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.
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.
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.
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...
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
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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.
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.
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?
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:
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?
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.
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!
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.
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...
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.
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...
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!
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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?
Terrence L. Gargiulo, MMHS is an eight times author, international speaker, organizational development consultant and group process facilitator specializing in the use of stories. He holds a Master of Management in Human Services from the Florence Heller School, at Brandeis University, and is a recipient of Inc. Magazine's Marketing Master Award, the 2008 HR Leadership Award from the Asia Pacific HRM Congress, and is a member of Brandeis University’s athletic Hall of Fame. He has appeared on Fox TV, CN8, and on CNN radio among others.
Books: Making Stories: A Practical Guide for Organizational Leaders and Human Resource Specialists, The Strategic Use of Stories in Organizational Communication and Learning, On Cloud Nine: Weathering Many Generations in the Workplace, Stories at Work: Using Stories to Improve Communications and Build Relationships, Building Business Acumen for Trainers, Once Upon a Time: Using Story-based Activities to Develop Breakthrough Communication Skills, In the Land of Difficult People: 24 Timeless Tales Reveal How to Tame Beasts at Work, The Trainer’s Portable Mentor.
Terrence is a frequent speaker at international and national conferences.
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?
JOB AID – PLANNING COMMUNICATIONS
