Author: admin

Now more than ever before the world needs deeper meaning FULL stories.

 The idea of Story3 is to challenge ourselves to share stories with breadth, depth and just the right length. The symmetry of three comes up for us in many worlds; the world of science, of culture and symbol and of art. I call the pattern SAS, Science, Art and Spirit.

The greatest stories have all these elements, they appeal to the logic, the emotion and the primal instincts in us all. I have read again a great speech from Martin Luther King about the three dimensions of a great life. He talks about building our values through the breadth, the depth and the length of the life we live.

 For Maori, the indigenous people of the land where I am from, patterns of three are important in symbol, the spoken word, and in actions. It has a balance. there is to three, in the spoken word, the tricolon. Great speakers such as Martin Luther King, as President Obama have used this rhythm to communicate powerful stories.

It is a pattern that is easy for us.  In navigation, triangulation is used to work out where you are, three points to anchor your position. 

Stories help us find where we are, give us a place and a connection.  And the greatest stories often have three parts to them, at a simple level, a beginning a middle and an end. There is always a journey in these stories, through good times and bad. We need to have the dark and the light in stories, that is how we learn. And so in a time where there is more media to communicate than ever before in our history, more glossed over content and doom and gloom content, we need our stories to be clear, to stand out, and to have an integrity. And that are clearly shared in service of others.

Every day we all consume and share stories. Sometimes wordlessly, sometimes with great verbose gusto.

In this audio interview, I talk about how we are hardwired for story, to learn, to grow, to act.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpZiO80eWwM&w=560&h=315]
To register for the Story to the Power of 3 workshop, email: info@spoke.co.nz

Nothing gets the juices going for a great many people than a ‘kiss and tell’ story. High profile, actors, musicians, politicians are hounded by journalists and paparazzi hunting behind the scenes stories, photos and videos.

We some how crave to know the ‘real story.’ It’s the same with reality shows, the out takes at the end of movies, and the ‘making of’ docos.

My take on ‘outtakes and ‘mistakes’ is that we know every one is fallible. Heroes always have flaws, that is part of what makes them a hero. Their journey, through good and bad.

My latest workshop, Busting Boring Bios, is all about building a compelling personal brand.

What are our real stories, warts and all? What are the blunders, and misfortunes as well as the successes and breakthroughs ? Who are we after hours as well as work?

I had the pleasure of speaking at a conference run by a world expert on building profiles in social media, Michael Margolis from Get Storied in New York. Here he talks about how important it is to have a good bio.[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3Z-irPK9zI&w=560&h=315]

In our media savvy and saturated world, light weight, and write by numbers profiles no longer cut it. Everyone says they are ‘passionate’ about something. Everyone has ‘leadership’ skills. The cliches long used in CVs are today are real turn off. To stand out, be who you say you are, and craft the stories of your points of difference are becoming a critical skill in business.

The next Busting Boring Bios workshop is on April 3. To register, email: info@spoke.co.nz

It amazes me how we get so fixated on quantity over quality. I reckon we have a fear of quality; being able to produce it, or being deserving enough to receive it.

Somehow we justify our existence by doing more, and make it seem that the quantity of our work is of greater value. And then I think of a Swiss Army knife. The one with 20 + gadgets seems impressive, but it is the one with only one blade that I use over and over again. It is half rusty, after a fishing trip where it was the only knife we had, and now sits on my key ring and is always at hand.

We take the same attitude into the stories we tell; the stories about ourselves, our work and our lives. We think the more we bombard people with information and stuff, the better the story.

I still catch myself doing this, even after years of working in the radio industry creating very short sound bites, often only 5 to 7 second long.

Today it is a ‘must’ to have a public profile in social media, and so it has become critical that we learn to tell our stories in a short space; short and sweet.

Think of a great soup or a great sauce in cooking. The tastiest are rendered down to their essence. So too, with stories. In film script writing they call it ‘killing your darlings’ where you have to get ready with the razor and take out any fat in your story, even if it is a piece you really love.

Take a hard look at your stories. What is critical to it making sense? What can you really do without. If you find it hard to self edit, work with a trusted friend or colleague, someone you know can be blunt and ‘to the point’ .

I find it funny how sometimes the “Making Of’ movies can end up more interesting than a movie itself.

We always love to watch the ‘directors cut’, the outtakes, the ‘unauthorised’ version of a story.

We crave the authentic, the uncut version, the real oil. So why is that?

I think we’ve become a little bit too clever for our own good. We can craft stories in any medium, and manipulate how they look and feel. We can package reality any way we want.

But it is the ‘backstory’, without the gloss and polish that we often long remember.

Throughout my career as a radio journalist and documentary maker, the best stories in an interview would often be told after the microphone was turned off. People would be naturally cautious or perform while being recorded, but at their ease talking ‘off the record ‘.

The greatest documentary makers have people so much at ease, they are themselves as if the interviewer or camera isn’t there.

We love those ‘fly on the wall’ documentaries and reality TV shows because we consider it’s the real thing.

It is time we all totally merged, integrated ourselves in our personal and professional lives, and got brave about telling the good, the bad, and the ugly of what is really going on.

If we own the ‘backstory’ of our lives and work, the mistakes, the fears, the uncertainties, then we will build trust, higher performing teams and greater communities.

If we own and tell our backstory, who we are on and off the record, we have nothing left to hide and we can engage and work with others without any baggage or anything hidden.

We are surrounded by the ‘social’ media of our times. Bringing backstory to social media is what it is all about. People don’t want stories that are all gloss or all gloom.

So stop and think about some of the biggest mistakes or challenges of your life. What did you learn? Tell stories about your journey, your weaknesses as well as your strengths.

It might take a little courage, but anything worth learning in life requires a little discomfort.

Owning and telling your backstory just might be the pathway to the happiness and success in life you desire.

The first time I faced a big audience I bombed.

Not only did I bomb, but I threw in the towel and totally gave up.

It was a high school election for student president.

After fumbling the mic on the mic stand, I froze, and then told the audience to vote for the other candidate.

It was the most humiliating moment of my life.

I will never forget the sea of expectant faces, friends, enemies, waiting for me to rock the house. It never happened.

I had enrolled all the ‘cool kids’ around the school with talk of a campaign to allow smoking and hopefully alcohol in the common room for seniors. As if that was ever going to happen. It was the first time a ‘non-nerd’ had given the leadership a crack.

So the day of the assembly of 600 or so students, I had not prepared a single word, a single policy, a joke, a one liner, or anything. I thought I would wing it.

Big, big mistake.

So fast forward 18 months. I am broadcasting live to the country on nationwide radio about a major shipwreck off the Wellington Harbour.

I’ve been airlifted in by helicopter, staying in a lighthouse, and reporting on the rescue and salvage attempts. Experienced reporters have struggled. I won’t give up. I stake out the beach in horrendous weather, waiting for the ace salvage expert to be winched down to the beach, some hardy old guy from Singapore called Red. I get an exclusive interview.

I went on to a successful career as a radio journalist. I was never lost for words. I had written, on paper, or in my head, every script. That became a pattern for my professional career.

But it has been a two edged sword. As I shifted career in my 30s and engaged in a whole range of adventures and personal development opportunities, I started to see how constant dry runs of every interaction I had was spoiling spontaneity and being present.

What a dilemma.

Now as I have hit the wonderful milestone of turning 50, I am developing ‘being in the zone’; where I am prepared, spontaneous and present. It’s a great place to be, and highly effective.

So this is my story. It can be my bio. It can be my blurb, with a bit of an edit. It is totally me, I can own every sentence of it. And drill down into the varied learnings, and opportunities.

Is it a Blab, or Blah Blah Blah?

I don’t think so.

It’s genuine and authentic. It rings true. And people remember it.

The point of this story is the contrasts and the journey from failure to success. There are potentially many levels to this story. And there are chapters that can be teased out.

This has all become part of my life story. Getting your story straight, the good, the bad and the ugly, the personal and the professional is going to be critical in 2012. With social media everywhere, there is no place left to hide.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?

The best stories get you thinking. And that’s usually because they are not simply black and white. They leave you with something to work out; a dilemma, a problem that gets you pondering.

Sadly a lot of stories in our news media, our film industry and our television world, don’t do audiences the honour of leaving something for people to work out.

Some new research shows from a visual point of view, dumbing things down destroys development. In fact it shows that visually difficult images can actually aid comprehension.

Albert Einstein said everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler; “we can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

Likewise, John F. Kennedy once said “we go to the moon not because it’s easy, but because it’s difficult.”

When I hear people trot out the aphorism, Keep It Simple Stupid, it annoys me. Often it is not honouring of the audience. Don’t get me wrong, I think we should always work hard to achieve clarity in all communication, but there is a difference between clarity, simplicity and dumbing down.

I think it is time to share stories that have complexity and depth, that stimulate reflection and actions. The greatest stories are about journeys between dark and light, failure and success. Characters in great stories are faced with choices and dilemmas, and sorting through complexity. Stories need a KICC more than they need a KISS.

Actions speak a thousand times louder than words when miming.

I watched an awesome mime busking on Auckland’s waterfront last week.

He had a special talent for creating story out of nothing, and working with his audience.

His brilliance was working with young children. He grabbed young members of the audience and had them take part in his story creation. He built a story in front of us, based on the reactions of the children.

One child was only just walking, maybe 18 months old. He was obviously intrigued with the miming and was fearless in his interactions. The mime teased the little boy; squirted water at him, caught him a fishing net, threatened him with a giant boxing glove, and played with a ball with him. They were very simple actions, but compelling and funny. The little boy was fearless and only briefly got upset when he could not keep the ball.

The crowd was entranced. I was amazed. We have become so accustomed to sophisticated tricks, with lots of bells and whistles. But this guy’s props were minimal, and he created a story on the spot, with the simple actions of small children.

Another trick involved having children take part in a trick that involved creating a drum roll, and a human wall that he was apparently going to leap. The setting up of the trick became the story, as he arranged the children, and mimed what he wanted them to do. Every time some one misunderstood an instruction became part of the gag. He slowly builds anticipation in the trick. In the end he never leapt, but gently pushed the kids over like human dominoes.

He took risks, he did things that in another context might be inappropriate, but did them with grace and balance.

His actions, in another context would be meaningless and boring, but he held the audience in his hand, through his courage to be engrossed with the people with him, and build a performance out of natural actions.

Story at it’s most powerful is very simple and based on very human experience, often just twists on the very everyday things we all do and see.