There’s a time to be independent and creative, and there’s a time to serve your audience. Dummer and DJ, Questlove, felt he was at the top of his game when he was asked to perform at Barack Obama’s farewell party. He started his set feeling confident but finished it feeling disappointed, prompting Barack to share […]

Steven Bradbury appeared lucky when he won gold for Australia in the short track speed skating final at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. The whole story, however, implies that it wasn’t just luck, but hard work and persistence, that led him to win.  This week, Mark shares the story behind Steven Bradbury’s win. […]

Does presentation matter? Here’s a story you can tell or trigger to convince your colleagues that it does. If you regularly read our blog, you will be familiar with story-triggering. Story-triggering is what occurs when someone does something so remarkable that the people who see, or experience it, tell stories about it. In our last […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]