Story or Survey?
You have received employee opinion survey results which reveal to you that people are not very happy in your team. You are frustrated because as a leader you have been doing plenty to make sure people are happy. You now have a number from the survey that gives you information on the levels of happiness in the team but measuring it doesn’t…

Storytelling : How Do Ideas Go Viral?
To study narrative is to examine ourselves. We think in story, process our world through the lens of story, and use storytelling to communicate ideas. One prominent economist believes that stories are the heart of human behavior. He says to understand the power of narrative is to understand financial booms and busts — and to prevent crises from getting worse. Robert Shiller…

Emotion is the Fastest Path to the Brain
We can prove it scientifically. In academic terms, an “emotionally competent stimulus” is any video or photo that elicits a strong emotional reaction. These images can trigger fear, sadness, joy, hope, shock, surprise, or disgust. The turtle video triggers several emotions at once. Once we see or experience an emotionally charged stimulus, the amygdala—an almond-shaped structure in the brain’s temporal lobe—releases neurochemicals…

Indra Nooyi and Storytelling
Indra Nooyi was PepsiCo’s first female chief executive. She boosted PepsiCo’s revenue 80 percent during her tenure. One of the most remarkable thing about Indra Nooyi is her ability to storytell. Her videos are shared regularly in women in workforce forums. Here are 3 videos of Indra Nooyi where she story tells beautifully. 1) Women don’t help women enough in workplace  …

Storytelling : A Kueh Lapis Story Influences Decision Making
A group of government officials have come up with an idea, to launch a website that informs traveller’s coming into Singapore what they can and can’t bring into the country. They are required to present this idea to senior officials for a project sponsorship. Thier presentation begins with explaining the problem. The problem statement is projected on the slide For people travelling…

Storytelling: Sesame Street Story-tells
“Our head of sales, Natalie is excellent.. and I wish everyone was like her.” “Mariam is top of class in her grades, hope all students can become like her.” “Sandy is a great writer, she always comes up with best articles.” We have all heard such statements and perhaps rolled our eyes when listening to them too! Often the teller of these …

Dry Storytelling
Keeping a story dry simply means removing details from it. There are occasions in a corporate setting that demand a dry story. Last month I was working with a multinational food-products corporation in China. Along with my client Maria ( not her real name ) I was working on a story that could convey the following key message, Consumers prefer small brands

Storytelling : When Making A Case Tell A Story
For many, making a case and storytelling sit at two ends of the credibility spectrum. A common belief is that one is fact based and the other is made-up. This perception, reinforced by corporate communication experts couldn’t be further from the truth. In case making, credibility plays a vital role. Credibility in a court is the degree to which the Judge or…