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:
I call myself a ‘Story Coach’. But (a) what is that really? and (b) how did I reach here? This (ultra-long, slightly indulgent) story is about my journey. I’m sure many of you have heard of the Japanese concept of Ikigai. Loosely translated as “a reason for being”, it’s a powerful framework to figure out your true purpose in life – that which will bring most happiness to you. This story is about the quest to find my Ikigai. Before we begin, a few disclaimers! – This piece was to be a quick recap of my career choices using the Ikigai …
“I’m really looking forward to the 2-hour business review presentation” Said no one, ever. Why do review meetings suck so bad? And why does it bother me so much? I’m a Storytelling coach. And in my workshops, I teach participants the techniques to convert detailed, complex data into simple, compelling stories. But ever so often, when I suggest a new way of presenting information to a participant, I face resistance. Here are two common examples: Me: Your slide is too complex. You should split your messages across more slides – have only one message per slide Participant: But I can’t …
Work-from-home (WFH) is great, innit? No energy-draining commutes, no time-sucking meetings, no pesky co-worker conversations, no random birthday celebrations… and more family time… what’s not to love? The dirty secret? For many of us, the office provides the necessary discipline to work. Actually work. And not fall prey to the three challenges of the home-office environment: a. Distractions: Getting sucked into the unending temptations of the online universe (“Just one more video, and I’ll get back to work”) and other distractions. b. Battling interruptions: Uniquely home interruptions such as the newspaper guy coming for his bill; the ironing guy for new clothes … and …
You don’t own your smartphone. Your smartphone owns you. We all know about our smartphone addiction problem. This magic-device has taken over our lives and just doesn’t let go. Howsoever useful it may be, the hours of attention it demands from us (and the consequent loss of productivity) is too high a price to pay. What can be done? Cal Newport has some answers in his recent book ‘Digital Minimalism‘. Think of the book as a de-addiction program that will help you slowly reclaim your life. My Journey My own journey over the past few months (which is still work-in-progress!) may offer …
t isn’t very often that the CEO of a $100 Bn fund (who’s been called “the most powerful person in Silicon Valley“), makes a public presentation, just a month after his biggest investment has suffered an embarrassing debacle. The stakes don’t get higher than this. What does the iconic Masayoshi Son do? Beat around the bush and ignore the core issues? Or come up with a detailed nuts-and-bolts plan to fix the issues? He does something in between. This post is my attempt at deconstructing the recent SoftBank earnings deck (released on 6-Nov-2019). Going past the initial shock… I got to know of …
In front of 50,000 raucous spectators and millions more tuning in, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a historic speech to Indians and the world on 22nd September 2019 in Houston, USA. Acknowledged as a stirring orator, Modi used all of his rhetorical flourishes to mesmerise the audience. But apart from his oratorical skill, what impressed me was the speech’s content itself. Sure it had the usual suspects: the playing-to-the-gallery lines, the too-clever-by-half puns (“Energy at the NRG stadium is a witness to the growing synergy between the two nations…” Groan) and the exhortations for standing ovations… But if you look beyond …
When I recently booked a cab at Chennai airport, I was allotted one which was quite a distance away. “Sir, I’ll come to the airport, but please don’t cancel the ride. I’m coming from 10 km away”, said M in a sincere voice. On hearing his genuine plea, I decided to wait, trusting that he wouldn’t cancel on me! It turned out to be a good call. I normally don’t get into the typical cab-driver conversations. But in this case, somehow I did… And his story was fascinating. A tough professional life… Life for M hadn’t been easy. Aged about 40, this …
What is wrong with the below slide* (apart from the poor resolution)? Everything right?! Let’s start with the most glaring issue – it has no ‘message’ on top. A neutral header (‘Income levels’) does nothing to tell the audience what the slide is actually saying. Now, in a previous post, we have seen the importance of crafting clear, surprising messages from your data. Messages that get the audience’s attention, using the principle of norm and variance. When you attempt to do this, however, you may get stuck at the next hurdle: choosing the right adjectives. Adjectives? Do you mean like ‘good’, ‘bad’ …
The phrase ‘Death by PowerPoint’ returns an inordinate 75M hits on Google. The reason? Many users just consider PowerPoint as ‘MS Word plus Headers and Bullets’ and end up creating dense, soul-draining slides. Perhaps that’s why Amazon did away with the use of PowerPoint presentations in its meetings… That’s a pity, because, if used well, PowerPoint is a great tool to tell a compelling, visual story. And you don’t need designer-level skills for that – these 10 guidelines are a great way to super-charge your presentation. I have divided these ideas into 3 sections: Narrative, Visuals and Delivery – Narrative: Your story in words …
Jeff Bezos published Amazon’s much-awaited annual shareholders’ letter on 11th April. It made the headlines for one particular inclusion: his ‘challenge’ to retail competitors, to match Amazon’s $15-an-hour minimum wage and employee benefits. Looking deeper into the document though, there are some critical storytelling lessons that can be gleaned. Here are my top three: I. Make it Surprising II. Make it Structured (here’s where we look at the 1-slide summary) III. Keep it real and relatable Let’s examine each one. I. Make it surprising I have blogged earlier about the value of surprise (using the principle of norm-variance) to get the audience’s attention. Bezos uses it multiple times …
