What’s your secret?

Sometimes someone can provide you an insight into life that stays with you forever.  And when you share that as a story, it can have an influence on countless other people.  Here’s an example of just that shared at one of our recent presentations.

Just yesterday I was sharing this with my husband and he said it must be really important to you as you still remember it, after all these years.  And he was right! I remember 25  ago I would visit corporate offices providing health checkups for their employees.  I was doing the  health check up for the CEO of large ASX listed company and was surprised at how healthy he was on every measure – blood pressure , stress etc.  I asked him ‘Please tell me your secret, apart from delegating everything to everyone else!”.  He laughed and said I do 3 things ‘Everyday I meditate, I play golf regularly and I completely trust the team of leaders who report to me’.  I was inspired by that and even today in my role I try and practice what he said.

Deborah Stuart, Director Community Services, Southern Health

Storytelling is Essential for Innovation

It was day 2 of the ci2011 Global Conference in Melbourne.  We had just presented our masterclass on storytelling the day before with some pretty positive feedback.

I was excited about what the next 2 days had in store for us with some of Australia’s and the worlds leading experts in their field.

One of the opening speakers was Professor Allan Fels AO and his words were music to my ears.

Professor Fels started talking about the power of storytelling and that “as humans we are hardwired to tell stories and hardwired to listen to stories”. 

He said “70% of what we learn is through stories” and that “storytelling is essential for innovation“.  I withheld my urge to run up on stage and kiss the man …JUST!

But let’s look at Professor Fels two statements and why they ring so true.

“70% of what we learn is through stories”- Think of the last presentation you went to, or conference.  Was it the stories you remember?  Stories are how we make sense of the world, it is how we learn and it is what we remember.  Stories have the ability to not only help people understand what we are saying but they also allow people to remember what we have said and retell others without losing its meaning.  These are the three universal challenges as leaders, as teachers, as presenters and even as parents. 

Do they understand what I am saying?

Will they remember what I am saying?

Can they share what I have said with others?

Stories will help you achieve traction on all those three challenges.

“Storytelling is essentional for innovation” – During the conference we heard many views on what is essential for innovation, such as diversity, collaboration and culture of risk taking …and these are all important.  But once we have that culture of risk taking and once we have brought together a diverse group of minds in a collaborative envirnment it is the stories that are shared that will generate real innovation.  Why?   Because stories of what is possible sparks other stories of what is possible.  When people hear stories, they suspend judgement and stories when done right provide a glimpse of future possibilities and opportunities.

So thank you Professor Allan Fels for showing us the power of storytelling so succinctly.

Bruce Springsteen and Customer Service?

Earlier this month we conducted a workshop in Melbourne and this is where Matt Ritchie, National Manager, Sales Strategy & Delivery at MLC Advice Product shared this story:
 

‘I was recently reading a magazine that featured an interview with Bruce  Springsteen.  Bruce Springsteen has been a musician and performer for over 20 years and has a tremendous reputation as a live act.  The interviewer asked him how he kept up his motivation to deliver night after night.  To which Springsteen replied “It was when I realised that, while for me, every night is a “Bruce Springsteen concert night” there are 1000′s of people in the audience, who have spent their money to see a Bruce Springsteen concert maybe for the first and only time in their lives.   They may only come to one Bruce Springsteen concert in their life and I want to give them the best ever Bruce Springsteen experience. And thats what keeps me going night after night”.  

Reading that reminded me of  us at work every day.  While we might take hundreds of calls, for  a customer who rings us, that might be the only contact they have with MLC, this might be the only “Bruce Springsteen concert” they go to.  Imagine the difference we can make if every time  our customers got the full Bruce Springsteen experience…’

The story struck a chord with everyone in the group and what a powerful and memorable frame for thinking about, and delivering customer service – the  Bruce Springsteen experience.

We are sharing this with you to illustrate that telling a personal story (and as you can see from this one it does not have to be the most revealing personal moment in your life) and linking it back to a business message can be really refreshing and powerful in business.

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!

Fly like a butterfly – another example of business storytelling

Last week we ran a workshop for Many Rivers who provide micro financing predominantly for Indigenous Australians.  One of the participants was David Bagheri,  the National Development Manager for Many Rivers.  David is often in a position of explaining to their clients that Many Rivers can support them but cannot do the work for them.  This is the story David developed during our workshop, to communicate that message.

‘I remember a few years ago watching a documentary on butterflies.  That they start off as caterpillars and munch and crunch their way through leaves and finally cocoon themselves turning into butterflies.  What I didn’t know however was that the process of the butterfly breaking out of the cocoon is quite strenuous and can take a while to do so.  However, this process that is long and strenuous actually strengthens the butterfly’s wings.  This process allows the butterfly to have the strength in it wings to fly away from the cocoon.

 If someone decided to help the butterfly in the cocoon by removing the layers of the cocoon, the butterfly would be denied the opportunity to strengthen its wings. Once free from the cocoon the butterfly would fall to the ground and die.

 At Many Rivers we are here to guide you and support you but would never deny you the opportunity to strengthen your wings, so you too can fly like a butterfly.’

On hearing David’ final telling of  the story, I not only felt proud that I had played a small part in helping him develop such a wonderful story, I also thought how powerful that story would be for every parent to hear.   To remind us of the role we play in not denying our children the opportunity to strengthen their wings.

How to bring business storytelling successfully into your organisation

A recent Melcrum article about storytelling in organisations was accompanied by an online vote which asked…

Would you consider using the technique of storytelling as part of your employee engagement strategy? 

…Yes, it would really suit our organizational culture

…Maybe, I am a bit skeptical about this

…No way, our leaders would see it as too fluffy

The results of the vote were a little bit surprising.  We thought the vast majority would be in the “maybe but skeptical” camp but as of 9th June, that had only registered 19% of the vote.   14% said ”No way, our leaders would see it as too fluffy” and 67% said “yes it would suit their organization”.

Over the last 6 years of running workshops and public speaking on storytelling we have been conducting our very own internal polls.  We know that whenever we conduct workshops or present, people fall into three categories.

1.  “Business storytelling is something that is really going to help me in business so I am all ears.”

2.  ”You have to be kidding me, what could storytelling possible help me achieve in business?!”

3.  “This is all very good but I already use storytelling.”

In our experience, we would say the majority fall into category 2 “You have to be kidding me?” but we find we can quickly move them to category 1.   Thankfully there are very few people in category 3 and normally their response of “I already tell stories” is met with the roll of eyes from their peers.

So if you are feeling a bit unsure about bringing storytelling into your organisation as you think the leaders may be a bit skeptical, there are a few strategies to consider that we have seen clients use with great success.

First, bring business storytelling into your organisation linked to a business issue.  So this may be communicating the new strategy, increasing employee engagement, improving sales or simply improving the leaders’ ability to communicate.

Second, run a pilot workshop and strategically invite some of the influential skeptics along.  There is power in converting your biggest skeptic into your strongest advocate.

Third, get the CEO and senior leadership team on board early …because as they start using storytelling it gives legitimacy to the skill and permission across the culture to start using storytelling.  By default, the other leaders in the company will not only see the power of storytelling but personally expereince the power of storytelling.

Also, try to train your leaders up in quick succession to build momentum around the skill.

Check out the Ericsson Case Study to see a great example of doing this right.

These are just a few strategies and if you want to find out more please download our Checklist to Introduce Business Storytelling Into Your Organisation and feel free to share other strategies you have used.

Ci2011 – Creative Innovation Conference Melbourne Nov 2011

We are honoured and excited to be part of this year’s Creative Innovation 2011 conference.
Ci2010 was described as the “Best conference EVER!” (MICE magazine), and this year’s event promises to be even more relevant and transformational. 

Creative Innovation 2011 is a rare opportunity to learn, think, connect and share ideas with over 35 of the world’s most influential thinkers under one roof to inspire your leadership and achieve business success.

 The theme for Ci2011 is: “The challenges and opportunities of a super-connected world”

We are honoured to be on the same speaking program with one of USA’s leading entrepreneurs Raymond Kurzweil, acclaimed philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett (USA), world authority on creative thinking Edward De Bono (UK), technology entrepreneur Tan Le (USA), Stanford and IDEO design thinking expert Brendan Boyle (USA), “The Innovation Architect” Paddy Miller (USA), education guru Stephen Heppell (UK), Australian of the Year Simon McKeon, and many more…

This is a 2 Day Conference plus Deep Conversations, 10 Master Classes, a Gala Dinner and outstanding Australian performers and  artists…not to be missed!

It will be held on 16-18 November 2011 at the Sofitel Melbourne On Collins.

Please acces the website for further information and registration details. www.ci2011.com.au

Grade 5 and Brussels Sprouts

Recently I was asked to come and talk to my daughter’s Grade 5 class about my career path.  Last time I visited the class was for a ‘Are you smarter than a 5th Grader?’ competition where my lack of knowledge about Antartica and Justin Beiber was there for all to see.  Of course lack of knowledge on Justin Beiber is considered a ‘good thing’ in most adult circles!

This time I was asked some intriguing and insightful questions from ‘What has been your biggest regret?’, ‘Have you ever been sacked?’ and ‘If you could do any job in the world what would it be?’

After explaining what I did they all asked for an example of a story.  So I shared with them our old favourite brussels sprouts, that Yamini wrote about in the previous post.  What I noticed first was when I started with ‘When I was a kid I hated brussels sprouts’, there was no flicker of recognition.  Most kids these days have never eaten brussels sprouts or do not know what they are.  Obviously a result from a whole generation being forced to eat them and then refusing to force that on their own children.

So even though they didn’t know what brussels sprouts were, they still got the message that sometimes there are things that we don’t like doing but we just need to do it.

The next day, my daughter informed me that they now have ‘brussels sprouts’ time at school where they have to finish off all the work they have been putting off. 

Perhaps we all need to build in a little bit of ‘brussels sprouts’ time, into our day!

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’ – How to find stories that work.

Business storytelling is not just about telling business stories.  The most effective stories are the ones that you find outside of work and then relate them back to a business issue.  In this video  Yamini explores how to find those every day ordinary stories in your own backyard that can be successfully used in business for extraordinary results.

We would love to know what you think.  Please leave a comment below.

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