I often say that cliches exist because they represent the truth.
One that has been doing the rounds for a few years is: Are we on the same page? It is a very simple concept. The fact I hear it so often shows how common it is that people are on a different page from one another altogether, suffering communication breakdowns.
So to flip the idea, what if everyone could ‘read you like a book’ ? I love the idea. It drips with the possibility of powerful connections. It intimates transparency, another popular cliche of our times. It suggests authenticity. It implies clarity. What is even more exciting is that I start to think about the potential of high performing teams where people ‘read’ each other, anticipate each other and work together with a powerful synergy. We see that most obviously sometimes in sport, where a player anticipates another to create some magic. They’ve read their mate like a book.
So to completely state the obvious, the way to get to be on the same page starts with stories. The stories we tell ourselves, and the stories we share about ourselves, as individuals, as teams as organisations. New York storytelling expert, Michael Margolis says to know a culture, listen to the stories, to change a culture, change the stories.