Why I do what I do? Business storytelling at its compelling best

‘In July 1985, 5 year old Eve van Grafhorst was banned from attending her local kindergarten in Kincumber, NSW.  Eve was HIV positive and had contracted HIV from a blood transfusion when she was born.  This was the time of the grim reaper ads about AIDS and families in the town of Kincumber would cross the street to avoid Eve and her family.  Completely ostracised Eve and her family migrated to Hastings, New Zealand where I met her while working for the newspaper. 

One day in New Zealand Eve decided to raise money for AIDS awareness by selling hugs for $1.00 at the local mall. Everyone was giving her a hug and helping her raise money except for this one man who was watching from a distance.  I asked him if he planned to give her a hug and he told me ‘I am scared to give her a hug as I might catch something’.  I told Eve and she went over to the man and gently talked to him for nearly an hour at the end of which he gave her a hug and $1.00 and there wasn’t a dry eye in the mall.  When I saw how this little girl could work for an hour to raise $1.00 to make a difference I realised how much I could do to make a difference. 

This was my turning point and I decided to set up my company m.a.d.woman, committed to encouraging, inspiring and enabling people to make a positive difference in the environment, community and to the lives of people who need support.  Eve died peacefully aged 11 in her mother’s arms. She remains one of the most inspiration people in my life.’

 Melina Schamroth

We recently had the privilege of hearing this story shared by Social entrepreneur Melina Schamroth, on why she set up her business.  We were also so delighted to learn that on on Friday night m.a.d.woman was named the National Winner of the 2011 Telstra Business Awards – Yellow Pages Social Responsibility category. GO Melina!

Marco Polo – What have you done?

I read in today’s paper that Marco Polo’s exploration may have pulled up short . The stories about his exploration of China and the Silk Road in the late 13th century, may have been fabricated.

The report claims that Marco Polo may never have reached the Middle Kingdom and was not responsible for introducing pasta to Italy after all.   Archaeologists have found evidence that his travel stories recounted in what later became a best selling account and one of the world’s first travel books A Description of the World  were second-hand stories. Polo had heard these stories from Persian merchants he met on the shores of the Black Sea.

This got me thinking about the importance of being authentic in your storytelling, regardless of who you are.  Making up, manufacturing stories and passing other’s stories off as your own is simply not worth the back lash on your reputation.

And in this day and age with social media you can be guaranteed that the untruths of your stories will be unearthed a lot quicker than it has taken archaeologist to discredit Marco Polo from the 13th century.

So when embarking on any storytelling, beware of the dangers of not being authentic and avoid the mistakes of Marco Polo.

On a final note, children all around the world will now  have to change their Marco! Polo! chanting game to add Liar Liar Pants on Fire!

What is Business Storytelling? The Results

As you might be aware we define Business Storytelling as ‘storytelling with a business purpose and for business results’. So what results can a purposeful business story deliver?

Take for example a client of ours, Michael Brandt, who is a Regional Branch Manager at a bank.  Michael was responsible for 20 branches and at every branch, he had the same problem. His staff never seemed to meet their weekly targets of referring quality sales leads to the sales department.

He continuously talked to his team, and every time, they told him they knew what their targets were, and the importance of referring leads to the sales department. In fact, their targets were even linked to their annual performance bonus!

His staff told him that it was the one task they hated doing.  For two years, Michael had this problem, and by his own admission, had tried everything. His frustration was tangible and you can imagine how frustrating it must have been for his staff as well.

During one of our workshops, Michael constructed the following story:

‘When I was a kid, I hated Brussels sprouts. Every time Brussels sprouts was served at dinner, I always left the Brussels sprouts till the end (of course I always hoped I could get away without eating them).   My mother would never let me leave the table until I ate them.

One day, when Brussels sprouts was on the menu (yet again), I decided to eat them straight away so I could sit back and enjoy the rest of my meal. Do you think we could approach our quality sales leads targets like Brussels sprouts? We all know we can’t leave the table without eating them. Do you think we could get them out of the way early in the week and then sit back and enjoy the rest of our week?’

Two weeks later, we saw Michael at a follow up session where he told us he had been to 11 of his 20 Branches, and narrated his Brussels sprouts story. Michael advised us that in all 11 Branches, for the first time in two years, they had achieved their quality sales leads targets. We asked Michael if he had done anything different in those 11 branches (apart from telling the story) to which he replied ‘No, the story was the only thing I did differently’. He then told us that the term ‘Brussels sprouts’ had also become short-hand within the team for their sales leads: ‘How many Brussels sprouts have you eaten?’ ‘I have already eaten 3 today and it’s not even lunch time!’

Being consultants we took full credit of course for Michael’s success!  His story worked because everyone can relate to it, it taps into a universal human experience of being forced to eat your vegetables by your mother.  At a subtler level Michaels’ story carries a layer of empathy in it.  Through the story he is saying it is OK to hate stuff in life but that doesn’t mean you can get out of doing it.

Michael used ‘Brussels sprouts’ for 6 months as every time he did it gave him powerful results. This is an example of how storytelling can work for you, if done purposefully.  Here is another case study across an organisation of the results purposeful storytelling achieved.

‘Business Storytelling’ The most important thing to remember

A facilitator launched into a workshop with this story:

“Last week I watched my wife preparing a pot roast. As I watched she cut off one end of the roast and set it aside. I Asked her why she did this. She answered, “Because my mother always cut off the end of roast.”  I was still confused so I went to my mother-in-law and asked the same question. She said. “Because my mother always did it that way!” I still thought it was strange and so I went to my wife’s grandmother and asked her about this strange family practice. She just laughed and said, ”I always cut off the end of the roast because I didn’t have a pan big enough the hold roast.” Some traditions are like that!  Let’s look at what we do and why we do it that way.”

All the participants connected with the story and the message.  The next day another facilitator arrived and said ‘I want to share this parable with you’ and repeated the same story!  Much to the shock of all the participants.  Needless to say the  credibility of the previous facilitator was shot to pieces…because he had passed off  this parable as his own.

One of the participant’s shared this whole experience with us adding ‘We were so angry and didn’t care any more about the valuable stuff that we had learnt in the workshop any more.  All we could remember was he had lied to us by saying this had happened to him when clearly it was a well known story.  We started to wonder what else he had said was not true.’

If a story is not your own, the simplest yet most important storytelling technique is to always credit your stories.   Credit your stories and stay credible.  This is the most important tip for business storytelling.

Where have you seen authentic or inauthentic storytelling?  Please share your comments with us.

What really made Julia Gillard cry?

Crocodile tears or real?  Strategic or spontaneous?  Talk back radio and the Twittersphere are buzzing with comments on how Julia Gillard was moved to tears when she was paying tribute to the heroes of the recent natural disasters in Australia.

Many are saying the tears were not real.  If that is the case these same people would have to admit that she has turned into one brilliant actor and almost overnight.  Personally, I think the tears were real and genuine and  triggered by something that perhaps the PM herself was not even aware of.

When you read the full transcript of her speech which is 5 pages long, you will notice that Gillard became emotional at three specific points. 

The first time, she became emotional and engaging was when she started to tell the the story of receiving the mud splattered Australian flag that was pulled out of Murphy’s Creek by four Australian Defence men .  She said ‘I was honoured when they gave it to me, it was muddy and it was soaking wet, and they did so because it was a powerful symbol for them’.

The flag had obviously become a powerful symbol for her too.  So when she started sharing that specific story, like anyone sharing a specific authentic story, she relived the emotion of the moment.

The second time was again when she narrated the courageous actions of 13-year-old Jordan Rice who told the rescuers to take his younger brother first.  Sadly before the rescuers could return, Jordon and his mother were taken by the flood.  Again the specifics of the story brought emotion to the story teller and the story listener.

The final point where Gillard choked back tears was again a very specific recall of  the efforts and words of  Mark Kempton who was part of a helicopter crew that winched 28 people to safety.  One women he winched to safety was a young pregnant woman who just seconds before the chopper arrived had had her young child wrenched from her arms by the flood waters.  Gillard choking back tears recalled that Mark said ‘I looked over my shoulder and saw her sitting on the floor of the aircraft and she was just devastated.  It was heartbreaking.”

Later in her speech the PM also recalls other acts of courage and there are many, but they are not specific, so while no less important, they did not result in an emotional reaction.

So no doubt the debate will continue after all she is a politician.  She has been accused of being ‘wooden’ in the past and not showing emotion.  The only difference I saw this time was she told stories, very powerful stories that not only had an impact on her but had an impact on many people that heard them.  As humans we listen to stories differently.  More politicians and leaders should understand that specific stories say more and provide more information than ‘political speak’ and ‘generalarities’, that say nothing.

We invite you to comment and share  a time when you have been moved by a story?

True Leadership

After the last few weeks in the aftermath of the devasting Queensland floods there has been much spoken and written about the Queensland premier, Anna Bligh’s leadership.   The vast majority of the coverage  has been glowing, with a general concensus that she showed ‘true leadership’.  We thought it might be worth exploring what she did to show ‘true leadership’ and what we can all learn from her.

The first thing she did was to take responsibility for being the main source of information.  She conducted every press conference and did so on a regular basis.  She looked and sounded like she had full understanding of the situation, answering questions in detail and only deferring to others for techincal or specific information.

Many business leaders do not fully appreciate that communication is the main part of their leadership role.  Several years ago when interviewing John Stewart, the then CEO of National Australia Bank Group, he said ‘When I took over as CEO I thought communication would be about 70% of my job.  I was wrong, it was more like 90%’.

Bligh also showed that the communication has to be on a regular basis, especially in times when people are going through stressful situations.  In business this may be in times of change, mergers or restructures.  Leaders need to understand the stress this can cause people and the importance of regular and proactive communication.

Secondly Bligh showed emotion.  During one press conference she shed tears at one stage and the emotion on her face was evident throughout.  Too many leaders are still operating from an outdated leadership model that leaders should not show emotion.  Leadership is about leading people and people are emotional creatures.  So why did we ever think it was a good idea for leaders to not show emotion?

When leaders show emotion, they generate trust and inspire others. 

Thirdly Bligh show authenticity.  I don’t think for a second anyone thought her emotion was manufactured.  If it was it would have backfired… it always does.  You could see the stress on her face.  She also showed calmness, courage and compassion.  She provided the bad news and the good news.  She was honest about the challenges that lay ahead and provided the inspiration needed to overcome those challenges.

So we think there are three good lessons all leaders could take from watching Anna Bligh over this time.

Acknowledge that you are and should be the main source of communication

Do not be afraid to show emotion

Be authentic – in your words, your actions and your intentions

And just to show how successful this combination can be, a survey by the Sydney Morning Herald showed that 95% of respondents rated Bligh’s leadership at either good or outstanding.  A rating I am sure any business leader would be hapy with.

Authenticity in business storytelling

I’m a great fan of the Gruen transfer, a show we have here in Australia.  In one of the episodes they talked about marketing spin and  said in marketing spin you take one truth and spin everything around it.  I was immediately struck by how business storytelling is the complete opposite of that.  Because for your storytelling to be successful, everything about it needs to be authentic. 

So in this video let’s explore authenticity in organisational storytelling.  One of the first things to consider and this comes to us from Steve Denning, is your stories need to be both factually true as well as authentically true.

To illustrate this, Denning shares this example….’On the Titanic’s maiden voyage 700 people arrived in New York’.  This is factually true  but it leaves out the detail that the ship sank and 1500 people died.

So your story needs to be both factually true and authentically true.

The other thing to consider with authenticity in business, is that you as the storyteller need to believe in your story and its purpose – your intent needs to be authentic.

A few years ago we did some work with a leadership team that was outsourcing some of their work overseas and they were looking for stories to accompany  this.  When no stories emerged we asked them ‘can you honestly put your hand on your heart and say you believe this is the best thing for your company?’…..and they couldn’t.  So unless you believe in the purpose you are not going to have an authentic story.

The other point we want to draw from that example is not everything needs a story.  So use stories only if it is authentic to do so otherwise just go with the data….which is what that leadership team did.  They just went with the data about outsourcing their operations.

The last point to make about authenticity is congruence.  There needs to be a connection, there needs to be a congruence between your words and your actions.  When Cameron Clyne, (current CEO of National Australia Bank) became CEO, one of his early promises was to be open and approachable.  When Cameron Clyne was fairly new he attended one of the NAB’s internal events and took a seat down the back.  A lady who worked in IT approached him and said ‘Excuse me you are sitting in my seat’.   He immediately apologised and vacated her seat.  As soon as Cameron left some of the lady’s colleagues said ‘Do you know who that was?  The new CEO!’.  She said ’You are kidding, no way why would he sit up in the back?’.    That story became one of the stories that started circulating in the bank and it showed people the congruence between Cameron’s words and his actions.

So just to recap …authenticity in storytelling is everything.  All your stories need to be authentic and when we are talking about authenticity we are asking you to consider these things. 

Your stories need to be both factually true and authentically true.

You as a storyteller need to believe in the purpose of your story.

Use stories only if it is authentic to do so, otherwise just go with the data.

And finally for authentic storytelling you need congruence between your words and your actions.

We would love you to make a comment of when you have seen leaders who have been authentic or not with their storytelling.

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