Anecdotally Speaking

Anecdotally Speaking is back! We’ve taken a short hiatus while travelling all over Australia and all over the world. We’ve returned home with a collection of stories shared by clients and friends we met along the way.

In this episode we welcome a guest speaker, Steve Crompton, Managing Director of Change Social UK, who completed our Storytelling for Leaders program back in 2013 when he was working for Yammer. Steve shares with us an inspiring, real life rags to riches story which proves that anyone can make a difference and achieve their dreams if they take the initiative and are willing to work hard to make it happen. The story contains a number of meaningful business points, including: anyone can make a change; great ideas should be given the time, space and resources they require to develop; and don’t expect the world to set up your dreams, make them happen.

The British are coming! Make sure you tell your well connected mates.

Instead of seeing a pattern of excellence and just noticing it, top leaders investigate how the pattern formed and work out ways to recreate it.

Bringing your data to life is crucial in making others understand why it’s important. In this example, we hear how John Snow had to be creative and clear with his data to prove his theory right.

What do you do when you have high turnover? Henry Ford's solution made his shareholders angry.

When people don’t understand what we’re trying to convey to them we get frustrated. Sometimes we wonder why they aren’t getting something so simple. This is called the curse of knowledge.

An important part of leadership is taking care of your team. This story is a beautiful example of how taking care of others and helping them through tough times is beneficial for everyone. The focus of this story is U2 at their 1986 Tempe concert, and how a death threat almost led to them cancelling their second concert.

Putting the customer first and shifting your perspective to seeing how your design might be viewed by others is really important in today’s globalised, competitive market. It’s Mark’s turn to tell a story this week and the example he tells is particularly useful if you’re designing products, processes or services.

We’ve changed things up a little for this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking! We have Gerry Lynch, former General Manager of Mars New Zealand and now CEO of Delmaine Fine Foods tell the story this week.

Working in teams can be hard. In the process of working together, we can disagree, stall and face major setbacks. However, when a team comes together and gets across the finish line it can be great. The story Mark shares this week gives a useful analogy that can help teams get through the rough patches and understand that conflict is often a part of the creative process.