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Searching for Maybe-man.
14 May 2018

Searching for Maybe-man.

Searching for Maybe-man.

“Werner. Everything will be fine. As long as we have a great story to tell.”, I heard this a few times over the years I worked with one of my former bosses.

In case you wondered; she was right, more times I cared to count. Turns out Russian Novelist Leo Tolstoy understood this long before us, ‘Good art infects the audience with the storyteller’s emotions and ideas’.

Q22 Warsaw — The canvas for many potential ‘stories’.

Like a virus. Stories have an incredible capacity to influence decisions as spreads within the organism, that is an organisation.

In most great companies decision making is decentralised, but accountability flows from the top down. You are free to make a decision, as long as you take into account that your team leader will be accountable for the outcome.

How do you tell infectious stories? It starts with “My Story”, which refers to a decision or goal you want to achieve. The critical step, make sure you are not the hero. For a story to spread, you must align the narrative with the underlying worldview of the inner (senior) circles. You want your story to spread to them; they are the audience that Tolstoy refers to.

“You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” — Hilary Hinton “Zig” Ziglar.

Find a ‘maybe-man’, a champion with whom the story resonates most. Someone you can trust to turn “My Story” into “Our story” — and carry the message forth.

Prepare for compromise. Even if you chose your maybe-man well and sent him forth with a well-crafted narrative, a compromise might inevitably have to be made. You still get the green light you needed, but terms and conditions will apply. It comes with the ‘our story’ territory.

There might be unicorns. Stories that skip like a stone on the water, reaching the very core of the organism without resistance becoming ‘everybody’s’ story’. The secret is to keep on trying.

Three years ago I made Poland my home, and it was not an easy feat. My story had to carry me all the way from Africa, gaining the trust of many within the organisation. It was in the wisdom of my former director’s words that I found the motivation.

Anything is indeed possible if you have a great story to tell.

Q22 Warsaw — The canvas for many potential ‘stories’.

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