2014, our 10th year in business, was a watershed for Anecdote. Our partner network has grown to 27 partners in 17 countries and it continues to grow. Apart from our partners’ deep skills and wonderful expertise, they are a great bunch of people who are a joy to spend time with. We are looking forward to our partner […]

Emil Zátopek was a giant of long distance running. His record still stands as the only person to win gold in the 5000 metre, the 10000 metre and the marathon at the 1952 Helsinki Summer Olympics. Apparently running the marathon was a last minute decision. In 1968 Australian runner, Ron Clarke, visited Emil in his […]

We all want to be inspired. And we all want to inspire others. Parents want to inspire their kids. Business leaders want to inspire the people they lead. It can sound like a lofty desire, so how do you actually do it? Let’s start by thinking about what inspiration means in practice. I’m hoping these […]

Business people love structure. When I ask people after our storytelling workshops what they found most valuable, more often than not they will say they loved the story patterns. These are a few different story structures we teach that are great for changing minds, or for answering the question ‘Why?’ Story patterns are good set […]

The word ‘story’ is vexed in business. Imagine this scene. A senior leader stands in front of his people to give a presentation on the company’s direction and says, “I would like to share a story with you.” If you were in that audience, what would you be thinking or feeling when he said that? […]

Maestro Benjamin Zander – an amazingly approachable human being My wife, Kate, and I were in Boston, Massachusetts recently visiting our son Sebastian, who’s now attending university there. Sebastian has chosen a path a bit less traveled than others and is a French Horn performance major. Although he’s been in Boston just a few months, he was […]

In 1988 I joined the database software company Oracle Systems. I worked in the Canberra sales team, where my job was to demonstrate the technical capabilities of the software to clients. One day the national sales manager arrived unannounced from Sydney and told us that he wasn’t happy with our progress. He gathered us in […]

There’s a way to lead more effectively from anywhere in the corporate hierarchy without the benefit of the positional authority that comes in the form of titles and reporting relationships. Don’t wait to get into the c-suite to change minds, impact the business and leave a lasting impression. Be influential immediately. Telling stories, listening to […]

I visited Amsterdam in early April and met Paul Joosten and Ronald van Domberg. Both fabulous facilitators and both working in the story field. Within a few months they had become Partners in delivering the Storytelling for Leaders program and had completed their accreditation. While many programs in The Netherlands are delivered in English, there […]

We judge stories we hear at work in three ways. First, is it plausible, did this really happen? Second, is this relevant, can it help me? Third, is it interesting, am I going to enjoy this? Therefore when we tell a business story it’s important to make clear its relevance at the outset. We need […]