A new type of speaker is emerging: part personal adviser, part comedian. I have two examples in mind. One is a researcher who spent 20 years studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy. The other is a comedian who gained his stand-up chops in the comedy clubs of New York. The researcher starts with human insights […]

As 2020 begins, many leaders will be confidently presenting new strategies and most people will be wearily dismissing them. There’s a story behind this common disconnect. To download a PDF version of this article, click here. To watch our short video series where Paul shares insights from this article, click here. Mind over what matters […]

With such devastation wreaked upon the lives of so many Australians in these horrendous bushfires, it’s hard to even think about how we will recover and reconstruct our communities. But one of the lessons that came from the Black Saturday fires in 2009 is worth having in mind early on, especially since the affected communities […]

Last week I was working with a client in Sydney, preparing a senior leader to present a new strategy to their people using a strategy story. We designed the presentation so that the strategy story could be told without slides. We wanted the leader to just talk with their employees about the strategy and why […]

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 […]

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 […]

As a leader, you often need to establish a rapport with others, to connect with them. It might be when you meet new people in an office or when you give a presentation or a talk. In each case, the other people will want to know who you are and what you stand for. They […]

Warning: This article contains explicit language. Do not read if you might be offended. Have you ever had the feeling that you and your colleagues are all on the same page, and you feel good about how everyone understands what’s happening? I had an experience last week that illustrates just how illusory that feeling can […]

A lot has been written recently about how Jeff Bezos and his executives run their meetings. Amazon has made it very public that their senior team (the S Team) has banned PowerPoint, and that each meeting starts with a six-page narrative memo which the executives read and absorb for up to 30 minutes before the […]

We’ve recently been doing some work around diversity and inclusion for a project with a large construction company. An insight we’ve taken away from this project is how much leaders can be shielded from the underlying issues in their company. No-one wants to worry or disappoint the senior leadership because it could make them seem […]