Well, Daryl’s arrival on the scene at Anecdote has really put the pressure on me now he has published his maiden blog post. Here I’ve been for several months and nothing from me but a deafening silence. For people who have actually met me this is entirely out of character. I have opinions on everything […]

I heard this anecdote last week. John Kennedy was meeting the Premier of China and during some initial small talk Kennedy asked the Premier what he thought of the French Revolution. The Premier replied, “it’s probably too early to say.”

The anecdote below, told by a participant in a recent workshop, really made me stop and think. There are lots of lessons it, not least of which is that seemingly innocuous actions can have a big influence on a person’s decision to join an organisation. A friend of mine had applied for a fantastic new […]

This week I have been talking to people about foundational stories and how they are important for reinforcing the core vales and direction for everyone in the organisation. HP has a well know foundation story about Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard starting their little electronics company in a garage with a measly $500. Within this […]

On the recommendation of Johnnie Moore, I read A Perfect Mess by Eric Abrahamson and David Freedman. I was really looking forward to this book because it held the promise of providing an interesting view of issues dear to my heart: chaos, complexity and messiness (I also hoped it might give me good reasons for […]

Here’s an interesting story Bob Sutton recently received from a US Marine in relation to his excellent book, The No Asshole Rule. It’s a terrific sensemaking story because I can imagine people will have strong opinions about what the Marine did and so the story will easily start a conversation that will help the participants […]

Imagine if you could get people to talk on camera about their achievements and mistakes. The result could be a powerful, especially if you use these stories to get people talking. Here’s a tiny example on a topic dear to my heart: how to convey complex information simply. In this clip Massimo Vignelli talks about […]

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I’m reading Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn. It’s a terrific book. This story struck my funny bone so I thought I’d share it with you. Each day an elderly man endured the insults of a crowd of ten-year-olds as they passed his house on their way […]

This morning (Happy Easter!) I started writing a paper on a narrative approach to lessons learning. I’m at the point of gathering my thoughts and had the idea of sharing some of them as they occur to me. I hope it’s not too ill-informed but if that’s the case I’m hoping you’ll help me correct […]

Occasionally, anecdote circles don’t work. Sometimes, people don’t get a lot out of them. In the feedback session for the leadership program mentioned on Wednesday one of the participants had this to say: I attended one of the anecdote circles and, no offense meant Mark, but I thought it was a bit of a waste […]