Friday Reflections

Facts don't persuade, feelings do. And stories are the best way to get at those feelings.

"Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today." - Robert McKee.

 

Storyline:

It was purely by accident that I found out the power of storytelling. In the early '90s, while working for a high technology company, I was asked to substitute for a sick instructor at the last minute. The only thing that qualified me for that class was that I had taken it before, and had demonstrated good use of techniques that were taught.

With no formal training about conducting training, I was nervous about facing an audience of very smart technical and business people. To break the ice (and to also break my nervousness), I tried to explain the concepts and formulas by narrating stories and drawing analogies form real life situations.  I guess it worked so well that my sidekick (after being an engineer) after that day became a trainer too.

The subject of communication and persuasion through storytelling has gained great interest in the corporate world, and many books and executive training programs have been created on the subject. Here are some points to ponder about this subject from some well known people:
 

"Facts don't persuade, feelings do. And stories are the best way to get at those feelings"

- Tom Asacker.

"Why story telling? Nothing else worked. Charts left listeners bemused. Prose remained unread. Dialog was just too laborious and slow. Time after time, when faced with the task of persuading a group of managers or front life staff in a large organization, to get enthusiastic about a major change I found that storytelling was the only thing that worked."

- Stephen Denning in 'The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations'.

"Because there is a natural storytelling urge and ability in all human beings, even just a little nurturing of this impulse can bring about astonishing and delightful results." 

-Nancy Mellon, in 'The Art of Storytelling'.

"Why was Solomon recognized as the wisest man in the world? Because he knew more stories (proverbs) than anyone else. Scratch the surface in a typical boardroom and we're all just cavemen with briefcases, hungry for a wise person to tell us stories."

- Alan Kay, vice president at Walt Disney.

 

Reflection:  from Anthony De Mello

"It is a great mystery that though the human heart longs for Truth in which it alone it finds liberation and delight, the first reaction of human beings to Truth is one of hostility and fear. So the Spiritual Teachers of humanity created a device to circumvent the opposition of their listeners: the story.

They knew that the most entrancing words a language holds are 'Once upon a time...,' that it is common to oppose a truth but impossible to resist a story. Vyasa, the author of the Mahabharata, says that if you listen carefully to a story you will never be the same again. That is because the story will worm its way into your heart and break down the barriers to the divine.

You have to understand, my dears, that the shortest distance between truth and a human being is a story."

Communication bypass

Plain speaking is often underrated.

All Good Things Are Possible, Right Where You Are, and Now

POINTS TO PONDER:

“You must not cease from exploration. And the end of all your exploring will be to arrive where you began and know the place for the first time.” - T.S.Eliott.

Lead-in to the story line: Benchmarking itself is healthy. Adopting best practices is good as well. The challenge is the prudent use of the findings in your environment. If people do not have discipline to know the value and use what they already have, what makes you think they will have discipline to carry through on new programs?


STORYLINE: All Good Things Are Possible, Right Where You Are, and Now* .

Conwell’s famous lecture, "Acres of Diamonds," made him America's foremost platform orator. By the end of his life, in 1925, he had delivered the lecture more than 6,000 times in town after town throughout America (Constancy of Purpose). It was heard by millions from pulpits and public platforms, and by radio, and today others are still reading his practical, optimistic essay and hearing it on cassettes. He founded Temple University, a worthy cause, from over $8 million dollars (in 1920s) that he earned from telling Acres of Diamonds Stories.

In 1870 when making a circuit of the earth as the correspondent of the New York Tribune, Conwell visited Baghdad (under different circumstances than now) and hired a guide to show him down the Euphrates and the Tigris Rivers. On the first day down the river, the guide told him their tradition concerning acres of diamonds, which Russell Conwell used in his lectures six thousand times.

There once lived, in, near the river Indus an ancient farmer (business man) who owned a large farm (corporation), that he had orchards (for technology, products) and grain fields (Mfg facilities) and gardens (systems and tools)—money at interest (cash)—and was counted as a wealthy (Leading Corporation) and a happy man (well balanced). One day there visited him one of the ancient Buddhist priests (exteranl consultants)—a wise man of the East who told him about the discovery of diamonds (new systems/tools/programs) in Europe (other corporations). He said that the diamonds are so very valuable that if the farmer had a handful he could purchase the whole country (own the entire market share), and with a mine of diamonds, he could place his children upon thrones, through the influence of their great wealth. The farmer heard all about diamonds, and was determined to find them.

He sold his farm the next day, and with the money departed - traveling up and down the whole of Europe. He sought them in every place where he had heard of any indication of such gems ... but finding none, he spent all his money and became very poor, in rags, in poverty, and in hunger. And at last, in despair, he flung himself into the sea—on the shore of the Thames—and sank from sight, never to rise in this life again.

Now the man who bought his farm started exploring his newly acquired land. He noticed a curious flash of light from the white sands of the stream, and reaching in, he pulled out a black stone having an eye of light which reflected all the hues of the rainbow.  “And, thus,” said the guide to Conwell, “was discovered the great diamond mines of Galconda, the most magnificent diamond mine in all the history of the world. The Kohinoor of England, and the Orlov of Russia, the greatest crown jewels on earth came from Galconda’s diamond mines.”

"Had the farmer, at least, explored the possibilities in his own land (understood his own capabilities and strengths), dug in his own cellar (taken deep dive into his own operations), or underneath his own wheat fields (listened to his people), or in his own garden (and acted upon more of his core strengths), instead of wretchedness, starvation, poverty, and suicide in a strange land (adopting other's programs w/o success indicators), he would have had acres of diamonds!"

Reflection: The answer to your (organization, person's) problems lie within you. All that you have to do is look, listen and learn. Russell Conwell, inspired by this farmer’s story, found many similar stories in America and shared them in his lectures. I am sure we all have our Acres of Diamonds.


http://www.temple.edu/about/temples_founder/acres_text.html


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* From the book Acres of Diamonds: by Russell Conwell. Source Temple University website on the subject. Comments in parenthesis are not in the orginal text.

Tough Competition

No matter what situation you're faced with, innovative ideas and a sense of humor will always help you to
prevail.

Lean and Mean: Less moving parts and thinking in terms of customers.

"Whatever you do, if you do it better than anyone else, it’s amazing how things just start falling your way" - John Paul DeJoria.

Storyline: Continuation of last week’s article… Lean (Resources) Mean (Crisp Execution).

Where are the people? Soon after the acquisition of a small northern California company by a much larger company from south, the Chief Operating Officer of the acquiring company (Conqueror) decided to visit the conquered company. In order to show his commitment to the new company, he took his entire staff consisting of 19 Vice Presidents and Directors. The meeting was arranged in the cafeteria. A few minutes after the scheduled time, the 17 employees from acquired company who had gathered into the café noticed that COO kept looking at the watch and looked visibly upset (not an auspicious sign). After waiting for about 10 minutes, the COO exclaimed with anger, “Where are the people?” One employee from the acquired company gathered all his courage and told him that they were all the people they had in the building, and the remaining 12 were either at customer or supplier sites.


Thinking in terms of customers: Unfortunately the COO’s team failed to communicate to the next levels about their experience with the headcount in the acquired company, so when the seven member benchmarking team of engineers and quality professionals landed on the North Shores, they too looked upset when the acquired company matched with only 2 people.

Curious why the large Italian customer had given high marks to the small company for product excellence and quality, the benchmarking team dug deeper. They found that the focus of the small company was completely on ensuring that their products fit the customer’s application. If it does not fit, we must not quit was the motto. So whenever the customer reported the problem, irrespective of whether the product was shipped per contract and agreed data sheets, the small company employees spent time in fixing the problem; at the same time taking an opportunity to find new applications and also establish good will.

This major difference was evident when both companies did a joint review with the customer. While the big brother (Conqueror) spent a lot of time preparing a fancy presentation with a significant portion focused on highlighting how much improvement they had made in to their internal operations (38%/year improvement to be precise), the smaller one’s (conquered) presentation focused primarily on the response to specific customer issues and possibility of new applications. At one point the customer manager, visibly upset, told the big brother, “If your improvement is so good, why am I still hurting?” (Receiving bad product from you)

Reflection: The details of entire benchmarking efforts are worth one large book but there are a few key points to ponder about attitudes and understanding what matters most which have universal applications, irrespective of organization’s size.  Contrary to some belief “Quality means never having to say you are sorry to your customers” was working. The customer was paying twice as much to the small company for an equivalent complex product than they paid to its big brother. This was because of the time to market advantage the customer gained by dealing with the little brother.

Tiger Escapes at San Francisco Zoo

Reflection: It is much easier to have a robust design for the zoo enclosure compared to trying to control the behavior of millions of visitors.

Hint: You can click on the cartoon above to enlarge it.

Quality means never having to say you are sorry

"In any relationship, business or personal, Quality means never having to say you are sorry." - Anand Shah, October 1987.

Storyline (Part 1 of a Three-Part series):

In the late '80s, a small semiconductor chipset company based in Northern California was acquired by a much larger company in the South. It so happened that both companies had one common customer, a very large Italian computer manufacturer.

A few weeks after the acquisition, the CEO of the large company was visiting the Italian customer. To his surprise, the customer executives expressed concern about the quality of his company's products, the item that was not on the original agenda. Thinking that it must be from his newly acquired company, the CEO assured the customer that he was going to pay immediate attention to the matter ... until the customer people explained that they were not happy with the quality of products from his other divisions, and extremely pleased with the quality from the acquired company.

Alarmed and delighted, the CEO sent asked his communications people to interview the small company's employees for the upcoming issue of their magazine.

When questioned, "What does quality mean to you as an employee?", the small company person replied, "In any relationship, business or personal, Quality means never having to say you are sorry."

He elaborated, "We are a small company trying to establish ourselves in the market. As you know, it is very hard to get inside customer's door in the first place and if we do, even one 'Sorry' situation can cause our demise. Our thinking is that we do not want to get into such situations in the first place so we are extra vigilant in all aspects (product, service, communication, internal relationships as well) of business."

Alarmed by the corporate wide exposure the small conquered company was getting in the magazine, the conqueror (the acquiring big company) sent a team of "benchmarking experts" to find out if there was any substance behind such a "Philosophical Vision".

NEXT WEEK: What "the experts" found.
Week After: "Power of Story Telling" and association technique

Hansei and Kaizen

Reflection: A learning organization can only be created through relentless reflection (hansei) and continuous improvement (kaizen).

Hint: you can click on the cartoon above to enlarge it.

Because I am Good!

"Tell yourself you are a great individual and believe in yourself, for if you don't believe in yourself, it will be hard for others to believe in you." - Walter Payton.

Storyline:

Date: September 1974. Place: A High Technology Company, Mountain View, California. Scene: A new college graduate (NCG) has passed the previous three interviews, and he is now in his final interview with the general manager (GM) of the division.

GM is asking many difficult technical questions. NCG is standing and explaining some answers verbally and solving others on the blackboard. Satisfied with the answers, GM asks him to sit down.

As NCG is about to take the chair, GM asks, "Why should I hire you?"

Replies NCG, "Because I am Good."

There is a visible smile on the face of GM. He asks the NCG, "When can you start?"   

After a few years of working relationship they became friends, and one day that former NCG asked, "What made you decide to hire me right away during the interview?" Replied GM, "The confidence that showed in your answer when I asked you why I should hire you. It was obvious that you were not answering from a pre-rehearsed script, but speaking directly from your strong belief in yourself that you can do the job."

Said former NCG to GM, "Dave, when you asked me that question I was wondering, why else would you hire me if I was not good for the job? And after an hour of interviewing you should know that I am good!"

In my various encounters around the world, I see more and more such people with incredible optimism and this kind of confidence. As we begin the new year, as a tribute to this generation of folks, I would like to share the following speech of Nelson Mandela in his 1994 inauguration.

Reflection: (Nelson Mandela-Inauguration speech, 1994. original source is the author Marianne Williamson)

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of god. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make and manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Who was this man?

A successful person doesn't give up when they encounter disappointments and failures.  When thinking about your year ahead, remember, it's not how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up and try again.

Hint: you can click on the cartoon to enlarge it.