Last week, Shawn and I spent the day together at the Melbourne Convention Centre. The morning speaker was Patrick Lencioni, author of ‘The Five Dysfunctions of a Team’ and ten other books. The Wall Street Journal has described Lencioni as “one of the most in demand speakers in America”. It’s easy to understand why. He […]

As easy as riding a bike? Karen Stanton will bet you can’t ride this bike.  This week, Karen Stanton, the Global Branding and Marketing Director at IFF (International Flavours and Fragrances), joins us from New Jersey. She shares the story of the ‘backwards brain bike’.  When riding the backwards brain bike, you have to turn […]

Have you ever felt nervous about making a mistake at work? Jill Roche shares a story which suggests you should look at mistakes as opportunities. This week we welcome our first guest speaker for 2019 to Anecdotally Speaking! Jill Roche is the Chief of Corporate Affairs at World Vision Australia. She shares a story which […]

I want to show you just how powerful the first story really is. Ever since I listened to episode 668 of the podcast This American Life last month, I’ve been asking people, “What do you think about MSG?” Now you might remember that MSG, or monosodium glutamate, is a controversial food flavouring commonly used in […]

Micheal Phelps broke both his personal record and the world record when he won the men’s 400m Individual Medley Final at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Four years later, he battled for 4th place in the same event. Don’t become complacent, it takes hard work to stay on top. A few years ago, Shawn was working […]

Dorothy Vaughan was a mathematician who worked for NASA during the 1960s. Her story provides an excellent example of the importance of continually learning and effectively responding to disruption. Happy New Year! We took two weeks off over the holiday period to relax and recharge. Now, we’re back and ready for a big year!  Here […]

Last month I had the opportunity to give a 90-minute talk to 16 Silicon Valley CEOs in San Jose. They all believed in business storytelling and wanted to dig into the practicalities of the skill. One of the questions they had was, ‘How do you do storytelling with deeply analytic and scientific communities, both internally […]

When presented with a problem, its easy to assume big interventions will best prompt change. This week’s story suggests that we should think about the small things we can do, before jumping to bigger interventions that other people can implement.  This week, Shawn shares another story. The story demonstrates how small things can make a […]

People tend to be resistant to change. So, what is the best way to keep people interested in a new product? This story suggests finding a balance between new and familiar features is the answer.  It’s now Shawn’s turn to share a story. The story he has chosen suggests the success of new products relies […]

The story behind Southwest Airlines’ ‘Bags Fly Free’ campaign demonstrates how having a clear purpose can help an organisation make better, more profitable decisions. Having a clear purpose can help an organisation make better decisions. Southwest Airlines’ purpose to ‘democratise the skies’ helped the airline add over $1 billion to their bottom line, despite a […]