1: Marion spent 25 years working for the same organization.

“I was one move away from a cabinet-level position,” he recalls.

“However, no matter how many times I applied and interviewed for such positions, I was never selected.”

Being passed over made him mad.

So, what did he do next? He started telling himself what the authors of Crucial Conversations call “clever stories.”

“Clever stories justify our actions. They conveniently … continue reading

1: What’s the difference between a fact and a story?

A fact is, “The queen died and the king died,” Dan Pink writes in his book A Whole New Mind.

A story is, “The queen died and the king died of a broken heart.”

This week, we’ve been exploring the power of telling customer stories with contrast. Now, take a closer look at what makes these stories compelling.… continue reading

1: Let’s go back in time to when you were dating. Perhaps that is you right now.

“Now, what happens to you when you go out on your first date?” Erik Peterson and Tim Riesterer ask in their powerful book Conversations That Win the Complex Sale.

Let’s say you start talking about yourself. And you keep talking about yourself. You spend the whole date talking about yourself.

What’s going … continue reading

Ron Shaich, the influential founder and longtime CEO of Panera Bread, earned a reputation for his impactful talks that shaped the company’s direction.

“While every speech I gave was different, the underlying storyline was always the same,” Ron reflects in his book Know What Matters.

“Here’s where we’ve come from. . .  Here’s where we are today.  And here’s where we could be tomorrow—if we get a few … continue reading

1: It’s a three-dimensional world.  However, many leaders lead in a single dimension.

Imagine an organization as a three-dimensional space.  We call the three dimensions “It,” “We,” and “I,” Fred Kofman writes in The Meaning Revolution: The Power of Transcendent Leadership.

The “It” dimension refers to the tasks, systems, and processes that make up the company. 

“It” is about increasing sales, reducing costs, gaining market share, and growing shareholder … continue reading

1: Paraag Marathe‘s first major task as president of the San Francisco 49ers was to build a new stadium.

The team’s former stadium, Candlestick Park, was falling apart. As in, actually falling apart.

The team’s owners, the York family, had decided they would never move the team to another city.

The other option was to build. Which would be no easy task. “Imagine a nearly $2 billion project that … continue reading

1: We have a tall task.  

Our goal is to persuade our audience to change behaviors and set out on a new course.

We begin by getting their attention. To do so, we go negative.

“Negative stories, questions, or challenges wake us up. They activate the reptilian brain, suggesting fight or flight,” writes Stephen Denning in The Secret Language of Leadership: How Leaders Inspire Action Through Narrative. 

What … continue reading

1: Define problem Analyze problem Recommend solution.

This sequence is the “normal” or “rational” way of communicating, Stephen Denning writes The Secret Language of Leadership. “It’s an appeal to reason—a model that has been the hallowed Western intellectual tradition ever since the ancient Greeks. . . And it works well enough when your aim is merely to pass on information to people who want to hear it.”

But what if … continue reading

1: “It was just the worst meeting you ever went to,” Craig Dunn recalls in Stephen Denning‘s book The Secret Language of Leadership: How Leaders Inspire Action Through Narrative. 

“We had insults thrown at us. There was a lot of anger and disappointment. People had lost faith in the firm,” he remembers. “And they had good reasons for feeling the way they did. We all had to face the … continue reading

1: Imagine we are standing in line at the grocery store.

“Scientists Discover 4,000-Year-Old Television Set in Egyptian Pyramid,” reads the tabloid headline on the magazine rack beside us.

We shake our heads and smile. Seriously? We question the reliability of the story. Not our belief as to when television was first invented. 

“When we think we know something to be objective truth, our immediate reaction to news indicating the … continue reading