This is our 2nd blog of our blog series Storytelling passes the Productivity Test. In our first blog we wrote about the importance of Knowledge sharing via stories This blog is focussed on vision statement and its relationship with productivity What are vision statements? A vision statement says what the organization wishes to be like in some years' time. It's usually drawn up by senior...

Last week I attended an online Book Club with David Hutchens on his new book Circle of the 9 Muses: A Storytelling Field Guide for Innovators and Meaning Makers I asked a question during the book club conversation which was : In the corporate world the moment you mention that emotions are important in stories without a doubt you get rolling eyes and leaders give you a look which says - No way, I...

For me this year is going to be about being Productive So, what is Productivity? Productivity is an average measure of the efficiency of production. Confused ? Lets understand it in this way: For example, Mary cleans 2 floors in 10 hrs and Joe cleans 5 floors in 10 hrs. Joe's productivity is .5 floors per hour and Mary's productivity is .2 floors per hour. So, Joe is more productive then Mary...

Seth Godin says, "Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make but about the stories you tell. Steve Denning says, "In the 21st century your marketing is in either in your customer's hand or a reliable third party" In essence, both the quotes are asking us can you we do something remarkable ( remarkable means worthy of attention ) that compels a customer or a third party to tell a story? If...

Sales Storytelling is on the rise, and it should be, because it's the most compelling way to talk about anything that you wish to sell. But as a sales person, a key question you need to ask yourself before telling sales stories is - Am I telling this story for a sprint or a marathon with my customer? Sprint = Short run sales numbers where there is an immense short-term focus. Marathon = Long-term...

My last blog featured Knowledge Sharing story of Marty Davis from NASA. Now, you may wonder WHAT IS THE ROI of knowledge sharing ? My answer is in another story from NASA... After Marty Davis's Story got published in the Ask Magazine, a supervisor from a different centre of NASA read it and took the article to Sue Mortil who had experienced a Concept Review that had not gone well, and her entire...

On 6th Oct this year I wrote a blog titled Storytelling: If NASA can, you can which highlights how a credible organisation like NASA uses storytelling as a Knowledge Sharing tool. Soon after publishing the post, I shared it on LinkedIn. Within a few mins got a comment from a reader, " So, what are the stories told at NASA for Knowledge Sharing " My response was , " I am not sure but I will look...

My last blog was about the importance of point, purpose and audience in delivering a relevant story. In this blog, I want to share, how to craft a story that conveys the point, is on purpose and relevant. Let's try to look at this through Matt's eyes... Who is Matt? Matt works in a corporate organisation and is responsible for selling cloud services platform for a technology company. Matt has to...

Recently, I had the opportunity to work with a group of lawyers where in a short period of time we had to craft 6 different stories which conveyed a point. Did we manage to craft the stories in the short period of time we had? Yes, of course we did. The group came up with stories that moved the audiences so much that we had claps, cheers, standing ovations and tears. A part of me was thrilled to...

It was on 4 Feb 2014, I was on my way to a client meeting and I received a sms - chk out Satya N's letter to employees. I straight away looked online and found the newly appointed CEO of Microsoft's letter to employees on his first day. This morning as I watched Satya's interview on Why Microsoft Exists ? I was reminded of his letter to Microsoft employees on his first day as a CEO. The letter...

As I write this blog in another window of my computer I am writing a proposal for a company that wants to craft stories for positioning its Brand as an Employer of Choice. I have had several discussions with this client and everyone in the company is very keen to jump in to this project and for me Its a dream consulting project because I get a real kick out of solving real life business...

My last post on Pharma Sales Storytelling concluded that Relationship and Features & Benefits Storytelling were 2 key areas of focus for product sales people. In this post I will dig deeper into Relationship Sales Storytelling. Relationship is a meaningful word used loosely in a sales environment. In 2009 I was working as a Director of Sales in Australia and one of the things we did before going...

Recently I gave a talk on Sales Storytelling at a leading Pharmaceutical Company. In preparation for this talk I researched on Pharma sales industry, spoke to a few pharma sales reps and doctors ( key client for pharma sales reps). In this preparation, there are insights I discovered which I think can be of great use to the pharma sales industry and the stories they tell. My previous blogs on...

Remember the last time you went to buy something that is not an everyday purchase like milk, bread etc. Lets say you go to buy a washing machine. Most likely, you will do some research online and then may be talk to a few friends and ask for recommendations. You now have an idea of what you want but you are still not 100% sure. Time to go to the retail store. You walk in Scenario 1 Firstly the...

Some beliefs that we don't question when it comes to sales persons' skills Belief 1 - You have the gift of gab and you can sell ice to Eskimos. You are a great sales person. Belief 2 - Talk is cheap. Its your ability to listen that makes you a great sales person. My belief - It is important to be able to talk and listen well but what you are talking about and what you are listening to will not...

You are a salesperson and you are in a conversation with a potential client who is from the banking industry. Its time for you to tell a success story and this is what you say. Your current situation reminds me of another banking client of ours in Singapore. A year ago we ran a successful customer service program with our client Mike ( not his real name ) who is the Head of HR at a leading global...

What I don't understand is, even though the only people who are excited with the use of word sales are the sellers and not the buyer ( this excludes the discount sales excitement for buyers ) why, when the buyer is the king, do we continue to use this word especially when it works against us? Yes, it works against. Sales teams are not good for Business Growth if they are called sales teams. Here...

I have recently been working with TEDx Singapore to convert the selected speakers' ideas into stories. In preparation for the sessions with the speakers, I looked at many successful TED talks and I read Talk like Ted by Carmine Gallo. Through this research I gained some fantastic insights that I wanted to share on one of the talks that was rated as one of the most persuasive TED Talks. Bryan...

On a special request from readers of our blog Storytelling for Interviews we have created this infographic which captures 4 steps to answering interview questions. Storytelling for job interviews can be achieved in a very practical, logical and methodical way...

This blog is part 2 of the Storytelling for Interviews blog series. We recommend that you read Storytelling for Interviews Part 1 of 2 before reading this blog. So far, we have covered the questions that you should prepare for your interview, the types of questions and which broader categories they belong to. In this blog, we will cover HOW TO ANSWER those questions. There are certain questions...

If you found time spent with us valuable and would like to receive an infographic of our content presented to you on 14 July 2015 Please write to us in the comment section. We promise never to rent, sell or misuse your email. All you need to do is copy and paste this content in the comment box below. Yes, I would like to receive the infographic on Storytelling for Technology led solutions. We...

Recently, I had the opportunity to deliver a session on Organisational Storytelling to post graduate students of one of Singapore's most reputed universities. Over these two days of engagement, the students and I worked on lots of scenarios, like communicating your idea to investors, presenting with stories, making a case using stories, and so on. At one stage over the two days, I noticed that...

A couple of months ago I was working with a senior female executive working for a multinational organization and my task for the project was to coach her for an upcoming internal interview. We were focussed on building a capability to story tell on her feet. At one stage of the coaching we were working on a narrative on strategic priorities of the business. I asked her, " So, what are the...

This blog is written as a response to a comment we received on our previous blog Sales Storytelling on your feet. We highly recommend that you read Sales Storytelling on your feet to better understand the content shared in this blog. A couple of few weeks ago we posted a blog titled Sales Storytelling on your Feet. Soon after posting the blog we got a comment from a reader expressing that it...

Very interesting research on the connection between a surgeon's tone of voice and their likelihood of having been sued for malpractice in an article titled, Surgeon's Tone of Voice: A Clue to Malpractice history. (Surgery Ambady et al 9 Volume 132, Number 1). Here is a summary of their methods and findings. Methods: We examined the relationship between surgeons' voice tone during routine office...