Chief Change Officer
#153 From Buzzwords to Real Words: Chris Hare on Mastering Atomic Storytelling — Part One
Wed, 29 Jan 2025
Chris Hare has helped big-name executives tell better stories. But today, the tables have turned—he’s the one sharing his story, and I get to ask the tough questions. In this three-part series, we break it down step by step: • Part 1: Corporate storytelling—how businesses craft messages that actually work (and when they don’t). • Part 2: The power of personal storytelling—Chris opens up about his own experiences and the most memorable stories he’s heard. • Part 3: Storytelling in action—Chris shares tools to help us develop our own narratives, and I put myself through the process (with a slight risk of emotional breakdown). If you’ve ever wondered how storytelling can shape careers, businesses, and even personal growth, you won’t want to miss this. Key Highlights of Our Interview: Stories Fuel the Narrative “In my mind, stories are time-bound: this happened, it started here, it ended there. But the narrative is ongoing—it’s an architecture shaping the direction of an individual or company.” Storytelling’s Overplayed? Think Again “For years, I wouldn’t even call myself a storyteller because it was so overplayed. Everyone is using frameworks like the hero’s journey as if they’re paint-by-numbers. But storytelling is far more complex.” The Narrative Flywheel: Stories That Drive Strategy “The stories are the fuel that flows into the flywheel. We synthesize them, find patterns, and decide where to play and how to win. Then, with experimentation and learning, we create more stories—and the flywheel keeps spinning." Human-Centered Design in Action: Logitech’s Transformation “Bracken Darrell took Logitech’s failing narrative and reframed it with a vision: human-centered design across every part of the company. This vision wasn’t pushed from the top but inspired teams, driving Logitech’s turnaround—from 30-day financial reporting to just two.” Connect with us: Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Chris Hare --Chief Change Officer-- Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself. Open a World of Deep Human Intelligence for Growth Progressives, Visionary Underdogs, Transformation Gurus & Bold Hearts. 6 Million+ All-Time Downloads. Reaching 80+ Countries Daily. Global Top 3% Podcast. Top 10 US Business. Top 1 US Careers. >>>100,000+ subscribers are outgrowing. Act Today.<<< --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.EdTech Leadership Awards 2025 Finalist.18 Million+ All-Time Downloads.80+ Countries Reached Daily.Global Top 1.5% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>170,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Chapter 1: What is the purpose of this podcast episode?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chan, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist community for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world.
If you've been listening to my show, you know I bring guests from all corners of the world to share their stories. Through these stories, we dive into hindsight, insights, and foresight for you, the progressive-minded listeners who crave change. Whether you're navigating a career shift
a personal transformation like health challenges or driving change in your organization or community, there's something here for you. Today's episode has a unique twist. I'm interviewing a storytelling expert to share his own story.
My guest, Chris Hare, is a strategic narrative advisor and coach for companies like Amazon and Microsoft, guiding leaders and executives with his approach called Atomic Storytelling. His method breaks down complex stories into their cool, resonant elements. In this three-part series, we'll journey through Chris' experiences in three stages.
Chapter 2: Who is Chris Hare and what is his expertise?
Today, in part one, we'll explore his expertise in helping businesses craft compelling corporate stories and understand the connection between story and narrative. Tomorrow in part two, we'll look at storytelling for personal transformation as Chris shares some of the best and worst stories he's ever heard he will also open up about his own mental health challenge.
Then in part three, he'll introduce tools we can use to develop our own stories and narratives. And here's a personal confession. I told him one of his exercises might just make me cry. I'll also be sharing my own experience with another exercise, highlighting both his challenges and insights. So let's dive into the first chapter of Chris' story. Good morning to you, Chris.
Welcome to Chief Change Officer.
Good morning, Vince. Thanks for having me.
Chris is also a podcast host, so it's a pleasure to have him on my show today. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to return the favor and join his show one day. Now, Chris has a ton of experience in storytelling. And as many of my listeners know, I ask every guest to share their story.
So inviting a storyteller like Chris to dive into his personal journey and share his approach to storytelling feels like a perfect fit for this episode. Chris, let's kick things off with your story. Give us an overview and then we'll dig into different elements of your journey.
I actually love to start with the future that I'm working to create. So for me, I'm working to create a future where business leaders and just humans in general are celebrated and remembered, not just for what they've built, but for how they built it. who they took with them, and also who they became in the process of getting there. So very much anchored in the future.
My background, I started a very meandering career and then went into advertising, then went to Amazon and Microsoft, started my company in 2016, focused on marketing. And ultimately, probably around 2019, 2020, started to shift into strategic narrative practice.
So essentially translating the business strategy of a company into a narrative that aligns everyone from the board to the buyer who may want very different things around shared and differentiated future. And then now I still do that work, but I'm also significantly focused on the leaders and the narratives that drive them and to help them create that future that I was talking about.
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Chapter 3: What is the difference between stories and narratives?
heard their experiences, and as a result, brought those stories into the ecosystem and rewrote the narrative and said, actually, we believe the future might include these brand owners. And when that happened...
out a tectonic shift now i believe those brand owners i believe are they're an extraordinary part tens of billions of dollars if not more of amazon marketplace's sales and so in that case the third generation owner that he met they told him a story so that's the story and then it shifted the narrative which is this is the future of amazon marketplace so that's how i view the interplay of them
So as I understand it, narrative and story really reinforce each other. If I'm hearing you correctly, you're saying that a narrative isn't static. It can evolve over time. For example, in a business context, you might start with one narrative that helps attract customers or business partners.
Those people in turn generate their own stories, which marketing and communications teams can collect to learn more about the customers and their experiences. These stories then help to reshape or even reposition the narrative, potentially attracting a new segment of the market. Would you say that's a fair summary of how narrative and story interact?
If we had our cameras on right now, you'd see a huge smile on my face. Yes, exactly. That's exactly it. So I find it helpful to think about it as a narrative flywheel. That's probably my Amazon background. But exactly. So the stories are the fuel that flows into the flywheel.
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Chapter 4: How can storytelling drive business strategy?
And then within that, the stories come in, and then we synthesize those stories and look at the patterns within them, look at the different directions they could take us. And then we make choices about those, Roger Martin's Where to Play and How to Win. Based on these stories that we have now synthesized, we are going to make decisions about where to play and how to win.
And then lastly, then we have experimentation or learnings from those that then create more stories. And then we continue to bring in stories from the ecosystem and around it goes. But you're exactly right. And I think the other piece that you said that is really powerful is is if you're Amazon or any other large company and you're to come out with
like a narrative you need to have one narrative but you also spoke to the flip side which is you said it needs to be flexible and there needs to be room for experimentation and so i think there is dr herminio bar at london business school talks about this for the individual is running experiments around different possible future selves when you're talking about your own narrative but again with companies i think you can do the same thing you're not going to put a bunch of different narratives out into the world and tell the world
Hey, shareholders, we're going to experiment with all these narratives. You've got to come to the market with one narrative, but having the ability to experiment and learn with possible futures and then use that to adapt ongoing.
Is the narrative essentially part of the branding or is it something bigger? In other words, does the narrative serve as an umbrella under which the brand and all its messaging operates? Or are they distinct but closely related? How would you explain the relationship between narrative and brand in a business context?
Yeah, so I think I was just thinking about this morning before our call is that a business is a collection or an ecosystem of narratives and not an infinite number, but seemingly infinite number of narratives that are just colliding against each other. I have a narrative internally about what you're saying right now.
Or if you're my manager, you have a narrative about me and what I'm doing with my time and what my future is. We have all of these narratives that can collide with one another. In an ideal world, there's one narrative within a company. One of the challenges is the way that the word narrative is used. Oftentimes within companies, the chief marketing officer will say that they own the narrative.
I had a conversation with someone from a company, a well-known company, that was struggling a lot. And this person's manager was the CMO, and the manager said, I own the narrative. I want you to work with me on the narrative. And the CEO came to this person and said, I own the narrative. I want you to work with me on the narrative.
So you can see right there, at a meta level, the challenges they're having with their own narrative about narrative. But...
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Chapter 5: What are atomic stories and their significance?
So far, we've covered a lot about narrative and storytelling in a business context. But as you mentioned earlier, Narrative can also play a powerful role at an individual level for leaders, for people in career transitions, or even entrepreneurs building a new venture. My next question naturally is, how do we apply narrative and story to individual situations?
Could you walk us through some examples to help administrators
I found it, and the young people listening might need to go to Wikipedia and look up what a cassette is. But I find it helpful and more visceral to think about narrative and our personal narratives as a cassette tape, a tape that's playing in our head, right? And that we're constantly writing and rewriting that and adjusting that.
This is the future I'm creating, or this is what's happening in the present, or this is what happened in the past. And we fuel that with stories. So I'll give you a few different practical examples. So one, I have this one CEO that I work with. He's a serial CEO and board member. And Chicago MBA, you can go Chicago, I know you're a fan. Chicago MBA, McKinsey consultant.
Chapter 6: How did a narrative shift impact Amazon Marketplace?
When he came to me, he said, it was, how do I, I have one narrative that I use with private equity, another that I use with venture capital, another that I use with board roles when I'm interviewing. And then I've got my hippie yoga community and my nonprofit work.
Just now, Chris shared with us his expertise in helping businesses craft compelling corporate stories and educate us to understand the connection between story and narrative. Tomorrow in part two, we'll look at storytelling for personal transformation as Chris shares some of the best and worst stories he's ever heard. He will also open up about his own mental wellness challenge.
Thank you.