Learning from a workshop is not a framework and methodology hoarding exercise. For all my Strategic Storytelling Workshops I suggest tailored content to the key client contact beforehand. I make these suggestions based on audience profiling that I do prior to the workshop. Almost always, my key contact asks me, "Can we cover more content?" For them, the rationale is, it takes time, effort and...

Telling someone to change is one thing and teaching them how to change is another. At the end of a my Storytelling Workshops there are two types of inner dialogues that take place. My inner dialogue is"I hope the participants change the way they communicate" and participant's inner dialogue is "this time I am really going to change" My inner dialogue is hope filled versus participant's inner...

A speaker is often asked, "Can I have your powerpoint presentation slides?" I speak on Storytelling at least once a month and I am yet to come across a time when I was not asked, "Can I have your Power Point Presentation Slides?" What is my response? "My slides are pictures with a few words on it. They have no meaning without me. So, I am not sure what you will do with it?" There was a time in my...

Storytelling and Techniques to Practice. In my last blog, I wrote about two insights on Practice. In this blog I want to focus only on one insight which I discovered via reading Angela Duckworth's book Grit : The Power of Passion and Perseverance Which type of Practice is a good predictor of skills development? Practicing alone is a much better predictor of how quickly the skills are developed...

Storytelling and Techniques on Practice Sue, Director of Quality Management at a MNC attends a workshop on Storytelling. Loves the workshop and remembers that one of thing that will make her good at Storytelling is Post Workshop Practice. Right after the workshop she is determined to Practice. Weeks go by and Sue is struggling to find time to Practice. Actually, it is not the lack of time. It is...

Change is accepted when you are emotionally invested in it For anyone who is a parent, having a child was perhaps one of the biggest change you have experienced. Yet, we love our children, look after them, want the best for them and never ever feel the lack of motivation to change ourselves for their best. The same is not true for an organisational change. We are given reasons, support, training...

The role of Emotion in Sales Storytelling A couple of years ago I had just finished running a Storytelling Workshop for a multinational computer technology corporation when I felt rather disappointed with the outcome. The client was happy but I was not. Why? Because one of the participants actually cried whilst delivering a story, and that to me was not the desired outcome. I wrote about it here...

Change Management Storytelling and why how we position it matters. In my recent work in Change Management Storytelling I have noticed that most leaders start talking about change like this. " I am really sorry that we are changing the way we do ticketing" " I am sorry we have to put you through yet another change " " The new change will come with difficulties" What confuses me is, If it is that...

Storytelling is not only an inspiring but also a great knowledge sharing tool. Here is one of my favourite story from the Healthcare Environment *Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, 1990's. A nurse has been watching a newborn for several hours. Suddenly, the baby turns dark blue, almost black. The medical team immediately calls for a doctor and a radiologist and prepare to intervene, convinced that it...

Data Storytelling and a mistake we often make. Less than 7 years ago, a Managing Director of a business retrieves data for the last 5 year's sales revenue. He calls his team and shows them that in Year 1 and Year 2 they performed exceptionally well. In Year 3, the revenue dropped a little and in Year 4 and Year 5, it dropped even more. He tells the team that they need a "Rainmaker" in the...

Introducing ourselves at a Boardroom Table especially when our bosses are seated at the same table is nothing but stressful. So, the easiest thing to do is to be safe and say something like this. "My name is Sania and I am the Director of Healthcare Innovation." Now, this is a safe introduction and granted no one will raise eye brows at what you said but there is another side to this introduction...

Video Storytelling for Corporates Recently, I was asked by a client, "So, what do you keep in mind when you develop a Story?" It was an interesting question that led me to write down points, which I believe are the reasons behind why my clients returned and gave me the opportunity to do some sensational video storytelling work in Singapore, Vietnam, China, Thailand and Kuala Lumpur. I apply the...

A great example of Change Management Storytelling Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo Chairman and CEO is asked about Change in an interview with Doug McMillon Walmart President and CEO. What we are use to is a response that sounds something like this " Change is hard, you have employees to please, investors to please and the pace of the change is just unmanageable " However Indira's response is different...

Learning and Development and its sour relationship with cost cutting. " Sorry Anjali, the business priority is else where at the moment. So, all learning and development initiatives are on hold' " When we get busy learning and development is the first to get out of our agenda" These are just a couple of sentences I have heard in the recent past all implying that corporate learning and development...

Change Management Storytelling can derail due to the use of word Change I am working with a group of Healthcare Practitioners on Change Management Storytelling The Change is, we will now work with new hospitals in our cluster and share resources. Almost, each one of them is starting the Change Narrative with the saying something like this We know Change is hard We are going to Change We have to...

Change Management Storytelling is about Changing Stories of individuals. Change management is defined like this - It is the discipline that guides how we prepare, equip and support individuals to successfully adopt change in order to drive organizational success and outcomes. I personally do not agree with this definition because the conventional approach to change management does not take in to...

Change Management needs more than a knowledge dump. This is about that little insight I had in managing a successful Change Management Storytelling Programme and for anyone who is about to manage change here is my insight for you. A typical change project is managed like this, you put together a pretty power point filled with slides and you start the "Change Academy" where all you are doing is...

Practical Tip on how to Start a Story In my Storytelling Trainings and Workshops I often ask the participants, "What are the two most common ways we start a story when we tell stories to children?". The response I get is, Once upon a Time and Long Long time ago. Yes, that is correct and those are the two types of time stamps we should never use in a business setting to start our stories for...

Sales Storytelling: Pitching not just In Person but via Email, Twitter and with One Word I read Daniel Pink's book To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, a couple of years ago and one of my favourite chapter in the book is on Pitching. This chapters explores 6 effective ways to pitch along with examples You can watch the Daniel Pink explaining the 6 ways in this video [video...

Sales Storytelling : The Elevator Pitch has the wrong focus. The focus on time is so great that we forget to get our message across. Less than 5 years ago, I was a Business Director of a leading global Marketing Group. One day my boss said, "We have to work on our elevator pitch." My response, " Why do we need an elevated pitch? " Clearly, I had no clue what he was saying. My boss then corrects...

The rising obsession with methods, frameworks and methodologies is rotting the Learning Culture. Perhaps it is time for Learning Culture Change. For the longest time I looked for blogs, articles and books that could teach me a method, structure, pattern or a framework of doing something that interests me. For example a method to craft a story. However, recently I have formed a completely...

What do you do when your Change Management Process and Strategy start to derail? Recently, I had an opportunity to work with a leading Telecommunications company in curating* a Change Story as one of the key strategies of their major IT Change Management Plan. My task was to 1. Curate the Change Story involving 9 Business Divisions involving conversations with over 100 staff 2. To equip the...

This article was originally published on Huffington Post on 29 January, 2017 Recently I have been scripting and directing corporate videos. For me when I storytell with videos as a medium, the task is - In 2.5 mins unlike a standard corporate commercial, tell a real human story which makes people say - " I can connect with that and want that product/service." As a Story Practitioner I fell in...

When Storytelling is done: How to handle questions that you don't have the answer for ? This blog is for you if you fear being asked a question to which you do not have an answer. Firstly, I want you to accept that you will always have questions to which you will not have an answer. But the purpose of this 400 words blog is not acceptance, the purpose is to give you some practical ways to handle...

Change Management Storytelling requires more than just Conventional Business Rhetoric. This blog is for you if you are of an opinion that persuading people to change on an intellectual basis is enough. I recently worked with a prominent IT company where the brief was to develop a Change Management Narrative to manage significant changes that were being implemented within the business. On the...