Latest on twitter:
"As in any successful organization, we try to find the right people, inspire them, and trust them to do a great job. It can be difficult and frightening to let go, but the rewards are always greater than the risks. When we empower others, we build capacity that did not previously exist. For me the hardest part to learn has been that such empowerment must carry with it the understanding that they will do things their way, not my way, and to learn that this is okay, because there is always a collection of successful ways to do any one thing, not just one way. And the greatest reward is seeing that sometimes, when people do things their way, it turns out to be a better way, which is good for me, good for them, and most important, good for the company. Sometimes it doesn’t, and that’s disappointing. But it’s not the end of the world."
by John Abrams in Companies We Keep: Employee Ownership and the Business of Community and Place
"Secrets corrupt cultures. Secrets cause backstabbing and power plays. They signify disrespect. Secrets can’t survive in an environment of total openness. It cuts off their air."
From Bill Witherspoon of The Sky Factory, in the June 2010 Inc’s article The Art of Work.
From this article on Smashing Magazine:
Good design is the result of great thinking, as well as great ingredients.
I like to think, a lot. Does that mean I’m more adapt at designing? I do agree with the fact that you can’t design without thinking. Thinking about the audience, thinking about the message, thinking about the delivery, thinking about how it all comes together…
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Dependence actually looks like successful influence…at first. A large part of the population prefers not to think for themselves. Any person who tells a moving “I have the answer” story can usually build up a decent contingent of followers. But is that what you really want? Followers? In a hierarchical system and a predictable world the answer may be yes. However, in the real world, dependence on a “hero-leader” is disastrous. If you speak to a roomful of 400 people you want to inspire 400 creative ideas moving in the same direction, not 400 people asking “what do I do next?” Your stories will either focus your listeners on how smart you are or how smart they are.
A friend of mine who is a successful author, speaker, and seminar leader complains about how “people insist upon using the guru label with me.” Since influence requires good timing, I let it go. But I wanted to say, “Honey, if they are leaning too hard on your, you are probably inviting in in some way.” Anyone with a little charisma and a good story can encourage those susceptible to it to abdicate thinking. I see people fawning all over guru-types, in business, religion, politics, and the arts. And I watch the gurus preening themselves. Guruitis is very seductive. The danger of develping a cult of followers is that your success risks excluding the “thinking” public.
"From The Story Factor by Annette Simmons
From The Story Factor by Annette Simons:
In his book Culture Jam, Kalle Lasn says, “The most powerful narcotic in the world is the promise of belonging.” To that I would add, the promise of being “known” — not understood, not necessarily even valued — but simply to be acknowledged and seen. In our technological economy, human attention is the emerging scarce resource. People need it, crave it, and will pay for it with their cooperation. In today’s world almost anyone you want to influence is operating under a deficit of human attention. They are not getting enough time or attention from the people who are important to them or the people that they love. They have enough information. They have all the facts and statistics they could ever want. In fact, they are drowning in information. Depression is at epidemic levels because all of this information simply leaves us feeling incompetent and lost. We don’t need more information. We need to know what it means. We need a story that explains what it means and makes us feel like we fit in there somewhere.
When you tell a story that touches me, you give me the gift of human attention — they kind that connects me to you, that touches my heart and makes me feel more alive. Even a simple blueberry crisp story that helps you sell me a microwave makes me feel more alive than a bunch of “product features” because it is closer to a genuine human experience. We crave something that is real or at least feels real.
The revival of storytelling over the last few years is no fad. It is a demonstrable artifact of a profound cultural shift in our society. Becoming a better storyteller is not hopping on some psycho-babble bandwagon. To find you story is to join in a worldwide search for authenticity and those things that are truly important — a search for meaning. The more influential your stories become, the deeper they tap into that which is meaningful.
From The Story Factor by Annette Simmons:
You will find that your best stories will be about things that happened to you. All choices are ultimately personal choices and if you want to influence people’s choices you will find that the most powerful form of influence is always personal. Don’t buy the BS that your issue “isn’t personal.” If it is important, it is personal. You don’t have to amputate part of your soul to be influential. In fact, your soul tells the most moving story of all. Go tell your story, the world needs it.
I wish for everyone to help create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.
A quote from A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller:
If you watched a movie about a guy who wanted a Volvo and worked for years to get it, you wouldn’t cry at the end when he drove off the lot, testing the windshield wipers. You wouldn’t tell your friends you saw a beautiful movie or go home and put a record on to think about the story you’d seen. The truth is, you wouldn’t remember that movie a week later, except you’d fee robbed and want your money back. Nobody cries at the end of a movie about a guy who wants a Volvo.
But we spend years actually living those stories, and expect our lives to feel meaningful. The truth is, if what we choose to do with our lives won’t make a story meaningful, it won’t make a life meaningful either.
The question I want to ask myself is, is there some sort of Volvo I’m chasing? Maybe the Volvo is a metaphor that represents any meaningless objects that we feed we need so badly in our lives. If that’s the case, then am I wasting aways years of my life chasing after meaningless things and objects?
Rather than chasing after my own objects of Volvo, and living boring and shallow lives. How can I actually live a life that’s meaningful? A life that’s worthy to be told repeatedly as a story?
That’s it right there. How do I lead a life that’s worthy to be told repeatedly as a story? Maybe the first thing I should ask myself when I wake up is: “How can I create meaning today?”
“More and more I heard the words: ‘Stop what you are doing now – all this luxury and consumerism – and start your real life’,” he said. “I had the feeling I was working as a slave for things that I did not wish for or need.
