Welcome to the Story Rules Content Hub – the second best resource to learn all about storytelling techniques for work (after ‘Story Rules‘, my comprehensive book on the topic!).
In this Hub, Here’s where you get rich storytelling examples, analyses, viewpoints, interview nuggets, visuals, quotes, and much, much more. To find out how you can make the most of this resource, please watch this 12-minute video.
You can explore this (for now free!) resource in four ways:
Sajith is a VC at Blume Ventures and arguably the most astute observer and thought-leader on India’s vibrant start-up ecosystem. …
Hi folks, It’s time for my content recommendations for Apr-21: a book, a podcast, articles and a couple of videos. Let’s get started 1. Book a. ‘Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don’t Make Sense’ by Rory Sutherland Alchemy is the ancient and long-discredited art of converting base metals to gold. Surely it is not possible, you’d think. Ah, it may not be physically possible. But, as illustrated so amply and vividly in this book by Rory Sutherland (the Vice-Chairman of the Ogilvy and Mather advertising group), it is possible ‘psycho-logically’. ‘Psycho-logical’ decisions, according to Rory are those which …
In the middle of an engagement, the CEO of Instamojo says: “You know Mohit, we have been running this business for seven, eight years, but it’s only now we have understood what we really do” Mohit Bansal is the Founder of Deck Rooster, a Chandigarh based company that conceptualises and creates startup pitch decks. Decks that get high praise from clients:“Don’t waste two per cent on a Banker, these folks at Deck Rooster rock!”– Ravish Naresh, CEO, KhataBook.“Deck Rooster guys not only helped bring our story to life with visuals, but were an equal thought-partner in helping me articulate the story. …
Some creative projects are quick and fun. Like writing a LinkedIn post. Some are detailed, time-consuming and require a ton of prior work – like launching an online course. But some projects possess you. Consume you. They take you through a roller-coaster ride of hope, anticipation, unrealistic expectations, disappointment, worry, fear … and then back to cautiously optimistic hope… The ‘Story Rules Podcast’ has been one such project. A project which completes the missing C in my intellectual life. Let’s dive in. The Missing C I’ve written before about The 5Cs of Thought Leadership. In order to be a thought leader, …
It was early-2017. I had just started out as a Storytelling trainer and was reaching out to known folks for potential client references. One early reference I got was through my Dad. A close friend (and ex-colleague) of his ran a Surgical Training Institute, where they trained surgeons on the latest equipment, that was owned by a leading multinational company. My dad’s friend – a friendly, avuncular gentleman called Dr. G – asked me to come over to his office and showcase my work. This was just my second or third BD call and I was excited! Just before this, …
Say you have some non-flattering performance to communicate. The division you lead has had a terrible quarter and it’s up to you to present the bad news with the Executive Leadership team. Things could get ugly. As a default approach, most of us would tend to: Be defensive Sugarcoat the bad news Offer reasons why the performance isn’t as bad as it looks Pass the buck to another team, division etc. But perhaps we can learn from a fascinating story that played out in the US around 40 years ago. A horror story that unfolded in the fall of ‘82 …
It’s time for my content recommendations for Mar-21: a book, a podcast, articles and a video. Let’s get started 1. Book a. ‘Big Billion Startup: The Untold Flipkart Story’ by Mihir Dalal In late 2008, A and B ran into each other in Koramangala, Bangalore. A: ‘What are you up to?’ B: ‘Startup …’ A: ‘What kind of startup?’ B: ‘We sell books.’ A: ‘Abbe, who sells books? Where is your salary coming from?’ B: ‘How will we get a salary? We’re looking for funding.’ A: ‘Funding kaun dega be?’ (Who will give you funding, man?) A was Anil Kumar …
Till 2003, a weekly ritual would play out in the Amazon head office. Every Tuesday their S-Team (the seniormost leadership group) would meet for four hours to discuss progress on key goals. The team would select two to four S-Team goals and do a deep dive into their progress using PowerPoint presentations by the relevant team. Four hours being spent by a dozen-odd folks – that’s expensive leadership time. And it was not being spent well. “Too often, we found the presentations did not serve the purpose for which they were intended. The format often made it difficult to evaluate …
