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.

Steve Jobs – More than just one story

We are strong believers that many stories make up your personal brand or company brand …not just one.  It is a subject I explored in a previous post ‘The Yeti and the Brand Story’ and was reminded of again when I read a recent Smart Company article on ‘The Five Best Steve Job Anecdotes’.

This article recounts five anecdotes from Steve Jobs that collectively show you the type of man he was.

Such as this one when Jobs was shown a prototype of the iPad and complained it was too big.

“After the engineers said they couldn’t make the device any smaller, Jobs took the iPad over to an aquarium, and promptly dropped it in. “These are air bubbles,” he said. “That means there’s space in there. Make it smaller.”

To this story that showed Job’s attention to detail:

“Google senior vice president of social business Vic Gundotra wrote recently on Google+ that once in 2008, he was sitting in a religious service on a Sunday when he received a call from an unmarked number. It was Jobs, leaving a message saying he had something urgent to discuss.  When he called him back, Jobs said the issue was urgent, and that he needed it addressed right away. In fact, he had already assigned someone on the task.

“I’ve been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I’m not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn’t have the right yellow gradient. It’s just wrong and I’m going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?”

To this story about the issues with Mobile Me which was Apple’s first venture into the cloud.

“It didn’t work properly and didn’t deliver as promised. Jobs was unimpressed. According to a Fortune article published earlier this year, Jobs gathered all the people responsible for Mobile Me at the company’s Town Hall, and told them they were “tarnishing Apple’s reputation”. He even said they “should hate each other for having let each other down”.

“Can anyone tell me what Mobile Me is supposed to do?” he asked. When someone answered, he said, “So why the f&*% doesn’t it do that?”

“Somewhere between the janitor and the CEO, reasons stop mattering,” he said.

Hearing one of those stories in isolation would give you a limited insight into Steve Job’s the man, Steve Job’s the professional CEO and Steve’s Job the entrepreneur.  It is the combination of not only these three stories but all the stories being shared that create the Steve Jobs brand. 

All of us and the world are diminished by his passing.

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.

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!

Who else wants to raise millions of dollars?

I read with interest in a recent Smart Company post about Ernst and Young’s nominees for Entrepreneur of the year.  The research presented some surprising facts such as 60% of Entrepreneurs start off working in corporates.  It also revealed some not so surprising facts.

“Not surprisingly, funding, people and know-how presented the biggest barriers to entrepreneurial success. The difficult funding environment lends way to entrepreneurs building “ecosystems” – networks of resources – to address the barriers.”

There is another way to address the barrier of funding and let’s explain that through one of our clients success story.

Greg McClardie may be a familiar name to you as he featured with us in a BRW June 2009 Imagine That  in June 2009.  Greg needed to raise 37 million dollars for his venture aimed at consolidating the abalone industry.  When Greg came to us in 2006 he had a sound and logical business case but was frustrated with the reluctance of venture capitalists in coming on board.  He felt he had the sound logic but in his own words ‘something was missing’ …and something was missing.  Greg’s entire presentations to venture capitalists was focused on presenting the logical data.  It lacked emotional connection.

Greg’s passion was evident to us but he needed a way to get that across effectively and purposefully in his pitches for funding.  We helped Greg develop three types of purposeful business stories that he weaved throughout his presentations and he achieved immediate success.

Greg raised the $37 million dollars he needed and has recently used further stories to raise further funds to secure his second multimillion-dollar venture.

Greg is a great example of how using business storytelling purposefully and skillfully can help overcome one of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs face …raising funds.

Harry Potter’s magic

I am out of the cupboard under the stairs, as a huge Harry Potter fan!  Whether you are a fan or not, Harry Potter is a ripping yarn and great if sometimes dark storytelling. 

What is also interesting is the larger narrative that surrounds the books.  We all know how J.K. Rowling was a struggling single parent and how the book was rejected several times as publishers thought it too long and too slow for children.  

Popular myth has it that Bloomsbury ‘s decision to publish Rowling’s book apparently owes much to Alice Newton, the eight-year-old daughter of one of the company’s executives, who was given the first chapter to review by her father and immediately demanded the next.  Although Bloomsbury agreed to publish the book, they also advised Rowling to get a day job, since she had little chance of making money in children’s books!  So glad she didn’t listen to them.

Just this morning when I was listening to the radio, Red Symonds was interviewing  Andy McCray. Andy a keen fan set up his website harrypotterfanzone when he was 11 years old.  Andy has  grown up with the stars of the Harry Potter series, and even had his site recognised by J.K.Rowling and  been invited onto the set several times. Of course he set the site up out of passion not expecting this largess.  Both J.K.Rowling and Andy are testimony to the power of  ‘Do what you love and love what you do’.  And I am personally looking forward to loving the movie tomorrow!

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

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