Storytelling Drives Knowledge and Information Sharing Across Qualcomm

Employees will share stories about their work experiences and their company. They always have and they always will. Qualcomm is using that storytelling tendency as a way to communicate and reinforce the company&rsquo;s culture and values, disseminate information, identify trends, share attitudes and behaviors, and on-board new employees. It&rsquo;s a low-cost way to share organizational stories that can provide benefits to the organization. <p >In 2005, Qualcomm began to capture employee stories in a program called 52 Weeks. Told from the employee perspective, stories provided insights about the company, business decisions, technology milestones, leaders, work teams, employees and products. To make them more personal, stories typically included pictures of the person the story is about or of teams and products referenced. </p> <p >The 52 Weeks program initially started as a way to communicate company culture and values to new employees. All new hires at Qualcomm were automatically registered on their first day and, for the next year, received a weekly e-mail with a new story submitted by employees or initiated by the employee communications team, which reports to the Qualcomm Learning Center. Since its inception, the 52 Weeks program has expanded and evolved. What began with just an e-mail grew into a 52 Weeks Web site. In addition to new hires, thousands of Qualcomm employees have registered to receive the weekly e-mails and links to the site. </p> <p >Each story is reviewed before posting by the employee communications editorial committee, which decides if it meets the following criteria:</p> <p >1. Does the story fit into one of the company&rsquo;s values, such as execution or innovation?</p> <p >2. Does it meet some other organizational goal?</p> <p align=">3. Does it share an organizational strategy or information about the culture that would be of interest to employees?</p> <p >4. Is it a teachable moment with a lesson learned?</p> <p 4.5pt" >5. Is it memorable?</p> <p >The Web site features graphics, links and story archives to reach more employees and disseminate information about the company to employees globally. Today, employees submit stories as well as photos and graphics they want to share. When the program began, administrators had to seek out stories. Today, they come pouring in.</p> <p >Employees can post comments about the stories they read or tell their own stories on the 52 Weeks site. The internal communications group tracks and identifies which stories are most popular and have the potential for most significant impact on the organization. Through this information-sharing process, ideas are generated that are incorporated into the design of learning content and also are used to create formal opportunities for increased dialogue among employees.</p> <p >Every organization has stories. It is up to learning leaders to capture these stories and share them as widely as possible. Stories are powerful ways to communicate, and in the case of 52 Weeks, they are enabling Qualcomm to maintain an innovative and high-performing organizational culture.</p>