StoryMatters

Stories & Customer Experience

2011-10-08T10:55:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of being a guest on Michelle Romanica's BlogRadio show on Customer Experience.

How stories come into play with customer experience is a rich area to explore. Our conversation dove into some ideas and practices that are powerful yet subtle.

Listen to internet radio with Customer Experience on Blog Talk Radio

Among other things we discussed how customers experiences can start with catalyzing the internal experiences of employees with a variety of communication and strategic initiatives employing the natural power of stories.

How are you do you architect customer experiences with the disciplines of organizational storytelling? Add your voice to the conversation.

Organizational Will

2011-09-19T16:35:00.000-07:00

What is the role of will in organizations? How much can we direct and control?

1001 faces and hands are at work molding our destiny...whether it be inside of an organizations, our individual fates, or the macro entity of the organization itself encapsulated with the collective paths of many...are we equipped to become animate lighthouses searching with our long arms of probing lights casting light to discover shores of destiny among the foggy terrain of our voyages...reflective conversation...action in motion...flexibility coupled with strength and alignment of purpose will be our greatest allies

Stories operate within these dimensions to help us keep our fragile vessels afloat

Would you consider clicking on the link to this post to watch my short conversation starter video and then add your voice to the discussion…

I've setup a Voice Thread link where people can easily post audio comments, text comments, documents, images, even record video reactions to my video all from the website without any fuss (you can even use a telephone to dial into and leave your sound bite. Please consider adding to the conversation:

Interview with Jay Cross on 21st Century Leadership & Stories

2011-09-04T17:14:00.000-07:00

During Jay Cross's trip to Monterey I had a chance to catch up and learn about his new work on 21st Century Leadership Skills. Of course we had to talk about a stories.

Jay posted this blog with a few impressions from our lunch.

READ JAY'S SUMMARY OF OUR CONVERSATION

Below are two videos from a second conversation...

Here's another video with some more sound bites from our conversation...

For more complimentary resources - white papers, tips, techniques, tools

CLICK HERE

"Go With the Flow..."

2011-07-25T19:34:00.001-07:00

Sounds groovy to say, “Go with the flow” but what does it mean?

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi talks about flow as being in the moment. What does this really mean? How might it be relevant for the day to day challenges of organizational life?

How do we move in organizations? Do we give into tides of constraints dotting the shores with recognizable successes and failures? How do we discern the faint melodies of possibilities offered by shifts of how and who we are… and what place should we assume in the ecological menagerie of conditions, gifts, talents and opportunities enlightening our constellations?

Story-based tactics, processes and tools help us probe the complexity of organizational life.
It sounds so groovy to say, “Just go with the flow…” What does it mean? In my new short conversational starter with a flare of organizational poetry I take a stab at stirring the pot. I'd love to hear your thoughts....

Organizational Flow from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

Here's a comp white paper that is a guide for helping others make sense of stories that surface in meetings, conversations, or workshops:

CLICK HERE FOR WHITE PAPER

An Analysis of a Storied Approach to Crafting Influential Messages

2011-06-26T06:38:00.000-07:00

Terrence Gargiulo's 2011 Commencement Address

A Little Background Story for Context…

Forty years ago I found myself at the first of many interesting educational crossroads. New to Monterey, California my family searched for a school for my sister to attend. After a brief stint in one of the public schools my parents enrolled Franca at Santa Catalina School. It was an all-girls school from Pre-Kindergarten (PreK) through high school run by Domincan nuns.

Somehow the school decided it would entertain a wild and crazy idea: start boys in the PreK. Maybe they needed revenue, maybe they were curious, I honestly don’t know what precipitated the change. I found myself invited to be one of the few, one of the proud, and one of the lucky boys invited to partake in this great experiment.

Turned out they really liked us boys. Each year they kept deciding to let us stay another year. By the time we got to fourth grade they decided we could stay for good. However, we were to be the first class to graduate from eighth grade. This year, the school asked me to commemorate that decision and honor me by giving the lower school address commencement address.

The Challenge…

While I am asked frequently to do keynote addresses, I’m not a huge fan of them. It’s just hard to touch people. Perform, impress, command attention, wield pulpit power and create passive hope for people are opportunities offered by keynoting. I hunger for the intimacy of inciting insights that comes from facilitated storytelling. As a general rule, I set the value of keynoting high, ensuring that only the most serious clients engage me in this way. I also almost always insist on being given other opportunities to work with some of the member of the audience in a different setting other than the plenary address.

The commencement address for Santa Catalina School was for middle school students, parents, teachers and administrators. How could I hold the attention of a diverse audience? Could I create a fertile space of imagination to offer some tangible gifts to aid them on the next part of their journey? How would I make it be about them? Could I avoid clichés, hype, and platitudes? Would I be able to minimize perfunctory pomp and circumstances perpetuated by this genre of speech? How would I be fun and serious at the same time? Would I have to keep my message super simple with only one or two key take-a-ways or could I tackle a complex set of concepts? And could the whole address be done completely with story forms employing my authentic voice?

The Approach…

Despite my familiarity with the school (my son and daughter attend the school) I wanted to hold the graduating students in my heart. Whether or not my clients realize it or not I probe client engagement requirements and stakeholder perspectives with the natural power of story. I elicit stories. Call me wedded to my storied ways, but I don’t know any other way to quickly infer patterns in complex systems. This might seem counter-intuitive but when faced with the speed of business in today’s environment stories are the fastest and most efficient vehicle for analysis and communication.

“Storytelling is a safe space for creative thinking, negotiating differences, and establishing commonality. Storytelling empowers the speaker and improves communication through speaking and listening. Stories are the most efficient way of storing, retrieving, and conveying information. Since story hearing requires active participation on the part of the listener, stories are the most profoundly social form of communication.” – http://www.makingstories.net

I had a few data points about the graduating class and other stakeholders. I filled these in with a couple of informal conversations with teachers, observations of the students leading up to graduation day and an hour meeting with the principal.

Where care is present stories flourish. The shortest distance between two people is a story. Since my children are still in kindergarten and third grade, I did not know the principal of the middle school well. Stories beget stories. An hour flew by in no time but surfaced a wealth of stories. More importantly without me overtly asking the question, “what gift (ideas) do you want to offer these students to help them succeed?” a clear concentration of three major themes emerged. These were judgment, compassion, and mercy. Armed with the gifts and a feel for the students both as individuals and as a class I was equipped to craft my message.

The Story Architecture of the Message…

Two days after my meeting with the principal while sitting on the soccer field watching my son’s practice I conceived the following architecture for the talk in my notebook:

It’s up to you but I recommend watching the video before reading the analysis. This sketch from my notebook and the story architecture will probably make more sense if you watched the video:

Santa Catalina Commencement Address from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

Let me try to decipher my notes from above for you:

1. After the formal alphabet soup introduction of credentials quickly use humor to create credibility of a personal nature somehow related to the students and audience. Get them immediately involved in the talk. Do this with humor and a quick anecdote. In this case I had a fun and fluid self-effacing bridge to construct between us.

2. Quickly make the talk all about them. Create a rapid interactive collage of small moments and anecdotes that highlights things about the students.

3. Layout a roadmap for the rest of talk. Five stories will be used. Three stories comprised the students’ gifts for their journey (judgment, compassion and mercy). On either end of the three gift stories were two stories. One to illustrate the results of failing to invoke these gifts and the last story for showcasing the impact of when all the gifts are working together.

4. Short interlude of scenarios of when and how these gifts might be necessary. I start with an example of to the daily application of these gifts in my life as a father. Then I offered situations the students are likely to experience in the next leg of their journey.

5. Return to humor I used in the opening of the talk. While being funny, lace it with a serious message in a song that connects with the gifts shared.

6. End with two brief quotes that support and segue into a closing image and metaphor.

Lessons Learned…

I was very purposeful in deciding what kind of stories to use in the talk. Variety and diversity are important. I feel stories need to from many different domains and genres to cast the story net as wide as possible. It can be easy to become too narrow or focused in what kind of stories we tell or how tightly encoded are driving messages are embedded in the stories.

Let me say a little more about this idea of working too hard to couple our message with our stories. I look for a pattern of themes. If I can tag a story with a word closely related to one of the major themes I am trying to communicate that is good enough. I do not need a story that is a perfect illustration of my message; quite the contrary. I want stories that are just a little fuzzy. Allow people to use their sense giving telescope to bring the story into focus. Let your listeners go in the direction most needed by them in the moment. Leave it rich enough that there is lots of room for them to wander through the patterning of stories to uncover new threads of meaning.

By their nature stories are fluid. Stories overlap memories with the context of the moment. I find stories in collages and clusters to be more truthful than pinning the entirety of a message in a single story. All the greatest stories are vast little universes with an orbit of small story fragments. The depth and veracity of stories is more easily perceived when scanning the pattern and intention of stories in proximity with one another. I am naturally distrustful of single isolated large perfect stories with clean beginning, middles, and ends and unmistakable story arcs. In many instances these stories have already been warped around the gravity of a pre-digested message. Stories are creative acts and furthermore I view them as co-creative stages on which themes, drama, and meanings emerge in a process of co-creation. The story is only one small part of the key. The decoding and collaborative sense making space generated by telling a story to trigger the stories of others is sacred. My experience has been that when this space opens up, storytelling and listening is authentic, deep, and responsive to the needs of the moment. The space falls apart when listening ceases and any one person returns to advancing a monocular agenda.
Strategic Use of Stories in Organizational Communication & Learning, Gargiulo 2006

There’s something else wonderful that happens when you work with collage of stories. The stories begin to entwine themselves to each other. For example, I did not architect the triple place of music in the talk – it just sort of happened. There is the musical reference at the beginning of the talk, two of the student anecdotes involve music, the story of Emmanual Jal the hip hop artists and then my closing song. On the one hand there is nothing extraordinary about this phenomenon since it’s just what naturally occurs with stories. It also helps that I come from a musical family so I am naturally drawn to musical stories; yet every time I see stories work their magic I am grateful and humbled by the experience.

Here is how I selected the type of stories to use at the various points of my talk:

• Personal History (in my opening humor) – first a small piece of shared experience that I had with them and then move to a quick scene of my longtime affiliation with the school

• Student Anecdotes – things I observed and learned about the students – to establish them as the heroes of the talk, to demonstrate care and listening

• Personal Anecdote – of a time I failed to access the virtues of judgment, compassion, and mercy and a simple expression of regret

• Two Movie Stories – popular archetypal movies (Lord of the Rings and Star Wars) to share the gift of judgment

• Story from a Book – Gregory Boyle’s book, Tattoos on the Heart, for the gift of compassion

• Historical Story of Major Personality – a story about Pope John Paul II for the gift of mercy

• Life Story of Contemporary Young Personality – share the story of the young hip-hop artist Emmanuel Jal to show what it looks like when the gifts of judgment, compassion, and mercy are all working together

• Scenario Stories – these are rhetorical questions that paint a scene of daily opportunities for judgment, compassion, and mercy to manifest themselves, start with the personal then move back to students

• Story as Music – sing a short song to introduce humor and tie back to themes introduced throughout the talk

• Story as Metaphor and Imagery – setup an image that encompasses the three gifts that relates back to the students as heroes, start with two quotes end with vivid word picture

A Few Tips You Might Find Useful…

I have a confession to make…I never practiced this talk and I went to the podium with no notes. All I had was a pair of shorts that I wore when I was in pre-kindergarten at Santa Catalina. Sure, I had told two of these stories in another venue but almost all of the material was new to me. What I did do is spend a lot of time reflecting and visualizing the story architecture of the talk. I also spent a considerable time holding the students in my heart.

Here are a few tips you might find helpful:

• Try not to get bogged down in style. I know what my strengths are. I am genuine, warm, intense, energetic, and personal. Each person has a distinct and beautiful footprint that animates their style. One thing that does transcend style is selflessness.

• Care about what you have to say and care about the people. The rest is very individual.

• Work to make stories in all their forms a central part of how you understand your message, craft your message and deliver your message.

• Think in terms of collages of stories. Avoid single stories. There’s a place for them and I am not recommending you abandon great stories with visible arcs, surprises, and tensions. Lots of stories orbiting your talk pull people into the gravity of your message.

• Delivery matters but not as much as you think. If you get caught up in the ground swell of stories you are sharing and your audience, you’ll be surprised at how an effective tone, color, and character emerges.

• Don’t work so hard to script these things. Anchor yourself on a few key phrases at pivotal moments of the talk and imagine yourself delivering these.

WOULD YOU LIKE A COPY OF THIS POST AS A WHITE PAPER?
CLICK HERE

THREE STORY SKILL BUILDING RESOURCES:

Building an Index of Personal Stories: A Simple Guide to Mining Your Stories

Story-based Communication Skills Self-Development Exercises

Story-based Communication Skills Assessment Tool

Organizational Judgment

2011-04-28T10:46:00.000-07:00

Judgments separate us from others. They hold us secure and tight in assumed positions of superiority.

What if we let the scaffolding of being judgmental drop away?

Can we really halt our knee jerk reflexes to label, categorize and evaluate people’s actions and words based our individually constructed value driven world view?

While good intentions and self-awareness are a start - they're not enough...

Stories help me quite.

Take a moment and please watch this short video...

Organizational Judgment from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

I've posted this video on my Voice Thread site - this a free service that allows people to post comments in a vareity of ways including audio (recorded either from your machines mic or even by dialing a phone number to record your comments), video comments, text, and the ability to upload images, documents, presentations, etc...

I'd love for you to share your thoughts, ideas and reactions with me and each other. Here's the link:

These are skills that can be developed. Organizational cultures can weave these into the fabric of their cultures and reap the performance benefits. Interested in learning more about these skills?

Check out my model of story-based communication skills:
Interested in learning more - consider giving me (Terrence Gargiulo) a call - 415-948-8087.

Organizational Priorities

2011-03-18T18:55:00.000-07:00

What are the priorities in your organization? Are you caught in the cogs of performance pressure? Has constant acceleration become a way of life in your organization?

A recent experience with dolphins works as backdrop in this video to explore how we might meet these challenges and realities of speed and purpose with equanimity and even joy.

Organizational Priority from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

What happens when we move past thinking of stories as tools of persuasion?

We unearth a Rosetta stone for critical thought, deep conversation, and emergent possibilities…strategic organizational story work creates an environment that enmeshes people into networks of meaning that leads to adaptability and performance…this integrative pattern of interrelating produces a wonderful by product of joy.

Consider this video's working metaphor and then be a part of the conversation.

Share with us experiences of what this looks and feels like for you in your organization. What things are you doing or think you could be doing in your organization to bring about "the dolphin effect?"

I've posted this video on Voice Thread to allow folks a vehicle for responding with comments, audio, video, documents, etc... (all of these things can be done for free from the website):

Future Possibilities: Organizational Elasticity

2011-01-23T11:23:00.000-08:00

Do we make opportunities for people in organizations to expand in flexible ways to create new spaces of value generation…

And do we at the same time combine agility with the requisite structures of business?

Yeast and sourdough bread making work as a narrative backdrop to explore these questions.

WATCH THE VIDEO:

Organizational Elasticity from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

After watching the video here are some other questions to think about...

Can you detect the intersection of these two forces
in your organization?

How would you describe it?

If anything were to shift, what would look differently on a day by day basis in your organization?

I've posted this video on Voice Thread to allow folks a vehicle for responding with comments, audio, video, documents, etc... (all of these things can be done for free from the website):

I look forward to hearing your voice in this conversation...

Welcoming the New Year - Tidbits from the Arts

2011-01-07T15:39:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I can't believe it's 2011. As I look back on 2010 I am gratified by all of the new content I created and offered with folks. Some wonderful collaborations - and some personal breakthroughs in terms of new idas and ways of apporaching my story work.

For a quick recap of the year and links to relevant artifacts of my bursts of creativity...

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THIS LINK

I am planning and reflecting on what I will learn and try new this year. I am open to your thoughts and ideas. Last year I moved from lots of webinars to a few well timed and placed webinars usually with other major partners and collaborators to short videos. A colleague said he thought there were like Organizational Poetry. If you haven't seen too many of these yet please take a minute and go out to my Vimeo Channel.

These videos gave me an opportunity to play with digital forms of storytelling and they have become very popular with many of my clients. Now in addition to collecting and facilitating the collection and sense making of stories in an organization I'm being retained to pull stories together in short video collages to act as conversation starters, tacit knowledge transfer vehicles, and informal learning tools.

Before getting into new business content I wish to use this post to share three personal items:

1. Video of a performance of a chorus from the opera Tryillias I wrote with my father. This is the first performance of this chorus

2. Video of a recording of the famous Metropolitan Opera baritone singing my father's composition Ninna Nanna at his Golden Jubilee conference at Carnegie Hall Town Hall from the late 1940's

3. Video of pictures with the audio of 11 year old me (1979 - you can do the math :) singing the role of Amahl in Gian Carlo Menotti's opera Amahal an the Night Visitors

If you aren't on my mailing list please consider adding your name so I can be sure to send you announcement and links to all of the free white papers, videos, and webinars I offer.

PLEASE ADD MY NAME TO YOUR MAILING LIST

Please don't be a stranger - Let me hear from you and if there is a webinar or short video topic you would like to see or which might be helpful reach out to me by email - terrence@makingstories.net or phone - 415-948-8087.

Blessings to all for a richly deepening and storied year!

Organizational Light

2010-11-10T13:05:00.001-08:00

Can you envision your organization shedding light into the world?

We’re precious in how we do what we do…nothing needs to be without the simple clean intention to be and give the most we can. Even in our worst moments of glorious failure we can sail through our darkness to brighter shores…

Might we see our organizations as oil lamps to be lit by our shameless individual and communal efforts?

Chopin's music and a story about one of his famous poloniase's work as back drop in this video conversation starter:

Organizational Light from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

I'd love to hear your voice. How do you and your organization cast light into the world? What's the intersection between the idealism of generating light and the reality of organizational life? Do you have any success stories to share? What have been your challenges and struggles?

Nancy Duarte's New Book Resonate

2010-10-17T13:18:00.000-07:00

Think about what happens when you strike a pitch fork and then bring another one close to it. The second dormant fork picks up the vibrations of the other. The two forks begin sharing the same frequency.

This is exactly what happens with stories. Neuroscientists can show us now with real data how a listener and speaker become harmonized in a shared space of story. As I share a story with an intention of care and a genuine drive to connect with myself and others, my brainwaves and the brainwaves of my listeners will become coordinated. Sense making replaces chaos. A temporary structure of meaning becomes a suspended moment where the flurry of sight, sounds, and sensations becomes the quiet eye of the storm around us.

Learning and insight can occur here. Time slows down. It's a state of mindfulness and engagement. We hunger to step into the geometry of this archeticture. We are more deeply ourselves...more deeply connected...more deeply human.

Nancy Duarte's book is brilliant. She has taken the lessons of one story form - the hero's journey and mapped "sparklines." These sparklines are guided by the archetypal structure of the hero's journey and shows how presentations and communications can be molded around this scaffolding to create powerful communications.

I am proud to have worked with Nancy on her latest book. Be sure to check out page 106 to find out what Nancy's grandmother, cookies, and stories all can teach us about how we all have an opportunity to change the world.

Congratulations Nancy! You've brought a level of insight and innovation to the field of communications!

Speech Write extraordinaire Ian Griffin interviewed me at Nancy's book party last week. Here's a link from his blog to what five of us leaders in the field had to say...

LEARN MORE

Wanna Buy the Book?

Organizational Engagement

2010-09-14T19:46:00.000-07:00

HOW DO YOU ENGAGE YOUR EMPLOYEES?

I just returned from a wonderful conference in Singapore on Business Narrative. During one of the many rich dialogs with peers I stumbled upon a word I hadn't used in a long time. The word is "confer." Simple word but in the context of thinking about the nature of employee engagement and collaboration it brought to mind some new nuances. As an aside it's probably no coincidence that at a "confer-ence" I became more sensitized to the word "confer"

On the long plane ride back to California I captured the essence of the conversation in this stream of consciousness piece. I turned it into one of my short video conversation starters. Here it is:

Organizational Engagement from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

Are clowns and other corporate amusements in your line up of employee engagement activities? Maybe we opt for more serious stuff like corporate score cards and employee surveys to produce the data our organizations thrive on.

Let’s be honest: what are our real intentions for doing these things?

Are we trying to placate employees or can we find an effective way of inviting our employees to mix together their energies, talents and visions

Are we committed to conferring with our employees? Do we understand when collaboration makes sense and when it’s possible? Can we stay engaged with our employees?

It turns out putting the multifaceted natural capacity of stories to work leads to a whole host of new organizational engagement strategies and tactics you may have overlooked.

Learnings from Webinar with Shawn Callahan & Participants

2010-08-25T05:58:00.000-07:00

Flexing Your Business Storytelling Muscles with Deliberate Practices

Collaborating with other story practitioners is a special treat. When Shawn Callahan and I of Anecdote regroup to share our latest ideas it's always stimulating. Wish it was easier to reveal all the behind the scenes conversations and work that go into pulling together a session.

Business storytelling is really more than a trend. People are hungry for connections whether it be in the workplace or even in their personal relationship. "The shortest distance between two people is a story" (you can quote me on that one :). While we're all natural storytellers there still needs to be purposeful attention and effort made to tap into "the natural power of story" (you can quote Shawn on that one :).

There's some good news. Since we're involved in various degrees of storytelling/storylistening/story triggering all the time we don't need to start from scratch and put in the 10,000+ hours of practice Malcom Gladwell suggests we need for mastery.

I've developed some specific practices, tools, and techniques to help people gain better access to their innate capabilities. Among other things, I have research/evidence based model that identifies nine story-based communication skills, an assessment instrument, book of self-development exercises, group process activities, and organizational interventions I use with clients.

If you haven't had a chance to checkout Anecdote's website with its new face lift be sure to pour through the rich coffers of their blog and wonderful collection of ready to go stories for business in their Story Finder Tool.

I digress let me share with you what we did during our August complimentary webinar...

Have you wondered why you are not making better progress at becoming a storyteller at work? Are you finding it difficult to find good stories to tell? Are your stories relevant to your colleagues or do they look at you blankly wondering what planet you're on?

Spend an hour with master business story practitioners Shawn Callahan of Anecdote and Terrence Gargiulo of MAKINGSTORIES.net as they share deliberate practices you can employ today to be a better storyteller.

This session was conducted as conversation with participants. So there are lots of wonderful ideas and experiences shared by all. Be sure to add your voice by chiming in with your ideas, experiences, and of course stories below.

Here's a recording of the webinar...

WEBINAR: It's a Marathon Not Magic: Deliberate Practice Approach to Developing Business Storytelling Skills from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

Now it's your turn, please take a moment and add your voice to the conversation...

How to Make a Corporate Roast Work

2010-08-17T19:41:00.000-07:00

I got a lot of great emails and questions from folks about a group process I use with companies. In my last video, I shared a story about an intervention I sometimes using involving leaders standing in as a symbol of the company and allow the group to roast the company. Unbelievable things happen.

Here's a link to the the video to hear the story - it's the story I tell at the end of the two and half minute video.

The roast is a challenging but powerful vehicle. Of course its a bit risky. One caveat. Be honest with yourself. If you are a confident and skilled facilitator and you are willing to stir the pot and navigate the dynamics than you will find this process rewarding. If not you might not want to try this - or let someone shadow it with you the first time to lend a helping hand in case the dynamics go awry.

Here are a few things I've learned...

1. Finding the right executive is key

2. Develop strong relationship and trust with the group

3. Lead the group in a process of deciding what it feels are ground rules for the process (I'll sometimes have folks even talk about what they think is funny, other roasts they have been in or seen) - let the group self elect one or more people to act as "keepers of the rules" - empower them to remind others when anyone strays off course

4. Have folks speak of the business as "it" never let it become directed at the individuals (the executive) he or she is only an anthropomorphic sit in/representation of the business

5. Before you conclude have a symbolic object to place in the chair and ask the executive get up and join the group (if at all possible I like using circles or U shape configurations when possible - then let the executive take a shot or two at roasting the company

6. You lead a debrief with the whole group including the executive sitting with the participants

7. I know it may sound touchy/feely but do give first the executive and the participants a chance to talk about the emotions, feelings, observations etc... that came up during the process

8. Depending on the context - I move the group to look at tangible action items that can be taken

9. Keep self-effacing humor and fun at the heart of the process - don;t let people get bogged down in pure venting

Hope that helps -. If you do the roast please let me know how it goes. Also please feel free to grab me on my cell if you want to discuss further - 415-948-8087

Exploring the Boundaries of Stories & Organizational Respect

2010-08-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

How Can We Engender Respect & Attention With Our Stories?

I’ve always been fascinated with how stories connect with one another. For most of us who are not natural performers or orators telling a single big story in a compelling way seems daunting. I’ve noticed that most stories are more like snippets; small bits and pieces. Even when they’re not the flow of conversation between people or the impromptu opportunities that present themselves for sharing stories requires us to condense our stories.

Here are some questions I’ve been thinking about:

How do stories change when we need to collapse them?
How much can we condense or abbreviated a story before it loses its impact?
When we link several stories together (two or more in a rapid string)? How does that impact us as a teller? And what effect does it have on listeners? Can they follow us? Will it trigger stories for them?

I’ve been releasing short two minute video blog pieces where I have been experimenting with story richness. I’ve been playing with story forms (anecdotes, metaphors, visual metaphors, clichés, alluding to other personal stories without going into them, and references to well known stories or movies, etc…).

How do these “story forms,” enrich conversations and presentations and when do they detract? Are they still stories? Are these story skills more easily practiced by others because they might mimic natural forms of communication better? Can we be more mindful and aware of these forms of stories and by doing so become more effective at connecting with each other?

In my latest video I gave myself a hard challenge. I wanted to tell three stories in less than a minute and half and still have it be cogent, effective, evocative for others, and well connected to the front part of the video. I then further challenged myself by giving myself one take only. I turned the camera on and away I went. I had a mental schema in my mind and I had identified the stories but I had never tried telling them all together and I had never tried to tell them all in less than a minute and half.

Here’s the result. I’d love to hear people’s experiences and thought about the questions. Here's the short video to jumnpstart your reflections and our conversation...

Organizational Respect from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

Something Funny Happened on my Way to the Apple Store...

2010-07-30T09:28:00.000-07:00

I opened my email this morning and had a funny email from Apple. It's a great example of how the right idea executed poorly can do more harm than good. In my case no harm has been done. I am sharing it as an example of the opportunity and responsibility HR professionals have to step up their game.

Two parts to the post:

1. The recruiting email from Apple
2. The email response I sent to their team

THE EMAIL

From: SFStaffing@apple.com
To: terrence@makingstories.net
Subject: You’re_Invited_-_Apple_Retail_Hiring_Seminar_-_San_Francisco_
Date: 07/30/2010
Time: 3:40 AM EDT

Dear Terrence Gargiulo,

Congratulations! You have been selected to participate in our invitation-only recruiting seminar for our San Francisco Bay Area Stores. We want you to explore starting a career with Apple Retail - we are currently seeking full-time and part-time Specialists, Experts, and Inventory Specialists.. We are also looking for candidates that desire training that will lead them to Genius, Creative and Management roles within Apple Retail. This will not be a typical
Seminar but rather an interactive experience. Please join us!

Date:
Monday, August 9th

Time: 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm

or

Date: Tuesday,
August 10th

Time: 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm

(please plan on being with us
for about 2 hours)

*Please include in your reply your top 2 preferred
dates and times to attend this event.

Place: Galleria Park Hotel
191 Sutter Street

San Francisco, CA 94104

(415) 781-3060
What to
wear: We are Apple! Business casual attire is perfectly fine, no suits
necessary.

What to bring: A copy of your updated resume

How: Please confirm your attendance by sending an email to SFStaffing@apple.com by
August 6th, 2010. Please don't forget to give us your 2 preferred days/times.

I look forward to hearing back from you soon!

To learn more about the positions we have to offer, please visit
http://jobs.apple.com and click Apple Store.

We look forward to meeting you.

MY RESPONSE

Please take this as constructive feedback...

I feel insulted. This is a recruiting by numbers strategy. I appreciate the need to ramp up your operations and to leverage the names of people who have applied to the company. However, it reveals (whether true or not) that little to no care or attention was put into who to send this opportunity to.

I'm not responding from a place of ego - I am responding from the care and attention HR and recruiting need to have for Apple's incredible brand - and from my passion for your company.

One glance at my resume - even a quick keyword search by meta tag cralwer would quickly indicate I should have never been sent this offer.

I'm disappointed. Its an example of how I feel the HR profession continues to lose opportunities to bring real value to companies.

Thank you for being open to my feedback - please share my note with the appropriate people. I am more than happy to share my perceptions - 415-948-8087.

Good luck with the recruiting event (the event and idea is an excellent one). And thank you for being an awesome company!

Warm regards,
Terrence
cell: 415-948-8087
http://www.makingstories.net

It's a Marathon - Not Magic - New Webinar

2010-07-20T20:08:00.001-07:00

Last year Shawn Callahan and I delivered a webinar in the triple threat of storytelling. It was really popular and we had a great time doing it.

Well we're back for another webinar, this time we're exploring how to become a better storyteller by applying some specific and deliberate practices.

Here is our little marketing blurb. Sign up details are at the bottom of this post.

Have you wondered why you are not making better progress at becoming a storyteller at work? Are you finding it difficult to find good stories to tell? Are your stories relevant to your colleagues or do they look at you blankly wondering what planet you're on?

Spend 45 minutes with master business story practitioners Shawn Callahan of Anecdote and Terrence Gargiulo of MAKINGSTORIES.net as they share deliberate practices you can employ today to be a better storyteller.

We will conduct the session as a conversation involving everyone. Yippee!

We expect you'll walk away with three things from this session:

Three practices to deepen your storytelling skills
Ideas from other attendees of how they improve their skills or what works for them...what works in their organization
Some specific resources for finding good stories

We're doing this webinar twice, one timed for Asia Pacific and the other for the Americas. Just click on the link of the webinar you want to attend and fill in your details.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM AUSTRALIAN. EST

Tuesday, August 17, 2010 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM USA PDT

Looking forward to chatting with you on the call.

Organizational Responsibility

2010-07-07T22:02:00.000-07:00

Is it possible to adopt a new paradigm? Who's to blame? Things go wrong and someone’s got to take the hit right?

Inspired by recent events with BP and other corporate calamities I put together this two minute video conversation starter...

Organizational Responsibility from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

How would innovation change in an organization if we became more responsible for each other? What would that organization look like? How would you feel? And how would you perform?

Please add your voice to this conversation starter...

A TRIBUTE TO MY FIRST FENCING COACH

2010-06-20T10:39:00.001-07:00

In Loving Memory of Dr. Milton Bank

Some of you know I spent over 25 years as a competitive fencer (and with a fair amount of success). My first fencing coach Dr. Bank passed away two weeks ago. On father's day as I think of all the influential people in my life I wish to share this tribute and memory...

Dr. Bank…he will always be Dr. Bank to me.

I’m still the fragile nine year old who showed up one day at the Monterey YMCA with nothing more than a medal won by my father in fencing eons ago and the romantic images of swashbuckling. Dr. Bank would not disappoint. I had brought my whole family in tow to learn the ways of the sword. My youthful determination caught the imagination of Dr. Bank’s huge heart.

He grabbed my awkward, mixed up physical body and went to work quickly on transforming my curiosity into something sustainable. His laugh, positive energy, and ever present teasing, fun banter were all ingredients he used to introduce me to a path.

One of the first memories of fencing lessons with Dr. Bank was learning to be a pin cushion. With gentle, direct wisdom he taught me to how to be hit before I ever knew how to make a hit. That was the sort of wisdom he had a knack for imparting while we were busied in the details of acquiring new skills. He knew I would never be able to score touches if I did not know how to accept being hit. He was showing me how to conquer not just any possibility of physical fear of getting hurt but the mental, spiritual hurt that was to become an inevitable part of my fencing journey. Could I sustain the vulnerability of being touched? Could I allow myself to be touched?

Dr. Bank touched me…he was tireless in encouraging me, nurturing me, and sharing his passion.

I had in Dr. Bank the perfect example of making learning a priority before being consumed by goals. Excellence did not exclude humility. Hard work did not eliminate fun. And drive was not to compete with an unquenchable love for the sport. Dr. Bank delighted in each small step I made. Perfected advances, a solved riddle of disengaging around a trick parry combination, or the joy of discovering a new facet of fencing, were met with the same indefatigable enthusiasm.

I couldn’t wait to go fencing on Tuesday evenings and Sunday afternoons. My weeks were defined by my special time with Dr. Bank. I was never disappointed. A huge smile greeted me and I never knew what the day’s adventure in learning would be. Dr. Bank’s generosity extended to my whole family. I still remember the joy I felt when Dr. Bank gave me my first foil.

Dr. Bank was more than just a coach to me, he was a role model. Fencing was serious business. Not the sport but rather the door the sport opened for me to finding and experiencing myself. Discipline never felt onerous; it was just part and parcel of participating. Dr. Bank’s bigger purpose was never far from the surface. If you weren’t paying attention it could have been easy to miss his deeper mission given his light hearted zeal but only if you did not engage with him. To cross blades with him you quickly realized he was living his faith, questions, and love for life with each parry and thrust.

I really never knew failure with Dr. Bank. His patience for learning outstripped any counter-productive expectations. He handed me keys to probably the most formative influence in my life. He showed me how to make sense of my mind, body, and spirit.

Dr. Bank was one of those rare teachers that taught me how to learn. He exemplified a love for learning. I remember while Dr. Bank was on summer vacation one year I went rummaging in the stacks of the Monterey library looking for information on fencing. I stumbled upon a book with flip book style photos of fencing actions. My days were consumed with studying the intricate new moves. I was overflowing with new questions and ideas when he returned. This is what he encouraged. This quality persists in me today. He had a way of bringing it out in others.

Life changes and I cultivated the seeds Dr. Bank planted in me. I was thrilled to bring him details of my latest conquests. Each little package of success was a new gift I couldn’t wait to bring back to him. In the best possible ways he was indifferent to the trappings of success. He was interested in the affects of my experiences but he always wanted me to divulge the details of the process. What a perfect form of validation. Good or bad the results were secondary.

In fact my first medal in fencing was for sportsmanship. No surprise here. Anything less was not possible in Dr. Bank’s club. It’s just the way things were. Part of the unspoken code of how he taught and he lived.

It’s so hard to imagine him gone. I have not done a good job of staying in touch. Maybe it’s because a part of me has this never ending dialogue with an angel that walked among us and brought me so many blessings.

My prayers of comfort fly out to you and the family. I look forward to the day when I can join my coach in heaven. For now he’s winking at us and showering us with joy.

With loving memories and prayers,

Organizational Clarity

2010-06-14T12:01:00.000-07:00

Are you enamored with black and white approximations of life? Don’t our lives in organizations depend on these holy grails of homeostasis? Is your sense of equilibrium and equality governed by stable platforms of immutable laws?

I’m suggesting we sit in the rich space of story. When we agitate the potential cacophony of stories we invite a chorus of perspectives. Stories are sacred because by their nature they’re non dualistic.

Stories are like atoms and high energy particles smashing into one another forever fusing and forming into ever new bits of raw sense making material. So clarity emerges from uncertainty.

The more we can sit with our contradictions, paradoxes and tensions the more we are graced to be an agent of change.

Watch my last two minute conversation starter video and add your voice to the dialog...

Organizational Clarity from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

Radio Interview with Coach Judy Nelson

2010-06-07T08:46:00.000-07:00

A Truly Kindred Spirit...

Saturday, June 7th I had the pleasure of being a guest on Coach Judy Nelson BlogRadio show. I became connected with Judy through a mutual friend, Carol Biddle who is the Executive Director of the Kinship Center.

Carol is an amazing leader who with her partner in leadership Carol Bishop have created an agency making a huge difference in the areas of adoption, foster care, advocacy, open adoption, family therapy, and a host of other children and families issues largely neglected.

I wrote a case study in two of my books on the Kinship Center...

The Strategic Use of Stories in Organizational Communication and Learning

Stories at Work: Using Stories to Improve Communications and Build Relationships

For more info on these or any of my other books click the image below:

I was most appreciative of the care and attention Judy took in preparing for our conversation. Like a gifted coach, she took the time to step into my shoes with a keen curuiosity and openess to discovering my gifts. Forty-five minutes was not enough and I look forward to our next conversation.

Organizational Renewal

2010-05-21T16:42:00.000-07:00

Do you ever feel like your organizational environment needs to be vitalized? In the face of fatigue and deterioration what does renewal look like?

Are we cursed by our propensity for forgetting or are we just slaves to our sense making needs? Whatever the case may be remembering seems to play a central role in the act of renewal.

I’d like to suggest a template for renewal. I feel active reflection must be at the heart of it. Of course to quote a famous Greek guy, “An unexamined story is not worth having.” Active reflection begins by remembering our experiences, looking for connections between the past and the present and imagining new futures…

Spend two minutes with me...then share with me and others how you approach organizational renewal.

Organizational Renewal from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

Organizational Discombobulation

2010-05-07T16:26:00.001-07:00

Are things falling apart all around you? Have you been hit with discombobulation? This fast paced video turns our prevalent notions of sense making on its head. It’s always bothered me that when we talk about story we usually talk about stories requiring Beginnings, Middles, and Ends. I don’t disagree. I’ve finally been able to put my finger on what I felt compelled to articulate…

Watch and see what discombobulation, stories, and a new way of thinking about stories adds to your current way of thinking about them. Then be sure to add your voice to the conversation, after all stories beg us to co-create with each other.

Organizational Discombobulation from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

Opera Wows Kids!!

2010-04-28T10:02:00.000-07:00

Our pilot project in partnership with the Metropolitan Opera HD Live in Schools was a rewarding and rich event. I've pulled together a short four minute documentary that tells the story of our work and is a marketing piece we are using to drum up support for the expansion of next year's program:

For more information on the Occhiata Foundation...

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON FOUNDATION

We are actively seeking sponsors and support. In other news on the community and philanthropy front, I have been volunteering as a coach for the John Steinbeck young writers program. The student I have been coaching has won. I am so proud of her!!

Thanks for stopping by. What have you been up to? How have you engaged with your community? I'd love to hear your stories.

Warmly,
Terrence

IMAGINATION IN ORGANIZATIONS

2010-04-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

What role do you think imagination plays in our organizations?

My family’s recent trip to Disneyland tickled my imagination

It’s a small world is stilling vivid for me. So many beautiful countries, customs, symbols, joined in a chorus of diverse kinship

All of this made me pause to think about the role imagination plays in our lives and what place does imagination have in our organizations? Can such a child like capacity have any relationship to bottom line imperatives?

WATCH THIS TWO MINUTE
VIDEO CONVERSATION STARTER

Imagination in Organizations from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

There are the obvious ways that imagination can be put to work in our organizations by driving problem solving, stimulating innovation and guiding creativity but these are not enough for me… I want to see how imagination touches our capacity for awe and wonder and how these deeply human expressions are operating even within the walls of our organizations

I am enamored with patterns – must be why I am such an afficiando of stories and narrative. I gaze at these animations of fractals and I begin to intuit a fascinating connection between how we are mini pattern generating contributors in a large ecosystem propped up by some structure

Could it be that imagination allows me to extend myself into a set of repeating possibilities? If I cannot directly apprehend or manipulate all the bytes of sensory and cognitive stimulus shaping my world maybe I can use my imagination to propel myself into a wider orbit …there I can be guided by the gravitational potential of bodies…ways of being and experiencing the world that are different than my own

Imagining who and how we are is vital to sense making and it never stops – whether we are in the private space of our own reverie or influencing organizational decision makers. Our capacity to encounter others…and to imagine frames of references other than our cherished set of values and beliefs is a creative act of monumental importance. The future speed of business is unlikely to accommodate anything less. What can you do to rev up your capabilities. Our performance depends upon it.

I'd love to hear your thoughts...

Awakening People's Story Capacity

2010-04-02T10:03:00.001-07:00

Look around, there’s tons of talk about stories and storytelling. Most people are convinced of the important role story plays in effective communication but…

How can we help people experience their natural story skills that go beyond telling a good yarn?

What does it feeling like when people are engaged in story-listening?

How can all this touchy-feely story stuff be tied to concrete behaviors that generate measurable performance results?

Spend 45 minutes with me in an interactive session answering these questions and more. I’ll share a tool I developed from research and an active learning activity.

Here is a link to the recording of my March complimentary webinar on the topic:

WEBINAR RECORDING

During the video I shared the case study of Len as an example of active learning story-based communication skills exercise - The Magic Three (link below to a facilitator guide for the exercise - quoted here is just the case study):

I was facilitating a workshop on personal effectiveness in business. Len was a nononsense technology project manager for a nuclear research company. Len possessed exceptional communication skills. He was clear, precise, succinct, and very articulate. However, despite his technical prowess as a communicator, Len observed
that he often failed to connect with people on an emotional level.

I gave Len two assignments. The first assignment was to take a complex newspaper article on a controversial topic and in thirty seconds or less provide a summary of the article’s information and make a recommendation. Len’s second assignment was the Magic Three.

Len performed the newspaper activity with the prowess of a polished politician. He was absolutely brilliant. I wanted him to serve as an example of how to deliver an effective executive sound bite. There are many times when we have thirty seconds or less to make an elevator pitch.

After appropriate accolades, I asked Len to share his three stories with us. In a matter of a few seconds, Len’s body language began to transform in front of our very eyes. His erect, formal stature was replaced with a more relaxed posture. As he began to share his stories with the group, he moved to the edge of a table to sit down. Here is a recapitulation of his stories as I remember them:

I’ve always been a fairly private person so joining groups was never high on my list of things to do. About seven years ago I decided to get more involved with my local Catholic church group. I was surprised at how quickly I began forming a core group of friends who became a central part of my life.Weekends were filled with fishing trips, barbecues with our wives and families, and general fraternizing with my new cohorts. It had been a long time since I had experienced this kind of camaraderie and I was relishing every minute of it. As a group,we kept growing closer and closer. Even my family was caught off guard by the quality and depth of relationships I developed with a bunch of total strangers.This continued for several years.

After a horrible car accident, I found myself in the hospital recovering from a life-threatening back surgery and long days of excruciating pain blunted by the constant dripping of numbing morphine. Everything was a haze. I was in a complete fog of pain, depression, and despair. During these horrific weeks, there were two pins of light that got me through these dark times,my family and my friends. Family you kind of expect to be there for you, but I was amazed at the dedication and energy my friends gave to me when I needed them the most.To this day I believe my friends were a special gift granted to me to ensure I pulled through a very trying experience.

A couple of years later my buddies wanted to go on a weekend retreat with the church. I resisted, but after a lot of cajoling I agreed to go.We had a fantastic time, and the retreat was filled with lots of soulful opportunities to recharge our batteries and put the challenges of life into perspective. My friends made the retreat a special experience and I returned home with fresh vigor and zest. A day after my return,my father died unexpectedly. I believe my friends and the retreat were granted to me as a form of preparation for my father’s death. I was able to be a source of comfort and strength for my family. I had more emotional energy to give to them.To this day, I am eternally grateful for friendship and all of the richness it has given me in life.

Unfortunately, my retelling is pale in comparison to Len’s original account. It’s missing all of the other subtle forms of communication that accompanied it, such as body language, eye contact, and tone of voice. When Len finished, there was silence in the room. People needed a moment to exit their imaginations and reenter the workshop’s frame of reference. Ken confessed he had never told these stories to anyone else before; and prior to the workshop he never would have dreamed of sharing them in a work environment. He reflected on the powerful connection of friendship he discovered in the three stories. Then Ken made an amazing leap of insight. He concluded that he needed to be selectively more vulnerable with people at work in order to improve his personal effectiveness. Ken committed to spending more time cultivating relationships in his organization. Stories, he discovered,are one of the best tools for building effective, meaningful relationships.

RESOURCES TO SUPPORT ARCHIVED WEBINAR:

1. Facilitator Guide to Magic Three (begins on page 21 of the file)

2. Journal Article Describing the Story-based communication skills

3. eBook of Self-Development Exercises

4. Assessment for Measuring Story-based Communication Skills

I'd love to hear from folks. If you are thinking about how these skills and principles relate to your organization and people's performance call me (415-948-8087) - let's roll up our sleeves together to understand the dynamics in play and how to transform the "natural power of story" (that's a wonderful expression used by my friends Shawn Callahaun and Mark Shenk at Anecdote to describe their strategic narrative work).

Organizational Needs....

2010-03-29T09:21:00.001-07:00

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has taught us a lot about the basic things we require. There are the necessities like bread…water but what about less tangible needs and how do these needs express themselves in our organizations?

My wife is a child and family therapist working with families affected by adoption. Like bread and water children subsist on the connections they form; without these their development becomes threatened. In her field they term this waltz of intimacy attachment. We know it when we see it…imagine a child on a beach with an approaching rough wave – and a mother’s securing hand is ready for the taking without a child searching or asking for it. This attachment…this bond becomes a sort of unconscious part of our DNA driving the fruition and articulation of relationships.

Maybe it boils down this…are we available and responsive to one another?

Watch this 2 minute video as a conversation starter...

Organizational Needs from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

So do you know what resources your organization needs to survive and thrive? And what really sustains people in organizations?

Are you interested in learning more about these story-based communication skills? Here are some additional resources:

1. Journal Article - "Strategic Use of Stories"

2. eBook of Self-development Exercises (for individuals & groups)

3. Award winning Assessment Instrument for measuring story-based communication skills

4. Sample Chapter from Once Upon a Time: Using Story-based Activities to Develop Breakthrough Communication Skills - book of group process/experiential learning activities mapped to the nine story-based communication skills

Now please sure to leave your thoughts, ideas and reactions to enrich this virtual campfire for others!

Organizational Duels

2010-03-12T13:03:00.000-08:00

Whoever said the pen is mightier than a sword?

In a former life I spent a lot of time behind the mesh of a fencing mask.

In this week's video blog I reflect on my experiences as a competitive fencer and think how these experiences might be applied in an organizational setting.

Here are a few of the questions this two minute video tackles...

Do you see your struggles to be heard, influential and effective in your organization as duels? How often do you cross blades with opponents in your organization? Are you playing to win or have you written your own unpublished special set of rules to govern your interactions?

Over time something curious struck me…when I lifted my mask the struggles ceased

Get en garde and watch the video and then weigh in with your ideas:

Organizational Duels from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

A special thanks goes out to Serge Timacheff at FencingPhotos.com for graciously sharing the photos in the video. Be sure to check out his amazing galleries.

Last week was my son Gabriel's 7th birthday. He insisted on a fencing party. What a blast 25 kids ready to take on the world. Folks often ask me for video of my fencing. Unfortunately I really have none. Here's a little clip of Tom Lutton and I doing a fencing demo for the kids at the party. I pickup a weapon maybe once a year but for me it's like riding a bicycle. After so many years of living and breathing fencing it comes back quickly.

Here's a clip of me fencing. I'm on the right of the screen. TOUCHE!

I'll have to post later a small clip of the kids engaged in war with foam sword (aka whackers) pure delightful mayhem.

Do More Great Work - New Book - By An Awesome Guy!

2010-03-09T17:18:00.000-08:00

My buddy Michael Bungay Stainer has brought his energy, creativity and love for helping people to bear in this new opus extraordinaire.

Michael has a knack for simplifying complex things and offering engaging, fun ways to tackle tough stuff.

Check out this video to get a feel for yourself:

Start the work that matters

In Michael Bungay Stanier's new book Do More Great Work: stop the busywork and start the work that matters he offers up fifteen practical ways you can finally do more of the work that engages and stretches you, that has a real impact, that plays to your strengths - and that matters. The exercises are "maps", simple and powerful visual tools that help you find, start and sustain your Great Work. Amongst other things you'll:

Find clues to your own Great Work - they're all around you
Generate new ideas and possibilities quickly and powerfully
Locate and expand the sweet spot between what you want to do and what your organization wants you to do
Best manage the overwhelm
Tap into your inner courage
Double the likelihood you'll do what you want to do

As well as the maps, the book has various coaching tips scattered throughout, as well as original guest contributions from some big names such as Seth Godin, Michael Port, Zen Habits' Leo Babauta and others.

Start your Great Work now

Life is short. If you're looking to do more of the work that matters, the time to start is now. And Do More Great Work may be just the resource you need to get (and keep) going.

PURCHASE A COPY TODAY

Organizational Awareness

2010-03-02T11:17:00.001-08:00

"AS IT IS ABOVE SO IT IS BELOW"

What can we learn about organizations from a 25,000 year old cave carving? The Venus of Lausells is a backdrop for this week's video blog reflection.

What is the intersection of all the little events popping like hot kernels of corn around us and the large macro forces in play in our organizations?

I'm advocating for better organizational awareness. Let my two minute video be a conversation starter...

Organizational Awareness from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

Here are a couple of thoughts on how we can put stories to work to help us develop greater organizational awareness of the small and large things:

We use stories to explain other people's behavior and develop strategies for how to interact with them.
We are also capable of considering alternative behaviors that go against our ingrained ones by being aware of what stories describe our nature and by imagining alternative ones.
Stories are the templates upon which new behaviors can be projected onto and actualized. We use stories to gain an understanding of who we are. Collectively our stories paint an accurate picture of who we are. If we can access this information, we give ourselves freedom. In other words we can break out of an old story and temporarily adopt a new one.

What can you add to this list?

Be sure to check out my awarding winning assessment tool. Story-based observational skills are at the heart of the model.

There are also a book of self-development exercises you can use to strengthen these skills in your self and others.

And for the final shameless product plug for a guy who loves to share but also does need to make a living I have a wonderful book of group process activities that can be used to help people experience these critical skills.

Thanks!

Meaningful Conversations Drive Meetings

2010-02-22T00:00:00.001-08:00

What makes one conversation rich and satisfying and another one merely transactional? And what kind of communications do you believe produce the best results in organizational meetings?

Think back on a meeting that had both satisfying conversations and results…

Do you see any connection between the nature of the conversations and the results? Was the meeting completely staged or was it fueled by the dynamics and energies of the people involved?

Join me for two minutes of reflection and then share your epxeriences with me.

Meaningful Conversations Drive Meetings from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

Now your turn...

How do meaningful conversations and meetings work in your organization? What techniques have you used to strike a balance between the critical structured tools of agendas and protocols with the informal dynamics of conversations.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Organizational Relationships

2010-02-12T23:19:00.000-08:00

I find myself drawn to the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow...

"Ships that pass in the night,
and speak each other in passing,
Only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness.
So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another.
Only a look and a voice;
then darkness again and a silence."

How do relationships in organizations stack up with Longfellow’s observation? Has technology accelerated our relationships or hindered them? Is there any way to gratify those human needs that infiltrate our workplaces in the oddest ways…our needs to be accepted, respected, and valued by others?

Like a blooming flower relationships take time. In the ethos of our organizations we are called to cultivate and nurture the people around us. Sunlight, water, time, and a host of other hard to traces forces work their complex magic…

There may be no short cuts to forming relationships but the shortest distance between two people is a story.

Draw the stories of people around corporate imperatives and watch how people are drawn to each other and become more engaged performers.

Spend 2 minutes with me reflecting by watching in this video and the share your thoughts...

Organizational Relationships from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

Power of Virtual Collaboration in Project Management

2010-02-09T09:44:00.000-08:00

SHARING RECORDING OF RECENT WEBINAR FOR UK...

Collaboration and partnership are not a choice. They are business imperatives. Interaction is king. Today our organizations and the projects we do in support of their missions have too many working parts and too many integration points to be achieved in solitude.

We would never expect an entire network to rely on one node, so why would we assume that projects need to be centrally managed and controlled by a project team? The days of throwing the requirements over the walls and letting the brainiacs figure out what we really need or want are figure out what we really need or want are over. It’s time to roll up your sleeves and prepare to meet your stakeholders up close and personal. Trust me, it’s not as bad as it might sound.

Your business partners don’t have to be part of the problem if you make them part of the solution. Granted, not every business partner is going to roll out the red carpet and invite you to the executive table. However, just as you are hopefully realizing that technical prowess is not enough,your business partners are beginning to realize that viewing you as a service provider ready to cater to their every whim will not benefit them or the organization.

Projects must produce value. Projects are endlessly balancing risk with value. When risk outweighs the potential value of a project, or if something changes in the environment whereby the realization of the value is no longer possible, then a project needs to be killed. How would you like success to be measured – by jointly deciding with your business partners that a project should be killed? Say goodbye to the days of marching to Napoleonic Waterloos.

WE SINK
OR SWIM
TOGETHER
HTML clipboard
The proliferation of virtual collaboration tools has ushered in a new age of projects. Living and breathing the tactical moves and grooves of collaboration and partnership has gotten easier. Forget about socializing the soft and fuzzy tenets of your newfound convictions. Work flows, business processes and the tools of engagement have made it easier for you to start walking the talk. Once you start walking others will follow – and they won’t even know you are enlightening them at the same time.

READ COMPLIMENTARY eBOOK...

This eBook will show you how to implement virtual
collaboration tools throughout the life cycle of a project to leverage
all of the benefits of partnership and collaboration.

WATCH WEBINAR

Citrix UK sponsored a recent webinar of my discussion of the topic.

What have been your experiences? How have you used virtual collaboration technologies/ What are some of the things you have learned along the way? Are there any pit falls to be aware of?

Organizational Change Management

2010-02-05T09:03:00.000-08:00

The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said…

“Everything flows and nothing stays fixed.”

In other words you can’t step twice into the same river. Habits are the ingrained patterns of behaviors and thoughts that we habituate. Change takes us outside our familiar zone of comfort.

There's a paradox here. Change is as natural to us as is habituation. Think about your body. Within seven years almost every cell in your body is replaced. There’s nothing permanent or stable about life. However, our perceptual system is designed to perceive the world as stable. If it weren't, we would have an awfully hard navigating the world.

For me change management is not about creating stability in the face of chaos; rather, it’s about giving people tools to imagine new possibilities.

What does a Greek philosopher, a raging river and the game of Fluxx have in common. Watch this two minute and see:

Organizational Change from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

Create organizational and communication processes that are structured but flexible. Then let the possibilities emerge and the game begin.

How have you managed organizational communication and learning in your organization to support change/ How have stories been a part of that process? Have you considered how you might work with story-based communication processes to stimulate engaging, healthy responses to the raging change we find in our organizations?

INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT THE GAME...

Facilitation Techniques with Stories

2010-01-28T10:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I led a complimentary webinar on Facilitation Techniques with Stories. Here's a brief description of the session:

Guiding groups through sense making is challenging yet rewarding. Our job is to help people work with their stories to generate new meanings, learning, and insights. This is not as simple as it may appear. Stories operate on lots of different levels. Unless we become sensitized to the various ways people make sense of their stories, we will miss precious opportunities to help them find meaning that can guide their behaviors in new directions. This 45 minute interactive webinar examines dynamics that surface when groups share their stories and experiences with one another.

Here's the recording...

Webinar: Facilitation Techniques with Stories from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

TWO PAPERS WERE SHARED:

Nine Ground Rules for Working with Stories in Groups

Facilitator Guide: Helping Others Make Sense of Stories

1. What have been your experiences of working with stories in a group?

2. Have you gone beyond telling a pre-selected story?

3. How have you worked with stories when managing group decision making, strategic planning, negotiating, innovating, etc...?

4. Have you found effective ways of eliciting stories from groups?

Please use this space to share...

Strategic Communications & Chess

2010-01-26T00:38:00.000-08:00

What might chess teach us about the nature of strategic communications in an organization? And what's the connection with stories?

Join me for another 2 minute video as I explore these questions and offer two, "P's" of strategic communications.

Strategic Communications & Chess from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

These two ideas are hardly the beginning of a conversation. Can't say it all in two minutes and neither can one person.

Take a moment and reflect on the game of chess and then share your thoughts of the other ways chess informs our ideas of strategic organizational communication. And for crying out loud...if you've got a story about chess start divulging!

Waves & Organizational Stories

2010-01-20T00:25:00.000-08:00

"We are connected through meaning. Stories manifest our being. Fluctuating variations pierce placid surfaces of possibilities."

The waves of the Asilomar Coastline in Monterey, California act as a backdrop for some thoughts about the nature of stories in organizations.

Waves & Organizational Stories from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

How are you working with stories in your organization? What metaphors best describe your work and expectations?

CELEBRATING 9th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

2010-01-14T12:46:00.001-08:00

Today, January 14th I am celebrating my 9th wedding anniversary with my beloved bride Cindy. I look back and the time has passed in a flash. Nine years later, two beautiful children, plenty of ups and downs but a relationship deepened and blessed by the "throes of outrageous fortunes."

Life is truly sweet. For whatever bitterness and pain and confusion there are gems in the offing waiting to find there way to our hearts. On this happy day and memory, I pause to send forth the joy I am feeling in my heart to the people of Haiti who have just suffered a horrible tragedy. May aid to them in all forms be swift and thorough, And may from the rubles there be a Phoenix of good, hope, prosperity, and joy be found for everyone tied to this story. We all are tied to the story whether we feel or it not.

I want to share a song I wrote and sang for Cindy at our wedding. There is also a video below. The words so perfectly describe Cindy and what have proven to be the most precious gifts in our relationship...

Her gentle spirit deep & true
Fills me with wonder anew

Her bright warm heart, tender and sweet
Opens with kindness each time we meet

Her shy and pretty face attentive and fair
Beams with goodness when I'm in her care

Her sharp quick mind, sensitive and clear
Listens with patience when I am share my fears

And now we face, a joyous new life,
with dreams and hopes as husband and wife...

May God's blessings guide my joy and my pride,
Forever and ever...
Cindy my Bride

In a flurry of typical creative tornado my father and I wrote the song days before the wedding, rehearsed it twice with piano and of course never rehearsed it with the band. At the wedding my father and mother were still teaching me the song and coaching me. There are great photos of me trying to eat, conferring with my parental musical mentors, and keep it a surprise from Cindy. Furtive dry rehearsals for the few moments she stepped away from the table.

Cindy and I were so taken and moved by the song. It haunted us in the most beautiful way during our honeymoon. Washing over us in waves. To this day the song brings both of us great peace.

Thank you for indulging my stories and memories. Weddings shower us with a renewal of love. The rite of love is mysterious and it cannot escape our attention regardless of creed, belief, race or cultural. Each of us with our own love songs and coffer brimming with stories and questions that sweeten our journey. If you are so inclined, share a piece of your journey with others in this space. I hope what I have shared triggers much richness for you.

Stories & Fire

2010-01-11T00:08:00.001-08:00

Fire is a wonderful metaphor for understanding some of the subtleties of stories. Spend two minutes with me and reflect on what light fire can cast on our understanding of stories...

Terrence Gargiulo - Stories & Fire from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

In what ways are fire and stories related to you?

Epiphany - Perfect Time for Story Insights

2010-01-05T23:47:00.000-08:00

Wow...2010...I'm not one to make resolutions but I am interested in trying something new. I thought I would begin to blog more frequently by including video messages as a part of my blog.

So on the this day of Epiphany I thought it was a great time to reflect and share the gift of video blogging. The gift will only be complete if you add your voice to the conversation and if whatever I share becomes a catalyst for your own insights.

Terrence Gargiulo - Video Blog - January 6 from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

Thank you for stopping to share this story space with me.

Philanthropic Initiative - Bringing Opera & Stories to Schools with the Occhiata Foundation

2009-12-08T08:54:00.001-08:00

Great stories are timeless. Do you think kids would find the story of Carmen interesting? Without a doubt!

When my father passed away three years ago my family and I vowed to establish a foundation to bring opera to kids and support the production of American composer's operas. Our dream has come true and we are off the ground running.

We named the 501 (3) (c) foundation Occhiata. As an opera and symphony conductor and composer my father had a wonderful way o working with artist. His baton, hands, and eyes were his primary forms of communication. He had a signature warm wink and emphatic, "OK" sign he would give artists during rehearsals and performance. In the stillness of the moment of a finished piece; that liminal space of of silence you could feel the magnetic love rush out of my father's body to thank and appreciate the team of artists who had just collaborated together. It was their real moment of mutual gratitude. Gratitude for the music, gratitude for the talent and opportunity to play it, gratitude for working together, gratitude for the composer, gratitude for my father's leadership, gratitude for the audience listening. The applause was an aside. It was an intimate pregnant moment between my father and the creative space that had been created to bring the music to life. Such is the passion and love of my father which I feel is very much present today as it was when he was here with me.

How grateful I am for our many collaborations and for his wonderful example of tackling with patience, humor, humility, passion and always love the good, difficult, horrible and joyous exigencies of life. The Occhiata Foundation is here to perpetuate and share the creative energy he cultivated during his life. It is this intangible spirit we wish to cultivate and share with others as they give shape, form, and expression to their unique ways of experiencing this wondrous creative power that rests in the depths of each and every one of us.

Last Friday we began our kickoff pilot with North County Middle School in (Castroville, California). We are working with The Met: HD Live in Schools program.

This was one of my father's favorite operas and the first one he conducted on tour. I know he was thrilled we were bringing this action pact story alive for students.

Six hundred students were treated to a special interactive presentation. Starting at 7:45 we gave six presentations to groups of 100 kids. I fired questions a mile a minute at them and when I wasn't doing that I was hoping on tables, dancing around like Gypsy smuggler, prancing like a Torreador, leading a regiment of students through the auditorium as we simulated the children chorus playing our pretend trumpets, or having a student pretending to be Carmen throw a flower at me.

Utilizing a bonanza of digital storytelling vehicles I brought the story of Carmen alive in some interesting ways. Check out this video I produced for near the front of the presentation to show students some of the places Carmen has showed up in popular culture. This is sure to surprise many of you.

I was delighted by the students universal response to seeing other kids. Of all the clips in the video (you did watch the video now didn't you?) the children's chorus got the biggest response.

Opera is far from stuffy. Put the emotion of music and the punch of a good story together and you have a potent art sure never to disappoint. I was thrilled to see how the kids became enamored with the characters and stories. They made great observations and asked super questions. Almost none of them had ever been exposed to opera.

We also stepped back and examined the arts. I gave the students some bad news: "there are more questions in life than answers," than I gave them some good news: "the arts give us an incredible outlet for projecting our questions onto a canvas we can live with our questions in deeply satisfying ways. In the space of art we can live with contradictions, ambiguities, and paradoxes. I dare say we thrive in this space. We are empowered to inhale the sacred that fills our being with the light of possibilities and connect us to a wider audience of others embarking on similar journeys.

After going through the story I left them with this movie style trailer...

Occhiata Foundation has purchased a block of tickets for the students. In January we will be taking a bus load of students to a local movie theater to see the Metropolitan Opera's HD live broadcast of Carmen. Following the presentation I will go back and meet with groups of students to hear their thoughts and reactions to the opera.

Would you like to get involved?

Contact Franca Gargiulo - 415-564-2600, franca.gargiulo@att.net for more information to learn how you can help us expand our pilot program for next year.

The arts are dying in our school we owe this to our kids. We have a lot of unanswerable questions...

Managing Cross Generation Meetings...

2009-11-30T10:22:00.000-08:00

FROM MAKINGSTORIES.net ARCHIVES

I continue to go through the MAKINGSTORIES.net archives and find one gem after another. I don't stop long enough to real give any of these things I create enough time to get out there. I'm too busy being creating the next thing - a gift and a blessing indeed!

Last year I did a webinar with Robert Wendover from the Center for Generational Studies. We wrote back in 2005 a super cool book for AMACOM titled, On Cloud Nine:Weathering Many Generations in the Workplace. I wrote a very amusing and all humility aside - sparkling little gems of fable.

In the webinar Bob and I give you a taste for the fable and dive into a discussion of how to manage inter-generational meetings. Here's the marketing blurb about the webinar...

Learn five powerful solutions for boosting meeting productivity in 40 minutes flat!

We’ve all been there – the weekly staff meeting – the Boomers are sharing what they did over the weekend – the Xers are anxious to get it over ASAP – the Millennials are texting their friends, updating Twitter, and shopping on-line. There’s got to be a better way – and there is!

Join Terrence Gargiulo and Robert Wendover, co-authors of On Cloud Nine: Weathering the Challenge of Many Generations in the Workplace, as they reveal the secrets for navigating the meeting needs and expectations of those ages 17 to 70. With the increasing pressures on time and money, you can’t afford this time-wise webinar. We all know the problems, this is about the solutions. Come away with the tricks you need to manage meeting times in a productive and efficient way.

Here's an archived video of the presentation...

Managing Cross Generational Meetings from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

SUMMARY OF FOUR STRATEGIES DISCUSSED

Managing Cross-Generational Meetings
Robert W. Wendover
The Center for Generational Studies

It happens all the time. We sit in a meeting. The topic needs to be addressed but isn’t all that interesting. The person presenting or facilitating the discussion struggles to keep everyone engaged. We look around the room. A few people are offering ideas and discussing the issue. Others are doing non-related paperwork. Still others are surfing the Web on their handhelds or even texting each other under the table about how boring the meeting is.

With the pressure to do more with less these days, few people have the tolerance to sit through a meeting that they perceive as wasting their time. This is especially true of emerging professionals who are so conscious of their time to begin with. So how can we find a way to manage meetings effectively, particularly across the generations? Here are some ideas:

Commit “Meetingus vanishus.” Many people have concluded that as a society, we meet too much. Ask people about all the different meetings to which they are committed to each week and you’ll get a list of five or more. Ask those same people how many are really necessary and they will roll their eyes. Dare to ask those attending regular meetings if the meeting is really necessary. Press for the truth and you’ll probably get a good feel for which meetings can be eliminated.

But information does have to be disseminated. The obvious answer is technology. Decide what can be distributed electronically and then develop a means for do so. Several years ago, banking giant Capital One purchased 3000 iPods, for instance, and distributed them to managers and other professionals across the organization. “Feel free to use the iPod to your hearts content,” these people were told. All we ask is that when the company sends you podcasts on topics ranging from training issues to financial updates that you listen to the information.” This practice has consequently saved thousands hours of time and added millions of dollars to the bottom line.

Cross generate the meeting. The person in charge tends to be the person running the meeting. Who says that’s the best way to get things done? Try appointing individuals from different generations to the role of meeting leader. This can accomplish several goals: 1) It will re-engage those who have disengaged from the meeting’s purpose. 2) It will foster the creativity of those in the room. 3) It will demonstrate the different approaches to getting the meeting objective accomplished. 4) It will help those in charge to identify the leadership attributes within the team.

Establish upright meetings. Who says meetings have to take place in a reclining position? More than one manager has discovered that simply gathering people together on the factory floor or office break room is an effective way to get a quick decision. Why not take more advantage of this strategy? If some privacy is needed, remove the chairs from the room ahead of time. Sure there may be a few comments, but the result with be a quicker and more effective meeting. Don’t believe me? Just try it a couple of times.

Meet virtually. Even if everyone attending is in the same facility, it can be more efficient to meet via a telephone bridge or conferencing software. Since most people comfortable multi-taking their way through the day, this practice will enable them to improve their efficiency and still participate in a meaningful way.

Robert W. Wendover is director of The Center for Generational Studies and author The Sandwich Manager: Simple Solutions for Supervising Those Seventeen to Seventy. Contact him at wendover@gentrends.com.

Check out more information on the book

So how are you managing these dynamics? Tell us your story.

In the Land Of Difficult People

2009-11-15T21:17:00.000-08:00

Lots of content resting in MAKINGSTORIES.net rich archives. Below is a video of the webinar, tool, and TV appearances for an AMACOM book.

I had a grand time collecting stories from around the world for a book on difficult people. In the Land of Difficult People: 24 Timeless Tales Reveal How to tame Beasts at work was loads of fun.

I offered a webinar earlier on the year on topic. Here are the questions we looked at:

Are people’s job performances in your organization plagued by difficult behaviors?

Do projects suffer when people are unable to work effectively with each other?

Are you leveraging people’s differences and the tensions created by these to achieve results?

There are no difficult people, well at least not many, but there are lots of difficult behaviors and each and every one of us is guilty of engaging in them.

Based on the book, In the Land of Difficult People: 24 Timeless Tales Reveal How to Tame Beasts at work, this webinar uses a fun and interactive strategy to tackle destructive behaviors that are getting in the way of your organization achieving its results.

Difficult People from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

Here's a summary of the key points and a follow-up job aid I sent participants...

SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS

• There are very few truly difficult people. Just lots of difficult behaviors.

• We are all guilty of behaviors that cause difficulty for others and we are usually not aware of it.

• People drive organizational performance.

• Future competitive advantage will be directly correlated with the quality, effectiveness and depth of relationships in organizations.

• Meaningful conversations nurture relationships.

• Stories are a natural and essential part of meaningful conversations.

• “The shortest distance between people is a story.” – Terrence Gargiulo

• Seek to understand others first.

JOB AID – PLANNING COMMUNICATIONS

Situational Constraints	What’s In It for Them	Assumptions

What do I care about?
What’s important to me?
Do I have any communication allies?

Directions:

Whenever you can, planning for a communication with someone who is exhibiting difficult behavior that is impacting your performance or just causing you consternation can lead to better results.

Try imaging the world from their vantage point. Start by considering any situational constraints. These are any things that might interfere or effect the way you can interact with this person.

We tend to simplify people’s behavior into simplistic causal explanations. These are often wrong or just a fraction of the picture.

Reflect on they why’s of their behavior by asking what’s important to them. Do so with an open mind.

Examine your assumptions. What filters, values, beliefs, information, ideas, opinions, etc… are coloring your view?

Be sure to consider what’s important to you. What do you need and what do you care about? Consider anyone you might enlist as a communication ally. These are people who might support, clarify or advocate.

Five to ten minutes of quality reflecting can lead to a world of difference.

Here are some video clip of TV interviews I did for the book...

INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE ABOUT THE BOOK

I'd love to hear some of your real-life stories of difficult people.

Story Matters Episode 5

2009-11-13T11:06:00.000-08:00

I promise to get back to our Stories and Leadership series. I just realized I had a lot of content I haven't had a chance to share. As I am preparing for a special holiday episode of Story Matters Productions (episode 7) I discovered I have only posted one of the episodes (episode 6) on my blog. Shame on me!

For those of you new to the unique format, here's what Story Matters is all about...

StoryMatters is a format for maximizing learning from experience and applying it in the workplace. Stories are used to spark deeper conversations creating multiple layers of meaning that have relevance to team members. The StoryMatters process promotes a culture of continuous learning within an organization by modeling the skills of advocacy and inquiry. In this way, StoryMatters can become an invaluable tool for any learning organization.

StoryMatters: The Process

I. Read or tell three 99 word stories – these stories act as triggers to spark listeners' imaginations
II. Listeners recapitulate the stories to find index words that capture the essence of the stories
III. Listeners leverage the index words to find personal stories along the same theme
IV. Those stories are shared and people hearing them share their reactions
V. Conclude with a dialog and conversation of themes and relationships between stories

Without any further ado (drum roll please)...here's Episode #5.

Story Matters Episode #5 from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

Okay so what did our stories stir up for you? Its all about the dialogue so please do not be bashful share your thoughts!

The Art of Persuasion with Stories: Dialog With Bob Dickman

2009-11-11T13:44:00.000-08:00

Today I had the pleasure of dialoguing with Bob Dickman of First Voice. Bob has a wonderful book he co-authored with Richard Maxwell titled The Elements of Persuasion: Using Storytelling to Pich Better, Sell Faster, and Win More Business.

We spent 45 minutes with a great group of folks comparing notes of our organizational story work and our experiences of coaching people to be more effective.

One of the key themes that emerged was the power of story in helping us to imagine the viewpoint of others and find effective ways of sharing our own. We explored Bob's simple, elegant, and profoundly nuanced five elements of persuasion.

Here are a few of the questions we explored...

Have you ever wondered how to expand your influence without having to sell?

Have you tapped into your natural “storyability” to transport people to see the world through your eyes?

Would you like to put one or two new techniques into practice to expand your influence through story?

Here's a recording of our dialogue.

The Art of Persuasion with Stories: Dialog Between Terrence Gargiulo & Bob Dickman from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

I'd love to hear your successes and challenges with working with stories during an influence process...

Happy Halloween - Mark Twain Ghost Story

2009-10-29T18:48:00.000-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN...

What a blog about story be without sharing a good ghost story. This one I must borrow from one of my heroes, Mark Twain.

The story is not long (4 pages) but I decided to provide a nicely formatted .pdf file link so you can share with kids, family, and friends. First let me acknowledge my sources for the story:

This version originally published in 2005 by Infomotions, Inc. This particular text was derived from the Internet Wiretap Edition of A Ghost Story by Mark Twain from "Sketches New and Old", copyright 1903, Samuel Clemens. It was placed in the Public Domain (May 1993). This document is distributed under the GNU Public License. I found this story on Ann Zeis’s website… http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/index.htm

And now with no further introduction...ladies and gentlemen...Mark Twain

LINK TO MARK TWAIN GHOST STORY

Please do not stand on the sidelines. Can you share with us one of your favorite scary, spooky, ghostly stories...Oh please :)!!!

Three Questions We Usually Get from Leaders About Storytelling

2009-10-25T22:28:00.000-07:00

Back in August Shawn Callahan of Anecdote and I collaborated on a leadership and storytelling webinar.

It was a rich experience for us and the participants. During our interactive dialog we explored the Triple Threat of storytelling leaders.

Are your leaders...

Storylisteners (that's not a typo - watch the video and find out why)
Story Elicitors (trigger storytelling of others)
Storytellers

We'd love to hear your experiences with developing the story capacity of leaders in your organization. Share your thoughts below...

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Story-based Communication Assessment: Click Here...

I also have a book of self-development exercises to work on these skills with yourself or others. All of these exercises that map to the nine skills of the competency model

Book of Self-Development Exercises: Click Here...

I also recommend, Once Upon a Time: Using Story-Based Activities to Develop Breakthrough Communication Skills. It contains a collection of group process activities aligned with these story-based communication skills.

TRIBUTE TO MAMA OCEAN FOR BLOG ACTION DAY

2009-10-16T15:15:00.000-07:00

I was sorry to miss out on Blog Action Day yesterday but it's never too late to share our hopes, dreams, and concerns for a sustainable planet.

Here is a piece I wrote awhile back reflecting on the glorious gift I like to refer to as, "Mama Ocean."

White, frothing foam spews from her mouth. Her formless hands wrap around the ankles of an unsuspecting child. He is busy savoring his bliss on the sandy shore. Joy and disaster duel. Mother Sea bides her directives, but she will not be governed. She is content with the struggle. Her maternal instinct directs a drama that teeters on a precarious precipice between diametrically opposed outcomes. There is a tumble. Balance gives way to terror, and abandonment dominates the scene. In rushes the hero. She whisks the child from Mother Sea’s loving arms. An instant passes, impinging a memory forever. It is business as usual. Ebbs and flows, nothing more.

That was my first encounter with the Pacific Ocean. Years pass, and boyhood fears give way to insatiable curiosities.

Now I am kneeling on the bottom, fully equipped with my arsenal of life-sustaining paraphernalia. Maybe it is some unconscious longing to return to the weightless fetus of my beginnings. Somehow it is right. My bubbles rise to the surface, expanding throughout their journey, and arrive as shouts of joy. I am a guest.

Today my hostess gives me a special treat. A forest of kelp weaves canopies over me. The sun aims its beams through any opening it can find. As it is above, so it is below. I am trans-fixed.

The clatter of daily life disappears and the cold water baptizes me anew. I am adrift in a watery reverie mesmerized by the balladic ease of my fluid movements. A fish docked alongside the kelp catches my eye. My arms flow toward it, and, as they make their way through the viscous medium, I swear I can feel its pulsing gills vibrating through the water. It is as if I am tethered to the fish. Its gill and my finger are joined in some magnetic union. I am struck by the obvious. This fish does not know it is in water. The water is air to the fish. Yet I experience the water as some sort of cosmic glue tying me, and everything around me in a synergistic partnership. The fish knows none of this.

The arrow of time moves forward, and the scene changes again. This time I am cutting through the water in pursuit of adventure. The hunter-gatherer instinct inside me stirs and my eye is caught by the scintillating glimmer of an abalone shell tucked in a tight crib of rocks. Priding myself on my acrobatic agility, I position myself just right to reach in and take Mother Sea’s treasure.

Disorientation ensues, and a mouthful of water assaults me. Several efforts of gear and dive buddy offer no remedy to my situation. I must make the climb to the surface without air. Perhaps this is the freedom I have longed for with Mother Sea all along.I am caught between worlds—one of land and one of water. To which of the two do I belong? Each is a part of my nature, yet neither fully meets my needs. I need them both, and they need me.

We are made mostly of water. Toss in a few atoms of carbon and other trace minerals, let evolution work a trick or two, and we emerge. There must be some sort of galactic museum. “Planet Earth exhibit this way,” the sign reads. The centerpiece of the exhibit is a stuffed Homosapiens. Maybe the caption reads, “big on brains, short on awareness—a highly differentiated life form with a lack of integration between itself and its environment.”

Could we be a natural wonder of the universe? Maybe it is we who should invoke the celestial muses and tune ourselves to the frequency of wonder.

There is more water than land. We can reach higher into the heavens than we can into the belly of our home. We fear the deep. Is it the thought of a colossal squid or is it an avoidance of our nature?

Nature is in flux. A fire is constructive. Fertilizer is destructive. All natural ingredients include synthesized chemicals as part of the standard du jour menu. Call in the relativists. They will save us. Nurture not nature is to blame. Social constructs are the root of all evils. I forgot, could you tell me who built the constructs? Or maybe it’s all predetermined in our genes. Just fill out
this form and the human genome is yours for analysis. I can see street-corner hawkers vying for our attention, “Hear ye, hear ye, get your DVD today, and read all about your genetic makeup.”

I put up the mirror and spin around. Give me somewhere to point my finger. There must be a cause to hang my hat on today. Resources are not finite; only our understanding of how to manage and control them is lacking, is it not?

The fish turns to me. Its beady stare shifts my attention. I reach out to touch it but I realize the fish is inside me. It is a part of my memory—a vital epiphany guiding me. It slips through my fingers, and the momentary gift is lost. I am back to the ranting ramblings of my mind. The equilibrium is gone. I throw off the cover of the hot tub and subject the water to my tests. If I have read my instruments correctly, I can bring this water back to a happy, safe balance. The water will succumb to my elixir. I do not need to banish my ideal. I am master of the water.

A mother holds her child’s hand as she leads him to the great expanse of the sea for the first time. Eyes filled with awe, he lets go of her hand. He takes all of it in and only some of it registers. Mother Sea will take hold of his imagination in ways beyond his present capacity of comprehension, even if she must pull him toward her bosom.

Our event horizon must stretch further than our puny minds allow us. Nature goes about its business. One thing is obliterated and replaced by another. A phoenix rises out of the ashes to take flight once again. What about those mighty dinosaurs or species of plants and insects off our radar screens that are candles blown out in the dark before anyone benefits from their illuminating secrets? Nature has not gone astray; it is simply in motion.

I examine my hand. I am appalled to realize that every seven years almost all the cells in my body are replaced. Those poor cells remind me of pelagic carcasses unknowingly committed to insane asylums of our shores. Have I lost my nature or am I along for the ride? Maybe I should just catch a wave and sit on top of the world.

I hold the treasure in my hand. The pearly allure of the abalone’s shell is intoxicating my thoughts. I am without air but I am free. Whatever happened to my umbilical cord? I will break to the surface and rejoin the atmosphere. The fabric of water will be punctuated with my staccato gasps for air underscored by my drive to be unique and in control. I want to bring the fish to the surface. Will it feel the air as joining the two of us in a new dance, or will the harsh reality of a foreign environment take hold of it before it is enlightened?

The world marches to its own nature. Developing nations are eager to karaoke tunes they have heard before, and scarce resources attempt counterpoint melodies against the beat of progress. Mother Sea beckons, a child is initiated, and an underwater explorer struggles against his nature to hold on to his battling prizes of material gain and insight. There is a faint glimmer of guidance. Mother Sea scans the shore and finds another child eager for tutelage. Perhaps her passion to incite wonder might take hold and pique a new imagination.

Leadership & Storytelling Part 14 of Many...

2009-09-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

PROCESS RING – REFLECTING COMPETENCY

“The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else
than in the human power to reflect.”

Vaclav Havel

We all could do with a little more thinking. Introspection is under valued and unpracticed. It is another one of those seemingly fuzzy things left outside of the walls of business yet nothing could be more important to the success of an organization and the well being of its members. Our ability to reflect is a defining characteristic of being human. So why do most of us prefer our bliss of oblivious autopilot in lieu of a more mindful orientation to the world around us? It takes time, discipline, and commitment. Given the finite nature of these assets we do not part with them easily. Socially, as evidenced by our educational system, we do not make reflection a priority. In many instances we go out of our way to discourage it.

Reflection requires focusing our attention in a single direction with circumspection. The image of an hourglass is useful in understanding the state of mind we need to achieve in order to benefit from our efforts. Individual grains of sand pass through a narrow point before they drop into a large collection area. When we concentrate it is akin to the narrow point of an hourglass. When we review an experience and it yields a wealth of insights it is akin to the large open collection area that the grains of sand fall into. From that narrow point of concentration a new vista of perception becomes possible. Our minds open up to new possibilities. We are able to look at our experiences in a totally new way. A reflective mind discovers insights in otherwise meaningless experiences.

The insights we gain from reflection are transformed into knowledge, which become raw chunks of reusable information. Herein lays the greatest challenge. How do we use these chunks? Knowledge provides us with a construct to manage and manipulate abstractions mined from our experiences but we have to find a way of applying them to new situations. When we look for applicability of our knowledge by being attentive to the moment we discover points of intersection. A new experience has some correspondence to a previous one. We leverage the pattern capabilities of our minds and move knowledge into the present. This pattern match guides our behavior. Some benefits include avoiding mistakes we have made in the past, exhibiting a greater capacity for empathy, demonstrating new understanding, or acting with greater confidence. When it comes to interpersonal or intrapersonal dynamics, knowledge applied in the present is wisdom. Arguably, the greatest personal power that we can pursue is wisdom. While information by itself is useless and knowledge brings with it a certain degree of influence, wisdom deepens us. The bottom line is that we cannot be effective without reflection. The feedback gained from flexing our internal powers of observation is invaluable and cannot be procured through any other means.

Now that we have established the importance of reflecting, how do we do it? Reflection can be broken down into four parts:

1. Visualizing
2. Sitting
3. Inviting
4. Sifting

Part I. of Reflecting: Visualizing

Reflection is made possible through the use of visualization. The word visualizing can be misleading. We need to use all of our senses when we visualize. The more senses we can invoke the richer our visualizations will be. Saint Ignatius of Loyola wrote a guide for monks called The Spiritual Exercises. He like others before him had an intuitive grasp of how our minds work without the benefits of psychological research we have today. The spiritual exercises are a collection of guided visualizations on Jesus Christ’s life. Loyola instructs priest to begin imagining a scene from Jesus’ life by walking through the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings of it. The result is a vivid and personal re-experiencing of a story. Athletes offer another perspective on the power of visualization. Mental rehearsals have been shown to result in muscular activity that can be measured. These mental rehearsals enable athletes to practice, learn, and improve motor skills. They can also be used to strengthen cognitive and psycho-emotional skills such as concentration, focus, and stress management. Visualizations are effective because they are not just mental phenomena they engage our whole being.

In order to reflect on our experiences we must relive them. Visualization offers us this ability. We re-enter our past experiences as an observer. Our imaginations fuel our archival inquiry and engage us as active observers. Like the spiritual exercises, we can also reflect on stories outside of our personal experiences. Whatever we visualize is projected into a space where we can begin to manipulate it. In this way reflection has the potential to be more than an analytical rehashing of an experience. Visualization creates a story while analysis by itself creates a collection of linearly associated data points. If we are to win any insights from our experiences or effectively find connections between our experiences we will need to work with them as stories.

Leadership & Storytelling Part 13 of Many...

2009-09-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

The Process Ring deals with how we work with information in our minds and store it. The Process Ring is composed of three competencies Indexing, Synthesizing, and Reflecting. All three competencies taken together capture the interplay of internal processes that result in learning. Stories are used as a way of codifying experiences. For example, the Indexing competency stresses the importance of consciously developing a robust array of descriptors for our experiences so that they can be easily reused in various settings. The bigger our indexing scheme the more we have learned from our experiences. A good index increases our capacity to learn in new situations by drawing upon past ones and integrating the news ones into a fabric of knowledge. Our capacity to communicate with others is also improved. Once our experiences have been transformed into easily retrievable stories that have been well indexed, and cross-indexed then we can be sensitive to other people’s experiences and converse with a greater range of nuances and understanding.

INDEXING COMPETENCY

Indexing is how we classify our experiences. The better the index the easier it is find information. The problem with an index is deciding what descriptors to use to classify our experiences. Indexes are further complicated by the fact everyone will chose different “key words,” or descriptors to classify their experiences. If we cannot access our experiences due to an inadequate index or one that does not match someone else’s, our experiences become dormant. They are left in the proverbial warehouse of our mind available to our unconscious but collecting dust. Effective communicators and learners naturally develop extensive indexing schemes. They draw upon lots of different experiences and can recall these experiences in the form of stories.

Triggers activate indexes. Triggers are any kind of stimuli that results in a search of our experiences and in a recounting of it. An item in our index can be stimulated by a variety of triggers. Therefore we need to be vigilant in creating a vast index and become more aware of potential triggers. If we think in advance about what kinds of themes, ideas, perceptions, learning, or emotions, are contained in our experience we will be able to leverage this awareness by becoming sensitive to a multitude of triggers. For example, take a conversation. Thoughts and ideas are expressed one after another. Given the flow of a conversation we can be swept along without ever consciously drawing upon our experiences. We are using them in the background in order to understand what is being communicated but we are not bringing them to the forefront of our minds. This in turn limits our ability to infuse the conversation with greater depth and energy. Our experiences left running in the background by our minds generates a base level of understanding but will cause us to miss vital opportunities to increase our learning and communicate with greater depth. From our previous discussions we have established the complex nature of our experiences stored and recounted to others in the form of stories.

In order to be an effective communicator and learner you need to have a wealth of stories. You are mistaken if you think you do not know or have a lot of stories. Our lives are rich with experiences. The trick is we need to make ourselves aware of these experiences by focusing our attention on them. The Personal History exercise is a sample of how you can recapture dusty memories and shake them off.
Let’s step back for a moment and realize that this process of experiences becoming stored as stories, indexed for retrieval, and our use of them in conversations and learning settings happens all the time. Why not invoke this mental process? We can strengthen this natural phenomenon by increasing its frequency on a conscious level. To do this we must have a solid foundation built. A big well-organized toolbox of personal stories will get the job done.

The first step in building an index and developing an awareness of triggers is to reconstruct as many of our experiences. This will result in an active collection of stories, which we can then index and associate with some potential triggers. The next exercise presents a method for building a collection of stories, identifying some major themes, and anticipating potential triggers.

Exercise: Indexing – Personal History

In this exercise you will create a timeline of your life. One end of the timeline should be marked with “birth,” and the other should be marked as “present.” Think back upon the years of your life and start scanning them for memories that stick out. As you create your timeline use the following list of seven historical triggers to help you jog your memory.

1. Major Event
Were there any significant things that happened?

2. Influence
What things had a formative effect in shaping your ideas, beliefs, values, or attitudes?

3. Decision
Did you make any decisions that had an impact on your life or the lives of others?

4. Change
What changes occurred?

5. Success
What were your major accomplishments?

6. Failures
Did you make any big mistakes or experience any failures?

7. Disappointments
Were there any

8. Significant People
How did certain key people affect you?

Be sure you find the stories behind each of these triggers. If your memory surfaces more as a fact, then spend a moment with the memory and try to reconstitute all of the details surrounding it. This will transform your memory into a story. The richness of a story is what lends itself to indexing. Facts get lost.

Some people find it useful to do this year by year while others will start randomly filling in their timeline with memories as they occur.

Once you have your timeline filled in with stories develop a two columned list for each story that includes story triggers and themes. Your triggers will be any situation or time where you believe your story could have applicability. At the same time, examine your stories for themes. These are in essence things that you have learned and insights you have gained from your experiences. If you are aware of what themes can be found in your experiences it will help you index them based upon potential triggers.

All of these skills can be measured with the only assessment in the world that measured story-based communication skills (recognized in 2008 with an HR Leadership Award from the Asia Pacific HRM Congress).

Story-based Communication Assessment: Click Here...

I also have a book of self-development exercises to work on these skills with yourself or others. All of these exercises that map to the nine skills of the competency model

Book of Self-Development Exercises: Click Here...

I also recommend my book, Once Upon a Time: Using Story-Based Activities to Develop Breakthrough Communication Skills. It contains a collection of group process activities aligned with these story-based communication skills.

Leadership & Storytelling Part 12b of Many...

2009-09-09T09:48:00.000-07:00

PART II: MODELING COMPETENCY OF THE INTERACTION RING

Let’s move to the second aspect of modeling. Explaining an idea with words can take a fair amount of time. Each piece of the idea has to be carefully laid out and all of the pieces have to be put in order. I am always amazed at how much time it takes me to present an idea when I lecture. The same idea can almost always be quickly grasped with a simple illustration that takes a fraction of the time compared to more didactic modes of communicating. That of course leaves us lecturers without much to say and our recipients with more retention. The problem lies in the effort it takes to come up with a compelling illustration.

I was teaching a technical writing course. In one of the exercises I had the group write a technical explanation for some engineering principles that could be understood by a twelve year old and that used an analogy to help explain the principle. They were forced to use constructs that an average twelve year old would know. It proved to be tough to come up with analogies but when they did they were amazed at how simple the principles really were and how easily they could be explained. There is a natural fear that if you over simplify an idea people will miss out. That is an incorrect assumption. Once a construct is in place it is far easier to refine it. Much of what we assume to be important turns out to be unnecessary detail that cannot nor need not be retained by most people.

We can model with words by coming up with analogies, similes, anecdotes, or metaphors to illustrate our ideas. This is a form of synthesis. We are using a known entity to explain a new one. A new entity can be explored by establishing a baseline with a known one. In essence we are creating word pictures. Through words we are painting vivid pictures. The assumption is that these pictures have a correspondence with our listeners’ experiences. We are invoking their imaginations. Our models as word pictures serve as tantalizers, which summon rich associations. Without some form of association our ideas will fizzle before they ever come to life. This next exercise explores the key questions you need to answer in order to effectively model with words.

Exercise: Modeling Competency – Answering the Key Questions

Here is a mental checklist of questions to run through when you are interested in using verbal models:

1. What do I want to communicate?
2. What constructs are known to this person or group?
3. How does the new construct relate to what is already known and understood by them?
4. Are there gaps between the two constructs being related to one another?
5. If there is a gap, can we work within the proposed model to explicate the differences?

Pick an occasion when you will need to explain something to an individual or group. Walk through the questions above and come up with some potential models. Try them out and evaluate the impact. How did you close the gap between the model you used and the full construct you were trying to communicate? Did you notice any difference in the recipient’s level of engagement? How did they respond?

It is not important for our model to be perfect. Inevitably it will fall short. However, once we have a fertile learning space we can expand our model and allow the recipient to refine it to successfully complete the transfer of information. Stories are tools for thinking. When we use word pictures and facilitate a discovery process to close the gap between the model and the desired construct being transferred we are engaged in using stories as tools for thinking.

Organizational Practices for the Interaction Ring

Communications can be so stiff in organizations. Efficiency rules and stories are deemed as inappropriate. We do not make the time to work with stories. I’ve already argued that stories are the most efficient way of storing, retrieving, and conveying information. Since story hearing requires active participation on the part of the listener, stories are the most profoundly social form of communication.

In one of my workshops I had a Director of Engineering. He was an extraordinarily bright individual, fair minded and even in his approach to all things. However, he struggled with how to invest time in the people around him. When a project called for it he would gladly work with whoever needed his guidance but as a general rule he preferred the solitary peace of his unperturbed work environment. Throughout the workshop I kept pushing him to see the value and long-term speed of a sinuous path between two points. In other words I was challenging him to discover that sometimes engaging in inefficient behaviors such as mutual storytelling sows seeds for future benefits. He could see my point intellectually but I could tell he was struggling with its application. So I gave him a homework assignment. I instructed him to come in the next day with three or more stories that he was instructed to weave together into a story collage. The next morning he came in very excited. He shared with me how he came up with three stories while he was running. Upon examination he was surprised to realize that the stories were not personal. In fact, he further realized that he had a habit of never using personal stories. Next he sat down and started thinking about some key personal stories and before long he had a string of them. The class was amazed when he sat in front of the group and began his web of stories with an explanation of the instructions I had given him the day before and the series of events leading up to his discovery of his personal stories. That was just the tip of the iceberg. His series of stories was rich, engaging, and full of insights. When he was done he sat back and smiled. Nodding his head he said, “Now I understand what you mean by a sinuous path being the shortest distance between two points.” He experienced the value of selecting and telling stories and realized they would not get in the way of him being more efficient. I also set him up to experience the model and I have the added pleasure of sharing his actions with you to reinforce my assertions.

Leaders need to promote telling stories, modeling behaviors to generate stories, and verbal models by practicing these competencies. We are not talking about the use of these competencies during only all-hands-on meetings or other large events. These competencies need to be seen all the time in every type of interaction. For less verbally oriented employees, written communications provide just as much of an opportunity to leverage the competencies of the Interaction Ring as any other. Individuals do not need to carry the burden of coming up with effective stories or models all on their own. This means these stories can be discovered in a collaborative process. People can work with one another to turn an idea into a compelling story or model. Until it becomes second nature, story facilitators can be used to help organizations develop repeatable processes for leveraging the competencies in the Interaction Ring. These processes should be woven into a wide range of organizational activities. As a facilitator I might prompt someone to support the introduction of a new idea by telling a story or providing a model. Clear command of an idea is demonstrated by the use of either one of these.

Selecting stories is a central part of an organization’s’ knowledge management efforts. What stories are chosen to become a part of the formal institutional memory? Contrary to what many assume, these stories are better selected by employees rather than its leaders. Certain stories will naturally rise to the surface. Stories like how the organization started, what some of the early days were like, etc… The stories with the greatest impact will come from the memories of individuals both inside and outside of the organization. These are all the hidden gems. If leaders encourage people to remember stories and carry them forward there will be less pressure on them to broadcast the perfect story. In this sense, organizations can support the development of all the competencies in the Interaction Ring by providing employees with ample opportunities to share stories.

SUMMARY OF THE INTERACTION RING

The competencies in the Interaction Ring are the most visible but the least important. The Process Ring and Core are the foundation. Selecting stories depends upon a rich index of stories that can only be gained through reflection, synthesis, and all of the listening competencies in the Core. We looked at some ideas on how to determine what kind of story to select. Telling stories was shown to be less concerned with execution and more concerned with being sensitive to expanding and collapsing the amount of detail in a story, eliciting stories from others, and telling stories in an interactive manner. We concluded our tour of the Interaction Ring by looking at the different ways we can use models.

Stories & Manipulation

2009-09-02T09:44:00.000-07:00

Before continuing with our story-based communication skills and leadership series I thought I would take a moment to share a recent question I got from an attendee of a recent webinar Shawn Callahan from Anecdote and I did on leadership.

The question deals with manipulation and truthfulness of stories. Here is David's question in his own words and the resposne I emailed. I'd love to hear people's thoughts on the questions. It is a rich and very important question - lots of room here for deep reflection - so please add your voice...

I found myself later thinking of what was said about plausibility in stories. Perhaps it was a casual comment, somewhat unrelated to the main topic, but I believe that it's important to deepen into the issue of "manipulating" through storytelling. When I talk to people about how to improve communication and training skills at work, and explain how storytelling works, I sometimes get asked whether that's not plainly deceiving, as, in a way, it creates a parallel reality where facts match the storyteller's beliefs, values and messages. Just as in political propaganda, as they point out. This is a question I have some trouble answering, as I tend to appeal to personal ethics but some people find this argument too weak.

Stories can function as weapons. There are countless examples of how people abuse the power of tapping into the emotions and imaginations of others to coercively manipulate their constructs of reality. Clear violations such as con artists are easy to classify. However, the question is not a black or white one – thus why I quoted Mark Twain, “sometimes you have to lie a little bit to tell the truth.” At the end of this message I’ll share with you a traditional tale that was one of my mentor’s signature stories.

By their nature stories are fluid. Stories overlap memories with the context of the moment. I find stories in collages and clusters to be more truthful than pinning the entirety of a message in a single story. All the greatest stories are vast little universes with an orbit of small story fragments. The depth and veracity of stories is more easily perceived when scanning the pattern and intention of stories in proximity with one another. I am naturally distrustful of single isolated large perfect stories with clean beginning, middles, and ends and unmistakable story arcs. In many instances these stories have already been warped around the gravity of a pre-digested message. Stories are creative acts and furthermore I view them as co-creative stages on which themes, drama, and meaning emerge in a process of co-creation. The story is only one small part of the key. The decoding and collaborative sense making space generated by telling a story to trigger the stories of others is sacred. My experience has been that when this space opens up, storytelling and listening is authentic, deep, and responsive to the needs of the moment. The space falls apart when listening ceases and any one person returns to advancing a monocular agenda.

Stories told in the moment will adapt themselves to the language, vocabulary, and experience of listeners. It is a mark of an integrated storyteller to share stories in a way fitting to the audience. If that means elaborating upon an aspect of the story or coloring it with a nuance of detail previously untold or which stretches the factuality then I do not view this as either coercive or manipulative.

I feel your instincts of asking people to become aware of their intentions are a marvelous starting point. Stories allow us to imagine paradoxes and contradictions. So I feel that if we become wrapped up in equating honesty and integrity with authenticity we miss the richness of what stories have to offer us.

I hope my response is of some help to you.

Story of Lady Truth...

Thomas had done it all. At the age of 50 he had become CEO of a Fortune 100 company; he had a beautiful family and all of the material things he could ever want. However, there was a gnawing question in Thomas’s mind. He remembered as a young boy listening to a gospel story about Jesus. In the story, Jesus is asked, “What is Truth?” Thomas had always wondered why Jesus never replied. So one day, Thomas turned to his wife and said, “Honey, I am so happy. Our life is wonderful. But I need to go on a quest for Truth.”

“Well, honey,” she replied, “if it is important to you, I think you should go. I’ll pack you a nice lunch, and you can give me power of attorney, and then you can head out tomorrow morning.”

The next morning, Thomas took his lunch and hit the road. He left his BMW in the garage; somehow he thought he should conduct his pilgrimage on foot. So Thomas walked and walked. He stopped at his company’s manufacturing plant. He had heard that workers hold the keys to Truth but he found no Truth there.

Next he went to the White House. He found a lot of hot air but no Truth. Then he stopped at the Vatican to speak with the Pope, but again he found no Truth. On and on he wandered, until he found himself in a very remote part of the world. At long last he saw a sign with an arrow pointing up a hill. The sign read, “Truth This Way.”

Thomas stumbled up the hill and came to a little shack with a blinking marquee, “The Truth Lives Here.” He nervously knocked on the door. A moment later the door began to creak open. Thomas craned his neck around the corner to get his first glimpse of Truth. What he saw made him jump back five feet. Standing before him was the oldest, most hideous creature he had ever seen. It was all hunched over. In a high-pitched, cackling voice, it said, “Yes, dear?”

“Oh, I am terribly sorry, I think I have the wrong house. I was looking for Truth.”

The creature smiled and said, “Well, you’ve found me. Please come inside.” So Thomas went inside and began to learn about Truth. For years Thomas stayed by the creature’s side, absorbing all of the intricacies of Truth. He was amazed at the things he learned. Then one day he turned to it and said, “Truth, I have learned so much from you, but now I must go home and share my wisdom and knowledge with others. I do not know where to begin. What should I tell people?”

The hideous old creature leaned forward and said, “Well, dear, tell them I am young and beautiful.”

In the words of Mark Twain, “Sometimes you have to lie a little bit to tell the truth.”

Leadership & Storytelling Part 12a of Many...

2009-08-28T06:31:00.000-07:00

In this entry we pick up with the third competency of modeling of the Interaction Ring of the Story-Based Communication Skills model. In previous entries we explored the tow other skills of being able to select a story and tell a story. There are two aspects of the model skills. Here's the first of two discussion on the story-based communication skill of modeling.

MODELING COMPETENCY

There are two aspects to the modeling competency. The first aspect can be summed up in a cliché, “actions speak louder than words.” Our behavior has the potential to speak volumes. Our actions can create memorable experiences for others that are retold as stories. We should strive to enact our intentions instead of announcing them. Be mindful of how your actions can create stories. The modeling competency also describes how we use language and visual aids to explain complex ideas. Analogies, similes, metaphors, and anecdotes are just a few examples of using language to generate models.

While interviewing an executive at Dreyer’s Ice Cream I heard a wonderful story that is a perfect example of how stories are created by actions. This story takes places towards the beginning of the company’s history. It was a day or two before Christmas Eve and the receptionist working the phones was not busy. There had been almost no calls for the day. When the President walked by her desk the receptionist asked him if she could leave early. The President thought to himself, “I have one of three possible responses. I can tell her what she wants to hear and instruct her to forward the phones into voice mail and to go home early and have a wonderful holiday. I can tell her that every call is important and that by greeting each customer personally she helps the company succeed. Or I can tell her to make the decision herself.” The President decided to let the receptionist make her own decision. To this day he’s not sure what she decided nor does he care. She was the best person to make the decision and he trusted her to make it. This story is retold at every employee orientation. The President enacted the values of the culture he espoused and it left an indelible mark in the minds of his employees.

We don’t realize how significant our actions can be. Ad hoc water cooler conversations are riddled with stories of people’s behavior. Imagine your actions in terms of what stories they might generate. There is no need to be paranoid. Every person will not perceive our actions no matter how noble our intentions may be positively but we need to be more purposeful in how we go about them. A good modeler lives by example.

Exercise: Modeling Competency – Creating Stories through Actions

Identify a key message you want to communicate. Perhaps it’s a message you have tried communicating several times but it has failed to stick or maybe it’s a new idea you have been trying to advance. Consider what actions you could take to model it. One of my favorite examples comes from a client who was having difficulty with their quality control department. The CEO of the company held a luncheon and had everyone’s lunches purposely mixed up. Sometimes these actions will be single acts that have a big dramatic effect as in the quality control example however; sometimes you may need to try a series of actions. Think of what actions you can take to model your message. Will anyone else be involved in the actions you need to take? Why do you think these actions will be effective?

There are times when you cannot directly reach your target audience. In these instances you need to mold the actions of others. You need to act as a coach by helping others determine what actions they can take that have the potential to create stories. Guide them to look for opportunities that are a natural part of the organization’s activities. These are great places to look because when we introduce variation in otherwise stable behaviors they are likely to be noticed. When you are coaching someone have them consider the impact of their actions and how others might respond. Help them prepare for the possibility that their actions may not create a positive story. How will they handle any negative ramifications? Ask them to imagine how any of these can be transformed into positive ones?

All of these skills can be measured with the only assessment in the world that measured story-based communication skills (recognized in 2008 with an HR Leadership Award from the Asia Pacific HRM Congress).

Story-based Communication Assessment: Click Here...

I also have a book of self-development exercises to work on these skills with yourself or others. All of these exercises that map to the nine skills of the competency model

Book of Self-Development Exercises: Click Here...

I also recommend my book, Once Upon a Time: Using Story-Based Activities to Develop Breakthrough Communication Skills. It contains a collection of group process activities aligned with these story-based communication skills.

Leadership & Storytelling Part 11 of Many...

2009-08-18T11:02:00.000-07:00

We continue with our examination of the Interaction Ring and the second competency of Telling Stories. This is what most people think of when they talk about storytelling skills. Over the next blogs we will venture into some areas that may be less known to you.

TELLING COMPETENCY

Relaying information with authenticity. Paint a vivid, engaging picture for listeners.

Some behaviors include…

* I use anecdotes when I communicate.

* I vary the tone and volume of my voice when I communicate.

*I allow others to interject their own thoughts and experiences during a conversation.

*I invite my listeners to interact with me by adding details, anticipating the direction of the conversation, and contributing comments.

Maybe you are shy or self-conscious. I am not concerned with turning you into an award-winning orator. There are great resources out there that have a lot to offer in that arena. The ability to dramatize a story for purposes of entertaining is an art form but does not concern us here. If you find it natural to spin a yarn or be the center of attention there are other subtleties to be an effective communicator through stories that you will want to master.

You must believe your stories are interesting. This is the first hurdle. People love to hear stories. Without stories our conversations are dull. Worse yet very little can be communicated without them. Transmission is encapsulated in language understanding is transferred through stories. Isolated islands of abstractions leave us wanting. We listen awkwardly waiting for some way to connect to the speaker. As soon as an illustration enters the conversation we breathe a sigh of relief. Finally there is something we can grab unto. Stories are fundamental to how we communicate. Therefore we must become adept at using them.

When telling a story expand and collapse the amount of detail you include. There is a time and place for stories to be told in long, rich detail however most organizational settings require us to be concise. From our discussions earlier in the book we know that stories can be as short as a single sentence. While you may parse down the number of details you use be sure to include ones that will enrich the story for the audience it is being told to. In the next exercise you will practice truncating details without sacrificing a story.

Tell a story by reliving it. Overcome any self-consciousness by connecting to your story. If you watch a story as it unfolds in your mind it becomes more real for you and the people you are sharing it with. Telling a story is another opportunity to learn from it in one or more ways. As you relive the story you may discover new insights, and secondly people’s reactions to your stories may offer you a new perspective. These things are only possible if you engage your imagination.

Recognize that there is no right way to tell a story. Find your own voice. Each person has a unique way of internalizing the world and expressing themselves. Admire what you like in other people’s communication style but do not emulate characteristics that are not in keeping with your own. People respond to authenticity not to gimmicks. Have you ever been in a group when someone’s story grabs your attention? It’s not always the story delivered with award winning aplomb.

The most important facet of telling stories is frequency. The more you tell the more comfortable you will become. Make stories a natural part of your conversations. Stories are not just for speeches, presentations, or pre-meditated occasions. Telling stories is an integral part of any conversation. In this next exercise you will identify how stories are occurring in your conversations and work on incorporating more of them into your own.

We tell stories to invoke rich responses in others. The best response is another story. Sometime this story is shared and other times it is not. When you tell a story try to involve the listener. Let them participate in the story. Try inserting questions as you tell you story. These act as triggers for others to search their memory for similar experiences. If you do this you will need to be prepared for interruptions. I am always reminded of reading a book to an inquisitive child. As the reader it is easy to become wrapped up in the story and brush aside a child’s interruptions. These interruptions are more central to the story than the story itself. As adult tellers of stories I think the same principle holds true. In fact, if the story becomes derailed and goes an alternative direction we may have to abandon the original story altogether. If we are interested in making a connection we need to give up a certain degree of control. When the setting does not lend itself to interruptions such as a large group or a brief time period, use rhetorical questions and slight pauses to encourage listeners to be involved in the story you are telling. To do this well it requires us to be less focused on ourselves, and more focused on the listener. It is a shame that much of our storytelling in informal conversations has a tendency to be self-absorbed in nature. At first this will demand a concerted effort on your part. The rewards are worth the disorientation.

All of these skills can be measured with the only assessment in the world that measured story-based communication skills (recognized in 2008 with an HR Leadership Award from the Asia Pacific HRM Congress).

Story-based Communication Assessment: Click Here...

I also have a book of self-development exercises to work on these skills with yourself or others. All of these exercises that map to the nine skills of the competency model

Book of Self-Development Exercises: Click Here...

I also recommend my book, Once Upon a Time: Using Story-Based Activities to Develop Breakthrough Communication Skills. It contains a collection of group process activities aligned with these story-based communication skills.

Leadership & Storytelling Part 10 of Many...

2009-08-12T20:27:00.000-07:00

We start our detailed look at story-based communication model for leaders by looking at the Interaction Ring.

The Interaction Ring with its three skills describes how we use stories to connect with others and communicate. The three skills are:

1. Selecting
2. Telling
3. Modeling

This is the tip of the iceberg. When people think of storytelling skills these are the ones that come rushing to mind.

The Interaction Ring contains the competencies that are most noticeable by outside observers. Selecting, Telling and Modeling describe how we use stories to communicate. In actuality, these are the least important competencies. They demonstrate mastery of the competencies found in the Core and Process Ring without which the competencies in the Interaction Ring amount too little more than showmanship. The Interaction Ring is the icing on the cake. All the other competencies have to be working in concert in order for us to be effective communicators and learners regardless of how clever we are in selecting stories, how theatrically we tell them, what behaviors we model or analogies we leverage to explain ourselves.

SELECTING COMPETENCY

One of the questions I get asked the most is, “how do you know what story to tell?” It’s an excellent question. Of course the setting of where a story is to be told has a lot to do with it. Stepping back to do an audience analysis will be instrumental in guiding you. For example, it is more straightforward when you are giving a presentation at a conference in front of a large audience than if you are attempting to select a story on the fly in an informal conversation. When you have advance information about who the people are, why they are coming, and a sense of what you think they want to get out of your talk than it is easy to use your preparation time to scan a wide assortment of story options. However, when we do not have the luxury of planning, selecting a story becomes more challenging. In these extemporaneous settings you must rely on the “listening” competencies of the Core, and the Indexing competency from the Process Ring. How to select a story is a function of our index.

Here's a complimentary copy of a tool I developed to help leaders select stories.

Complimentary Tool for Selecting Stories: Click Here...

We'll be continuing our exploration of the Interaction Ring and the two other skills in the next two blog entries.

All of these skills can be measured with the only assessment in the world that measured story-based communication skills (recognized in 2008 with an HR Leadership Award from the Asia Pacific HRM Congress).

Story-based Communication Assessment: Click Here...

I also have a book of self-development exercises to work on these skills with yourself or others. All of these exercises that map to the nine skills of the competency model

Book of Self-Development Exercises: Click Here...

I also recommend my book, Once Upon a Time: Using Story-Based Activities to Develop Breakthrough Communication Skills. It contains a collection of group process activities aligned with these story-based communication skills.

Leadership & Storytelling Part 9 of Many...

2009-08-10T10:58:00.000-07:00

Now that we've looked at behaviors we are ready to roll our sleeves up and get down to what I am really passionate about - story-based communication skills.

If stories are fundamental to how we communicate, learn and think than it stands to reason that we must have some inherent equipment for stories. Most would agree that humans work with patterns to make sense and give sense to the world. Stories contain chunks of information. Consider a hologram where one pixel of information is encoded with all of the a picture's information. Or how about the complex intricate coding of genetic information in strands of DNA found in all our cells. Stories are fragments and threads that tied together begin to form patterns of overlaying stories. Our meaning and identities are enmeshed in the highways and byways of memories remembered and reconstituted as narratives.

So...I started with the assumption that there must be communication capabilities we have. Working within the framework of stories I was thrilled to find a way to get a handle on what these capabilities or skills might.

Over the next ten blog posts I will share what I observed. The last 15 years of my research, writing and consulting has been dedicated to developing simple, practical practices that people can use to enhance their performances in the workplace and other areas of their lives. The habits and skills of story-based forms of communication have been studied in light of how they effect interactions in all facets of our lives.

Based on award-winning research, Nine Story-Based Communication Skills are used to construct a simple, workable framework that encapsulates behaviors we are engaged in all of the time. When these behaviors are focused with a story lens it creates a profound breakthrough in how we share, process, and take in information.This work has been acknowledged by the Asia Pacific HRM Congress HR Leadership and published in various places. It is also a core part of my leadership development work with my clients. Without any further ado let me share the nine communication skills

Nine Story-Based Communication Competencies

The more I worked with stories, the more I realized there must be some essential competencies to being an effective communicator, learner, and thinker with stories.As I pored over piles of surveys and reviewed hours and hours of interviews,I began to notice clear repeating patterns. One of the things that struck me immediately was the central role stories play in communication. Yet despite the fact that they are so pervasive, we are not aware, purposeful, or strategic in how we use them. Although stories may be an obvious facet of communication, they’re not something we seek to understand or leverage more effectively.

The model includes three rings...

1. INTERACTION - Describes how we use stories to connect with others and communicate.

2. PROCESS - Describes how we work with experiences to transform them into meaningful and reusable stories.

3. THE CORE - Describes how we open ourselves to be aware and sensitive to stories.

The nine skills are...

1. Modeling - Being aware of ones actions and using them to create lasting impressions in the eyes of others. Employing a variety of analogical techniques to bring an idea or concept alive.

2. Telling - Relaying a story with authenticity that paints a vivid, engaging picture for listeners.

3. Selecting - Picking a story that is appropriate to the situation at hand and that clearly communicates concepts, ideas, or feelings.

4. Indexing - Developing a flexible, vast, mental schema for retrieval of experiences, and knowledge.

5. Synthesizing - Finding patterns in new experiences and creating connections between them and old ones.

6. Reflecting - Reviewing experiences with circumspection and extracting knowledge from them.

7. Eliciting - Asking questions and finding ways to pull stories from others.

8. Listening - Absorbing stories and invoking the imagination to enter them in a fundamental and deep way.

9. Observing - Practicing mindfulness to become aware of the stories implicit in others’ words and actions.

Leadership & Storytelling Part 8 of Many...

2009-08-07T13:27:00.001-07:00

Over the last seven blog posts I have characterized eight leadership behaviors. Before diving into our final one here's a recap of the first seven. I'm sure none of these will surprise you:

1. Cultivate Trust
2. Delegate
3. Manage Boundaries
4. Share Passion to Instill Passion
5. Recognize Talent
6. Park the Ego
7. Stop and Listen

And now for number eight...but wait be sure to add your commnets. What other key leadership behaviors you would add to this lsit. This isonly a conversation starter...

8. Know When and How to Take Risks

Without risk and uncertainty very little can be achieved. Jumping into a situation with reckless abandon is seldom fruitful and may simply be a different face of the same malady afflicting those who are paralyzed with fear and unable to ever take a risk. So there is a delicate balance between risk and safety. A leader must learn how to decide when to take a risk and how to take it in such a way as to minimize its potential damage. Part of success in risk taking lies in allowing others to take risks and trusting their judgment, especially when the risky action being considered lies closer to their realm of experience and knowledge than to yours.

Practice

• Challenge yourself to learn or try something new. Look for opportunities to get out of your comfort zone.

• Seek people who can act as your coaches.

In the next nine posts. I will discuss what I have discovered in my research, publishing, and coaching on storytelling skills for leaders. We will dive into nine story-based communication skills for leaders.

BTW thanks for reading and please share your thoughts!

Leadership & Storytelling Part 7 of Many...

2009-08-05T20:03:00.000-07:00

7. Stop and Listen

The importance of this simple and powerful technique cannot be stressed enough. Leaders must learn how to listen on many different levels. Hearing others’ words is only one facet of listening. Leaders must also discover techniques and practices for tuning into the actions of people around them and unscrambling their observations into insightful reflective patterns that guide their interactions with others. Self-reflection is another crucial form of listening that gets overlooked. Leaders with the capacity to retreat into the stillness of their heart, mind, and gut in the frenzy of change and chaos around them can act from a place of fuller knowledge than can leaders who work principally from their heads.

Practice

• Set aside ten minutes a day to rewind the day and review your interactions with others. Consider how any of your interactions with others might have altered your mental model of them.

• Look for any interactions that might have resulted in misperceptions. Determine the best way to follow up and alleviate the potentially negative impacts of these interactions.

Leadership & Storytelling Part 6 of Many...

2009-08-04T16:05:00.000-07:00

6. Park the Ego

Conviction and self-confidence are key attributes of a leader, and as such they help her develop a healthy ego. However, when ego consumes a leader’s perceptiveness and becomes a tool of power versus inspiration, it has ceased to serve the leader well and has become dangerous to all. Leaders must learn how to draw internal strength from their egos while simultaneously parking them out of the way. Leaders who put others first do so by attending to the egos of others and not to theirs.

Practice

• Reflect on things about yourself (skills, abilities, qualities, experience, knowledge, . . .and so forth) that you are very confident about. Then reflect on areas where you are less sure of yourself. Our egos tend to be more dominant in areas where we lack true self-confidence and self-esteem. Identify these areas in yourself and others, and be watchful. These are the areas where our egos can easily get out of control.

• Give other people the opportunity to take the lead in areas where you have more experience. Act as a coach rather than as a doer all the time.

Be sure to check out my upcoming webinar with Shawn Callahan of Anecdote on August 19th, 2009...

Three Questions We Usually Get from Leaders About Storytelling: Reflections, Discussion & Tools.

Click Here to Learn More...

Leadership & Storytelling Part 5 of Many...

2009-08-03T10:16:00.000-07:00

How does clay and pottery have anything to do with leadership?

I am intrigued by the process of how raw clay is transformed into pottery. There is an inherent potential in the clay, then through motion of a spinning wheel, a little water, and skillful hands an object is born. Work is completed with the collaborative energies of active agents each working to do their part. Some of the forces emanate from the hands of the potter while others appear to have their own objective reality. The spinning of wheel strikes me as an apt metaphor of an organization and all of the outside forces swirl around it shaping its trajectory and unfolding stories.

The potter as leader, recognizes the inherent value of every piece of clay. Each clump of clay has a unique potential to become something special and is perfect in its own right until the energies of of its properties are unleashed by the intentions of the potter.

The act of molding clay is initiated by a drive to create. There may be a vision such as making a pot. The potter has the experience of having made many pots. There maybe goals of needing a pot to match others that have been made; but all of these visions, experience, and goals serve as context. The ultimate force of the potter is the drive to create. Her willingness to see how clumps of wet earth have so much more to offer. It is not an act of subjecting the clay to bend to her will. Rather it is a call forth into fruition. The potters technical skills are complimented and buoyed by her instincts and heart.

So...leaders need to:

5. Recognize Talent

Talent is everywhere, and everyone has unique gifts and talents. Recognizing talent can be a challenge, however; requiring leaders to suspend their biases, values,judgments, worldviews, expectations, and perspectives. In order to recognize talent,a leader may have to work with what on the surface appear to be shortcomings or liabilities to the organization and transform them into positive skills.

Practice

• Make a list of people you find it challenging to work with. Next to each name write a short description of why you find it difficult to work with that person.

• Now imagine how some of these traits you see as negatives might be seen as assets. Can you develop a game plan for doing a better job of leveraging these traits?

Leadership & Storytelling Part 4 of Many...

2009-07-31T12:02:00.001-07:00

A picture of two passionate people engaged in Tango dancing seems like a perfect image to set the stage for this entry. Dance is a wonderful metaphor for leaders in today's organization. Feel the music vibrating, see the flood of opportunities, risks, challenges, and dynamics ever-changing. The music doesn't stop and it draws us on. Are our leaders prepared to put their passions on the line? How will their passions instill a burning desire for others to pick up their heels and join the dance.

Here's the fourth behavior in our series of eight leadership behaviors and story-based communication skills. Grab your tango partner and join me now in the dicsussion...

4. Share Passion to Instill Passion

Tuning into the fires of the heart is a mission-critical ingredient for success. Without passion the organizational actors are just reading their lines from teleprompters on a bare stage. In whatever personal form it takes, leaders must find ever-new ways to share their passions. They must do this not simply for the purposes of rallying others to be illuminated by the leaders’ brilliant blaze but to model and encourage others to stoke their own fires. Having lots of fires ensures that the organization is bright, alive, and warm and that it contains a plethora of inviting interpersonal places for people to gather around and share their stories of how thingshave been and dream about how things can be.

Practice

• Take a piece of paper and draw a large heart. In the center of the heart write down all the things you are most passionate about in your organization. Describe how the role you play in the organization relates
and contributes to these areas of passion.

• During a team meeting ask people to share these pictures of their passions.Discuss how various team members’ passions overlap. Discuss any gaps between people’s passions and the organization’s
current goals and direction.

2009-07-29T09:03:00.000-07:00

Continuing with our series on leadership behaviors. This is the third of eight behaviors and practices. Following these eight I will share nine story-based communication competencies from my research that are critical for leaders....

Manage Boundaries

Boundaries are necessary and not necessary. As learning architects we are challenged today to develop a keen appreciation for the porous relation between an organization and its various ecosystems. Knowing how and when to construct and retain clear boundaries and also how and when to demolish unnecessary ones is an art without simple rules. Managing boundaries becomes even more complex when it comes to the realm of interpersonal relationships. Use this as a general rule: when a boundary is impeding the flow of communication, is eroding trust, has become an end in and of itself, or is in any way preventing us from achieving our objectives, then that boundary needs to be modified. Likewise, there may be times to erect boundaries in order to formalize relationships, protect our interests, or minimize confusion.

Practice

• Draw a map of all the natural boundaries that exist in your organization and that affect your role. Write a short description of each one. Determine which ones are out of your control.

• Identify any boundaries you have artificially created. How can you remove them?

• Are there any boundaries you feel are necessary but not currently in place? Think about how you will know if any of the boundaries that are either missing or in place will need to be changed.

Three Questions We Generally Get From Leaders About Storytelling: Reflections, Discussion & Tools

Are your leaders great storytellers? And, why should you care anyway?

With over forty years of combined experience, two of the world’s leading narrative consultants divulge some of what they have learned. Join Shawn Callahan of Anecdote and Terrence Gargiulo of MAKINGSTORIES.net for a 45-minute rousing interactive discussion rich with examples and practical tools.

I wonder…

Will you be as surprised as we were when we discovered the “Triple Threat,” of storytelling for leaders?

Find out the answers to the three questions we get asked the most. Prior to the event we'll share a white paper on leadership and storytelling. Following the webinar we'll send you a job aid that we use in our work. So give us the pleasure of your company and interact with your peers to take a nuanced but deep dive into the art and science of leadership through narrative.

TIMES & REGISTRATION LINKS:

Wednesday, August 19th, 12:30-1:15 (US, Pacific Standard Time)

Leadership & Storytelling Part 2 of Many

2009-07-27T08:48:00.000-07:00

This is a continuation of the previous post. I am taking an extending look at leadership from a storytelling perspective. I am beginning by looking at eight key leadership behaviors. Then I will explore nine specific story-based communication skills critical for leaders. Be sure to check out my complimentary webinars in August with Shawn Callahan of Anecdote on leadership and storytelling. I'll add a description of the webinar at the end of this post.

2. Delegate

Distribution of work is a passive form of delegation and only scratches the surface of this management tool. Delegation also means sharing the baton of leadership. When leadership is shared, talents are maximized in an organization. People become more aware and willing to assume optional responsibilities, tasks, or initiatives that lie outside their work-defined domains. Delegated leadership results in team members who seek to maximize the use of their unique gifts and talents by dovetailing them to the organization’s current and future mission and objectives.

Everyone wears lots of hats, some of them better than others. We hope we have a good mix of talents and experiences on our team, but if we don’t we need to develop a strategy for diversifying that team. When delegation operates well within our team, people are proactive. People naturally gravitate to the things they do well. We have a responsibility to bring out the best in each other. We do not need to compete with each other. Recognize and enable the gifts of others. If a member of our team shines we all benefit. The spotlight can move from one contributor to the next. None of us has the full set of talents that will ensure the team’s success. Make a point of identifying the capabilities and strengths of everyone on the team. Enable people to take the initiative for deciding the best way to be an invaluable contributor to the team.

Practice

• During a staff meeting take a few minutes to ask everyone to write down strengths and skills that he or she has noticed and appreciated in other team members.

• Ask each person to make a note of how his or her strengths and skills complement those of others.

• Ask each person to write a list of things he or she currently does as part of the job that he or she could teach others to do.

Three Questions We Generally Get From Leaders About Storytelling: Reflections, Discussion & Tools

Are your leaders great storytellers? And, why should you care anyway?

With over forty years of combined experience, two of the world’s leading narrative consultants divulge some of what they have learned. Join Shawn Callahan of Anecdote and Terrence Gargiulo of MAKINGSTORIES.net for a 45-minute rousing interactive discussion rich with examples and practical tools.

I wonder…

Will you be as surprised as we were when we discovered the “Triple Threat,” of storytelling for leaders?

Find out the answers to the three questions we get asked the most. Prior to the event we'll share a white paper on leadership and storytelling. Following the webinar we'll send you a job aid that we use in our work. So give us the pleasure of your company and interact with your peers to take a nuanced but deep dive into the art and science of leadership through narrative.

TIMES & REGISTRATION LINKS:

Wednesday, August 12th, 12:30-1:15 (Australia, Eastern Standard Time)

Wednesday, August 19th, 12:30-1:15 (US, Pacific Standard Time)

Leadership & Storytelling Part 1 of Many

2009-07-25T12:15:00.000-07:00

August and September are going to be exciting months for our complimentary webinar series. We'll be focusing on leadership and storytelling. First up will be Shawn Callahan of Anecdote who will be joining me and all of you for an engaging interactive discussion. He and his colleagues at Anecdote have one of the best narrative practices in the world. More info about the complimentary webinar (dates, times, etc...) can be found at the end of this posting).

In preparation I thought I would spend the next fifteen or so blog posts talking about leadership and storytelling. Before getting into the storytelling side of things I want to share with you eight behaviors of leadership. Following each behavior I will outline some ideas of how these behaviors can be practiced and cultivated.

1. Cultivate Trust

An organization is bankrupt without trust. In order to leverage all forms of capital (monetary and social) leaders must cultivate trust. People need to believe in one another and be willing to engage in intricate and intimate exchanges of knowledge, idea generation, and team effort. Likewise, people need to believe in their leader. Maintaining a positive reputation and exhibiting integrity are core parts of any leader’s work, as is accepting responsibility for people. All of this ensures the organization’s success along with the ongoing personal growth of its members and their satisfaction, resulting in a perpetual loop of renewable, sustainable energy and innovation.

Model trust and it will be reciprocated. Our ability to be agile depends upon it. In an environment besieged with rapid changes, maintaining tight reins of managerial control, whether hierarchical or lateral, interferes with our ability to be responsive. People need to know we trust them to act, even if they make a mistake.

It’s the only way to maximize the intelligence and experience of our team. In a supportive environment full of trust, any mistakes made by members of our team accelerate learning and seldom become stumbling blocks. When people know it’s OK to fail, because they are trusted, they are likely to perform better.

The trust we show each other will also send a signal to our partners. How can we expect our partners to trust us if they see we do not trust members of our own team? People pick up on negative dynamics very quickly. We will not be able to hide any dysfunction in our team from outside observers, therefore we cannot afford to undermine each other. Breaches of trust are inevitable, but they are not an excuse for us to withhold trust. Even when the culture of the organization at large is tainted by a degree of distrust, we can create a corner of the organization where trust reigns supreme. Our work succeeds or fails on the basis of relationships; and no relationship can thrive without trust.

Practice

• List the people you interact with in your organization. On a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 = little trust and 7 =lots of trust, rank the level of trust you perceive you have with each person.

• For any person with a rating of 4 or less, write down two to three things you believe you could do to begin to improve that level of trust.

• Identify any people on your list with whom it is unlikely you will cultivate greater trust (hint: look at anyone with a rating of 5 or higher). It’s simply not possible to have the same degree of trust with everyone we work with. Some people may not be interested in or capable of high levels of trust, or we may have knowingly or unknowingly done something in the past to severely restrict a relationship.

• Before beginning a new relationship with anyone in your organization think about specific things you can do with this person to begin cultivating trust.

• The next time you have an opportunity to negotiate deliverables and a timeline for a project be realistic but modest in what you commit to doing—then surprise the recipient by giving more than he or she asked for and before the agreed-on deadline.

Here's a little teaser about our upcoming webinar with registration links:

Three Questions We Usually Get from Leaders About Storytelling: Reflections, Discussion & Tools

Are your leaders great storytellers?

The word “storytelling” itself is misleading - more on that during the webinar. After fits and starts and with over forty years of combined experience, two of the world’s leading narrative consultants divulge some of what they have learned. Join Shawn Callahan of Anecdote and Terrence Gargiulo of MAKINGSTORIES.net for a rousing interactive discussion rich with examples and practical tools.

I wonder…

Will you be as surprised as we were when we discovered the “Triple Threat,” of storytelling for leaders?

Find out the answers to the three questions we get asked the most. Prior to the event we'll share a white paper on leadership and storytelling. Following the webinar we'll send you a job aid that we use in our work. So give us the pleasure of your company and interact with your peers to take a nuanced but deep dive into the art and science of leadership through narrative.

Registration Times (Click on Link to Register for Comp. Webinar)...

Wednesday, August 12, 2009 9:00 AM - 9:45 AM GMT (Greenich Mean Time)

Wednesday, August 19, 2009 12:30 PM - 1:15 PM PDT (Pacific Stanrard Time)

Round-up StoryMatters Episode 7 - Words & Stories

2009-07-20T11:21:00.000-07:00

If you haven’t had a chance read the blog entry before this one - it has three 99 word stories from our last StoryMatters Episode.

After Brian shared the stories posted in the last blog entry, I reflected the stories back to him. In the process I look for some key words to help me index (pinpoint) something central in the story that stands out for me. These index words are the gateway to finding my own personal stories that are associated with the 99 words stories. I use the 99 word stories as trigger for my own story reflection.

The three words from the stores that jumped out for me were:

IMAGINATION
COMPREHENSION
PROBLEM

I then proceeded to tell some stories of my own...I shared a story of a year in Budapest living in Communist built apartment complex, without a working phone, the beginning of Desert Storm with CNN images of smart bombing, my father in the hospital for heart surgery and no way for me to get back home, reading a book in my apartment - Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeline L'Engle (Mad Dog Bonzgo and WWIII) when the lights in the entire city of apartment buildings go out - I felt so vulnerable I crawled to my bed and did not move for 12 hours...

I told another story about a 30 year old hotel worker and the depth of experience and knowledge about a place that was otherwise falling apart. It had been a grand hotel - this guy had not only knowledge, but deep comprehension ... he had ideas of how and what the hotel could do to make things better but given his lowly position no one was talking to him

The last story I shared was about watching how more often than not people's initial grievances and complaints with large scale software implementations face away and settle with a little time and patience. More problems are created by over reacting to problems too quickly or soon.

Brian then shared a stored about having to facilitate a workshop in a loud school gymnasium. When he reframed his annoyance into a challenge of imagination by pretending it was the launch deck of the Star Trek Enterpise his whole attitude changed and his it no longer became an onerous task to ignore the initial noise and distractions

After our stories we opened up the discussion tot he group. We asked them to reflect on the relationship between the words

IMAGINATION - COMPREHENSION - PROBLEMS

Here's what people had to said. Of course other stories were shared too...

Imagination enables us to choose the frame we use to interpret or
comprehend a situation

With imagination, the "frame" of our comprehension becomes more flexible
than we might have thought.

You can't make a problem go a way by imagining it differently but you
can change its severity or intensity

Comprehension is driven by the frame we draw around something and that
frame can be flexible with imagination

We can never erase our frame entirely; can never fully see something
from another's perspective

Being circumspect about our attitude allows us to flex our frame

Using our imagination to practice flexing our frame of reference teaches
us a level of tolerance for the sometimes unusual frames that other
people are using

Imagination and comprehension are necessary for good problem solving

I think it takes first comprehension and then imagination to take a look at what is perceived as a problem and reframe it as not a problem, or perhaps discover solution

Problems are best solved with complete comprehension plus imagination thrown

Okay so what words stand out for you from the three stories?
What do you see as the relationship between these words?
And, most importantly...what stories can share that are triggers/associated with these words?

Thanks in advance for sharing!

StoryMatters Episode 7 - Three 99 Word Story Triggers

2009-07-15T21:53:00.000-07:00

Today we had the first live virtual studio audience for Episode 7 of StoryMatters. We'll be posting the recording soon but until then here are the three 99 word stories that were the trigger for our rich dialogue and story swapping.

Imagine!
Jeff was not an urbanite but he lived in an apartment above a busy Manhattan street. The rush of city– especially the noise of traffic – began to affect his sense of wellbeing. So, when a friend suggested he spend his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, Jeff did not hesitate.

Two weeks surrounded by gulls and waves healed Jeff’s spirit with lasting impact. Back in New York, he still awoke with the sound of surf in his ears – even though it was really the traffic far below his window!

Imagination plus attitude equals potent medicine for everyday coping.

Who Knew?
At three and a half, my daughter was a pacifier junkie. She only popped it in her mouth after daycare yet no amount of encouragement could induce her to kick the habit.

One day, my wife and I were discussing a report that the chemical softener in pacifiers could be carcinogenic. Our daughter interrupted to ask what we were talking about. We explained, in simple terms, that her pacifier might be dangerous for her long-term health. Without a word, she took it out of her mouth. Cold turkey.

We never really know how much a person comprehends!

The Passing Lane
Ahead of me climbing the steep mountain highway, three cars and a very slow truck jockey for dominance. The drivers all know this is the only passing lane for several miles. I can just imagine the tension in those cars as everyone tries to get around the lumbering truck before the passing lane ends. They are bumper to bumper at 60 mph!

Two cars pass the truck. Not me. But at the top of the hill, the truck makes a left turn onto another highway.

Some problems take care of themselves. Some problems we make ourselves.

STAY TUNED MORE TO FOLLOW SOON...

Guideline for Working with a Group's Stories - Part 9 of 9

2009-07-13T11:14:00.000-07:00

9. Build in more room for story sharing when designing learning

Time to retire heavily scripted courses. Facilitating experiential learning with stories is not for the faint of heart. It requires guts, courage, authenticity, and an ability to think on your feet. Here’s the secret: once you become accustomed to being in less control and collaborating with a group the richer and more significant the learning will be. We must be willing to surrender a certain amount of our positional power to be effective. Chuck Hodell, (2000) in his book, ISD From the Ground Up, makes this point in a subtle way by saying, “The better the course goes, the less chance there is that anyone will appreciate the effort that went into it” (p. 185). If you make stories a core part of your experiential learning strategy during an event though, you will be wiped out. As we discussed earlier in the chapter stories require active listening and this make them exhausting as well as exhilarating. Stories are the most effective when used as a tool to facilitate participant collaboration.

Even very technical topics or regulatory forms of learning can benefit from building in time for knowledge sharing through stories. Of course topics that are softer in nature require lots of time and space for stories. As we have become more and more harried in our daily lives we have lost the art of conversation. Good conversations are full of stories. When we design learning, less will always be more. I use other forms of instruction to give people variety and a break from the intense, reflective nature of dialogue through stories. Group dialogue saturated with stories needs to be at the heart of experiential learning. Even when we create event-driven experiences for people in learning, we are in essence giving them new stories to reflect on. In this way stories are effective because they help us enact our intentions and thoughts rather than announce them. More traditional forms of instructional design are focused on instructing and telling us what we need to know. Stories always lead by offering examples and an endless playground for our imaginations to unearth new treasures.

As a general guideline if you have not developed the course and there is very little room in the material for deviations or discussion, spend a few minutes at the beginning of the day of a multi-day session, after breaks, at the end of a learning module or any place where debriefs or questions have been built into the course, to share and elicit stories from the group. When facilitating other people’s course materials I have been known to give people a break from didactic lecturing by giving folks some quiet time to digest the material on their own. This is followed by a quick recapitulation and an opportunity for people to ask questions. This usually gives me a few minutes to query the group for experiences and stories relevant to the material just read. Admittedly, some courses will not lend themselves to the use of stories. Or they may require you as facilitator to pinpoint spots in the courses and fine tune the stories you tell. Remember if you tell a story and there is not enough time for people to respond with their stories, whatever story you tell will be best served by a self-less attitude. Your story should not be about impressing others or driving a simple point home. Your story needs to be rich enough that it is evoking people’s experiences. Ideally you want to be able to process this with folks but if there is not enough time just be sure your story is rich enough to cause people to reflect and synthesize their experiences in new ways.

Guideline for Working with a Group's Stories - Part 8 of 9

2009-07-09T15:08:00.000-07:00

8. Connect stories to one another

Treat each story as a building block that can be pieced together with another one to generate greater understanding. Stories left in isolation are like cold statues in abandoned temples erected as grand testimonies of heroic accomplishments but devoid of depth and significance. I developed a group facilitation technique called Story Collaging™ (described in Part II of this book) for helping groups see the connections between stories. Leave no stone unturned. As members of a group create a shared history, lots and lots of stories will naturally emerge. Your job is to remember these stories and constantly look for how they relate to one another. You are also tasked with inciting others in the group to do the same thing.

Stories are reflection in motion. One story leads to another and before you know it you have a mosaic of experiences crisscrossing with one another. Stories are like the tiny pieces of glass in a stained glass window. Every time the sun shines through new colors and shades of meaning emerge. Story listeners function like the sun in our image of a stained glass window. This is one of the most exciting things I do as a facilitator. I never know what will surface. The stronger the connections between the stories and the greater the number of connections between them directly correlates with the quality of learning.

Guideline for Working with a Group's Stories - Part 7 of 9

2009-07-07T22:08:00.000-07:00

7. Be open, respectful, and non-judgmental of the stories people share

Treat all stories with respect. When someone shares a story they have given us a part of themselves. Handle it accordingly. The fragile pieces of our identity rest in our narratives. Never feel entitled to know anyone’s story. People will share what they want, when they are ready, and in a manner that does not violate their sense of themselves. However, you will be surprised at how willing and eager people are to exit the precarious myth of their separateness and embrace a sense of belonging granted by tying their experiences to those of others in a tapestry of shared consciousness.

The most vivid pictures we own are the stories in our hearts. Stories support a lattice of human experience. Each new story acts as a tendril tying us to the past, making the present significant, and giving shape to the future. Stories by their nature are a microcosm of who and how we are, so be sure you’re always respectful and non-judgmental. We can never fully understand the mysteries of someone else’s journey. Stories have no need to compete with one another and stories exist to coexist with each other. Act as an unbiased, self-aware, gracious curator and stories will usher in a cornucopia of delights and wisdom.

Guideline for Working with a Group's Stories - Part 6 of 9

2009-07-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

6. Elicit more stories than you tell

The shortest distance between two people is a story. One of the chief reasons to tell a story is to elicit them. Stories act as triggers. We want to draw stories out of people. As the number of personal experiences shared increases, so does the quality and quantity of experiential learning. Even if someone does not share his or her story out loud, our story will set off a series of internal reflective events. People scan their index of personal experiences to find ones that match or resonate with the ones we tell them. It is not always a direct one-to-one correspondence. In other words, the stories we elicit in others will not always have an easy to see relationship to our own. We are after connections.

In order to elicit stories in others we need to work on three levels:

LEVEL NAME DESCRIPTION

LEVEL 1
Trust
• Building history with others
• Creating joint stories
• Having shared experiences

LEVEL 2
Climate of Sharing
• Willingness to share our own experiences and be vulnerable
• Inviting others to share
• Demonstrate resonance and understanding of others experiences
• Pacing

LEVEL 3
Attending
• Rephrasing questions
• Developing alternative questions
• Matching others’ language

Guideline for Working with a Group's Stories - Part 4/5 of 9

2009-06-29T21:40:00.000-07:00

4. Be authentic

Whether we are conscious of doing it or not we are constantly evaluating the authenticity of others. Whenever we detect even a hint of falseness or any other form of selfishness or negative intentions in someone we shut them out. Any hope of building a bridge constructed with mutual active listening is completely destroyed and most of the time there is very little chance of rebuilding it once we lose the trust of others. You might share an experience or two as a means of engendering credibility with a group. However, avoid telling stories for self-aggrandizement. It never achieves the kind of long lasting impacts of reflective, experiential learning that stories are perfectly suited for.

5. Make sure there is congruence between your stories and your behavior

We lessen the potential of our personal stories when our actions and stories do not correspond with each other. No one is asking you to be perfect. When leading a group we often need to accentuate ideals. If there is a blatant contradiction between stories we tell and how we act, we will ruin the climate of trust, openness, and reflection we have created by working with stories.