I was walking my dog this morning, and a lady bolted out of her car with a podcast on full blast. I caught one line ‘The heaviest weight in the gym is the front door!’. That got me thinking why is behavioural change so hard? This could be personally, professionally or in society. Being a research nerd here are some …
What would you really like to know about storytelling?
Peter Sellers! I love Peter Sellers. Just yesterday I was re watching a YouTube clip from one of the Pink Panther movies where he plays Inspector Clouseau. Finding a large dog sprawled across the hallway of a hotel, he asks the hotelkeeper, ‘Does your dog bite?’ The hotelkeeper replies, ‘No’. Peter Sellers reaches down to pat the dog and, wham, …
Business storytelling permission how to nail it
Do I need to request permission to share a story if my audience is time-poor? A client asked in my business storytelling workshop yesterday. This is actually 3 questions rolled in one! How do I segue into a story? What is a good story length? How do I pull off a story? Story segues Stories are like conversation dots. You …
Help! How to show up and be of service?
Today on my morning walk today I saw a strange sight. An elderly man, bending every couple of minutes. As I approached, I saw he had a pickup stick in his hand and was picking up litter. I felt teary at this humble, almost invisible act of service.😢When the entire world seems to collapse around us, a senior citizen …
How Do We Persuade People To Adopt Our Ideas?
How do we persuade people to adopt our ideas, listen to what we have to say and be inspired into action? In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was the king of Ephyra whom the gods punished. His punishment was to push a boulder up a great hill. As he neared the top, he would lose control of it and it would roll …
3 Success Secrets For Dazzling Virtual Presentations
One day Chuang Tzu and a friend were walking by a river. ‘Look at the fish swimming about,’ said Chuang Tzu, ‘They are really enjoying themselves.’ ‘You are not a fish,’ replied the friend, ‘So you can’t truly know that they are enjoying themselves.’ Chuang Tzu replied, ‘You are not me. So how do you know that I do not …
An abandoned city, broken, overrun by vegetation and deserted…
A single red car drives down one road. An endless desolate city landscape. A lone driver and his dog. There is a sense of darkness and foreboding… This is the opening sequence for I am Legend, a 2007 post apocalyptic film starring Will Smith. Often in narratives about the future, dark stories of conflict and dystopia litter the landscape. Science becomes a weapon. …
Unleashing your inner rat
How is 2020 going for you? Hope you are sailing into the newish year and the new decade. The year of the rat, according to the Chinese Calendar. Chinese culture associates the rat with flexibility, opportunity and creativity. Flexibility and opportunity help us welcome life’s wobbles. Creativity is the fuel that brings new ways of thinking and doing, whether you are problem …
How leaders can elegantly reframe for powerful results
Sometimes leadership comes blazing with trumpets, sometimes quietly and sometimes not at all. Unless a leader steps up into the void. Recently India and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) were ready to make history. A successful soft landing would have made India only the fourth country after the United States, Russia and China, to achieve success. India would also …
Silence the critical new super power?
I recently did a silent retreat with a small group. No speaking, no external stimulation, no reading or technology. On the first day I thought this is not too bad and glanced at the clock and saw that only 30 minutes had passed! It was a revelation. Time had completely stopped and yet an ocean of time had opened up. …