Anecdotally Speaking

This week, Mark is our storyteller. He shares a story about Nelson Mandela which lies at the intersection of sports, politics, and leadership.

You might have heard this story before, but Mark adapts it for telling in a business context. He suggests that he might use it to, for instance, illustrate the importance of leading by example.

Last week, Mark shared a short but impactful scientific story, and this week Shawn does the same! Shawn first read the story in The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson: https://buff.ly/2WZu1Yi

It follows the actions Jennifer Doudna, an American biochemist, took to have her team’s paper published and illustrates the impact of gender constructs. 

Shawn and Mark mention our upcoming public programs. You can find more information via our events page: https://www.anecdote.com/events/

This week on Anecdotally Speaking, Mark shares a short but impactful scientific story about Alexander Fleming’s 1928 discovery of penicillin. The story prompts Shawn and Mark to consider what a world without penicillin must have been like and how to best foster creativity. They mention a John Cleese video, which you can find here: https://buff.ly/2KxoUXZ

Welcome to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! In this episode, Shawn shares a values-in-action story from Mars! You’ll hear how Five Principals—Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency, and Freedom—guide decision-making within the international organisation and an example of what this looks like in practice.

Shawn first heard this story from Mim Gaetano. Mim was Corporate Ombudsman at Mars from 2014 until his retirement in 2017.

You can read more about Mars’ Five Principals here: https://buff.ly/3obnTqY

This week, it’s Shawn’s turn to share a story. He shares one about Franklin Roosevelt using an analogy to get an idea across, which he found in Erik Larson’s book, The Splendid and the Vile: https://buff.ly/3AqdbQS

In discussing the story, Shawn and Mark encourage us to be aware of things that often happen to us that we can use as analogies.

Mark mentions our upcoming Storytelling for Leaders programs, which you can read more about here: https://www.anecdote.com/events/

This week, Mike Adams joins Mark on the podcast, while Shawn has a few days off. Mike shares Rick Rescorla’s heroic 9/11 story.

Saturday marked 20 years since the devastating 9/11 attacks. We had a different episode planned for you today, but Mike shared this story in our weekly team meeting on Friday morning. We quickly decided to record another episode, given the story is both topical and touching.

To watch a video of Mike telling this story, visit: https://buff.ly/3E4izeC

To learn more about our Story-Powered Sales program, mentioned at the beginning of this episode, visit: https://buff.ly/2YcPRVS

You can also email Mike, our Head of Story-Powered Sales, at [email protected].

The movie mentioned is We Were Soldiers: https://buff.ly/3ldhtEO

Trigger warning: this episode covers issues relating to 9/11. If you choose to skip this one, we look forward to having you back next week.

Welcome back to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking!

This week’s episode is dropping into your feed a little later than usual (our apologies), but we hope you enjoy it, and we’ll be back to our regular schedule next week!

Mark shares his first story since returning from his 5-week holiday—one which reveals some important insights about human nature.

Trigger warning: Shawn and Mark discuss a murder in this episode. If you choose to skip this one, we look forward to having you back next week.

This week, another special guest, Rob Grundel, joins Shawn and Mark on the podcast! Rob has just joined the Anecdote team, and we recorded this episode on his third day with us!

Rob shares his background before launching into a story that you might use at work. The story is that of the Köln Concert, where American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett recorded the best selling solo album in jazz and the best selling solo piano album in any genre.

Shawn and Mark mention our upcoming virtual Story-Powered Data and Storytelling for Leaders programs. For more information and to register, visit our events page: https://www.anecdote.com/events/

Mark is back after a 5-week outback adventure! Shawn welcomes his cohost back to the show, then shares the story of how Wunsiedel, a small town in Germany, tricked neo-Nazis into raising thousands of euros for EXIT Deutschland, an anti-extremist charity.

To view the photo Mark mentions, visit: https://buff.ly/3goVrgQ

And to view the video Shawn mentions, visit: https://buff.ly/3sIairI

You can find out more about our upcoming events via our events webpage: https://www.anecdote.com/events/

Shawn and Mike host this week’s episode, and Mike shares a story about optimism and problem-solving. The story follows Fermat’s Last Theorem and the 358 years it took to solve it. The theorem holds a Guinness World Record for being the longest-standing maths problem ever: https://buff.ly/3sskvIE

You can find the Wikipedia article Mike mentions here: https://buff.ly/3iMVZOX

If you want to get in touch with the team and perhaps tell us how you’ve used a story, you can contact us via [email protected]!