Last night Lola, aged 6, was telling a story at bedtime to Lori, the details of which I was not privy to, but it was a real story, with detail and intrigue.

I remembered that aged 3, I recorded Lola regularly, asking her to tell me something, a story. Almost without deviation, her stories where highly literal descriptions of something in the room applied to an action.

“I want to tell you about windows that open…”

I expected some kind of genius insight, but, well, not really. It seems it takes a while to build up the strength and muscle of insight and regurgitation.

So, what are your storytelling skills like? Are they rich with insight and intrigue, or are they regurgitations of what I can already see with my own eyes?

Like curiosity yesterday, have you lost that skill you had as a child to grow, and thereby bring others with you, unlocking (their) value as you naively go?

Tell a story. A real one, a rich one. Let others (lean) in. Tell another. And another. Work out what works, build a platform for learning and community – a powerful narrative that sees teams come together, unbeatable; that sees a company sweep the market because everyone believes.

This is the job of leadership: make sense of the world around you. You cannot lead if you do not share – your vision, your knowledge, your viewpoint, your beliefs, your desires.

When you do, and others deploy it in their sense making process, and they get it, crazy alignments, pacts, projects, wins occur. Everything seems so easy, so normal.

The team says:

“Isn’t it weird that we seem to just understand so effortlessly?!”

Well, yeah, it’s easy when you share a common narrative, when you speak from the same story source. That is the work.

Lots more on story and narrative here.

 

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