The Assets are the Stories

"So the secret is to tell your story to everyone and anyone at every opportunity." So for how long? "You tell it until you puke!"

Anonymous Cola Executive

"In our industry, the assets go up and down in the elevator."

Bill Bernbach
Chairman and Founder
Doyle, Dane Bernbach

Let's say we're discussing financial services (although the point applies to any industry)…

The company creates a model for managing money and apportioning portfolios.

The actuaries work the equations to prove the model.

The portfolio guys trade instruments to achieve the optimum allocation.

The company originates a story, and sales management orchestrates and coordinates the field, the desk and marketing to get everyone on the same page..."One Story, Many Voices!"

Deposits start to roll in... Assets.

Now hold on there, Hotshot, those assets don't belong to you; they belong to the investor, and are controlled by a financial advisor. They are "Assets Under Management" – under your stewardship – but not yours to keep.

So what are your assets?

Well, you pick up a few points in fees... so your own portfolio is growing, slowly. But...

Has it occurred to you that your real assets might be the people who hatch the strategies and tell the stories; the people who manage the portfolios and bring the imaginary story into reality?

Has it occurred to you that the real assets may be the stories themselves?

If that's true, shouldn't you put more effort into managing your portfolio?

If the stories were assets, you'd make certain that nobody did any freelancing out in the field. You'd ensure that the desk, the field and the literature aligned themselves around the core story, with small variations for locale, circumstances and firm. You'd teach people to tell it, rather than making yourself the most unique performer in the world; you want everyone telling it…just like you. You'd repeat yourself – for years if need be. If the story is an asset, you'd know that it gains value in the retelling. The objective – if the stories are assets – is to get everyone repeating your words back to you. The retelling becomes an aspect of shared culture – it’s a little like brand heaven

Is this true? Who does this best? Consider:

The story of Christmas. The story of the United States of America. The story of Henry Ford. The story of Passover. The story of New York City. The story of Luke Skywalker and the Galactic Empire. The story of the Shao Lin Temple and Kung Fu. The story of Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney. The story of the Catholic Church. The story of Enzo Ferrari. The story of JP Morgan and the Great Depression.

Applications:

1. Personally: Your life is your raw material. Work it, Baby! Tell your stories to entertain, teach and get work.

2. At Home: A family is a micro culture filled with storytelling moments. Pull the gang together with your shared stories of love, sacrifice, adventures, losses and wins.

3. Office: Have we made the point? Culture is composed of stories. Discover, savor and retell the stories of your firm – watch it and your career grow.

Stories are Assets. Story Telling is what you do to grow your portfolio.

Integrated story telling is a significant contributor to corporate viability.

Quit freelancing, you guys, and get to work on building value.

In Praise of Brevity

"Be Sincere. Be Brief. Be Seated!"

Franklin D. Roosevelt
32nd President of the United States
(1882 - 1945)

At Gettysburg in 1863, Edward Everett delivered an eloquent speech of 13,607 words lasting two hours, just to have every word immediately forgotten when, moments later, President Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous three minute, 272 word address.

In our experience we all have a split personality – a little arrogant, and at the same time a little insecure.

Both of these augur against brevity in presentations. Arrogance inclines us to fill a page with data just to prove we’ve mastered the subject. Insecurity inclines us to fill another in fear of leaving something out. To satisfy our hutzpah and doubts, we over produce, over analyze and over verbalize. Consider this conflict: we’re all A.D.D., yet we generate twice the material and three times the slides actually required to do the job.

Time for a new standard – less is more – Brevity is king. Think Well Structured, Concise and Well Delivered.

Imagine your own response if a colleague used half the allotted time, delivered a big idea – supported by three arguments with one or two pieces of evidence – showed a maximum of 9 slides, gave a quick summary, main idea & a call to action – and ended?! Wouldn’t it be a shock (and a pleasant one) if you could get the idea, understand the analysis and embrace the next step in minimal time?

Applications:

1. Personal: Both Arrogance and Insecurity are all about you – not your listener. It’s not about you, it’s about them! Put your attention where it belongs.

2. Home/Family: Keep it brief! Your family is being schooled by the media – ten seconds is an eternity.

3. Office: Present the minimum amount of information! Then allow the audience to draw the additional information out of you in the Q & A – a conversation may “break out.” And all time limits fade in the presence of interested listeners.

The higher you rise, the less time you'll get to impress. Presidents, Deans and Heads of State are impatient, demanding and more than a little critical. So get it right and get 'er done!

Less is More!

"Less is More!"

Mies van der Rohe
American-German Architect
(1886 - 1969)

Hands, Pockets & the Limits of Rules

"Hell, there are no rules here, we are trying to accomplish something."

Thomas Alva Edison
American inventor
(1847 – 1931)

"It is a good idea to obey all the rules when you’re young just so you’ll have the strength to break them when you’re old."

Mark Twain
U.S. humorist, writer and lecturer
(1835-1910)

Flashback:

Billy, nine years of age – is a collector. Lucky rabbit's foot. Bronze coin from a European dictator. Frog. Picture of a lightning strike. Compass. Magnifier. Stuff gravitates to the Vortex in his pockets.

Today is Presentation Day. Ms. Mudgerly issues the “Summons to Front!" Billy's a little discomfited, so the hands – seeking solace – reach for the collection and there he slumps – hands in pockets, pockets in pants – shoulders slightly askew in the forlorn quest for invisibility.

Then, the commands – landing like blows on the reluctant Billy; "Billy! Take your hands out of your pockets! Stand up straight! Shoulders back! Look at us! Smile! Relax! Now go ahead! What do you have to say?" Billy reaches for the bronze coin, fumbles for a second, and "Billy, I told you to keep your hands out of your pockets! Now, go ahead! Speak!" Frozen into a safe posture by the teacher's well-intentioned commands, Billy survives the moment and internalizes the rule.

Flashback:

William, the new Analyst, is attending the obligatory Professor Elegance Vowel's Presentation Skills Training Level Four program and has survived the first three centuries of dissertation on Collar Stays and the Roots of Western Civilization, when the Professor, waxing eloquent, pivots and – like lightning – levels his laser gaze upon the reluctant William: "OK Billy, step over here and face the class!" As the elderly Vowel adjusts his belt and shirt tuck, William, sensing a hint of more than fatherly interest, guardedly puts his hands in his pockets and "Billy, take your hands out of your pockets! The First of "Vowel's Rules for Speakers" is "Never Put Your Hands in Your Pockets!" Now, focus on your first "Key Target Listener," Relax and tell us about Counter Correlation and a Well Allocated Portfolio!" Time lurches on... William now understands the constraints of acceptable behavior for speakers. This is one of a thousand examples of how we've all had harsh encounters with the rules, which leave many of us a little chastened and careful. Has it happened to you?

Present Day:

Will, now a Department Head, has brought his team to Fusion. "Look," he says, heaving a sigh and putting it out there, "We've had all the training, we're experienced, and we know the rules, but we all look a little stiff when speaking and none of us enjoy it!" A little delicate probing unearths the shared Mudgerly/ Vowel history and, with some persistence, "The Rules" are revealed in an atmosphere of rigid dudgeon.

"In our experience," says the Fusion guy, "almost everyone has been bludgeoned by the Rules and Assaulted by Propriety – leaving us a little defensive and nervously self-conscious. While such rules protect us from failing as speakers, they do nothing to assure our success. They don't make us unique, commanding or interesting. Something else – something greater is required."

Let's try this: grant yourself permission as an adult, to experiment. You most certainly have a signature already – we all do; but many of us include being stilted, tight and nervous with never a hand in a pocket – owing to a back alley encounter with Mudgerly/Vowel and company... We've become "limited by following the rules." What if we start fresh and seek the underlying principles of speaking?

Principles:

* The purpose of a presentation is to reach the audience and achieve a result – not to avoid all inappropriate gestures. Being merely safe is nowhere close to being effective.

* Use gestures, voice modulation, movement, visuals and eye contact to underscore and add meaning to the key points of the presentation. Gestures are physical pictures – adding meaning to the content.

* If it looks well on you and doesn't distract, have at it! Pockets included!

* Explore and experiment with your physical features and clothing style to build a repertoire of signature gestures and looks. Call it a Personal Signature.

* On your signature platform, build your unique presentation, and deliver it personally by looking at individuals long enough to allow the warmth of connection to make itself felt.

Working with permission and these principles as our compass, we can expand beyond the propriety of childhood into the adult, unique and professional signature that distinguishes us from the narrowly safe, and puts us in a class by ourselves.

Applications:

1. Personally: You know what? That suit looks great on you! Is there a roomy pocket? As long as there's no frog in there, or a collection of keys and subway tokens; you might risk letting a hand come to rest there quietly from time to time... Permission Granted.

2. At Home: How many Mudgerlys, Vowels or their associates are there lurking in the basement of your history, or that of your mate or family? Their unseen influence can be a powerful brake on freedom, fun, experimentation or self-expression. Take some family time and exhume some of the rule mongers from the closet and enjoy a laugh together as you salute the rules and expand into adulthood.

3. In Business: Watch it! "Professional Training" is a dangerous hiding place for elementary rule mongers posing as consultants and trainers. Adult Learners need room to define, build and expand their uniqueness, not be reviled and prodded back into a stilted version of childhood propriety. Grow your team by revealing the guiding principles at the heart of the organization – then launch!

Hey Will, make sure the collection stays in the briefcase today, unless you want to show that bronze coin to your client during the presentation – he's a collector too, looking for a professional advisor with substance, heart and style.

Silence Looking Out

The deep end starts here!

Over the years, many clients have commented that Fusion sits squarely in the center of the business/intellectual universe; yet draws on material from the extreme reaches of both the ancient wisdom traditions, and the new age frontier. Said a participant, "One minute I'm sitting in a modern business office talking about an advertising campaign, then somehow I'm transported to an ashram in India or a Zen Temple in Humboldt County, discussing the nature of personal identity..." We might observe, "So, you think these are not connected?" What in the world is more important than connecting one to the other? Fusion.

Herewith, this week’s Cornerstone...

Does the Noise in my Head Bother You?

By Steven Tyler
Lead Singer – Aerosmith
(1948 - )

"The natural state of a rational mind is silence; looking out."

Zen Roshi
Temple of the Perrenials
Weston, FL

Most people are sharing their headspace with a crazy roommate... one who mutters, worries, criticizes, talks over the conversation, judges, obsesses about the state of the finances, deems you worthless, and sweats the Yankees (Mets, Dodgers, Patriots, Bulls); all while the rational side is valiantly and thanklessly attempting to pay full attention to the business (or pleasure) at hand. (The Asian name for this is "Monkey Mind.")

Is it any wonder that – in the middle (muddle) of this incessant distraction we occasionally lose track of the business conversation?

How can we control this internal interloper? Turn down the volume or, better yet, shut it down altogether?

We suggest three solutions – from three perspectives:

1. Short Term – Attention/Looking: Zen

2. Medium Term – Affection/Loving: Hindu

3. Long Term – Distinction/Leaving it Behind: Holosophy

1. Looking

The Masters of Zen long ago discovered and taught that the noises in the mind can be silenced by directing the attention solely to the task at hand – focusing on a spot on the wall for example (ref. Bodhidharma boring a hole in the wall of his cave with the intensity of his meditative stare). We build on this ancient tradition by assisting clients in managing their eye contact so that through the focus of their attention, they no longer provide mental space for anything but the person in their focus – the task at hand. When the attention is narrowly focused, nerves and mental noise fall away. Look where you intend the arrow (or the idea) to go... (It also works for Zen Archery and Kung Fu).

2. Loving

The Hindu Gurus taught that unconditional, loving acceptance is the thing that all beings seek and is the ingredient that makes life liveable, bearable and meaningful. That voice in the head is usually critical, judgmental, dark, negative, full of invective and frustration. Have you found yourself on the way to work, reaming out the driver who cut in front of you, then arriving at the office and terrorizing the staff, bursting a blood vessel over the projector that's not functioning, then dumping on yourself as you mis-present a big idea? That voice is perhaps not grounded in affection...

What if you chose instead to notice, not judge the events in your life – no voice? What if you ascribed no importance to the car that just swerved in front of you; and even sent the harried driver some compassion? How about just notice the projector isn't operating and look for the unplugged cord? What if you accepted your own inherent limitations in business meetings and began to like the grand game of making things happen in and through corporations? Would your day go more smoothly? Would events unfold more auspisciously? Would contacts and clients appear more magically? Perhaps calm acceptance (Love) is the answer.

3. Leaving it Behind

What makes you think that voice in your head is right, or rational or good – or you? It's easy to consider that a voice in the mind, or an attitude or a residual dark malevolence – is yours because it's "in your space." Perhaps any or all of those items might be present, but they may not be you. "The thinker is not the thought. The listener is not the sound!" "The stuff in the head doesn't become yours or you until or unless you choose to own it or act on it."

Obviously this is a big sort of mental/spiritual discipline – a holistic philosophy – the sort that distinguishes masters, saints and people of rarified intention. But it is within our reach if we simply concentrate on the task at hand, accept what is happening without judgement and then choose not to own a critical thought simply because it's there. Choose your path one step at a time, and in choosing, leave behind all the noise – which may never have been yours to begin with. Making this distinction between the listener and the noise is a tenet of Holosophy. (Holosophy is an eclectic, currently evolving study which seeks to unify and align the best efforts of the great philosophers.) (Don't Google this yet. The term is misused on the Internet. We'll clear this up in subsequent posts. In the meantime, if you're interested in learning more, drop us a line.)

What does all this have to do with creating a successful career or presentation?

The old masters, and those still with us suggest that looking, loving and leaving the past behind are three components of an enlightened and successful life.

Application

At home: When listening to your mate, children or friends - silence the noise by looking – don't judge. You may hear and learn something.

At work: When listening to your colleagues or boss, silence the noise by looking – don't judge. You may hear and learn something.

If the noise in your head bothers you, just think what it's doing to someone else. Recognize it may not be you and choose not to own it.

Welcome to the deep end – jump in!