Who Are You?
What do you do before you talk with strangers? You introduce yourself. You tell them who you are. Who Are You? The answer to that question is at the heart of any human relationship. It’s the basis of trust. But before you can answer, you need to ask yourself, who do you think you are? Organizations are the same way. Your name is just one piece of information. What you do is another. Why you do what you do is the most important piece of all. Some people call these mission and vision statements. What do you believe? What do you aspire to? What truths do you hold to be self-evident? Write...
Read MoreHow To Be Human
Adults often find it awkward to communicate through video. That’s unfortunate because video is an enormously engaging communications channel available. But mastering video is easy for a child. Why? Because children usually have someone specific in mind that they’re speaking to. The camera is just a means for reaching that person. It’s a tool . . . just like a telephone once was. To communicate like a human you need to have another human in mind when you talk. Demographic groups are not human. Market segments are not human. Millennials . . . they’re not human. Your mother is human. So...
Read More
First, Define Your Character
Corporate storytelling is all the rage. But before you can tell a story you need to know who the characters are. Mitt Romney got skewered for saying that corporations are people. But he wasn’t totally wrong. People have enormous influence on the personality and culture of an organization. They give it character. The great example of that is Apple Computer. Steve Jobs embodied the character of Apple. That was clear when he left the company and Apple became just another 80s tech company. When Jobs returned, so did the character. And Jobs didn’t just talk about products. He talked about...
Read More
Recent Comments