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 what
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,
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,
In the late 1990’s people called their cell phones a leash. They resented that the office could find them anytime and jerk them back as if they were a dog on a leash. Now, if you google “cell phone leash” it is something you buy to keep you from losing your cell phone. Except it’s
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.
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
