What's Your Story?. Craig Wortmann
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OF TOOLS, NO BLUEPRINTS
Think for a moment about all of the communications tools at our disposal. We have e-mail, a phone, a mobile phone, a pager or BlackBerry, instant messaging, and text messaging. We also have meetings, conferences, and informal conversations. We spend vast amounts of time learning how to use, program, sync, and trouble-shoot our communications tools. We also spend considerable time setting up appointments and managing our calendars.
Once all of these unproductive activities are squared away, do we then turn to our well-thought-out blueprint for how to actually use different tools in different situations so that we can increase performance? Or do we often fall back on the most familiar and expedient—treating all of our tools like hammers and our communications like nails?
“I sometimes think we have become so obsessed with the means of communication that have been developed, that we have lost all contact with the message that is being conveyed.”
– TED KOPPEL15
As Figure 1.2 shows, our communications devices can actually push us apart, instead of bringing us together. All of this technology-enabled communication we rely on enables us to stay in our cubicle or office (bunker) and get work done. But our devices and tools certainly come with a Faustian bargain. Yes, they speed our access to information and increase our flexibility, allowing us to work wherever we are. But they also take away some of what makes it fun and energizing to work with people; that is, the social interaction and learning we get from each other (especially because we now work all the time).
FIGURE 1.2 How Organizations Communicate
“It is safe to assume that any individual or group you wish to influence has access to more wisdom than they currently use. It is also safe to assume that they also have considerably more facts than they can process effectively. Giving them more facts adds to the wrong pile. They don’t need more facts. They need help finding their wisdom.”
– ANNETTE SIMMONS17
We have become so incredibly busy sending and receiving email alone that our face-to-face interaction drops like a stone. A client said to me that she asked her employees to turn off their BlackBerrys for a whole day and interact with each other face to face if they needed a piece of information from someone, or needed to convey something. The results were amazing. Her employees told her that they found out so much more about what they needed to know and that it was a lot more fun!16
One of our main challenges as leaders is to not be like the fish that is oblivious to the water around it. We must take stock of what communication methods we have at our disposal and which one is best suited to the particular task at hand. We should be using a blueprint to determine exactly what kind of communication we will use to impact a specific performance issue.
The worst software feature ever invented.
FIGURE 1.3 New Yorker Cartoon
“Is there anything so deadening to the soul as a PowerPoint presentation?”
– JOHN SCHWARTZ18
FISH TANK FULL OF GLUE
It’s 1980 and you just walked into your office and you see the following scene unfold. The boss walks out of his office, past the secretary, down the hall to talk to a colleague. The employee and the boss talk, look at a document together, make a few changes, and then hand the document to the secretary for typing. The employee then calls the customer and tells her secretary that he will have the document to her by next Tuesday.
Don’t you get the feeling that all of these people are moving in slow motion? Yuck! It’s almost as if they are working in a fish tank full of glue!
Fast-forward to today. The boss in Chicago e-mails her associate in New York, attaching the document that has been edited with tracking. The associate, who is waiting in line at Starbucks, takes out his BlackBerry and pages a colleague in Hong Kong (where it’s 11 PM) with a quick request for some details. The Hong Kong associate, chatting with some friends in a local pub, feels the buzz of her Treo and responds immediately, after checking some facts on her company’s knowledge portal. The associate in New York then accepts the changes to the document and e-mails it to the client. The client, working from home that day, calls the associate’s mobile phone to ask him for one final change. The associate pages his boss, she accepts the change, and the client is satisfied.
Isn’t this much more exciting? Yes! It’s fast-paced, high-tech, and you get the feeling that all of these people are sipping espressos and wearing Armani suits (actually, they are).
The best software feature ever invented.
What is missing in this story? In the first part of the story, the pace is excruciatingly slow. It is so slow that it’s painful to imagine. What’s missing are all of the technology enablers that would get the job done faster and the urgency created by a more competitive environment, so the scene plays out in slow motion. What is present, though, is the increased interaction between the people. Because there is a lack of technology enablers, there is more time for interaction, for conversation, and for stories.
“So this is how we end up alone together. We share a coffee shop, but we are all on wireless laptops. The subway is a symphony of earplugged silence while the family trip has become a time when the kids watch DVDs in the back of the minivan. The water cooler, that nexus of chatter about the show last night, might go silent as we create disparate, customized media environments.”
– DAVID CARR19
This is not to say that today we lack all interaction. We have more interaction with each other than we have ever had before, and a lot of that interaction is a positive development. But, we make far fewer opportunities to share stories, and that’s what we need to change. We all seem to be much busier, and technology enables our busy lifestyles. But how do we bring back some of the richness without sacrificing the reach? How do we create relationships that go beyond transactions?
I’m not suggesting that we go back to the olden days. Not at all (I like a good espresso as much as the next guy). But I’m suggesting that we become more aware of our stories, and that we look for opportunities to embed our stories in our communications, because this is great a way to help us manage our information and increase our performance.
SMALL GROWS UP
The march of technology and its effects on our behavior is the same as the story of how “small” became “large.” Remember when a “small” was actually small? When you asked for a small coffee, it came in a cute little cup. When you asked for a small Coke, you got a small Coke. But then small grew up, got bigger, started putting on weight, and never looked back. Whether that “small” was a coffee, a soda, restaurant portions, football players, cars, or even suburbs, your first thought was probably, “Wow, this is great. I am getting so much more for my money!” So we order all of those smalls and larges and we feel like we are really getting a deal until we suddenly realize that none of our pants fit! It costs us $60 to fill up our gas tanks and our 25-minute commute is now and hour and a half. Maybe we’ve had too much. When did that become acceptable? And how long does it take us to realize that some of this stuff is bad for us?
The late Neil Postman once compared our inability to deal with the vast amounts of information pouring over us to the AIDS epidemic. He said the following in a speech in 1990:
“[That is,] we don’t know what information is relevant, and what information is irrelevant to our lives. Second, we