Category: Blog

Nice article about The Storytellers in Director magazine this month, featuring Scott Garrett and Alison Esse. The piece talks of how introducing a new Chief Executive to a company run by its owners has helped prepare the business for change and growth.

Have a read!

At The Storytellers one of our guiding principles is that stories shape our beliefs and our beliefs shape our behaviours. I was therefore fascinated to hear Kate Fox, a social anthropologist, on Radio Four last night talking about her work on the cultural aspects of alcohol consumption in the UK.

There’s a belief in this country that alcohol has magical powers – transforming ordinary law-abiding people into violent, disorderly sexual predators.  This belief is reinforced by the multitude of stories we hear about the antics of young binge drinkers on a Saturday night and indeed by the Government’s own advertising on the subject.

Kate and her research team have completed extensive scientific studies on the subject. Their astonishing conclusion is that alcohol itself does not drive this anti-social behaviour; instead it’s the cultural belief that alcohol has this effect on people that’s the real cause. When people drink alcohol they act in accordance with their beliefs about how one should behave when drunk. Their behaviour reflects, emulates and reinforces their pre-existing beliefs. What’s really interesting is when Kate and her team replaced people’s alcoholic drinks with non-alcoholic placebos, they continued to behave in exactly the same way. The presence or absence of alcohol was not the determining factor in the way people acted.

In other parts of the world where there are cultures with very different attitudes about the effects of alcohol, the resulting social behaviours are very different. This difference isn’t explained by the amount of alcohol consumed indeed there are countries where people drink more alcohol than in the UK, but which don’t suffer from the same culture of anti-social behaviour.

Kate’s conclusion was that if we want to address alcohol related anti-social behaviour, we should stop trying to reduce how much people drink and focus instead on changing people’s beliefs about how drinking alcohol affects our behaviour.

How many times have we shared or listened to stories about the antics of a good night out? We may not have realised it, but it’s these stories and not the alcohol that will shape our future behaviour.

I recently came across this great article on BBC Scotland that talks about business jargon. I've read plenty of features like this before but they never fail to make me smile. It seems that there's a growing realisation that business jargon should be minimised or eradicated in favour of clear, more emotional communication, both verbal and written. Everyone I've talked to about business jargon claims to hate it – so why then do we use it at all?

Writer and branding expert John Simmons has a theory based on a childhood experience with his grandmother. “She would answer the phone; a machine which for her was unfamiliar and slightly strange,” he recalls. “Sometimes, while she was on the phone you'd sit in the other room and think, 'who is that on the phone? I don't recognise that voice' – and it was my poor old nan putting on this posh voice.” “And that's what happens in business – people put on that equivalent of the posh telephone voice” when they use jargon at work. “They think it does them good – actually it makes them just seem rather ludicrous and pompous, so laugh at it, cut it out, move on,” say John.

Here at The Storytellers, we're very much in favour of clear communication but, as in most modern businesses, jargon occasionally creeps in. So next time I hear someone say 'ducks in a row' or 'touch base', I might remind them of John's grandmother and tell them there's no need to put on their 'phone voice'…

There was a fascinating story in last Friday’s Evening Standard about the financial broking firm: Cantor Fitzgerald.

On September 11th 2001, 658 of their employees died in the North Tower of the World Trade Centre – two thirds of Cantor Fitzgerald’s global workforce.  Employees in their London office listened to their friends in the tower, on their inter-broker intercom, speak their last words, and then had to watch in horror as the tower and their New York business collapsed to the ground.

That night the CEO called the management in London. His brother, best friend and all of his New York colleagues were dead. The question was, would the business follow suit? They could either shut the company down and go to funerals, or go back to work and try and repair and rebuild from scratch.

They chose to rebuild. But not just for the benefit of the shareholders and surviving traders.  This company, that was the pinnacle of city greed, took on a new and higher purpose. They now had 658 bereaved families, who had also lost an income, to look after. This purpose drove an extraordinary period of activity, with employees working day and night to rebuild their entire electronic trading platform, as well as identifying and reconnecting with all their US clients.

The result was a business that last year made $184 million in profits, and over the last ten years has distributed $180 million to the families of the employees they lost.

No one is suggesting that a business should manufacture a core purpose like the one Cantor Fitzgerald was given. But the story vividly demonstrated the effect that that purpose had on the employees and the performance of the business. Creating real meaning to our work, beyond simply making money or doing what we do, is one of the real challenges that senior leaders need to address if they are going to maximise the potential of their people.

As the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald said: “For me, for so many of us, we will always live with 9/11. It is what defines us.”

We’re always on the look out for innovative ways in which organisations are using stories and storytelling. It’s a bit like spotting cars. Somehow its only when you buy a new model do you realise how many others there are on the road!

Here are two nice storytelling models I spotted on recent holidays…

On a trip last year to Dubrovnik, we stayed in a delightful hotel in the middle of the old town. Here is a place that is rich in stories, from its recent turbulent history to the myths and legends of an ancient seaport, and the hotel took full advantage. Every night, as the beds were turned down, as well as the usual pillow chocolate we got a bedtime story. A local legend of lovers banished on the rocks or a tale of feuding families, which sent us to sleep dreaming of our magical surroundings.

More recently, we were lucky enough to visit Jamie Oliver’s restaurant Fifteen, on the edge of Watergate Bay in Cornwall. As you may know, it is more than a restaurant. The Cornwall Foundation of Promise is a charity set up to give disadvantaged youngsters a new start in life by training them to become chefs. The restaurant is a key source of income for them, as well as an outlet for their training, but on its own it’s not enough. So on every table is a playing card. On the front is a picture of a young chef – mine was called Luke, and on the back was his story. It’s only about 120 words, and it starts with: ‘I had quite a chaotic childhood…’ There’s no added sentiment or hard sell, but the message is clear. Without your support, folk like Luke would be being looked after by the prison service, not serving you fine Italian cuisine. A small donation envelope sat underneath.

Two simple but memorable ideas.

Inspiring leaders know how to tell a good story.  So we’re delighted to announce the launch of a brilliant new storytelling workshop for business leaders and communicators.

This interactive and dynamic session can be delivered in a two-hour, half-day or full-day format at a conference, at your workplace or at our own training facility at 5 Cromwell Place, London SW7.

The focus will be on practising the art and feedback. Participants will leave feeling confident in their ability to weave stories into their workplace conversations to bring abstract or dry messages to life and to better connect with their teams, peers, customers and stakeholders. During the session they will:

•   Explore the power of storytelling, and the benefits it brings to business and leadership;

•   Learn about the four basic components of business storytelling;

•   Discover the seven types of illustrative story and how they can be used to engage, inspire and drive performance in their team; and

•   Practice techniques in how to deliver a story on its own and within a presentation.

Call Alison Esse on +44 20 7590 5440 for more information, or email alison.esse@the-storytellers.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

One of the biggest opportunities facing todays leaders is to get the balance right between strategy and culture. Often the strategy is developed based on solid business thinking with a recognition that the culture of the business will need to align. This neglects however the most obvious state of affairs, that the existing culture will not (and probably never will) align or even be ready for change. If it was, there would have been a natural shift in direction, focus and behaviour already.

Culture – the values, behaviours, rituals within an organisation – is in fact critical to informing strategy. When leaders truly understand how and where their peoples values and behaviours have enabled success in the past (and some must have for success to have ever taken place) they are better positioned to develop the new strategic approach and objectives.

That is not to say that some values and behaviours may need to change , they most certainly will, but if people can recognise their own strengths, positive experiences and future benefit in the new culture, they are more likely to make the shift and align their actions and behaviours to the strategic objectives of the business.

So how can we serve and protect strategy in our own organisations? How can we ensure that when leaders talk strategy, employees are not rolling their eyes and preparing to opt out?

It is not that organisations are unaware of this challenge and much good work is carried out with leaders and change sponsors in organisations early on. Few however have really been successful and at some point down the implementation line a cultural rock is hit, the tyre flattened and the strategic vehicle knocked cleanly and unceremoniously off the road. Where strategy and culture are better aligned, the discretionary effort and personal investment of those across the business is more likely to be focused in the right place. For this to happen, there needs to be a balance between the rational and the emotional in peoples minds . Good employees will understand a sensible and clearly communicated strategy, but will only shift their behaviours when they believe in it and feel personally connected to it. This is more likely to occur when they recognise something of themselves or what has gone before in the journey ahead.

Stories are of course a simple and compelling way to open this dialogue in an organisation. They allow people at all levels of the business to advise and inform as well as be advised an informed. Great leaders listen to their people ahead of putting pen to strategic paper and keep them informed and involved in the strategic objectives and progress being made against this. This serves to reinforce the right culture in an organisation and support employees in acting and behaving in a way that will help them join in the rewards of strategic success.