Blog Archive
September 2005
Today in The Daily Telegraph Robert Miller looks at how Storytelling has helped companies such as BP, EDS, Parcelforce Worldwide, Hertz, Yell and Standard Life to engage their employees.
Yup, we knew it all along. There’s no substitute for the human being when it comes to communication, but when you can’t get a load of humans in one place and at one time, the next best thing has to be the human voice – even if it doesn’t have a face on the end of it! Podcasting is simple, and as Steve Smith observes, ‘this is new technology that revives our appreciation of the oldest medium.’ If, as he says, old fashioned storytelling may be the most engaging use of podcasting, then bring it on….
There really is a shift going on, says Daniel Pink, in how we are applying what goes on in the left and right spheres of our brains to how we run our businesses and improve performance. I found this article very interesting…
The term ‘Skilled Incompetents’ really resonated with me when I read today’s article by Dr James Rieley in The Daily Telegraph. This highlights the all-too-common practice of managers looking inwards to concentrate on their own personal agendas, preventing others from achieving their own goals and in doing so preventing the organisation as a whole from achieving its goals and targets. Managers and Leaders? Reading this article, the words Wheat and Chaff spring to mind.
Do you notice when people have an attitude? I certainly do. It’s that hard-to-define thing that exudes from people – the way they move, the way they talk, the eye contact, the gestures.
Most people in most situations don’t have a discernable attitude. It’s in that great grey zone of the unremarkable. We think little of them, because they make little impact.
I was in one of my local pubs last night, fascinated by a framed front page from a wartime newspaper on the wall – The Daily Herald, 16th September 1940. The headlines were predictable and almost completely dominated the page: ‘Buckingham Palace Bombed Third Time’, ‘Raiders Chased Back To The Channel’, ‘RAF Puts Goering In Shade’, ‘Nazis Hold Up French Train’, ‘RAF Triumphs In Biggest Air Battles Of War’ and so on. And quietly, in the right hand bottom corner, was a not-so-small advert depicting a mother getting onto a bus, with the headline “Tell Daddy I’ve Gone To Boots”.