anecdote.com.au

The most naturally gifted storyteller I have ever met

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:08:16 +1100

I have just got back from running our first ever Storytelling for Business Leaders course in Wellington, New Zealand last week. I thoroughly enjoyed the day, had a great group who told some terrific stories, and I am sure taught me as much as they learnt off me!

It was also a real treat to have an old friend of mine attend, one I had not seen since I left NZ for the UK nearly 9 years ago. She is also the most naturally gifted storyteller I have ever met.

When you talk to my friend you just marvel at the experiences she has, the interesting people she has meet, and situations she has got herself into.

Reflecting on how these seem to happen just to her I was reminded of a quote from a previous 'Story quote of the week' I posted about Ira Glass, host of This American Life, who said: "Great stories happen to those who can tell them" and boy she can tell them!

Following the course I asked if she would mind sharing a few more of her stories. She has been so kind as to write down a number of her more business related stories and I'm going to share a few of these with you all over the next few weeks. They are too good not be shared.

Back in 1997, I was working for a large law firm in Sydney. I had worked days and nights for months on a public float by the NSW Government of what, till then, had been a state asset. Quite often, I was the "only girl in the room", but that didn't phase me, and by and large, it didn't matter to anyone else either. Finally, the prospectus was signed, and we had a signing ceremony at the State parliament. Everyone was in a pretty good mood. One of the older men that had been involved in the deal told me what a good job I'd done, said I should keep in touch, and took out his business card. And then stuck it in my cleavage.

KM Australia 2012

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:11:19 +1100

I'm presenting our story work at KM Australia this year (24-26 July) and I'll also be taking part in the debate, which has been organised in a friendly and fun way. We are debating whether tacit knowledge can and should be captured.

If you'd like to know more about the congress here's the event blurb. I've been told that if you share this blog post with your Facebook friends or your Twitter followers, or any other social media channel for that matter, you'll receive a 15% discount off the registration price.

Story quote of the week

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 07:30:00 +1100

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An open letter to Ginny Rometty, CEO of IBM

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:05:02 +1100

Dear Ginny,

Congratulations on your appointment as IBM's CEO. I'm looking forward to seeing how the company changes under your wise guidence.

I'm writing this letter because I've just read the transcript of your interview at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit held last year. I hope you don't think this too bold but I would like to make some suggestions on how you could make even better use of stories in your public presentations.

It was interesting to note that on the news of your appointment the Fortune interview was reported in Harvard Business Blogs and The New York Times and in both cases they led with the story of how you were offered a senior role and how you asked the recruiter if you could think about it. When you told your husband that night he listened and just said, "Do you think a man would have ever answered that question that way?" It got you thinking about the importance of self-confidence.

What was interesting for me was that this story was right at the end of the interview in the Q&A session, yet that was snippet most attractive to the journalists. Imagine the additional impact your talk could have had if you added other anecdotes through-out your talk.

Let me start by saying that you seem to have a natural style for sharing stories. You're relaxed, willing to have a laugh and poke some fun at yourself. This conversational style is appealing. It's easy to listen to. So with that as a great base where are the opportunities for stories?

When Jessi asked you what was different at IBM between when you joined and now there was an opportunity to tell two stories: first to recount a specific incident in the early years that, say, illustrated the idea of inclusion and then tell a contrasting anecdote from the present. People really like stories they can see in their mind's eye. So when you told your husband story we could all see your husband saying what he said. Our visual sense, even if only triggered in our mind, is our strongest sense and this is one of the reasons why stories, especially visual stories, are so memorable.

When you were talking about the simple things you do to engage your people, such as asking everyone's opinion when they don't speak up and then asking people what they think of that idea--which is a fabulous approach for a senior leader--there was an opportunity to tell a story which would start something like "you know, these small actions can have a big impact. I remember being in our board room with Lou and Sam ..." We also love stories about people in power and celebrities. Everyone would have been on the edge of their seat wanting to hear what happened next.

As a general rule whenever you share an opinion like "Go and make a new market" people are waiting to hear a story of how you helped IBM do that. Stories share information as experience unlike opinion that shares information as fact. We learn best from experience.

It's true that throughout the interview you shared many narrative snippets such as the reference to the tough times in the '80s. The difference between these high-level narratives and a cracking story is a matter of detail. Memorable stories are moments that we can relive with the storyteller.

Anyway, that is probably enough from me. All the best with your new job and I'm hoping to discover a year from now a transcript from another one of your presentations laden with great stories.

yours sincerely

Shawn

A simple test for your strategic initiatives

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 08:30:19 +1100

Richard Rummelt, in Good Strategy / Bad Strategy, opened my eyes to a simple test to help you see if you have effective strategic initiatives. But before I describe the test here's some context.

Crafting a strategy involves choosing a course of action to achieve desired outcomes over a set time period. An effective strategy makes real choices between competing approaches--as well as providing space for new possibilities to emerge. For example a company's might want to increase its market share. It might do this by increasing sales, buying competitors, expanding its geographic market or a myriad of other approaches. The strategic craft is to decide which approach to choose or combine and apply. There are always more than one way to achieve your desired outcomes and your strategy should describe the choices your company has made. A good choice is usually a well considered and often tough choice.

What you will often see, however, in most strategic plans, are initiatives that don't reflect a real choice. Here are a few examples:

We will provide great customer service--was there really a choice to provide poor customer service?

We will delight our clients--had we considered underwhelming them?

Empower our employees--not many companies succeed disempowering their employees no matter how many try

What are often portrayed as strategic initiatives are really the outcomes we are hoping to achieve. They don't reflect what we've decided to do and therefore don't provide an effective strategy.

So, the test is simply this: take a strategic initiative and consider the opposite. If the opposite is a nonsense then reconsider your strategic initiative and make a real choice. If, on the other hand, the opposite is a viable possibility then a real choice has been made, in which case employees will want to know why and that's where a strategic story is important.

I like to call this test of considering the opposite the Costanza gambit after the Seinfeld character who successfully employs the opposite as his new strategy for life. Check out this 3 minute clip of the show where George Costanza has his epiphany.

The whole, complete and detailed story

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:12:10 +1100

Recent research quoted in the fantastic Psyblog has shown the benefits of telling ourselves the whole, complete and detailed story, rather than just select bits from it.

Ruby et al. (2011) (*1) found the benefits of this approach in regards to exercise. They asked a group of people to think about an upcoming exercise session. Each person tried to predict how much they would enjoy their workout. Then after the workout they rated their enjoyment again.

On average people's predictions were too pessimistic: they actually enjoyed their workouts more than they had guessed. This was true across men and women and across all age ranges. It was true for both moderate and challenging workouts and whether people exercised on their own, in a group or amongst others in the gym.

The reason the researchers put forward was that people focused heavily on the relatively unpleasant start of the exercise session rather than the more enjoyable middle section. They christened this effect 'forecasting myopia'.

As you can imagine, if people think they will dislike something then they are less likely to want to do it. It can hardly be a motivating factor to think something is far less enjoyable than it actually is.

So how do you overcome it? You tell yourself the whole story.

In a final study Ruby et al. asked people to think about their whole exercise routine, including the warm-up, the main workout and cool-down. It emerged that this method encouraged people to make more positive predictions of how much they would enjoy their exercise. This also had the effect of boosting people's intention to exercise in the future.

So it seems that telling ourselves the whole, complete and detailed story can both increase our view of how much we will enjoy exercise, and also boost our desire to want to do it. But does this view stack up in other fields? Could this approach help us in making good buying decisions?

Let's look at some examples outlined in a recent article on Psyblog. See if you can spot the pattern:

A camping holiday seems like fun when you abstractly imagine escaping the rat-race and getting back to nature. It doesn't seem so much fun when you're stuck in a cold, wet field, desperate for a proper hot meal.

A big, expensive DSLR seems like a good idea when you think about the amazing high-res photos you'll be able to take. But it turns out you can't be bothered to carry a big, heavy camera around all the time, so in reality it doesn't get used much.

You imagine that buying a wreck of a house and doing it up means you can realise your perfect lifestyle vision. When you move in and start work, all you really want is to get rid of the dust and mess and have a normal life: your vision is forgotten.

Unfortunately when we plan our purchases we tend to make the mistake of thinking in the abstract and forgetting about the day-to-day details. The further off in time and space they are, the more abstractly we think about them.

One of the problems of thinking abstractly about our purchases is that we tend to forget about the gritty details. And it's the details that have the ability to make us either happy or unhappy. We know this because research finds that our happiness is predicted better by the details of our everyday lives than it is by our overall life circumstances (see Kahneman et al. 2004 (*2) and Kanner et al., 1981 (*3)).

To make purchases that will give us the most happiness we need to think as concretely as possible. It might not sound as fun, but thinking about how we're going to use the item or service on a daily basis is more likely to guide us towards the choice that will make us the happiest. We can buy smart by telling ourselves the whole, complete and detailed story.

In their book Change Anything, Patterson et. al. carry on this theme by putting forward a change strategy they call 'Tell the whole vivid story'. It is very much along similar lines as the two examples I have given above.

As an example, they tell the story of Michael, an ex-alcoholic;

"When I'm watching TV, and an advertisement will come on showing a group of people enjoying a martini in a piano bar. To this day that commercial can put my thoughts heading in a dangerous direction. My natural inclination is to start thinking "I can do that". Sure I am a recovering alcoholic, but why not enjoy a social drink with friends? What harm can that be? "But it's not my story, nor is it the whole story. My story plays out differently. if I join the group at the piano bar, I'll drink the martini. Then I'll be back tomorrow. Then I'll shift to hard liquor. I'll soon be on a binge, and one day I'll wake up lying in my own vomit or maybe even in jail. And by the way, that's not merely what might happen to me. That's what will happen to me".

So there are many benefits in telling ourselves the whole, complete and detailed story, rather than just select bits from it. Think about how you could use this in your work or personal life. Are you telling yourself the whole story around doing your expenses, or just focusing on the most unpleasant aspects? Are you thinking about a new role in abstract terms, without really thinking of the day-to-day aspects of the job and whether they are what you want to do? Are you thinking about how a project might roll out, and not telling yourself the 'whole vivid story' of the challenges and difficulties you might face?

(*1) Ruby, M; Dunn, E; Perrino, A; Gillis, R; and Viel, S: (2011) The invisible benefits of exercise in Health Psychology, Vol 30(1), Jan 2011, 67-74.

(*2) Kahneman, D; Krueger, A; Schkade, D; Schwarz, N and Stone, A:(2004) A Survey Method for Characterizing Daily Life Experience: The Day Reconstruction Method in Science 3 December 2004: 306 (5702), 1776-1780.

(*3) Kanner, A., Coyne, J., Schaefer, C., and Lazarus, R. (1981): Comparison of two modes of stress measurement: Daily hassles and uplifts versus major life events in Journal of Behavioral Medicine. Volume: 4, Issue: 1

May your festive season be filled with stories

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 06:54:19 +1100

From a story perspective, Christmas is a prolific time of year. As we gather with friends and families we recall the memories of the past and create new stories as presents are unwrapped, as turkeys emerge from the oven (or the Weber BBQ in the Schenk household), as Dads relive past triumphs with a half-century in the backyard cricket and, for some, as family members rub each other up the wrong way :-)

Stories help us reconnect with old memories, relive special moments and learn more about our friends and families. They also help turn strangers into friends.

Here are some questions that might help create a fun and story-filled festive season:

What was your funniest moment in 2011?
What was the high point of the year for you? What happened?
Same question, but the low point.
What was your best Christmas present ever?
What was your most memorable Christmas ever?
The best thing you have done this year?
Which family traditions from your childhood have you continued with your own children?
When was the last time you mentally wanted to punch someone at Christmas time?
When did you realise that Santa is a fake and reindeer can't really fly?

Its also important to remember one of our favourite mantras - little things make a big difference. Now, I'm the first to admit I am not very good at this but I did something on Friday...a friend had surgery and was coming home around lunchtime. I went to her place and put on the breadmaker so she came home to the smell of fresh-baked bread. She was really pleased and a few days later I overheard her telling her parents on the phone about it...

We'd like to thank all the people we have worked with this year and all our friends, all over the world, who have helped make 2011 a rewarding and successful year.

Best wishes for the festive season and for a happy, healthy and successful 2012 from all of us at Anecdote

Kerenza and Chris and the new Anecdote Keep Cup

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:29:07 +1100

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A story for Christmas

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:50:33 +1100

Check this out.

The young father stood in line at the layby counter, wearing dirty clothes and worn-out boots. With him were three small children.
He asked to pay something on his bill because he knew he wouldn't be able to afford it all before Christmas. Then a mysterious woman stepped up to the counter.

"She told him, 'No, I'm paying for it,'" recalled Edna Deppe, assistant manager at the store in Indianapolis. "He just stood there and looked at her and then looked at me and asked if it was a joke. I told him it wasn't, and that she was going to pay for him. And he just busted out in tears."

At Kmart stores across the US, Santa seems to be getting some help: Anonymous donors are paying off strangers' layby accounts, buying the Christmas gifts other families couldn't afford, especially toys and children's clothes set aside by impoverished parents.

Kmart may be the focus of layby generosity, because it is one of the few large discount stores that has offered layby year-round for about four decades.

These secret santas are also creating a knock on effect.

Lori Stearnes of Omaha also benefited from the generosity of a stranger who paid all but US$58 of her US$250 layby bill for toys for her four youngest grandchildren.
Stearnes said she and her husband live paycheque to paycheque, but she plans to use the money she was saving for the toys to help pay for someone else's layby.

Isn't it great to be reminded of what the Christmas spirit really means.

The full news article can be found here.

5 things that happen when you know your company's strategy

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 09:00:00 +1100

You can only act strategically, day in, day out, if you know your company's strategy. Here are five things that happen when you really do know it.

you know when to say 'no.'
you get better support from your colleagues--they are trying to achieve the same things
you can wing it with confidence--the strategy is your safety net
you can focus on doing the right things rather than just doing things right
you can act with more autonomy because you know where others are going, and autonomy is motivating

Making the most of story-work

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:42:27 +1100

In using story-work to build a brand, engage employees, or for one of its many other purposes, organisations nearly always focus on storytelling. The meme is strong because the act of storytelling is so powerful. But to focus solely on this one aspect of story-work severely limits the benefits. The most valuable application of this technique combines storytelling with story-listening and story-triggering. Together, these processes create the conditions for enduring and healthy change.

Story-listening

Back in 2005, I introduced the readers of the Anecdote blog to the concept of story-listening (it might even have been the first time the term was used). Story-listening is the process of eliciting and collecting stories, helping groups to draw meaning from those stories, and then, most importantly from a business perspective, creating opportunities for the stories to inspire employees to take positive, transformational action.

Story-listening may sound passive, but it does not involve people merely sitting back and listening to their company's stories in the same way that they might enjoy their favourite podcasts. It is all about helping those who can most influence change understand what's really happening in their organisation, and then inspiring them to do something about it. All good business story-work is purposeful.

Story quote of the week

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 09:00:20 +1100

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Story quote of the week

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 07:08:44 +1100

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How we judge stories

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:39:07 +1100

I found myself watching parliamentary question time today on TV (OK, I was tired. I did yoga for the first time last night). There were lots of questions about when exactly did the leaders of the government and the opposition know about Qantas CEO's, Alan Joyce, decision to ground his airline. It was a heated debate. (BTW, why can't anyone speak normally in parliament? Everthing is said in staccato, like a basketball coach shouting instructions to his team mid-game). Anyway, Anthony Albanese, the transport minister, steps up to the dispatch box and tells a story about how he was at Sydney airport after the planes were grounded and how he met a distressed American couple who were unable to get home. Now, we'll have to check Hansard tomorrow morning for the exact wording but Mr Albanese went on to say, "the woman was 43 weeks pregnant and needed to get home."

Sheenagh and I looked at each other and said, "43 weeks pregnant! What is she doing flying at 43 weeks? How is she 43 weeks pregnant? Maybe she's an elephant (OK, that was too harsh)." Gales of laughter float around our house. I note on the Qantas website this policy about flights over 4 hours, "For routine pregnancies, you can travel up to the end of the 36th week for single pregnancies and the end of the 32nd week for multiple pregnancies (e.g. twins)."

Mr Albanese's story failed the plausibility test.

Whenever we listen to a story we instinctively match the experience we're hearing with our own experience and if there's a significant mismatch the story's, and the storyteller's, credibility crumbles, no matter how true the event.

The plausibility test occurs as the story unfolds but we have another test we unconsciously make before the story hardly gets started: the relevance test.

Especially in business settings where everyone is pressed for time (That's what people say. I'm not convinced), if we know a story is about to be told we want to know there's a good chance it'll be relevant. To help the listener judge the potential relevance of a story we often prepend a short statement suggesting, or simply stating, the point of the story.

"The Qantas grounding was causing incredible distress for people. It was a good thing the government stepped in. I was in Sydney aiport on Sunday ... [the pregnant woman story]"

Sometime it just takes a slight slip up in facts to lose credibility with a story ... [The Anthony Albenese story of the 43-week pregnant woman]

With these two tests in mind business storytellers should be thinking of ways of conveying the relevance of their stories so they're afforded the air-time to recount their experiences.

They also should be thinking how to increase the plausibility of their story. Facts matter. Details matter. Names of people and places help. But most importantly will your audience believe what you're saying. The best advice comes from the master screenwriter and director Quentin Tarantino in this scene from Reservoir Dogs, lovingly called The Commode Story. Be warned: do not click on this link if you are offended by intense cursing or your workmates in the adjoining cubicles might be offended. The Commode Story.

The dangers of social norms

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:16:16 +1100

I saw a TV advert recently that I believe is going to be a complete marketing failure. A campaign that is not going to make one ounce of difference in getting people to buy that product. Why? The power of social norms.

As mentioned in a previous blog post, people are highly sensitive to social norms - information about what other people are doing and what they approve of. We look for cues to how we should behave, what we should and shouldn't do, and what we should buy through looking at what other people do.

Westpac Bank recently launched a campaign using statistics of how few people had the appropriate insurance and superannuation cover to get people to buy more of these products. Here is an example of one of the adverts.

When I first saw this, my initial thought was; "Well 95% of the population don't have it, and they seem to be doing just fine. Why would I need more insurance?". I hadn't heard or read anywhere of a growing number of horror stories of families becoming destitute and homeless due to not having "adequate" insurance. It wasn't in the paper, on the TV news or being discussed by politicians.

If not having enough insurance was OK for 95% of Australians, then it was certainly OK for me.