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!

What Would You Remember In 48 Hours?

One of my favourite Saturday morning activities is reading The Good Weekend magazine in the The Melbourne Age.  One of the pages I read had three standard segments. 

The first was about ‘Ordinary People with Extraordinary Jobs’ and I read about a man who was a snake catcher.

The second was Danny Katz’s Modern Guru, where every week he answers modern day etiquette questions and this one was in response to someone asking if they should have asked for their change when they handed over $30 for two drinks at a top end bar and the bar tender pocketed $5 for tips.

In the middle of those two articles was the ‘By Number’ section, where ten interesting number facts were listed.  All three articles were really interesting including most of the number facts.  When I finished reading the page, I thought to myself, ‘What I would remember in 48 hours?’.

So here I am in the office on Monday and I can still recall the information about the snake catcher.  That he makes more money cleaning up people’s backyards after the catch, then he does catching snakes.  Because even though he doesn’t charge a lot, most people still think that a shovel is cheaper.

I remember Danny Katz’s advice on how we should switch the whole tipping situation on its head.  So instead of tipping in high-end establishments we should only tip in cheap and cheerful places where the staff probably need their wages subsidised more.  He suggested that the more we pay the less we should tip.

I cannot, for the life of me, recall one of those facts that I found extremely interesting at the time.

Now I am not saying that no-one remembers facts and figures but the vast majority of people do not remember them, regardless of how fascinating it is at the time.

Worth remembering the next time we have to communicate something or do a presentation, because  one of the acid tests is what your audience would remember in 48 hours.

So take the challenge and tell us what you remember in 48 hours.

Julia Gillard’s US Congress Speech – OTT or WOW?

We woke up again this morning to a country divided about Julia Gillard’s inaugural speech to the US Congress.  Many Australians are suggesting she went over the top with her praise for Americans while others are saying she absolutely wowed her audience.

The divide is not surprising it is almost expected because The American Congress and the Australian public are two very different audiences. To be successful (and this doesn’t just apply to speeches) every communicator needs to focus on their purpose and their audience.  So how did Gillard measure up on those two counts?

First of all the purpose of  Gillard’s speech was to strengthen the Australian and American alliance.  Her audience was the joint US Congress, although knowing she would be judged by a default audience the Australian people.

So with purpose and audience in mind, did she get it right?  By all reports she did.  She received 16 spontaneous rounds of applause with 6 of those being standing ovations.  That is fair few in a 30 minute speech.

AM’s North American Correspondent Jane Cowan reported “that afterwards one senior congressional staffer remarked that the speech had gone down so well that they thought the Australian Prime Minister could probably get ‘whatever she wants’ from this congress now.”  

That is achieving your purpose.

So how did she do it?

She used words, emotion and symbolism that were right for her audience. 

She used words like ‘be worthy’ and ‘be bold’ that appeals to the US congress, while not necessarily the Australian public.

At the end of her speech she shared how as a child she had watched man land on the moon. “I firmly believe you are the same people who amazed me when I was a small girl by landing on the moon.  On that great day I believed Americans could do anything.  I believe that still.  You can do anything.”

Julia Gillard also used symbolism.  She shared the following story about a group of Australians who spent 2 months in New York training for potential terrorist attacks at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

“They worked hard together and became more than colleagues – they became mates. So when it was time to go home the Australian commander gave Rescue 1′s chief his Australian Army “slouch hat” and the chief presented the Australians with a battle scarred fire helmet.  Dated December 1998 and signed by members of the Rescue 1 crew, including Kevin Dowdell. Three years later, Kevin Dowdell was one of the hundreds of New York firefighters killed when the towers came down. Kevin led his men in. His remains were never found.  But that helmet was found … in Australia.  And Aussie firefighter Rob Frey found Kevin’s sons.  James Dowdell is one of New York’s bravest, a firefighter like his father before him.  Patrick Dowdell is wearing his country’s uniform in Afghanistan

Rob came to America to give James the helmet his father signed.  A precious possession.  A last link to a father lost.  And I give you their story. A precious possession too.  These two men are here today. Rob, James – good on you.

We are so proud of what you represent, your story says it all about the friendship between Australia and the United States.  Together in the hardest of times. Friends for the future.”

At this point James Dowdell and Rob Frey who were present in the gallery stood up, with James holding the helmet his father had signed.  By all reports it was a standing ovation that almost lifted the roof off.  

Symbolism and emotion are so powerful and memorable that is no surprise that the overwhelming sentiment from journalists present, was that it will be the emotion that the Americans will remember the most.

You can click through her to view the full video.  (Click from image to video at top left hand corner)

What are your thoughts?  Do you think she achieved her purpose?

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.

Frank Lowy please ring me! Business Storytelling and Australia’s bid for the World Cup

Every four years  like a lot of people, I am gripped by soccer fever, thanks to the World Cup and  turn into a complete soccer tragic!  Given our time zone differences, here in Australia this involves setting our alarm for the earliest hours of the morning to watch the games ‘live’.  But it is absolutely worth it!

Like most people in Australia I am deeply disappointed that Australia won’t be hosting the 2022 World cup.  Life is a tough teacher.  You have the experience first and then you hopefully learn from it.  So what did we learn?  I am of course going to be looking at this through the lens of storytelling.   Caveat: We all know the whole bidding process is complex involves many strategies, and many players, political wrangling etc. So this is in no way a solution but something to consider as part our learning.

Using the storytelling lens and comparing Australia’s bid with Qatar’s three things to consider:

  1. The emotion each pitch was tapping into
  2. The audience
  3. The audience’s objections

Every time  I heard Frank Lowy pitching to host the World Cup he talked about Australia being a ‘safe pair of hands’.   The Australian bid tapped into a negative emotion, fear.  It looks like the FIFA committee (the audience) was not looking for a ‘safe pair of hands’.  Their decision to go with South Africa for the previous World Cup indicates this.  Another plank in our bid was ‘Make a country’s dreams come true’  which could apply to every country bidding for the World Cup.  On the other hand ABC news reporter Emma Alberici said Qatar presented a bid full of emotion, imploring the executive committee to make history by sending the World Cup to the Middle East for the first time.  Compare ‘Safe pair of hands’ with ‘The opportunity to make history’. 

 But what about the audience?   Any narrative we engage with has to be right for the audience.

On their web site FIFA states ‘For the Game. For the World’.  It is interesting to note the Qatar bid tag line states  ’For football, for the Middle East, for the world’.  Perfect alignment.  Qatar was telling the committee you have the option to unite the Middle East and the world through football …compare that with making a single country’s dreams come true.

In their bios on the FIFA website one of the questions for the Executive Committee is ‘What does football mean to you?   It is interesting to note the range of answers from  ‘Unity and friendship’, ‘Responsibility, service and joy’, ‘Team spirit and social responisbility’, ‘Unity and teamwork’.  Again the Qatar bid taps into this.

How do you in storytelling overcome the audience’s objections? One of the key hurdles for Australia was the time difference.  The Australian bid website states ’A time zone for more than 60% of the world’s population. Australia will work closely with FIFA to ensure that the match schedule is designed to maximise total television audience numbers around the world’.

 All necessary statement of fact but compare how objections can be handled in a compelling and emotionally engaging way.  In one of Qatar’s bid presentations a child is heard saying ‘So say the Israeli teams and the Arab teams go to the world cup and they play against each other.  Israelis would come to cheer their team and the Arabs would also come, then they would get to know each other’.  An adult voice then adds ‘Indeed what we saw in South Africa was harmony between all people there’. 

 Giving a speech after the wining host was announced, Qatar 2022 Bid Committee Chairman Sheikh Mohammad bin Hamad Al Thani said “On behalf of millions of people living in the Middle East, thank you,” he went on saying “Thank you for believing in us, thank you for having such bold vision. Thank you also for acknowledging this is the right time for the Middle East. We have a date with history which is summer 2022. We will not let you down. We will make you proud.” 

He was letting the panel know this was about  football, but it was also about the Middle East and the world. The legacy they would leave the world with this decision.

Congratulations  Qatar on the historic win.  Frank Lowy please ring us and let’s start working on Australia’s bid for 2030.  The time is now …

Business storytelling and The Social Network movie

On the weekend I went to see The Social Network,a film about Mark Zukerberg the founder of Facebook.  While watching the film,  I was struck (yet again) by how powerful stories can be. Especially when compared to a statement of fact or even a metaphor.

In the movie, Zuckerberg sets up a meeting with Sean Parker, the 20-something founder of  Napster. Zuckerberg is being persuaded by Sean Parker to think big.  Parker actually does this in three stages.  First with a  statement, then with a metaphor and finally with a story.

Parker says “What’s cool is not a million dollars, but a billion dollars’.

Parker then advises Zuckerberg to choose his future using a metaphor:  ‘When you go fishing you can catch a lot of fish or you can catch a big fish. You ever walk into a guy’s den and see a picture of fourteen trout? No, he’s holding an 800-pound marlin and that’s what you want’.

Later, at a San Francisco night club, Parker influences Zuckerberg with this story of the founder of Victoria’s Secret.

‘A Stanford MBA named Roy Raymond, wants to buy his wife some lingerie but he’s too embarrassed to shop for it at a department store. Comes up with an idea for a high end place that doesn’t make you feel like a pervert. He gets a forty thousand dollar bank loan, borrows another forty thousand from his in-laws, opens a store and calls it Victoria’s Secret. Makes a half million dollars his first year. He starts a catalogue, opens three more stores and after five years he sells the company to Leslie Wexner and The Limited for four million dollars. Happy ending, right? Except four years later the company’s worth five hundred million dollars and Roy Raymond jumps off the Golden Gate Bridge. Poor guy just wanted to buy his wife a pair of thigh highs.’

So did the story work?

Jim Fink in his article Facebook IPO? Insights from the Social Network Movie says the lessons for Zuckerberg were :  THINK BIG , be patient and you’ll maximize the value of the business.   Jim also goes on to add that Zuckerberg took Parker’s advice. When former Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel offered to buy Facebook for a cool $1 billion in 2006, Mark turned him down.  Semel was shocked, stating later in an interview:  I’d never met anyone – forget his age, 22 then or 26 now – I’d never met anyone who would walk away from $1 billion. I couldn’t believe it.  Today Facebook is now worth 26 times what Semel offered to pay.

I am sharing this with you to illustrate how a statement a of  fact or a metaphor inform people but may not necessarily shift behaviour.  As both are based on logic and logic informs but doesn’ t always persuade us to change.  If logic did that then no one would smoke, non one would speed, we would all eat right and exercise everyday.  But with a purposeful authentic story you can influence behaviour…just like Sean Parker did.

Business Storytelling at WorkSafe

Last Friday we attended the IPAA Writers Forum as guest speakers and had the privilege to hear Bernie Dean, who is the Executive Director of Marketing & Communications at WorkSafe Victoria.  We have for a long time used WorkSafe Victoria  as example of using business storytelling right and it was great to hear first hand from Bernie how Worksafe have strategically used storytelling to influence and persuade.

Years ago when workplace safety was not high on people’s radar,  WorkSafe used negative ‘shock’ advertising to raise awareness to the problem.  That is the power of negative stories.  They raise awareness of a problem.  If you don’t abide by safety procedures, people die.  If we don’t change our strategy, we will become irrelevant.  If we don’t outsource this division, we may go out of business…in essence they create a burning platform. 

However, negative stories can only get you so far.  Those familiar with the workplace adverts over the last couple of years will notice that they have started using positive stories .   One such advertisement is about a boy sitting on the step waiting for his dad to come home, his mother is getting increasingly worried and all the time you are thinking the worstthen his Dad pulls into the drive way and the tag line reads ”The most important reason for making your workplace safe, is not at work at all.”  View the ad on YouTube 

The workplace safety ads often get criticised for their graphic content but again Bernie emphasised that you should not dumb down the message.  He said he learnt this from reading to his two young children.  When he moved from reading Enid Blyton to Treasure Island with them, they were introduced to some rough characters and language.  He thought he needed to ‘tone’ down the language but realised that as soon as you start to do that you start to diminish the impact.  So don’t underestimate your audience.

So the lesson we can learn from Bernie Dean and the success of the WorkSafe advertisements is that you need to understand that negative stories will raise awareness to a problem but will only get you so far.  Introducing positive stories will have more impact on encouraging the change of behaviour you desire.

Empathy and humour anyone? Business Storytelling lessons from Junior Master Chef

Did you see the first episode of Junior Master Chef on Sunday?  All eyes were on Anna Gare – the new judge.  When Anna was introduced to her audience she said ‘I started cooking when I was your age and I could barely see over the counter’. Her audience laughed and immediately connected with her (I know I did). 

Anna opened with something personal that demonstrated empathy for her audience.  Empathy, humour, connection all in less than 30 seconds.  Do you think you could achieve all three in the first 30 seconds of your opening when you make your next presentation ..and why would you bother?

Annette Simmons story expert says one of the first stories you need to use are ‘Who am I’ stories i.e. ‘What personal qualities make you a trustworthy person’.. in this context?’

Its wisdom rests on that old adage ‘people need to trust you before they trust your message’.  Anna’s use of self disclosure shows that it doesn’t have to be a long story that trawls all the milestones in her life (which can be boring and certainly wouldn’t have held her audience’s attention or worked on prime time TV).  It can be one sentence that shows us who you are, and tells the audience what they need to know about you…that is relevant to them. 

Giant mental post it note here – this is not what I think my audience needs to know about me – which could be everything I did from year dot. Too many presenters make this mistake and do a condensed version of their CV.  Instead think about it from your audience’s perspective.  Determine what your audience needs to know about you to trust you and your messages in their particular context, and work on getting that down to a line or two.

Remember the first 30 – 60 seconds are critical and this is where your audience will be making its mind up about you.  So never ever waste that on house keeping (YIKES) that can come later. Instead work on the right opening sentence that demonstrates WHO you are ..and gets their attention straight up with empathy and humour…just like Anna did.  Go chef (sorry I couldn’t resist!).

Inform or influence?

I was walking my dog yesterday and came across this sign which made me smile and also reminded me so much of what we try and do in business every day.  

So often in business we are stating what we believe is the bleeding obvious and yet we get so little cut through and so little recall.  Most of us can barely remember what we ate for lunch yesterday let alone what was said in a meeting two weeks ago.  What then is the solution?  Research and our own personal experience inform us that ‘emotion is the fast track to the brain’ i.e. how I feel, affects how I think and my performance.

The people who crafted this sign were trying to influence our behaviour with emotion (humour)…and we all hope they succeed!  Often in business we think logic informs people (which it does) but we also expect people to shift behaviour based on logic.   And when this doesn’t happen we get frustrated.    If logic did persuade us to change our behaviour then no one would speed, we would all eat right and exercise every day, no one would smoke etc. 

As business people every day we make choices with our communication – are we trying to just inform or are we trying to influence behaviour?   If it is the latter then what emotion can you tap into to influence your audience?  This isn’t manipulative but shows empathy for your audience as well as an understanding of the issue from their perspective.

Here is a link to some recent work place safety ads that did this really well and tapped into the right emotion with their tag line and message:  ‘The real reason to be safe at work is not at work it is at home’.

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