4 ms·

For me the internal part of this is far more important than any external pitch. Storytelling is a key skill for keeping an organisation aligned. Every company I

by thom 2y ago

For me the internal part of this is far more important than any external pitch. Storytelling is a key skill for keeping an organisation aligned. Every company I've worked for that felt disjointed wasn't because of a lack of structure or process, it was the lack of a unifying narrative that people can follow and weave their work into. Once you have that, the sales and marketing part is pretty natural because you're already living the message like you mean it.

BOOSTERHIDROGEN 2y ago
The question is how do you find such unique narratives? Who decide it is unique.
- smugglerFlynn 2y ago
  Uniqueness is not the end goal, first and foremost it should be competitive. Just highlight where exactly you do things differently (and better) than others. If that's not possible to formulate even internally, the company is in trouble.
- neom 2y ago
  Tail Winds + Vision into-> Mission into-> Purpose. A world class leader understands deeply the coalescing ripples of shift across multiple sectors that result in the change their business is addressing, using this knowledge and extending it out into the future is called vision. If you can paint a good vision, you can then explain some missions people could go on over the period of time that matches your vision that results in positive things for the group, this is how an individual finds their purpose and is a prerequisite for a high functioning team (see tuckman's). The reason this is hard from a leadership perspective is that humans do not hear messages the same way, so you have to do what we call message modulation, where you tell the story many different ways depending on the constituent you're addressing until or such that, they understand what you are saying. You also have to be careful your modulation doesn't introduce confusion, 1 2 | 3 4 - if pipe is your baseline message, to be good at this, you have to think about what happens when 1 and 4 converse.
  - no_wizard 2y ago
    >A world class leader understands deeply the coalescing ripples of shift across multiple sectors that result in the change their business is addressing, using this knowledge and extending it out into the future is called vision. So few leaders understand this. Its not common, not even among 'successful' leaders. More than anyone likes to admit, lots of businesses big and small built their backs on exploiting some luck and then achieving a relatively dominate position and holding it by the virtue of traditional business tactics. There's alot of copying, and very little actual innovative thinking. This is even true of 'visionaries' but I think there is a difference between outright copying w/ refinement vs taking technology (or technologies) and using them in genuinely unforeseen ways, or otherwise marrying them together in ways nobody else really has. Most success is entirely circumstantial. Right place, right time, things out of the control of anything. Certainly thats not visionary. Its refining someone else's idea (which is different than taking existing technology, refining it, and using it in entirely different ways than it was intended) Steve Jobs was unique in that he forged success despite circumstances. In multiple aspects of Apple's history there was no good reason for them to succeed the way they did but he actually had genuine vision. Few others have had that kind of vision. Bill Gates demonstrated this earlier in his career (by the late 90s, Microsoft was exploiting monopoly not visionary innovation). Perhaps a few others I can't think of off the top of my head right now. I can't say the same for 90+% of business people. It should be more humbling than it is. Unfortunately every CEO seems to think they have the 'magic' and they don't.
    - neom 2y ago
      It's part of what separates "founder" from "executive" in my mind. Most good execs I know understand market fundamentals due to either eduction or solid experience, it's what is taught in HBS, Columbia, etc. Most founders know it from gut, they can just see change and they run at it, but it's part of the shift from founder to executive, you have to operationalize it for a business to be sustainable. Because you are competing against luck (Clay Christensen), you are inevitability foundational relying on solid vision, but because business is extremely complicated and hard to nail most businesses bleed out to find death by a 1000 paper cuts. Friend of mine has a linkedin profile you might find interesting: https://www.linkedin.com/in/agnazem/details/experience/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/agnazem/details/experience/ I'll also add, there are a lot of managers out there fancying themself in leadership, and lots of leaders who fancy themselves managers, this thinking that there is an ability to co-mingle, is generally incorrect. (I teach business for a living, this stuff is a lot of what I teach new founders how to understand.)
billfruit 2y ago
But is that the only way? Can organizations be driven on pure process instead to having to find, and refine 'some narrative' to keep it all together.
- dijit 2y ago
  Yes, and many are. From what I hear Disney is very much a “process” company these days. You can draw your own conclusions about whether Disney is doing very well or not, though.
- qazxcvbnmlp 2y ago
  People need a “why” to what they do. Generally “I do what I’m told because that is what the process says” doesn’t scale as well as “we are here to get airplanes where they need to go”. The narrative doesn’t have to be outlandish, in fact unrealistic stories give narratives a bad reputation. What you do need is a simple why you are coming to work that is beyond “to get a paycheck”.
  - settsu 2y ago
    It can also serve as a helpful reference point for "what am I (still) doing here?" so that you can judge when you perhaps should not be.
    - Frederation 2y ago
      True enough. If I am sitting in the backseat or front and the driver is meandering, I might think of bailing, yeah.
- thom 2y ago
  I don't see those things as opposed - you want teams aligned, you want people to be able to plan and collaborate both the short and long term. A good process left shifts as much as possible so teams start out fairly well aligned and don't necessarily drift apart. A bad process requires constant interventions to pull teams back together. I think a clear, compelling narrative of where an organisation is going and why helps here, but it's certainly not the only prescription.
formerphotoj 2y ago
100% - I used to sell/evangelize/promote/pitch the vision of the educational non-profit I used to work for every. single. day. to. every. single. person. Loved it, still do, and still storytelling at my current gig.
Frederation 2y ago
The Narrative, a cohesive one, drives my purpose and gives me direction.

by thom 2y ago

BOOSTERHIDROGEN 2y ago

The question is how do you find such unique narratives? Who decide it is unique.

smugglerFlynn 2y ago
Uniqueness is not the end goal, first and foremost it should be competitive. Just highlight where exactly you do things differently (and better) than others. If that's not possible to formulate even internally, the company is in trouble.
neom 2y ago
Tail Winds + Vision into-> Mission into-> Purpose. A world class leader understands deeply the coalescing ripples of shift across multiple sectors that result in the change their business is addressing, using this knowledge and extending it out into the future is called vision. If you can paint a good vision, you can then explain some missions people could go on over the period of time that matches your vision that results in positive things for the group, this is how an individual finds their purpose and is a prerequisite for a high functioning team (see tuckman's). The reason this is hard from a leadership perspective is that humans do not hear messages the same way, so you have to do what we call message modulation, where you tell the story many different ways depending on the constituent you're addressing until or such that, they understand what you are saying. You also have to be careful your modulation doesn't introduce confusion, 1 2 | 3 4 - if pipe is your baseline message, to be good at this, you have to think about what happens when 1 and 4 converse.
- no_wizard 2y ago
  >A world class leader understands deeply the coalescing ripples of shift across multiple sectors that result in the change their business is addressing, using this knowledge and extending it out into the future is called vision. So few leaders understand this. Its not common, not even among 'successful' leaders. More than anyone likes to admit, lots of businesses big and small built their backs on exploiting some luck and then achieving a relatively dominate position and holding it by the virtue of traditional business tactics. There's alot of copying, and very little actual innovative thinking. This is even true of 'visionaries' but I think there is a difference between outright copying w/ refinement vs taking technology (or technologies) and using them in genuinely unforeseen ways, or otherwise marrying them together in ways nobody else really has. Most success is entirely circumstantial. Right place, right time, things out of the control of anything. Certainly thats not visionary. Its refining someone else's idea (which is different than taking existing technology, refining it, and using it in entirely different ways than it was intended) Steve Jobs was unique in that he forged success despite circumstances. In multiple aspects of Apple's history there was no good reason for them to succeed the way they did but he actually had genuine vision. Few others have had that kind of vision. Bill Gates demonstrated this earlier in his career (by the late 90s, Microsoft was exploiting monopoly not visionary innovation). Perhaps a few others I can't think of off the top of my head right now. I can't say the same for 90+% of business people. It should be more humbling than it is. Unfortunately every CEO seems to think they have the 'magic' and they don't.
  - neom 2y ago
    It's part of what separates "founder" from "executive" in my mind. Most good execs I know understand market fundamentals due to either eduction or solid experience, it's what is taught in HBS, Columbia, etc. Most founders know it from gut, they can just see change and they run at it, but it's part of the shift from founder to executive, you have to operationalize it for a business to be sustainable. Because you are competing against luck (Clay Christensen), you are inevitability foundational relying on solid vision, but because business is extremely complicated and hard to nail most businesses bleed out to find death by a 1000 paper cuts. Friend of mine has a linkedin profile you might find interesting: https://www.linkedin.com/in/agnazem/details/experience/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/agnazem/details/experience/ I'll also add, there are a lot of managers out there fancying themself in leadership, and lots of leaders who fancy themselves managers, this thinking that there is an ability to co-mingle, is generally incorrect. (I teach business for a living, this stuff is a lot of what I teach new founders how to understand.)

billfruit 2y ago

But is that the only way? Can organizations be driven on pure process instead to having to find, and refine 'some narrative' to keep it all together.

dijit 2y ago
Yes, and many are. From what I hear Disney is very much a “process” company these days. You can draw your own conclusions about whether Disney is doing very well or not, though.
qazxcvbnmlp 2y ago
People need a “why” to what they do. Generally “I do what I’m told because that is what the process says” doesn’t scale as well as “we are here to get airplanes where they need to go”. The narrative doesn’t have to be outlandish, in fact unrealistic stories give narratives a bad reputation. What you do need is a simple why you are coming to work that is beyond “to get a paycheck”.
- settsu 2y ago
  It can also serve as a helpful reference point for "what am I (still) doing here?" so that you can judge when you perhaps should not be.
  - Frederation 2y ago
    True enough. If I am sitting in the backseat or front and the driver is meandering, I might think of bailing, yeah.
thom 2y ago
I don't see those things as opposed - you want teams aligned, you want people to be able to plan and collaborate both the short and long term. A good process left shifts as much as possible so teams start out fairly well aligned and don't necessarily drift apart. A bad process requires constant interventions to pull teams back together. I think a clear, compelling narrative of where an organisation is going and why helps here, but it's certainly not the only prescription.

formerphotoj 2y ago

100% - I used to sell/evangelize/promote/pitch the vision of the educational non-profit I used to work for every. single. day. to. every. single. person. Loved it, still do, and still storytelling at my current gig.

Frederation 2y ago

The Narrative, a cohesive one, drives my purpose and gives me direction.