Story telling

1
Story telling

• Based on the article by Telling Tales Stephen
  Denning, Harvard Business Review, May 2004
• Also draws heavily from Good to Great by Jim
  Collins,
• and Made in Japan by Akio Morita

2
Introduction

• In the mid-1990s, the goal was to get people at
  the World Bank to support efforts at knowledge
  management.
• Steve Denning had strong arguments for bringing
  together the knowledge that was scattered
  throughout the organization.
• He made PowerPoint presentations that emphasised
  the importance of sharing and leveraging this
  information.
• But with little effect
• In 1996, Denning began telling people a story.

3
The story of Zambia

• In June of 1995, a health worker in a tiny town
  in Zambia went to the Web site of the Centers for
  Disease Control and got the answer to a question
  about the treatment for malaria.
• Zambia is one of the poorest countries in the
  world, and it happened in a tiny place 600
  kilometers from the capital city.
• But the most striking thing about this picture,
  was that the World Bank wasn't in it.
• Despite its know-how on all kinds of
  poverty-related issues, that knowledge was not
  available to the millions of people who could use
  it.
• This simple story helped World Bank staff and
  managers envision a different kind of future for
  the organization.

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• At the International Storytelling Center, Denning
  told the Zambia story to a professional
  storyteller.
• The feedback?
• There was no real telling.
• There was no plot.
• There was no building up of the characters.

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• Who was this health worker in Zambia?
• And what was her world like?
• What did it feel like to be in the exotic
  environment of Zambia, facing the problems she
  faced?
• The anecdote was not a story at all. Denning
  needed to start from scratch to turn it into a
  "real story."

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Do stories really have a role to play in the
business world?

• Analysis is what drives business thinking. It
  cuts through myth, gossip, and speculation to get
  to the hard facts.
• Its strength lies in its objectivity, its
  impersonality, its heartlessness.
• Yet this strength is also a weakness. Analysis
  might excite the mind, but it hardly offers a
  route to the heart.
• A route to the heart is needed to motivate
  people not only to take action but to do so with
  energy and enthusiasm.

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• Leadership involves inspiring people to act in
  unfamiliar, and often unwelcome, ways.
• Numbers or PowerPoint slides won't achieve this
  goal.
• But effective storytelling often does. In fact,
  in certain situations nothing else works.
• Although good business arguments are developed
  through the use of numbers, they are typically
  approved on the basis of a story--that is, a
  narrative that links a set of events in some kind
  of causal sequence.
• Storytelling can translate those dry and abstract
  numbers into compelling pictures of a leader's
  goals

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What is a good story?

• A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an
  end.
• It should include complex characters as well as a
  plot that incorporates a reversal of fortune and
  a lesson learned.
• The storyteller should be so engaged with the
  story--visualizing the action, feeling what the
  characters feel that the listeners become drawn
  into the narrative's world.

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Lessons from stories

• Go through the following stories and try to draw
  a lesson from each of them

10
IBM

• At an IBM manufacturing site stories circulated
  among the blue-collar workers about the
  facility's managers, who were accused of "not
  doing any real work," "being overpaid," and
  "having no idea what it's like on the
  manufacturing line."
• One day, a new site director turned up in a white
  coat, unannounced and unaccompanied, and sat on
  the line making ThinkPads. He asked workers on
  the assembly line for help. In response, someone
  asked him, "Why do you earn so much more than I
  do?" His simple reply "If you screw up badly,
  you lose your job. If I screw up badly, 3,000
  people lose their jobs."
• While not a story in the traditional sense, the
  manager's words--and actions--served as a seed
  for the story that helped counter the perception
  about managers' being lazy and overpaid. The
  atmosphere at the facility began improving within
  weeks.

11
Circuit City

• In 1973, one year after he became CEO, Alan
  Wurtzels company stood at the brink of
  bankruptcy. At the time, the company was a
  hodgepodge of appliance and hi-fi stores with no
  unifying concept. Over the next ten years,
  Wurtzel and his team not only turned the company
  around, but also created the Circuit City concept
  and laid the foundations for a stunning record of
  results.
• When Alan Wurtzel started the long turnaround, he
  began with the question of where to take the
  company Wurtzel resisted the urge to walk in with
  the answer. Instead, he began not with answers,
  but with questions. Wurtzel stands as one of the
  few CEOs in a large corporation who put more
  questions to his board members than they put to
  him.
• He used the same approach with his executive
  team, constantly pushing and probing and prodding
  with questions. Each step along the way, Wurtzel
  would keep asking questions until he had a clear
  picture of reality and its implications. They
  used to call me the prosecutor, because I would
  home in on a question, said Wurtzel. You know,
  like a bulldog, I wouldnt let go until I
  understood. Why, why, why?
• Adapted from Good to Great by Jim Collins.

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The Stockdale Paradox

• Admiral Jim Stockdale, was the highest ranking
  United States military officer in the Hanoi
  Hilton prisoner-of-war camb during the height of
  the Vietnam War. He was tortured over twenty
  times during his eight-year imprisonment from
  1965 to 1973. He shouldered the burden of
  command, doing everything he could to create
  conditions that would increase the number of
  prisoners who would survive unbroken, while
  fighting an internal war against his captors and
  their attempts to use the prisoners for
  propaganda. At one point, he beat himself with a
  stool and cut himself with a razor, deliberately
  disfiguring himself, so that he could not be put
  on videotape as an example of a well-treated
  prisoner. He exchanged secret intelligence
  information with his wife through their letters,
  knowing that discovery would mean more torture
  and perhaps death. He instituted rules that would
  help people to deal with torture. He instituted
  an elaborate internal communications systems to
  reduce the sense of isolation that their captors
  tried to create, which used a five-by-five matrix
  of tap codes for alpha characters. Once the
  prisoners mopped and swept the central yard using
  the code, swish-swashing out We love you to
  Stockdale.

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• Jim Collins eagerly looked forward to the
  prospect of spending an afternoon with Stockdale.
  As they got talking, Stockdale remarked, I never
  lost faith in the end of the story, I never
  doubted not only that I would get out, but also
  that I would prevail in the end and turn the
  experience into the defining event of my life,
  which, in retrospect, I would not trade.
• After a period of silence, Collins asked, Who
  didnt make it out?
• Oh, thats easy, he said, The optimists.
  Collins was completely confused.
• Stockdale explained, The optimists, Oh, they
  were the ones who said, Were going to be out by
  Christmas. And Christmas would come, and
  Christmas would go. Then theyd say, Were going
  to be out by Easter. And Easter would come, and
  Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then
  it would be Christmas again. And they died of a
  broken heart.
• Adapted from Good to Great by Jim Collins.

14
The hedgehog and the fox

• In his famous essay, The Hedgehog and the Fox,
  Isaiah Berlin divided the world into hedgehogs
  and foxes, based upon an ancient Greek parable.
  The fox, a cunning creature, can devise several
  complex strategies for sneak attacks upon the
  hedgehog. Day in and day out, the fox circles,
  around the hedgehogs den, waiting for the
  perfect moment to pounce. Fast, sleek, and crafty
  the fox looks like the sure winner. The
  hedgehog, on the other hand, waddles along,
  searching for lunch and taking care of his home.
• Minding his own business, the hedgehog wanders
  right into the path of the fox. Aha, Ive got
  your now! thinks the fox,. He leaps out,
  bounding across the ground, lightning fast. The
  little hedgehog, sensing danger, looks up and
  thinks, Here we go again. Will he ever learn?
  Rolling up into a perfect little ball the
  hedgehog becomes a sphere of sharp spikes,
  pointing outward in all directions. The fox
  bounding toward his prey, sees the hedgehog
  defense and calls off the attack. Retreating back
  to the forest, the fox begins to calculate a new
  line of attack. Each day, some version of this
  battle between the hedgehogs and the fox takes
  place, and despite the greater cunning of the
  fox, the hedgehog always wins.
• Adapted from Good to Great by Jim Collins.

15
The Boeing 707

• Until the early 1950s, Boeing focused on building
  huge flying machines for the military. However,
  Boeing had virtually no presence in the
  commercial aircraft market. McDonnell Douglas had
  vastly superior abilities in the smaller,
  propeller-driven planes that composed the
  commercial fleet.
• In the early 1950s, however, Boeing saw an
  opportunity to leapfrog McDonnell Douglas by
  marrying its experience with large aircraft to
  its understanding of jet engines.
• Led by Bill Allen, Boeing executives debated the
  wisdom of moving into the commercial sphere. They
  came to understand that, whereas Boeing could not
  have been the best commercial plane market a
  decade earlier, the cumulative experience in jets
  and big planes they had gained from military
  contracts now made such a dream possible.

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• They also came to see that the economics of
  commercial aircraft would be vastly superior to
  the military market and they were just flat-out
  turned on by the whole idea of building a
  commercial jet.
• So, in 1952 Allen and his team made the decision
  to spend a quarter of the companys entire net
  worth to build a prototype jet that could be used
  for commercial aviation. They built the 707 and
  launched Boeing on a bid to become the leading
  commercial aviation company in the world. Three
  decades later, after producing five of the most
  successful commercial jets in history (the 707,
  727, 737, 747, 757), Boeing stood as the greatest
  company in the commercial airplane industry,
  worldwide.
• Adapted from Good to Great by Jim Collins.

17
Sonys transistor radio

• Sonys first transistor radio of 1955 was small
  and practical Morita saw the United States as a
  natural market business was booming, employment
  was high, the people were progressive and eager
  for new things, and international travel was
  becoming easier.
• Morita took his little 29.95 radio to New York
  and made the rounds of possible retailers. Many
  of them were unimpressed. They said, Why are you
  making such a tiny radio? Everybody in America
  wants big radios. We have big houses, plenty of
  room. Who needs these tiny things?
• The fidelity was not as good as a large unit, but
  it was excellent for its size. Many people saw
  the logic of this argument, and Morita was happy
  to be offered some tempting deals.
• The following is Moritas narrative The people
  at Bulova liked the radio very much and their
  purchasing officer said very casually, We
  definitely want some of these. We will take one
  hundred thousand units. One hundred thousand
  units! I was stunned. It was an incredible order,
  worth several times the total capital of our
  company. We began to talk details, my mind
  working very fast, when he told me that there was
  one condition we would have to put the Bulova
  name on the radios .

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• I told him I would check with my company, and in
  fact I did send a message back to Tokyo outlining
  the deal. The reply was, Take the order. I
  didnt like the idea, and I didnt like the
  reply. After thinking it over and over, I decided
  I had to say no, we would not produce radios
  under another name. When I returned to call on
  the man from Bulova he didnt seem to take me
  seriously at first. How could I turn down such an
  order? He was convinced I would accept. When I
  would not budge, he got short with me.
• Our company name is a famous brand name that has
  taken over fifty years to establish, he said.
  Nobody has ever heard of your brand name. Why
  not take advantage of ours?
• Fifty years ago, I said, your brand name must
  have been just as unknown as our name is today. I
  am here with a new product, and I am now taking
  the first step for the next fifty years of my
  company. Fifty years from now I promise you that
  our name will be just as famous as your company
  name is today.
• Adapted from Made in Japan, by Akio Morita

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Sony Radio

• While making the rounds Morita came across an
  American buyer who looked at the radio and said
  he liked it very much. He said his chain had
  about 150 stores and he would need large
  quantities. That pleased Morita, and fortunately
  he did not ask Morita to put the chains name on
  the product. He only wanted a price quotation on
  quantities of 5000, then 10,000, 30,000, 50,000
  and 100,000 radios. Morita was thrilled! But back
  in his hotel room, he began pondering the
  possible impact of such grand orders on the small
  facilities in Tokyo. Sony had expanded its plant
  a lot since outgrowing the unpainted, leaky shack
  on Gotenyama. Sony had moved into bigger,
  sturdier buildings adjacent to the original site
  and had its eye on some more property. But Morita
  did not have the capacity to produce 100,000
  transistor radios a year and also make the other
  things in Sonys small product line. Sonys
  capacity was less than10,000 radios a month. If
  the company got an order for 100,000 it would
  have to hire and train new employees and expand
  its facilities even more. This would mean a major
  investment, a major expansion, and a gamble.

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• The following is Moritas account I was
  inexperienced and still a little naive, but I had
  my wits about me. I considered all the
  consequences I could think of, and then I sat
  down and drew a curve that looked something like
  lopsided letter U.
• The price for 5000 would be our regular price.
  That would be the beginning of the curve. For
  10,000 there would be a discount, and that was at
  the bottom of the curve. For 30,000 the price
  would begin to climb. For fifty thousand the
  price would begin to climb. For 50,000 the price
  per unit would be higher than for 5000 and for
  100,000 units the price would have to be much
  more per unit than for the first 50000.

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• He mentioned I know this sounds strange, but my
  reasoning was that if we had to double our
  production capacity to complete an order for one
  hundred thousand and if we could not get a repeat
  order the following year we would be in big
  trouble, perhaps bankrupt, because how could we
  employ all the added staff and pay for all the
  new and unused facilities in the case? It was a
  conservative and cautious approach, but I was
  convinced that if we took a huge order we should
  make enough profit on it to pay for the new
  facilities during the life of the order.
  Expanding is not such a simple thing getting
  fresh money would be difficult and I didnt
  think this kind of expansion was a good idea on
  the strength of one order. In Japan we cannot
  just hire people and fire them whenever our
  orders go up or down. We have a long-term
  commitment to our employees and they have a
  commitment to us.
• Adapted from Made in Japan, by Akio Morita

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Organisational culture

• Hewlett Packard
• Broke a lock on a closed door
• Wanted people to have free access
• Tom Watson
• A salesman made a huge mistake
• Watson remarked that the millions of dollars
  had gone into educating the person.

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Choosing a story

• Different occasions demand different stories.

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If your objective is Sparking action

• You will need a story that describes how a
  successful change was implemented in the past,
  but allows listeners to imagine how it might work
  in their situation.
• In telling it, you will need to avoid excessive
  detail that will take the audience's mind off its
  own challenge.
• Your story will inspire such responses as "Just
  imagine" "What if"

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If your objective is Communicating who you are

• You will need a story that provides an engaging
  drama and reveals some strength or vulnerability
  from your past.
• Include meaningful details, but also make sure
  the audience has the time and inclination to hear
  your story.
• The responses should be "I didn't know that
  about him!" "Now I see what she's driving at."

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If your objective is Transmitting values

• You need a story that feels familiar to the
  audience and will trigger discussion about the
  issues raised by the value being promoted.
• Use believable (though perhaps hypothetical)
  characters and situations, and never forget that
  the story must be consistent with your own
  actions.
• The responses may be "That's so right!" "Why
  don't we do that all the time?"

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If your objective is Fostering collaboration

• You will need a story that movingly recounts a
  situation that listeners have also experienced
  and that prompts them to share their own stories
  about the topic.
• Keep the discussion spontaneous and ensure an
  action plan is ready to tap the energy unleashed
  by this narrative chain reaction.
• The responses may be "That reminds me of the
  time that I" "Hey, I've got a story like that."

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If your objective is Taming the grapevine

• You will need a story that highlights, often
  through the use of gentle humor, some aspect of a
  rumor that reveals it to be untrue or unlikely.
• Avoid the temptation to be mean-spirited, and be
  sure that the rumor is indeed false.
• The responses may be "No kidding!" "I'd never
  thought about it like that before!"

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If your objective is Sharing knowledge

• You need a story that focuses on mistakes made
  and shows in some detail how they were corrected,
  with an explanation of why the solution worked.
• Solicit alternative and possibly better
  solutions.
• The responses could be "There but for the grace
  of God" "Wow! We'd better watch that from now
  on."

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If your objective is Leading people into the
future

• You need a story that evokes the future you want
  to create without providing excessive detail that
  will only turn out to be wrong.
• Be sure of your storytelling skills.
• Otherwise, use a story in which the past can
  serve as a springboard to the future.
• The expected responses are "When do we start?"
  "Let's do it!"