Just Seven Things

Exploring why and how we do what we do, and how we can do it better

Archive for the category “Business”

23 Jun 2008

The Power of As If II

In my post on NLP and the power of using successful outcomes in business, I pulled together some thoughts on the power of acting ‘as if’ and ‘I am’. In relatively simplistic ways I considered the success to be achieved in modelling behaviours and also the impact on image to others.

What really struck me today while I’ve been preparing for a presentation on ‘The Behaviours of Managers and Leaders’ for Madgex‘s ideas and learnings programme was whether I’d missed a bit of my own point….

I wonder whether some of the power also lies in ‘the acting’ part of it. This observation comes from my realisation that my ability to learn and assimilate new information has much improved over the last few months of running nearly weekly presentations and workshops .There is the obvious explanation that if I’m not researching for a subject then I won’t be learning. Therefore in starting to swot-up on areas of interest for the presentations I’m putting more information in front of myself than I have done in the recent past.

Read more…

Posted in Business, Communication, Knowledge Management, Learning and tagged , , , | Leave a comment
18 Jun 2008

The Why of Story Telling

Why is story telling so important? What is the equivalent of the nature vs. nurture analysis when applied to story telling?

I can see that through the ages, and particularly prior to the written word or books, stories/ myths/ legends were the ways in which human and cultural knowledge and history was passed through the ages.

I can see that it had practical uses that served its purposes. Whether providing warning of dangers or advising of best practices. Or merely for entertainment.

But why is it still so powerful? Companies are advised to tell their story. Brand advisers and advertising executives go back through the annals of the corporate histories to find the stories and put them central to the brand or product messaging. And it works. As an individual you engage with that company or product because of an historical or projected story that it weaves.

Client pitches or proposals invariably have a section for the story of the company. The ‘About’ sections of corporate websites are heavily trafficked as people strive to found the company in place, time and events.

Leaders are now advised to find their story too. It helps provide a hook into the real person rather than the faceless executive; both for their company and the people who work for it, and the media.

What is it in our nature that that requires this comfort? Is it a ‘knowing’ and ‘trust’ thing? Does somebody or something’s story enable us to create a fuller map of that individual or corporate? Something that we can then work on and from in building a relationship into the future.

Whatever it is, it’s powerful and without it you’re missing out.

Posted in Business, Communication, Leadership and tagged | Leave a comment
16 Jun 2008
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The Power of As If

I went to a speech by Simon Woodroffe of Yo Sushi fame about three years ago. Fascinating guy, and he told a great number of stories about acting ‘as if’ and the power of ‘I am’ (sorry if I’m paraphrasing/ butchering what was said but they’ve percolated away since then and I think they’re important to relate)

There’s a great one about him getting continued funding for his first restaurant because the Chairman of his main supplier made an assumption about his size because of the ‘support’ from organisations like JAL, Sony, Nippon (could be making these up here – apologies). But big Japanese firms whose logos adorned the original Yo Sushi menus. The beauty of the story being that he’d written to them and said that he’d like them to be sponsors/ supporters, that no money was required., and that if he hadn’t heard from them by x time he’d assume a yes. He didn’t hear back from them but in effect their ‘support’ enabled him to survive. The power of ‘As If’.

He referred at the end of his talk to developing a box of ‘I Ams’. Numerous ways of being and acting that could be adopted when required in different situations and to achieve different objectives.  

I didn’t really make the full connection at the time about what underpinned the ‘I Ams’ and ‘As Ifs’, but since then I’ve seen more and more evidence for the huge progress to be made in achieving a goal or effecting an outcome by starting off by acting ‘As If’ or already being that ‘I Am’. The power of acting and thinking in this way provides a huge accelerant in NLP terms; especially for the core function of modelling behaviours.

I then was reminded about quotes at the back of some Beeson Gregory (now Evolution Securities) marketing literature when we were using them as brokers during the set-up of Vinopolis. One was from Aristotle Onassis:

“To be successful, keep looking tanned, live in an elegant building (even if you’re in the cellar), be seen in smart restaurants (even if you only nurse one drink) and if you borrow, borrow big”

The Power of As If

Posted in Business, NLP, Successful Outcomes and tagged , ,

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