The first time I used the “bait and switch” method was in my first book, Territorial Games: Understanding and Ending Turf Wars at Work. Without talking too much about that book, I believed some people would buy the book to improve their territorial games so they could crush their “enemy” departments/nemeses like bugs. That was
1. Attract a group of interested community members to meet for a day. Be inclusive. Invite as diverse a group as possible. 2. Come together and talk about what is going on in your community. Discuss the importance of understanding the story of who you are and why you are here. Use your time to
The guy on the right drew this map. He is bailing out the boat that is sinking. He is doing his job in spite of a bad situation. I asked, “Who is the guy on the left?” He said “That’s my boss.” A few heads turned toward his boss sitting up front. I asked “So
This guy is in pain. I’ve seen this drawing from many people in many industries. The tug of priorities feel like they are tearing you apart. What I like about this guy’s drawing is the expressions on the faces of the people who need his attention. A nice person, a mad/mean person, a sad person,
Drawing a picture of “what it’s like at work” gives people an opportunity to express negative emotions with humor. When I facilitate this kind of exercise, everyone shares their “metaphor map” in a democratic process. Some are positive but many people need to process stress, anxiety and frustration. It is humor that makes this work.
The woman who drew this was trim, coiffed and perfectly dressed. Her blond flip hair-do and “had-to-have-been-a-cheerleader” demeanor did not make ANY sense when she present this map to the group. She said, “This is me. And I do everything I can to protect my people from all the problems and interference that come down
According to Pew research, disdain between opposing political parties in America has doubled in the last 30 years, coincidentally the span of my own consulting business, Group Process Consulting. My efforts to document true stories about these escalating conflicts inadvertently produced a set of oral histories across the years: Territorial Games (1997), A Safe Place
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.” Groucho Marx Troublemakers erode trust faster than we can build it back right now. Yet, many of these “troubles” are invented conflicts that distort predictably contrasting values. It helps to know what to look for. And once
I’ve been trying to infiltrate the halls of power for decades. My secret mission is to increase the diversity of thought by teaching those without a voice how to tell their stories and by teaching leaders how to find and retell stories that broaden everyone’s understanding.
We need a Magic School for Storytellers Thirty years before J. K. Rowling created Harry Potter, Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea series imagined a magic school that taught apprentice sorcerers how to avoid abusing the power of magic. Le Guin points out early in the series that “even to light a candle is to cast a
Truth in Storytelling When I wrote the first edition of The Story Factor twenty years ago, I began with the idea that people don’t want more information. They want faith in you and your positive intentions. I never suspected that two decades later we’d be discussing an explosion of stories that intentionally undermine this faith. Without
