Raising the energy level of meetings through narrative
Read moreA fair number of people have written to me recently, wondering why I am posting less frequently these days. In all honesty, the only explanation I can provide is that my time for writing has been more limited than I would like the past few months, as three of my regular clients are simultaneously requesting far more consulting hours than
The problem with presentations
Read moreFor the first entry of the new year, I choose to travel a bit further along the road we were on at the end of 2018. This is in part because it touches a subject that has long been close to my heart, and also because there is a good deal more to say about how our misuse of presentation
Fewer presentations, more conversations
Read moreLast time, I noted that certain groups I have worked with have succeeded in making meetings more productive by limiting, even eliminating completely, the use of slides. For this post, my original intention was to focus on some of the surprising ways in which the unlikely pair of Jeff Bezos and Winston Churchill are indeed similar. At the same time,
How Amazon uses story to engage its managers
Read moreOur last blog entry ended with the assertion that Winston Churchill and Jeff Bezos share a deep appreciation of the power of narrative. As we will see in future posts, their approaches, their contexts and their focus are different in a number of ways. Nonetheless, it is clear that both of them tackle the act of storytelling with diligence, rigor
Story is what connects unusual pairs of effective leaders
Read moreIn the previous post, I referenced my doctoral research—specifically my use of “unlikely pairs”. During those years, in fact, I was quite fond of considering duos of effective leaders who would seem to have little in common at first glance. Among my favorite examples of this approach is one I spoke of in my TED talk, juxtaposing the abrasive narcissist
What do outstanding leaders have in common?
Read moreWhen I was preparing my TED talk in the Netherlands last March, I was considering telling a few personal stories that I had not thought about for a long time. One of these concerned a crucial event that changed the course of my professional life. It was an anecdote that explained how I came to understand the strong connection between