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Story: a reliable mode of transport I recently met up with an old friend that I hadn’t seem for a couple of years. We spent five years working for the same organisation and for a good chunk of that time we saw each other on an almost daily basis. Even though I gave...

By the time you finally see your novel published you will be surprised by just how many different ways you have needed to adapt your story. First, of course, you will need to write your story. You will write it for yourself but also with an imaginary reader in mind,...

It’s been great to reconnect with old friends and colleagues as the launch of ‘Odd Bird’ approaches. Naturally some have had questions about how the skills of an author can be applied in business. Probably some of you are wondering too. Sometimes my clients need a...

Charismatic leadership has been proven to deliver strong outcomes in terms of adoption of change and business performance. But what, precisely, is charisma? And can we develop it, or do we just hang our heads and rue our genes? In 1977, Robert J House defined charisma...

I just finished reading ‘Switch’ by Chip and Dan Heath. It’s a book about change. There are over 29 thousand business books about change on Amazon, but Switch is number one. How did the Heath brothers get to the top of that pile? I think that part of the answer is...

Everybody is talking about ‘purpose’ at the moment. Simon Sinek with his mantra, “People don’t buy what they do, they buy WHY you do it,” is probably the best known of its advocates, but he isn’t alone. Jim Stengel in his book Grow unveiled analysis that showed that...

Enter ‘storytelling for business’ into the Amazon search bar and you will find pages of books proclaiming that stories can drive your brand and/or make you a better leader. One of these books –Story Factor by Annette Simmons – was even included in the 100 Best...

Most of my work with leaders involves true stories. Very occasionally we might call on a fable, but on the whole the truth is best. However, when I went to the British Library as part of my quest for yet more ‘story science’, I found a paper that proves that fictional...