ESSENTIALS MANAGEMENT Amplifying Emotion In addition to underscoring purpose, good stories evoke emotion — real, raw human emotion. What happens in those moments where you feel yourself on the edge of crying? Or you feel your heart expand? Or you smile involuntarily with joy? “In these moments, really think about what is happening to trigger these feelings. How can you create experience with this type of resonance in the lives of your employees?” Faul says. “When people look at their work through the lens of human emotion, everything changes and they better understand the gravity and importance of their work.” He otfen tells managers on his team that he wants every single person to feel excited to talk about their work at weekend parties and atfer-work cocktails — because what they’re doing is meaningful. When you look at the anatomy of this feeling, it’s a combination of pride, conviction and happiness. What events and behaviors cause you to experience these emotions? Perhaps it’s overcoming an obstacle, expressing genuine gratitude for a teammate, appreciating high-quality work. When these things happens at your company, you can double down on the impact by pausing and reiterating what just happened. Really take time to soak it in and celebrate it. If you don’t, your team won’t. Everyone’s default is to move on to what’s next. Remember also that people attach emotion to individuals. They love rooting for people. They love experiencing the world through others’ eyes. The more you can tell stories about actual people that connect to the broader purpose, the more your audience will feel and not simply hear what you are trying to tell them. For example, you might highlight the work of one team member in particular, and explain how it nudged the entire company closer to an important metric. You might emphasize the level of 20