The story of how James Dyson designed and produced the first bagless vacuum cleaner is one of perseverance and iteration. We know the ending of this story, but the fifteen years which precede it are well worth sharing for the insights they offer into innovation. Most of us know the Dyson brand. Their vacuum cleaners, […]

A few weeks ago I had dinner at a friend’s house. At the table, my friend’s 9-year-old daughter challenged me with a riddle. You might be familiar with it. A father and son are involved in a serious car accident. The father dies instantly while the son is airlifted to hospital in a critical condition. […]

As Edward R. Tufte published each of his beautiful books on the visual display of complex data – The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (1983)1, Envisioning Information (1990)2 and Visual Explanations (1997)3 – I became more and more fascinated by the question of how to grab the attention of decision-makers and inspire them to act […]

Sometimes the simplest interventions can have the biggest impact. In October 1935, US Army Air Corps brass gathered at an airfield in Dayton, Ohio. They’d come to see two aircraft builders pit their planes against each other in a series of trials, with the best-performed aircraft getting its builder a lucrative contract for new long-range […]

Yesterday my sister called and said, “I have an idea for a book you should write. Why don’t you collect a bunch of stories that illustrate different leadership challenges and publish them for leaders to retell.” Good idea sis. We all need a repertoire of stories to tell and they are never easy to find […]

“Insight is an unexpected shift to a better story.”–Gary Klein, Seeing What Others Don’t You can download the pdf version of this article. Shawn and Mark wrote this article for the Storytelling for Insight workshop that that was held in Singapore in 2011 with Gary Klein and Patrick Lambe and featured in Gary Klein’s book, […]

Every company wants to tell a compelling strategic story that conveys the essence of what they’re about. If it’s a success their customers and employees will know where they have come from and where they are going and what makes them unique and worthwhile. And with this knowledge they become attracted to what they are […]

I’m thoroughly enjoying reading Influencer at the moment and the story of Dr Everett Rogers grabbed my attention. After finishing his PhD his first job was to help Iowa farmers adopt a new strain of corn which promised much higher yields. He spoke to many farmers and couldn’t get a single one to try out […]

Obviously anecdotes play a key role in our work. We use these real life business stories to help people see patterns that typically remain hidden using traditional techniques. Recent projects include topics like staff morale, client satisfaction, occupation health and safety and staff work load. Unlike using interviews and surveys you tend to hear what is really […]