| 11/05/08 | | The one-arm boy |
There was a boy who was born without a right arm. On his ninth birthday he asked his parents if he could join a karate club. They were delighted by the idea and the boy quickly became a regular at the local dojo. The boy wanted to compete in a tournament and asked his master if this was possible. The master said he could but only if he listened carefully to his master and trusted him.
The master taught the boy one move and one move only. The boy practised it diligently but after a while he was worried that the other boys were learning a range of moves and he only had one. He asked the master to teach him other moves but the master said no. The master just urged the boy to keep practising that one move.
The boy won the first round of the tournament and then the next round and the one after that until he found himself winning the entire tournament. The boy was baffled. How did he do it? He asked the master how a boy with only one arm and only one move could win a karate tournament against these other boys. The master smiled and told the boy that there is only one defence against the move the boy learned and that defence involves grabbing the attacker by the right arm.
I believe this is a Zen teaching story. It was told to me by Pavan Choudary. I spent two days with Pavan and a terrific group of creative people at Conversations that Create. Pavan has recently launched his book, When you are sinking, become a submarine. Pavan is an inspirational and fascinating fellow and if his book is anything like the wonderful conversations we had, it will be well worth getting a copy.
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| 3/05/08 | | Storytelling event in Washington |
My friend Madelyn Blair is busily preparing for two great storytelling events in Washington that start on the 9 May. I believe there are 30 seats left now so you still register to attend
For Goldenfleece Day08 go to http://www.goldenfleececon.orgFor Smithsonian Event, May 9 go to http://residentassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/reserve.aspx?performanceNumber=87387
I wish I could make it because I know there will be terrific conversations about storytelling in business context and I would get to meet many of the people I Skype such as Victoria Ward, Madelyn, and Steve Denning.
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| 23/04/08 | | Communicate with impact |
Imagine presenting without PowerPoint. No slides, no bullet points - just a persuasive message that changes opinion and makes an impact.
The PowerPoint alternative is simple - stories. Whenever you present or communicate, your stories will help you communicate your ideas more meaningfully. That's why global brands such as AXA, Harley Davidson and Nike are utilising their power.
Never submit another audience to death by PowerPoint. Join our Storytelling for Business Leaders Workshop and develop your innate storytelling skills to convey ideas clearly and effectively. Most importantly, you'll learn to build a rapport that stimulates trust and a sense of connection with your colleagues and clients alike.
"Shawn's presentation to our technical sales forum was right on the money. The story telling tactics and skills passed on have been immediately adopted, and are producing higher quality presentations by our team to our clients. We look forward to continuing to develop our skills in this area, which will support the business objectives of our organisation and our customers." — IBM
The workshop will teach you how to find your own stories, understand story patterns and how to share your stories with maximum impact. We'll talk about the six different types of stories and much more ...
Download the Registration Form
We look forward to seeing you there!.
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| 20/04/08 | | Revealing character |
Recently we've been helping people find stories from their life that help give others an insight into the type of person they are. Annette Simmons calls these stories, 'Who am I?' and 'Why am I here?' stories. They are most useful when you meet people for the first time because the two questions they're likely yo have in their mind are, 'Who are you?' and 'Why are you here?' Without answering these two questions it's unlikely they will take in much else of what you say.
The 'Who am I?' story reveals character whereas 'Why am I here?' reveals motivation. I was flicking through Robert McKee's book, Story, and noticed a section on the difference between character and characterisation and I wanted to share this scenario McKee paints for us that graphically depicts how character is revealed.
Consider this scene: Two cars motor down a high way. One is a rusted-out station wagon with buckets, mops, and brooms in the back. Driving it is an illegal alien—a quiet, shy woman working as a domestic for under-the-table cash, sole support of her family. Alongside her is a glistening new Porsche driven by a brilliant and wealthy neurosurgeon. Two people who have utterly different backgrounds, beliefs, personalities, languages—in every way imaginable their characterizations are the opposite of each other.
Suddenly, in front of them, a school bus full of children flips out of control, smashes against an underpass, bursting into flames, trapping the children inside. Now, under this terrible pressure, we'll find out who these people really are.
Who chooses to stop? Who chooses to drive by? Each has rationalizations for driving by. The domestic worries that if she gets caught up in this, the police might question her, find out she's an illegal, throw her back across the border, and her family will starve. The surgeon fears that if he's injured and his hands burned, hands that perform miraculous microsurgeries, the lives of thousands of future patients will be lost. But let's say they both hit the brakes and stop.
This choice gives us a clue to character, but who is stopping to help, and who's become too hysterical to drive any farther? Let's say they both choose to help. This tells us more. But who chooses to help by calling for an ambulance and waiting? Who chooses to help by dashing into the burning bus? Let's say they both rush for the bus—a choice that reveals character in even greater depth.
Now doctor and housekeeper smash windows, crawl inside the blazing bus, grab screaming children, and push them to safety. But their choices aren't over. Soon the flames surge into a blistering inferno, skin peels from their faces. They can't take another breath without searing their lungs. In the midst of this horror each realizes there's only a second left to rescue one of the many children still inside. How does the doctor react? In a sudden reflex does he reach for a white kid or the black child closer to him? Which way do the housekeeper's instincts take her? Does she save the little boy? Or the little girl cowering at her feet? How does she make Sophie's choice?
I would never wish this level of drama upon anyone in real life—remember, McKee is advising screenwriters— but it demonstrates that character is revealed under pressure. It's probably one of the reasons we intuitively watch our leaders when a crises occurs to see what they do because their actions reflect under pressure their character.
When looking for 'Who am I?' stories you will need to seek out those times when you were under the pump, or it didn't go the way you expected. What did you do? Alternatively find stories of when others were under pressure and you admired how they acted.
I'm in the process of writing a new anecdote for the back of my business card. I want it to be a 'Who am I?' story. It's far less dramatic than the burning bus scenario but I would like you opinion. What do you think? What character/s are revealed in this story?
In 1996 I helped the Australian Geological Survey Organisation document their scientific datasets. We put a heap of effort into designing the database and then went to the scientists and asked them to describe their datasets. They scoffed at the suggestion, reminding us that they had a mountain of data and little motivation to do anything with it apart from publishing papers. We were stumped until we cottoned on to the fact that their culture was defined by the imperative to publish or perish. We revisited our project design and created the idea of a published dataset. It was linked to their performance management systems but most importantly each published dataset could be officially cited in their personal bibliographies. We went back to the scientists and asked whether they would like to publish their datasets and there was an instant line up.
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| 14/04/08 | | 2020 Summit—storytelling advice to summiteers |
The Australia 2020 Summit promises to bring together the nation’s best and brightest brains in a bid to discover new ideas to take the country forward. For those attending it will be an opportunity to make their mark. The Summit is a big event, full of big IQs and bigger egos – it’s tough to stand out from the crowd. My advice for summiteers: make an impact by reaching people’s emotions. Statistics don’t do that – but stories do.
For example, the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is someone who understands the power of a story. One of his first television commercials as Prime Ministerial aspirant used his personal story as the basis for his plan to reform education: http://www.alp.org.au/labortv/6FiTQAgNy6
Stories work because they get people’s attention and people develop a resolve to act when their emotions are triggered. My tips for our 1000 brightest minds if they want to stand out from the other 999 Summiteers:
1. Grab your audience’s attention with a story of how’s things are failing and tell it with detail, empathy and authenticity. Humans are psychologically attuned to take notice of tales of woe because we have evolved to notice and avoid danger.
2. Paint a picture of what it could be like with a story of hope illustrating that good things are already happening. As celebrated sci-fi writer William Gibson noted, “the future is already here. It's just not very evenly distributed.” Hopeful stories generate resolve to take action.
3. Find real stories and never embellish, fabricate or tell half the story for effect. One untruthful story will erode all your good work.
Forget the dreaded PowerPoint presentation and, instead, use stories to leave a longer lasting impression. As conference veterans know too well, the chances of meaningful discourse are slim at best when bombarded with one slide after the next jam packed with enough bullets to deplete Cadbury’s licorice supplies.
If the aim is to generate conversations so leaders are not only exposed to new thinking but also remember and adopt new ideas then a combination of stories and reasoned argument is essential. And always lead with the stories because trying to change someone’s mind with hard, cold facts only results in people with convictions to dig their heels in even further.
Anecdote’s “business narrative” techniques are becoming more and more mainstream as people realize the limitations that come with statistics and surveys to tackle and solve problems and implement change. Stories often get to the heart of the matter because they represent the natural way people share what they know.
Here my interview with Richard Aedy from the Life Matters program on ABC Radio National. Here's the audio (approx. 8 minutes).
Or check out our latest storytelling for leaders workshop.
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| 13/04/08 | | 2020 Summit |
Andrew Leigh went to the 2020 summit warm up yesterday in Canberra. It was the ACT 2020 summit and the lesson he will be taking to the big event on the 19-20th this month is, "... any idea with less than 90% support on Day 1 is going to get killed." I can just imagine it, 300 people clamouring for their big ideas to be heard by 299 others and only 16 ideas making it to the end of the day. This is idea decimation in the original Roman sense of the word.
How did the successful ideas emerge? Were these successful ideas merely part of the community zeitgeist and would have survived regardless of what the participants did? How many were presented as a list of facts, a presentation of the evidence? I would be willing to bet many of the successful ideas were presented as a story illustrating the idea in a way that helped it stick in the minds of the participants. Once the idea took hold, it grew.
I worry about the upcoming 2020 summit. I want it to be a tremendous success but I can see 10 groups of 100 egos clashing and the largest voices smothering the quieter best and brightest. The success will depend on two factors: how the event is facilitated; and whether participants can tell stories to engage their fellow summiteers.
Facilitation, techniques and physical space
From what I can tell the summit organisers plan to run small group sessions and large plenary presentations. The warning bells should sound if we see rooms arrange in seminar seating styles, the favoured arrangement for one-way information transmission. I'm hopeful that the organisers know about techniques like open space, world cafe, or even something like jump-start storytelling to help the group be more collaborative. But maybe my hope is misplaced. These techniques foster real dialogue when in fact these two days will be a gladiatorial contest of whose ideas win. Physical space and technique are important but both are trumped by the skill and attitude of the facilitators. At one end of the spectrum is the facilitator who already has in their mind a picture of what good looks like and regardless of what's been said this person hears their version and heads the group in that direction. At the other end of the spectrum is the facilitator who is totally focussed on process and helps people be heard. I'm hoping the 2020 team of facilitators fits in this last category.
Storytelling
Each participant will have very little time to engage the group in their idea. Cognitive science show that if someone has a strong opinion on a topic and you provide an alternative opinion, it only serves to reinforce the person's original strong opinion. It's called a cognitive bias.1 However if we tell a negative story to grab attention then a positive story to illustrate what's possible, we have a much greater chance of changing someone's mind and engaging people.2,3 It's only after hearing the stories are people open to hearing the reasoning and evidence.
There are three reasons why these stories work:
- stories are memorable and can be retold. This is powerful if your story embodies your big idea and is the told and retold at the Summit.
- stories convey emotion and, regardless of what all the hard-headed rationalists would have you think, we make decisions based on the emotions we feel
- stories provide context and therefore are more meaningful than disembodied facts and figures. Of course some of the best stories are laden with facts and figures.
Summiteers need to find their negative and positive stories this week and resist the urge to start with facts followed by examples and flip their sequence starting with the stories followed by reasoning. The people who can will increase their chances to be heard and understood. And perhaps more importantly telling stories will help relationships form among this elite group and hopefully is followed by collaborations that will make a difference to Australia.
Kevin Rudd understands the value of story. We have seen it in his election campaign and on Sorry Day. And on reading some of the background papers for the Summit I found this warning:
"These background materials aim to tell an evidence-based story about how Australia is faring. They are not intended to be definitive or comprehensive, but were put together to stimulate discussion on the main challenges and opportunities facing the country and the choices to be made in addressing them. They do not representgovernment policy."
The summit organisers understand the power of stories. Now it's time for the participants to embrace this big idea.
Why not join one of our storytelling for leaders workshops.
1. D. Westen, The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation (New York: PublicAffairs, 2007).
2. S. Denning, The Secret Language of Leadership: How Leaders Inspire Action Through Narrative (San Francisco: John Wiley & Son, 2007).
3. H. Gardner, Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People's Minds (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2004).
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| 11/04/08 | | Why should we care about mystery stories? |
Robert Cialdini discovered a secret to learning in 2005. As a world-leading psychologist he was surprised he didn’t already know this secret but now swears by it. He was researching a new psychology book he wanted to write for a general audience and wanted to know the characteristics of effective science writing for an informed public readership. Most of his review confirmed what he already knew: must have a clear and focussed point, well written, concrete examples. The big surprise for Robert was that the best examples where written in the format of a mystery story.
Robert’s laboratory is his classroom so he tried out the approach there. A typical lecture, before using the mystery story format, would end with his students starting to pack up five minutes before the lecture’s scheduled finishing time. When he presented the same information as a mystery story, and he was yet to reveal the who’d dunnit, the students remained totally engaged and didn’t move, even after the lecture was supposed to have finished. It was like magic.
So here is the structure Cialdini discovered in his review and then wrote up in volume 24 of the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.
- Pose the mystery
- Deepen the mystery
- Home in on the proper explanation by considering (and offering evidence against) alternative explanations
- Provide a clue to the proper explanation
- Resolve the mystery
- Draw the implications for the phenomenon under study
To test this out I wrote a blog post using the mystery format called ‘What is happening to Melbourne's trains?’ I would be grateful to receive your feedback. Just leave comments on the blog post.
Cialdini, R. B. (2005). “What’s The Best Secret Device for Engaging Student Interest? The Answer Is In The Title.” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 24(1): 22-29.
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| 7/04/08 | | Storytelling for Business Leaders Workshop in Sydney |
We can all tell stories about our childhood quite easily.
What about our work, our workplace, our business? That seems far from easy. People tend to use PowerPoint over PowerPoint to convey their ideas.
At Anecdote, we're always finding ways to help people bring back stories to the workplace. Here's some areas of storytelling that we'll be discussing on April 16.
▪ How does one tell a story?
▪ How can you find stories to tell at work?
▪ What stories should one tell when one wants to communicate values?
▪ What stories can help you introduce yourself to an audience?
▪ How can you build trust by telling stories?
▪ How can you help people see 'the big picture' through stories?
▪ How can you use stories to make a difference?
Join us in Sydney for a workshop on Storytelling for Business Leaders. Download registration form
It'll be fun and you'll discover stories you can share about yourself and your work!
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| 1/04/08 | | Jumpstart storytelling - creating the conditions for collaboration |
When we start on a major change project we will often run a number of workshops with the leadership team to really get them to own and define the project. A big part of this activity is getting this group to collaborate and work as a team. In the past we have run sociometry exercises, anecdote circles and future backwards activities to get this group to gel. But I have a much better way now thanks to Seth Kahan's jumpstart storytelling technique.
How to run a jumpstart storytelling session
- Divide the participants into groups of 6
- Ask everyone to provide a concrete and specific example in response to a story eliciting question that is related to the objective of the workshop or project. Most recently I ask a workshop participants to recall when they have been proudest of the work they or their colleagues have done?
- Each person gets 90 seconds to tell their story.
- When everyone in the group has told one story ask the participants to remember the story that was most powerful for them; what resonated the most. And ask them to remember who told that story.
- Get everyone to switch groups to there is as many new faces as possible in their new group.
- Ask everyone to retell their story they have just told. Because this will feel a little weird I suggested they observe how their story changes and improves in the retelling. Again 90 seconds per story. At the end of everyone retelling their story reassess which story you think is most powerful and remember the storyteller.
- Depending on the size of the group you can switch groups again.
- Now the fun begins. Ask everyone to remember the person who told the most powerful, relevant, engaging story and go over to them and place your hand on their shoulder and keep it there. After a while a network of people forms and clusters appear revealing the high impact stories. Invite the people the group chose to retell their story to the whole group. Lead the applause at the end of each telling.
The energy goes through the roof with this technique and people get to hear stories they have never heard before. Most importantly the group gets to know each other at a deeper level. There is one more advantage as well if your project is narrative based: the leaders experience the power of narrative in the first 5 minutes of the project.
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| 27/03/08 | | Stories make the best rides |
Yesterday my family and I spent the day at Movie World. At the end of the day we went to an Irish pub for dinner and talked about our favourite rides. The Superman and Batman rides were our favourites and we all agreed that the back story was an important factor. The Superman ride (rollercoaster style) starts with us being train commuters and as we wind our way through the tube an earthquake hits and the tunnel is about to collapse. Superman arrives on the scene and saves us by whisking the train into the air propelling us from 0 to 100 kph in 2 seconds and to safety.
The power of story is appearing everywhere.
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| 2/03/08 | | Metaphors—Dangerous Undertaking |
My friend, Alison Spencer, suggested I get a copy of James Harlow Brown's book, Dangerous Undertaken, and I have to say it's been one of my best Amazon purchases in some time. It's a book about personal and organisational transformation written as a dialogue between a hot shot executive and a wise mentor he happened to meet on a flight to Sydney. Full of stories within stories. It's a wonderful example of how leaders might tell stories to help people (and themselves) to change.
I contacted James (Jm to his friends) and we talked a little about metaphors—his book is full of them. Here is paragraph from one of his emails that he said I could blog.
Metaphors are the way that human beings see and create language for things that we cannot otherwise describe, either because we haven't seen such things before or they are, in effect, beyond description. Storytelling uses metaphors in two primary ways. First, as a major "sticky" element or tag to make the story memorable. A good example is the Holy Grail, which not only represents a precious cup but also the altar cup (to Christians) that holds the holy sacrament. Because of this metaphor, the myth of the Holy Grail points to something that transcends ordinary experience when we unpack this metaphor. Second, stories themselves are metaphors, which lead us to explore deeper meaning. The story of the search for the Holy Grail becomes every person's search for transformation as they seek that which is most precious in life. Because of this dual use of metaphor, stories like the Holy Grail myth stay in human consciousness for extremely long times, far beyond their telling. The question is can professional storytellers construct stories as memorable as the Holy Grail myth through the skillful use of metaphor -- or is there something else at work in enduring myths like the Holy Grail beyond the skillful use of metaphor?
| 29/02/08 | | 4 Stories themes that can help engage staff |
The January '08 cover of CIO magazine provokes an interesting thought about managing people: There's so much to be done to bring and retain people in an organization.
Hidden within these 23 points is a learning curve that the employee is expected to leap across. So what is the best way to 'hang on to them'?
To make the work experience interesting and engaging for staff, managers could dig out stories from their workplace.
These stories are simply examples of things that worked well. Here's four examples to seek out:
1. How a training opportunity made a difference
2. When a manager was a good listener
3. How a bunch of helpful colleagues made life easier
4. When good work was recognized
These stories are a great resource for staff induction. What other stories themes can you think of?
PS: If you're keen to find such stories in your workplace, come along for our Narrative Techniques for Business Workshop to learn how to elicit stories.
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| 28/02/08 | | An anecdote's point of view |
Ford Harding has just posted two versions of the same anecdote. The first paints the consultant as the hero while the second focusses on the effort of the client. Ford wants us to consider which version would we tell and why.
Version #1
Sometimes losing is almost as good as winning. Not long ago, a major power company was sued for breach of a twenty-year power contract. The plaintiffs were asking for damages in excess of one billion dollars, the value of the damages hinging on the discount rate used in their calculation.
Multiple experts offered the defendant ways to calculate the rate. We spent many hours educating the general counsel on the credibility of the alternative ways to calculate a discount rate and persuaded him of the intellectual superiority of our approach. When the arbitrators compared our estimation of the discount rate with the one provided by the plaintiff’s expert, they found ours more credible. The power company ended up paying the plaintiff only $115 million, far less than they would have had to pay if the plaintiffs had won or one of the other experts’ calculations of the discount rate had been presented.Version #2
Sometimes losing is almost as good as winning. Not long ago, a major power company was sued for breach of a twenty-year power contract. The plaintiffs were asking for damages in excess of one billion dollars, the value of the damages hinging on the discount rate used in their calculation.
The attorney representing the company asked several experts to calculate the rate. He spent many hours with the power company’s general counsel evaluating the credibility of the alternative ways to calculate a rate, and selected our experts’ approach. When he took the case before arbitrators, they found his arguments both intellectually superior and more compellingly presented than those provided by the plaintiff’s attorney. The power company ended up paying the plaintiff only $115 million, far less than they would have had to pay if the plaintiffs had won or one of the other experts’ calculations of the discount rate had been presented.
There are a couple of other interesting features these stories display that are worth talking about. Each one is prefaced by a statement summarising the moral of the story. It's an effective approach which I've noted in the work of Victor Frankl. It's conversational and creates a mystery of sorts because we want to understand what is meant by the statement.
Both stories are without real people's names. It's the sort of story written up in case studies that gently washes an element of truth from what's been said. It's harder to check these stories out. Did it really happen? People love details and the best stories have the names of the characters. I understand what this type of business story lacks names in its written form: people are uncomfortable talking about what happens inside organisations. But when told orally names are important.
| 28/02/08 | | Meeting to talk about storytelling, narrative and complexity |
I run a meetup group in Melbourne call Emergence and we get together for drinks and dinner each month. Our next meeting is on the 13th March at 6pm. For full details and to RSVP go to here. It very informal and just a good way to catch up with new people and talk about things that interest us. Everyone is welcome.
| 27/02/08 | | Anecdote's will be checked and re-checked |
Expect any anecdote you tell to be tested and retested, especially if you are a politician. Barrack Obama is a storyteller par excellence and so when he recounts a story you can bet there is an army of doubters checking out its validity. Here is the anecdote in question reported in the New Republic.
"You know, I've heard from an Army captain who was the head of a rifle platoon--supposed to have 39 men in a rifle platoon. Ended up being sent to Afghanistan with 24 because 15 of those soldiers had been sent to Iraq. And as a consequence, they didn't have enough ammunition, they didn't have enough humvees. They were actually capturing Taliban weapons, because it was easier to get Taliban weapons than it was for them to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief."
The same is true for organisational leaders. Don't get lazy. Don't think you can slip one past without employees noticing that you are garnishing the facts. Good stories are retold and good stories are checked out. Authenticity is the key.
| 18/02/08 | | Looking for the single, correct answer can be dumb |
Thanks to ken (one of our favourite Anecdote blog commentors) for this link of Malcolm Gladwell doing what he does best: telling a story which helps us understand something new—this time it's spaghetti sauce. The story is about Howard Moskowitz and how he transformed our views of retail choice and explains why we have so many varieties of mustard, soft drinks and practically anything else you can buy from the supermarket. But more importantly we learn that looking for the single correct answer might not be the best solution.
I won't spoil the story but watch out for how Gladwell introduces his character and how story comes before reason or interpretation. And see how he creates mystery from the outset and gradually reveals the culprit.
Gladwell's essay covering the same topic is here.
| 22/01/08 | | Adding storytelling to the employee engagement agenda |
I was pleased to read the findings of a recent survey on employee engagement.
▪ 81% of organizations surveyed worldwide have an employee
engagement practice
▪ 49% use storytelling techniques to engage their employees
Although only a few organizations have employee engagement formally defined on their agenda, the survey suggests an increasing trend in the number of programs introduced over the past three years. It's great to see organizations sharpening the people focus to their business and using the power of narratives to assess their health. We have noticed that trend in our work too, with more organizations wanting to use stories to encourage the right leadership and knowledge–sharing behaviors. It’s strategic and becoming imperative.
If you’re thinking of ways to engage your employees using stories, here are two simple ways to get started:
1. Story wall – create spaces for employees to put up pictures of major team events or just their time at work. It helps to reinforce what’s good about the workplace and works as a great trigger for an interesting story.
2. Story booklet – run an anecdote circle with staff to collect stories about their most enjoyable time at work or things (events) that improved the way they work. You can then compile these stories into a storytelling booklet that you can share with new employees.
The most important thing is to start somewhere.
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| 17/01/08 | | An exciting storytelling event in Copenhagen - the movie |
Late last year I teamed up with Madelyn Blair, Terrence Gargiulo, Michael Margolis, Limor Shiponi, and Karen Dietz to start a new community of practice called Worldwide Story Work. We created a Ning workspace to conduct our online conversations and I see we now have 88 members. If you care about story work in organisations please come and join us. It's still the early days and there are many unanswered questions, but if you are willing to be helpful and supportive this group is a welcoming one.
I also wanted to show you this video (6 minutes) which documents a story event in Copenhagan run by GoldenFleece. It features my good friend Mary Alice Arthur who helped facilitate the event. You will also see short interviews with Madelyn Blair and Steve Denning. I'm not sure if you need to become a member of Worldwide Story Work to see the video, but give it a try.
| 17/01/08 | | Storytelling, Business Narrative and Community of Practice Workshops |
2008 marks a busy year for Anecdote and this graphic gives you an idea of our workshop schedule. Storytelling is represented with bears, business narrative with fish and communities of practice with balloons. As you can see we are running workshops in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane and Perth. Here is the full, printable version of the schedule you can download and put on your wall. Alternatively, pop over to our workshops page and register your interest in attending via the web.
By the way, we can also run these workshops internally within your organisation.
| 27/11/07 | | Maxine McKew tells three anecdotes |
People vote for politicians based on the emotions they generate not the intellectual merits of their policies.1 And emotion is generated by the stories we are told and the stories we tell ourselves. We watch the candidates and observe what they do and tell ourselves a story about the type of person they are and what they stand for. The Rudd campaign understood this fact.
Kevin Rudd's campaign was effective in telling three types of stories which helped to create positive emotions towards him and the ALP. These three types of stories are: Who am I? Why am I here? and My vision story.2Kevin Rudd's first television commercials contained his 'Who am I?' story. We learned how Kevin grew up in outback Queensland, how his parents didn't even get a high school education and how he enjoyed going back to his home town and talking with the residents about what they wanted for the future. For many people in the electorate Kevin was just like us.
Kevin's 'Why am I here?' stories revolved around his focus areas of an education revolution, being a economic conservative, getting rid of work choices, ratifying the Kyoto protocol, and providing new leadership. And in talking about these focus areas Rudd set out his vision for the future--his vision story.
Rudd's campaign mastered the master narratives required to create the right emotions in the electorate. Interesting, however, both Rudd and Howard avoided recounting anecdotes of specific events and encounters as a way to illustrate what the candidates really value. I have been told by one political insider that both Rudd and Howard are worried the media will crucify them for using anecdotes as a mere trick to spin a particular message.But we saw on election night how storytelling can be done with authenticity and impact when Maxine McKew gave a short speech on the news that she look like winning the seat of Bennelong. Maxine started by saying some general statements about the contest for Bennelong being on a knife edge, and how the seat will never be taken for granted again. Then she moved into storytelling mode, first remembering how she was at this town hall only a few months before and then recalling the many interviews she had done over the years and that some of the very special people she has ever met were actually in Bennelong, and this is where the mood changed as Maxine told three anecdotes.
I'm thinking of the 90-year old Sister Louise who's at St Catherines who I met just a couple of weeks ago. She's blind. But the day I talked to her she said, "Nobody is blind in heaven."
And I'm thinking of 6 year old Emily at Denniston East. She told me that she told her parents to vote for Kevin Rudd because Kevin Rudd would be a great Prime Minister for children. And you know, ... we need a great Prime Minister for children.
And I'm thinking as well of a boy called Ali who only recently completed his HSC exams, who—maybe Ali you are here tonight—who a few years ago was in a Pakistani refugee camp waiting for passage out, and Ali has found a safe home, and a welcome here in Australia ...
I'm sure many people felt goosebumps at the end of this speech--emotions were created.
We help leaders tell these types of stories, first by helping leaders learn how to find their stories (of course Maxine is an expert at this but we all can do it), then help them learn how to tell these stories and ensure at all times there is authenticity in what you say.
1. Westen, Drew. The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation. New York: PublicAffairs, 2007.
2. Simmons, Annette. The Story Factor: Inspiration, Influence, and Persuasion through the Art of Storytelling. Revised edition ed. New York: Basic Books, 2006.
| 26/11/07 | | Storytelling a key factor in Rudd's win |
Here's a piece in the Sydney Morning Herald making the case for storytelling as a key factor in Kevin Rudd's success.
Kevin Rudd's campaign was successful in crafting such a narrative. First, he got the audience's attention because he was new. This allowed him to play the future card and frame the Coalition as backward-looking. He went on the front foot and used climate change and broadband to champion his future credentials.
Thanks to Seth Kahan for the pointer.
| 20/11/07 | | Keynote speaking - organisational storytelling |
Mark and I love speaking to audiences of all shapes and sizes and we have had the privilege over the years to give seminars and workshops to large and small groups. Our clients seem to enjoy our talks (sometimes they are more like workshops) and report significant impacts as a result of our presentations and follow up coaching. Recently I have been enjoying presenting on how we are helping leaders to be more memorable and persausive using organisatonal storytelling techniques.
So we've set up a page on our website describing some of the speaking topics we are delivering to our clients.
Here are a couple of quotes from our clients from recent speaking engagements.
The Churchill Club promotes entrepreneurial conversations without the hype and Shawn delivered that in spades at our recent session on business storytelling. He's tremendously engaging, has deep knowledge and passion for business narrative and can connect the dots between an esoteric subject and tangible business outcomes. Brendan Lewis, Executive Director, The Churchill Club.
Shawn’s presentation to our technical sales forum was right on the money. The story telling tactics and skills passed on have been immediately adopted, and are producing higher quality presentations by our team to our clients. We look forward to continuing to develop our skills in this area, which will support the business objectives of our organisation and our customers. Senior Manager, IBM Australia.
| 13/11/07 | | Three stories and an argument |
Larry Lessig has a presentation style named after him. You guessed it, the Lessig Method. Professor Lessig is a copyright expert and champion of creative commons. And in this presentation he demonstrates the power of presenting stories before presenting his argument. Steve Denning makes the point in his latest book, The Secret Language of Leadership, that if someone has a strong opinion and you present them with an argument to change their mind, it only serves to reinforce their strong opinion, regardless of how good your argument is. However if we are presented with a story illustrating the failures of the current situation followed by an aspirational story, then the person is more likely to take notice of a following new point of view. Enjoy this 18 minute video.
| 12/11/07 | | Last week's conversation at the Churchill Club |
Last week the Churchill Club hosted a conversation titled, What's Your Story? Leon Gettler (journalist at The Age), Andrea Lemon (scriptwriter, author, theatre director and circus ethnographer) and I formed the panel. Brendan Lewis, the club's executive director, recorded the session and here it is. Download the mp3 to your iPod and listen when you next walk your dog.
| 7/11/07 | | Stories make brands stronger |
Brandweek reports that the Advertising Research Foundation has just completed a three year study on the effectiveness of TV advertisements in the USA and found that storytelling was the top factor for a successful commercial.
The report contends that in many ways, advertising is stuck in the past. The 20th century was dominated by a one-way transactional focus where ads were pushed at consumers. Today, consumers interact with ads to "co-create" meaning that is powered by emotion and rich narrative. "Advertising has been standing on the sidelines, stuck on the language of positioning," said Randall Ringer, managing director and co-founder, Verse Group, New York. "Telling a story about the brand is more engaging, memorable and compelling than telling a bunch of facts. What worked 30 years ago with a 30-second spot doesn't work today."
[thanks to Dan Heath for the link]
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| 4/11/07 | | Hardly a story to be heard in the Australian political campaign |
I have been listening carefully to the politcians on both sides of the Australian political fence in the run up to our election day on the 24th of November. And surprisingly I can't remember a single anecdote or story from either of the leaders or or that matter from their team members. Mind you I have only heard them on TV or the radio and maybe they keep all their stories for the campaign trail. This is surprising because books like The Political Brain and Steve Denning's latest, The Secret Language of Leadership, make it clear that voters make their decision on who they vote for based on the emotion they feel for a candidate, not the policies or promises they make. And we all know that emotion is best communicated with a story or anecdote.
Barack Obama knows how to create emotion with a simple anecdote. Here's how the UK Telegraph reports the way he finished a recent speech.
Mr Obama finished with an anecdote about visiting a town for a political meeting where he sat bemused as one woman kept chanting: "Fire it up! Are you ready to go?"
"I didn't know what to make of it," he said. "But here's the thing: after a minute or two, I'm feeling pretty fired up. It goes to show, one voice can change a room.
"Are you fired up? Are you ready to go?" he asked the crowd. Not one voice was silent as they loudly shouted their affirmation.
| 15/10/07 | | 50 Web2.0 ways to tell a story |
The guys at Cogdogroo have documented 50 web2.0 applications you can use to tell a story.
http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools
It's a wiki so you can help them improve their resource.
Technorati Tags: web 2.0
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| 1/10/07 | | Power of storytelling |
We have blogged previously about 50 Lessons, a site featuring over 500 short videos of business leaders describing some of their key learnings. There are two videos here that describe why stories are powerful. Well worth a look.
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| 1/10/07 | | Writing it down |
Given my publicly confessed reluctance to begin blogging you might be surprised to find me a strong supporter of the written word. The pleasure for me in creating elaborate photo albums for my family lies in the extensive journalling that accompanies the pictures on the page. My frustration with the pile of black and white photos I inherited from my mother was a direct result of finding no clue as to who is in the photo or where it was taken. Worse still was finding a tiny scrap of information in the cryptic words "Our Alf, 1944" or " John's baptism, 1951". So I've overcompensated by making sure that I have told as many of our family stories as possible. Just not in public.
But it might not be privacy issues that keep you from writing. Kerry Patterson, one of the authors of "Crucial conversations: tools for talking when stakes are high", addresses the Power of the Pen in his August newsletter. You can also download it as an MP3 or podcast.
Maybe we're reluctant to express ourselves in writing because our first attempts to capture our thoughts and dreams typically fell under the chilling gaze of the grammarians who accused us of dangling our modifiers and splitting our infinitives when all we really wanted to do was tell our story and have someone read it.
He contends that writing is simply not our medium of choice any more and that's a pity because it is still a powerful tool for influence. His article is worth reading for the powerful story he tells of how quickly and well the Maya people, an indigenous people of Central America, understood the value of the written word once it became available to them.
| 22/09/07 | | Storytelling in organisations (and organizations) |
The Anecdote website is all about storytelling in organisations. You can get an idea of how we use business narrative by checking out how we help organisations use business narrative. But to get you started with some ideas, here are a few links to posts other people have found useful (based in del.icio.us).
- Questions to elicit stories
- Finding success stories
- 10 reflections on storytelling
- The Ultimate Guide to Anecdote Circles
- How I used a story spine
- Hierarchy of explaination or why narrative is becoming more important
- Squidoo Lens on Business Narrative
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| 14/09/07 | | Storytelling and social media |
Jennifer Jones mentions that she has been working with Intel on the social media activities and how storytelling plays an important role in Intel's success in this area.
Jennifer makes the following observation:
However, I am struck when I watch vblogs and listen to podcasts how many people today are not storytelling with social media. They don't have a beginning, middle and end to their pieces, but instead often just list facts and thoughts, and don't connect the information so that the viewer/listener etc. gets the point of the podcast, video blog, etc
Me too. I'm surprised at how many people talk about stories but don't know what one looks or sounds like. A story is a recounting of what happened or what might happen. It's not an opinion, or what someone thinks, or a description of how things work, or don't. To get the most from storytelling we will need to know what a story looks like.
A while back I suggested the following approach to identifying a story.
For every power however there is an associated curse. When you are aware of stories you see them everywhere and sometimes you will be sitting there admiring the speaker's use of stories instead of being immersed in their telling.
And if you want to see more examples of anecdote just check out our 'anecdotes' category.
Thanks to Nancy White for pointing Jennifer's post out to me.
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| 11/09/07 | | Rugby team uses narrative to develop winning culture |
On a recent flight to Sydney, I was flicking through the Virgin Blue in-flight magazine 'Voyeur' and came across an interesting article about the ABC-TV series South Side Story, a documentary on the turnaround of the South Sydney Rabbitohs - an organisation that has seen its fair share of turmoil in recent years. Here's a quote that particularly stood out ...
"The major challenge was how do we get people to think only about what they can achieve in the future, as opposed to what they have witnessed in the past? ... That's why we've been getting players to share their stories and to build an ethos between them."
This is an interesting real-world example of how an organisation is using narrative to transform their flagging team into a high-performance organisation. It'll be interesting to watch their progress and see if it translates into both on-field and off-field success.
| 9/09/07 | | How to make your workplace more storyable |
Story techniques are becoming popular but I do worry that people will become overly focussed on capturing stories with the hope that someone will search the story database in search of how to get things done. The other, and complimentary, approach is to create workplaces where it's natural to tell (and listen to) stories and therefore create spaces for constant knowledge flow.
Here are some ideas on how you might make your workplace more storyable.
- Do remarkable things. Stories are told when there is something worth telling a story about. And if there is very little to remark on that helps guide the organisation, then people will delve into the minutiae, the trivial, the professional pulp fiction
- Know how to ask story eliciting questions. Don't just ask for the facts. Ask “What happened?” “Tell me about a time when ...” “When was the last time ...”
- Eat together. We seem so busy these days. In many workplaces people don't even stop for lunch. Big mistake. The best stories, the most important stories are told over a meal.
- Tell stories. Someone has to start modelling the behaviour so why not start the trend yourself. But don't make it a big thing by saying things like, “I've got this great story to tell you ...” Just slide into examples and recount your experiences.
How storyable is your workplace?
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| 21/08/07 | | Naturally incorporating stories in your conversations |
Annette Simmons, in her excellent book The Story Factor, warns us from adopting 'the story voice.' You know the one. The narrator starts by saying something like “I've got this great story” and then proceeds to adopt a kind of sing-song voice as they tell their story. You can tell it's a performance.
But it doesn't need to be this way. You can incorporate your anecdotes in your conversation in a natural way that doesn't draw attention to the fact that you are relating a story. Quite frankly your listener couldn't care less whether you are telling a story or not. They care whether what your saying is meaningful. And it was while I was thinking about this issue that I happened to pick up Victor Frankl's essay/book, Man's Search for Meaning. I couldn't put it down. Frankl relates his experiences as a prisoner in concentration camps during WWII. It's a harrowing account yet throughout Frankl leaves the reader with hope.
One of the reasons why Man's Search for Meaning is so readable is that it is jammed packed with stories. But you don't really notice them because of the natural way they are introduced. Here are some examples.
Rewards were given in camp not only for entertainment, but also for applause. I, for example, could have found protection (how lucky I was never in need of it!) from the camp's most dreaded Capo, who for more than one good reason was known as “The Murderous Capo.” This is how it happened. One evening ...
Generally speaking, of course, any pursuit of art in camp was somewhat grotesque. I would say that the real impression made by anything connected with art arose only from the ghostlike contrast between the performance and the background of desolate camp life. I shall never forget how I awoke from the deep sleep of exhaustion ...
It also follows that a very trifling thing can cause the greatest of joys. Take as an example something that happened on our journey from Auschwitz ...
Frankl often starts a paragraph with a point or an observation then moves seamlessly to a story. It reminded me of the improvisation technique I was taught in Toastmasters many years ago to respond quickly and coherently in a one minute speech. Make a Point, give a Reason for the point, provide an Example, then restate the Point (PREP). But the art of Frankl's writing is how he moves from his point to the example.
This is how it happened ...
I shall never forget how ...
Take as an example ...
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| 18/08/07 | | When quantitative analysis just wont cut it |
I read Bob Sutton and Jeff Pfeffer's book, Hard Facts: Dangerous Half-thruths & Total Nonsense, and I was concerned managers would think that you could only make decisions based on data and analysis.
So I was delighted to see this post from Bob Sutton setting out three times when data and analysis wont help.
- When you don’t know what to count
- When you can count it, but it doesn’t stick
- When What You Can Count Doesn’t Count
I recommend you read Bob's post. He elaborates on each point and mentions the importance of ethnographic approaches, storytelling, images, and tells some good stories too.
Technorati Tags: bob sutton, decision-making
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| 2/08/07 | | Good conversations lead to good stories |
Watching Andrew Denton interview Michael Parkinson on More Than Enough Rope on ABC television recently was a lesson in good interviewing techniques. Denton even admitted he only needed to turn up, say something to get started and then sit back and let Michael just tell his stories.
Parkinson was relating how difficult it was way back when he was trying get his interview show up and running and he credited the late Orson Welles with its successful beginning. Because Parkinson was not as yet an established name it was difficult to get people to come on the show. The producer went all out to get a big name, one that would smooth the way for others and flew to Spain where Welles was making the eventually uncompleted Don Quixote. The successful deal negotiated meant persuading British Airways to knock out the front two rows of seats on the aircraft out so that Welles could sleep on a mattress on the floor.
“And he walked on the aeroplane and he looked at the mattress on the floor and smiled and went and sat in the seat. It jumped the hurdle. And then he came to my room and I’d been working on this interview for, like, all my life, and I opened the door and he was dressed entirely in black, black sombrero, black tie, black shirt, black cloak and he swept into the room. Incredibly dramatic.
“My name’s Orson Welles”, he said “And you would be?”
And I said, “Er Parkinson.”
“Yes”, he said.
And he looked around and he saw this scrap of paper on my desk and he said, “That?”
I said, “My questions.”
“Do you mind if I look?”
I said, “No.”
And he picked them up and he turned to me and he said, “How many of these shows have you done?”
I said, “Two.”
“I’ve done many more”, he said. “Will you take my advice?”
I said, “Certainly”.
And he ripped up the questions and he said, “Let’s talk”. And walked away.
And he sat down and he did two one hours that night, that were majestic.”
Tearing up the questions might run counter to our instincts of wanting to be well prepared for what comes next. Sometimes the best stories arise from our letting go of the process and just having a conversation.
| 29/07/07 | | Quicklinks |
Just cleaning up my Bloglines and thought I would share some of the posts I was saving.
- Brad Hinton reflects on oral history and storytelling and points to some useful resources.
- Stephen Dubner (of Freakonomics) sharing Mark Twain's view of work and play.
- If you have read Made to Stick, you might also like these columns from the Heath brothers in Fast Company.
- Psychologist Daniel Gilbert writes some excellent essays. Here is one on our biases.
- This is a neuroscience blog and here they talk about the difference in thinking with exploration or direct reward
- Why It's Hard to Get Rid of Old Ideas - this will be the subject of an upcoming post I think
- Supporting Community of Practice Facilitators by Stephen Dale (well worth signing up to Stephen's RSS)
- Here I reveal (again) my stationary fetish. Grid and ruled paper.
- Victoria Ward on silence.
Enjoy!
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| 15/07/07 | | Blogging has a role in culture change |
Arjun Thomas has blogged a summary of a recent McKinsey Global Survey on 'How Businesses are using Web 2.0". The survey continues a theme that businesses are still shy about the use of blogs within the firewall, identifying a preference for tools supporting automation and networking.
In contrast, a report entitled 'The Blogging Revolution: Government in the Age of Web 2.0' describes how blogs are being used by members of Congress, governors, mayors and police and fire departments. It describes how the US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) has established a 'secure, real time blog' to connect generals and warfighters' which recognises that:
“the military has a wonderful axiom called the chain of command ... but the chain of information is not the chain of command.... When al Qaeda can outmaneuver you using Yahoo, we’ve got something wrong here”.
The use of blogs within STRATCOM to combat the strangling of information flows caused by traditional hierarchies is described as 'proving to be nothing less than an enormous cultural change'. And, of course, it is not just the military that are strongly bureaucratised and hierarchical.
Many organisations recognise the need for 'cultural change' to become more agile and resilient in the 21st Century. At the same time, some (many?) organisations continue to see blogging as a risk (as the McKinsey report indicates), perhaps because of the loss of control of information flows that blogging implies. The STRATCOM experience reinforces one of my strongly held beliefs; you can only change culture by changing your behaviour. This creates new stories that are told and re-told in the organisation. if organisations want better information flows and to be more agile and resilient, embracing blogging within the firewall provides a powerful demonstration of changed communication behaviour that can contribute to the desired culture change.
Thanks to Nerida Hart via actKM for the link to the second report.
Technorati Tags: CultureChange
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| 11/07/07 | | How I used a story spine |
Viv McWaters has just posted an example of a story spine which reminded me of how we are using story spines in our sensemaking workshops. I was inspired to used this technique after observing how my dad made sense of something (a trivial example) after he had the opportunity to tell a story. Here's what happened as I told it back in January this year.
Last week I spent a week with my parents at their home at Jervis Bay. My father was telling me how he had some problems with a tank of petrol recently. He had to drain his little Datsun truck of all its fuel. When I asked where he got the bad gas he said it was one of two places. “One of the service stations was being refuelled by a tanker and was probably churning up all the rubbish in the underground tanks and I happened to fill up when all that muck was floating around,” he said. “I will never fill up again if I see a tanker parked at the service station.”
When Dad told this story I was immediately struck with how he quickly moved from his story to a heuristic without analysis or considering the options. But of course, this is just how we often make decisions, so I thought I could replicate this process in our workshops.
My first opportunity was at a workshop in Tasmania where we were helping natural resource managers develop a knowledge strategy for their region. We had reached the point in the workshop where we had identified a set of issues that were either working well or needed some attention so I asked the groups to grab an issue and tell a story explaining what happened. People busily jumped into the activity but I noticed they were just writing dot points detailing their opinions about what had happened. No one wrote a story.
It seems that they didn't know what to do to write a story. I had just assumed that everyone else thinks about stories like I do and has a sense what one looks like. Big mistake!
My next opportunity was at another knowledge strategy workshop but this time with a government department in Canberra. I had remembered Andrew introducing us to story spines so I dug out the blog post. Here is the simple story spine (Viv's example is more elaborate).
Once upon a time...
Everyday...
But one day...
Because of that... (repeat three times or as often as necessary) Until finally...
Ever since then...
And the moral of the story is...(optional)
Rather than use “Once upon a time” I instructed people to start their stories with “Way back when”. I find the fairy tale beginning too foreign for business people.
Well, the groups took to the tasks with gusto and in a very short time (30 min) we had eight stories that described various aspects of what was happening. Each group recited their story to great applause.
This is an effective way to get people primed for intervention design and we found that the groups were more aware of the subtleties and multiple viewpoints by going through a set of sensemaking tasks, this being just one.
Technorati Tags: knowledge strategy
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| 6/07/07 | | Storytelling with comics |
Last night I met Cris Pearson, CEO of plasq, a small group of passionalte software developers. We quickly discovered a shared interest in storytelling, albeit from different perspectives.
Plasq develop an award-winning software program called Comic Life, which is a program designed to create comic strips or arrange photos into a scrapbook. Mac users may be familiar with the product, which due to its success, it's now bundled with new Intel Macs.
Cris told me a story about teachers using Comic Life in schools to teach kids storytelling techniques. I wonder if similar techniques could be used by employees to create comic storyboards that communicate product ideas and concepts effectively to stakeholders? Such an experiment with digital storytelling would be a great way of heightening an aptitude for Story (and just as important, having some fun along the way!).
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| 20/06/07 | | The art of editing a story for emotional impact |
I wont say much at all here except go read this post by Les Posen (and definitely watch the YouTube video). It features a Welshman and I think you'll be blown away.