Financial Storyteller

Interview with Kathy Hansen on A Storied Career

This week I am thrilled to see a Q&A piece I did for Kathy Hansen run on her blog, A Storied Career.  There are five questions and answers, one of which Kathy is posting each day. Kathy's site "... explores intersections/synthesis among various forms of Applied Storytelling ..." and as part of this she has a long running series of Q&As with a wide range of storytellers. These include notable writers such as Annette Simmons and Lori Silverman, both of which I've mentioned before in my own posts. There are many other story practitioners as Kathy describes them, equally as interesting and it's great to join the list.

I don't think Kathy has interviewed herself yet which is a shame as I think her Q&A would definitely make good reading. Here's an excerpt from her bio (click here to read it in full).

Katharine (Kathy) Hansen, Ph.D., creative director of Quintessential Careers, is an author and instructor, in addition to being a career expert. Her books include Dynamic Cover Letters (more than 100,000 copies sold), Write Your Way to a Higher GPA, and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Study Skills, written with Dr. Randall S. Hansen, as well as Dynamic Cover Letters for New Graduates (11,000+ copies sold), and A Foot in the Door: Networking Your Way into the Hidden Job Market, published by Ten Speed Press, and Top Notch Executive Resumes: Creating Flawless Resumes for Managers, Executives, and CEOs (Career Press) and Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling to get a Job and Propel Your Career (JIST Publishing, April 2009). 

There are many many forms of storytelling in many different fields. My interest is of course in business and specifically the stories told by the financials within them. Whether working as a part-time CFO for early stage companies, a senior employee in a large organisation or as a consultant to both it is clear to me that the ability to translate copious and often complicated numbers into a coherent and easily understood story is a key business skill.

The questions and answers in Kathy's interview hopefully give some insight into this. You can read the first installment here and click through to find subsequent pieces. If you would like to contribute to the discussion then I encourage you to comment over on A Storied Career, where I will join you!

 

Coming Soon: Case Study Series on Financial Storytelling

Over the coming weeks I will be posting a series of short financial storytelling case studies. The aim of these is to provide insight into what financial storytelling is and how it can be applied. Subscribe to this site to be notified when the series launches and also to stay up to date with the latest news from Stewart.

Good Companies have Stories by Raf Stevens

The below presentation was brought to my attention the other day. I think it does an excellent job of explaining why Storytelling is a Strategic Business tool.

No Story No Company

View more OpenOffice presentations from rafstevens.

I would extend Raf's metaphor that a company is like a human being. I see the financial aspects of a company as vital signs. They are, to use the traditional word, indicators of a company's health. They tell their own story. In the same way you can learn a lot about someone from their smile and how they look, you can also learn a lot from how they say they are feeling. Are they tired, fighting off a headache or living every minute with in constant pain?

If you meet someone who looks healthy, has a positive mindset, smiles a lot and is comfortable in their own space you take notice. If you were asked whether you thought they could run a 4 minute mile, you would be optimistic. You would have a degree of confidence. However if the signs are not as positive it's easy to become cautious and at worst cynical.

Raf says in his presentation that there is a problem. People hate facts. I agree, especially when facts are numbers. I also agree that Keeping It Super Simple is absolutely key with numbers. To borrow Raf's language again, numbers have no value on their own. They need the context, they need the essence of what they represent communicated effectively.

The financial story of a company is not knowing their heart-rate or sugar level at one point in time, it's about regular check-ups!. It's about knowing when it's time to take more exercise, change your diet or simply slow down. Anyone can hit a home run: that gets you some instant and short lived glory. However if you hit a home run in every game, game after game, month after month, season after season, then people take notice. As spectators they look to the coach and they start to live your story as they watch every at bat.

Financial Storytelling is about making sure you are in the game.

David Lynch delivers sublime storytelling in Interview Project

I noticed this morning a contact of mine recommending "Story" by Robert Mckee. Mckee is a screenwriting guru who recently gave his world famous 3 day seminar here in Vancouver. I was thinking about this a couple of days ago as I followed up on this article in the June 13 edition of the Globe & Mail. The article was about Director David Lynch's new project Interview Project. I first remember hearing his name in connection with Twin Peaks back in the early 1990s but of course his list of credits is immense and this was only the tip of the iceberg.

One of my wife's favourite films happens to be David Lynch's The Straight Story, where amongst other things the photography is stunning. This is of course a common theme of Lynch's work. Both photography and screenwriting come to the fore in Interview Project. It is a "32,000-kilometre, 70 day road trip" around the US which Lynch sent his crew on to interview 'normal' folk. The result is 121 three to five minute monologues which are being released one every few days online.

As I write there have been 7 interviews posted, each one is a few minutes long. The website has a little more background. Most of the people were interviewed where they were found, a lot more material was recorded than used. I have been enthralled and amazed by the combination of intensity, photography and screenwriting. Everyone has a story to tell and David Lynch has demonstrated once again his storytelling talent. For me it showed how telling a good story is made up of multiple elements. It's rare to see all of them at such a consistently high standard as Interview Project. I wouldn't be surprised to see characters like Alvin from the Straight Story show up more than once!

As much as this is a 'project,' is it actually the start of a new 'format.' Imagine the addition of a DVD to the Fortune 500 Companies issue which contained short videos of each CEO telling the story of his/her company? For new businesses, putting together a video like this could be a huge marketing asset. Of course we are not all David Lynch, but this project truly shows what is possible. Apart from providing entertainment and education it is a real inspiration.

The changing nature of purchasing decisions

Over the last few years I've started using some form of mind mapping software. In keeping with my goal to move as much to the cloud as I could I started with  bubbl.us. I like bubbl.us - it's easy to use and free. However I found I wanted a little more functionality. After lots of research with the help of Chuck Frey's excellent Mind Mapping Software Blog, I tried the beta of Webspiration. For a web application I was impressed and for the better part of a year I used it to capture lots of corporate processes and models. Recently though cracks in my cloud have started to appear and I started looking at what else was out there.

After extensive (for me!) research I am now on day two of my trial with Novamind.  Aside from basic functionality and the user experience (which other offerings also have) I chose the Aussie company for the following reasons:

• They do have a Mac version.
• They do have an active online community they participate in.
• They did let me download the version of their software I wanted for 30 days.
• They have a new version coming out which they will upgrade new users to for free.
• The CEO, Gideon King is on twitter and followed me back.

I did write a detailed piece on each of the above. However, what I think is really important about the list is what it says about how I made my decision. A purchase is no longer about a simple exchange of money for product. It is also a fee for opening up a conversation. Novamind understands this (as do Batchblue for instance and even Apple to some degree) but you would be surprised how many companies do not.

Is this specific to software? or do other products / services need to pay attention?

SFU Social Innovation Business Case Competition

Last weekend I was asked to judge another business case competition, this time at SFU Surrey. The competition was titled the the SFU Social Innovation Case Competition, with some prize money provided by the CMA Centre for the students.

The students were all under-graduates and the case they were presented with was hard. The competition is amongst other things, a training ground for the students who try to get on the various SFU Case Competitions that compete around the world and locally (e.g. CaseIT). (oh if only they had such things when I was an undergraduate!) This case was rather different, as it involved a philanthropic activity by a major corporation which was 'for profit' rather than a straight forward foundation or 'non-profit.'

I'm not convinced at the end of the day whether the students came up with any ideas that would actually fly in the real world. However, what I will say is that I am convinced they should be trying! Maybe it's the idea of redistributing wealth from those who have to those who don't, or the growth of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) as a business fad, or even the response of the world to a global economic crisis that makes us want to think different. Whatever it is I think that engaging students NOW is important.

Clifford Stoll commented in his TED speech that if you want to know about the future you should talk to a good kindergarten teacher - they see if every day. Judging by the enthusiasm and effort that all the competitors put in on Saturday I am sure that this is where the answers will come from. Even if I'm wrong, I would still say the student's contribution to the discussion is absolutely key.

It's the first time the Social Innovation competition has been run and in that context it's a great start. There was plenty of feedback from the judges both in terms of what the case was about and how it can improve next time around. Personally, I can't wait.

Note: I just found the inov8.ca blog connected with the above, say the name out loud :-)

The quandary of television ...

A young middle aged man found himself in a bit of a quandary. Years ago he had given up his cable television subscription: disillusioned with the content on offer, he made do with streaming the odd hockey game from his computer. His youthful and good looking better half was very content with a subscription to a DVD by mail service and he also found himself enjoying this service as well. The quandary was whether or not to buy a new television set when he didn't actually watch 'television.'

Nonetheless the young middle aged man saw the merit of a bigger picture and decided to run the gauntlet of the television stores. Historically he favoured a particular brand and as it happened they actually had a couple of their own stores not far from where he lived. One day he decided to browse in the lions den of fantastically bigger and bigger televisions: all bright, all loud and all thoroughly confusing. Eventually he did manage to find a small (by comparison to others) set he liked. He also found what appeared to be three different prices. What was the difference?

A smiling salesman approached and listened to the young middle aged man's questions and helpfully explained the different features. He asked what the young middle aged man liked to watch (hockey and DVDs) and described the relevant differences between the models which helped explain the different prices. The young middle aged man left the store feeling happy that he had learned something. While still wondering which of the models he should buy, he was impressed with the salesman.

A few days later he found himself in another part of town with his youthful and good looking better half. They passed by another of the television stores and decided to look together. They found their way to the lions den of fantastically bigger and bigger televisions, all bright, all loud and all thoroughly confusing. Eventually they spotted the size of television they liked. The same set the young middle aged man had seen in the other television store.

A smiling salesman pounced on them and immediately regaled them with stories of the two (not three) models they had on sale for this year. A 'deal' was immediately presented and sounded to the young middle aged man immediately like a 1980s car show room with a salesman like a Canadian version of Arthur Daley. Sadly Arthur's charm was missing. The young middle aged man then learned all about the salesman's house, how many children he had and crucially it would seem, therefore how many televisions he had. The salesman favoured the latest and most expensive model, having now changed tact from the original 'deal.'

At one point the young middle aged man saw a hockey game playing on one of the bigger televisions and asked is he could see it on the smaller TV he was interested in. This would have been very helpful. The request was immediately declined. The salesman did not seem to know the features very well and focussed on being very critical of the idea that you could have a television without 'television,' mixing metaphors along the way. The salesman then went on to share information about an offer from a completely different company, another 'deal,' not only for television, but also telephone and Internet. Confusingly he then explained why he couldn't take the offer up himself at home.

The young middle aged man was confused. He thought this was a television store and given his experience at the first store was very surprised by the contrast in styles of salesmanship. Maybe it was the youthful good looks of his better half, but it did seem the salesman thought his potential customers had been born on the previous day. The young middle aged man's better half did not enjoy the experience of the store (or the salesman) and he was doubly disappointed as it was difficult enough to convince his youthful good looking better half to enter the store in the first place!

The quandary remained but given the experiences so far, the young middle aged man is more likely to buy the cheaper television model and take the time to go back to the first television store he visited.

Then again given his experiences so far, he may just decide not to do anything about it at all!

Pecha Kucha Night - Vancouver Column #6

Last night I attended the sixth installment of Pecha Kucha in Vancouver. What is 'Pecha Kucha' ? According to the 'About' page this was devised back in 2003 as a place for young designers to meet, network and show their work in public.

I can't say too much about the meet and network elements, although I did meet Steven Cox who hosts and introduces the speakers. I was assisting Bruce Sharpe of Singular Productions who was recording the event. You can see some of the recordings Bruce made at the previous event here.

I was particularly intrigued by the format of the event. Every speaker has 20 slides which are displayed for 20 seconds. My instinct tells me this should be written as Twenty20 but maybe that's been done already. That's basically 7 minutes by the time each speaker gets on and off stage. 7 minutes is also, as it happens the average length of a speech at Toastmasters, so I was keen to see how this worked out.

Steven opened the evening with a dedication to Arthur Erickson who died aged 84 on Wednesday. Erickson has long been an inspiration in Vancouver and his list of achievements are simply staggering. There's more information on Erickson's website which I encourage you to take a look at. I am definitely not qualified to do what Steven did so well (especially given his own emotions) but I will say I loved the fact that many of Erickson's buildings complemented their natural locations, especially climate (I stole that from Wikipedia!). For instance, the post and beam construction method of the Coastal First Nations - something that particularly resonates with me at the moment.

The Twenty20 format was fascinating. In amongst the crashing beer bottles kicked over by the audience sitting in the dark, each speaker came up and tried to time their delivery with the slides. No monitor was provided for the speakers which meant that sadly most of the time they were looking at their slides not at their audience. A lot of the content was excellent, but generally the delivery was disappointing. Few had very little energy - the pressure of 'losing control' of their slides clearly the biggest impact.

Some spoke very quickly and they had to introduce a pregnant pause until the next slide came up. Some overrun the particular slide. Admittedly a couple of speakers made a joke of this which for the wrong reasons was a highlight of their presentation, simply because from a technique point of view it was very well done compared to how the rest of the speech was delivered. Normally a crashing bottle or a baby's cry would be distracting as a speaker, for many speakers this acted as a release and they seemed to relax more. There were lots and lots of ums and ahhs as well as other crutch words which took away from some of the message.

But let me be clear about this. Public speaking is NOT easy, it is particularly complicated when you add a visual dimension with slides. Add to that the loss of control as the slides change automatically and presenting at Pecha Kucha is tough! All of the speakers got up in front of hundreds of people and shared their personal passion of the moment - that takes guts. Many times I have met/seen designers who in person have eccentricity and extroversion in boat loads, but throw in a big audience (and the above!) in and they become introverted and shy.

Although I can throw stones at the presentation skills, to do so is to a large extent missing the point. The art, i.e. the pictures, the buildings, the stuff the speaker creates and shares is an expression of who they are. If I consider the content of the slides alone then this is more than enough for me to enjoy the whole experience and make sure I get tickets for the next one!

Like the other manifestation of Twenty20, Pecha Kucha is a truly international affair with events in well over 100 cities worldwide. I would love to see an event in another city (maybe a roadtrip would make a good documentary?) - it is amazingly inspiring to be in the company of such amazing creativity.