? Seems positively out of keeping with the holiday spirit. But let's think about it a little further from the point of view of the employees of the company. If you worked for this company, what would you think about upon hearing the story? Maybe you'd think, what if that were me? Well, if I'd just begun working for that company, I know I would think that was pretty darn scary. I would also be thinking that the owner CEO of the company wasn't a very warm, friendly type of person. So that would lead me to think, I wonder what else I have to watch out for here. It would put an edge of fear on my work. Now, of course fear can be a motivating factor. It can get people to work harder. We'll talk about this more later, especially in the final unit of this class. But the important point here is that a story like this one might circulate around because of what it is telling people about what it's like to work for the company. At least in my case, it would be suggesting to me that I'd be better be careful to figure out the dos and don't of the company if I want to continue working there. So the story is in some ways a dominant symbol of the group. It is a condensation symbol capable of calling up feelings about what it's like to work for that particular team.
