Who runs the world?.. Stories!

I've become a bit of a junkie for the?excellent 'Diary of a CEO' podcast on YouTube.

So much so that I've started making monthly financial contributions to support them.

That's unusual as we live in a world with a story that says, 'YouTube is for free'.

However, I've binge-watched so many of these insightful, well-crafted shows that I just had to contribute.

There was the interview with Stephen Fry (who I've always thought remarkably erudite but rather pompous).

After this interview, I have more profound insight.

I understand him better because I have more context.

Now, I think he is less pompous and more human.

How often have you seen discord in the workplace as people, teams, and whole business units tell themselves a flawed story about other employees?

By their stories, will you know them...

Seeking this insight is a big goal of change management practice.

Context is king.

Now?I have a better story I'm telling myself?about what Stephen Fry is really like and what we share in our vulnerable human experience.

You can only facilitate high adoption if you understand those you want to motivate to adopt change and empathise with them.

Then there was Richard Osman, who writes the entertaining and disarmingly illuminating books 'The Thursday Murder Club'. I buy them for my 94-year-old mum, but I read them before sending them - more like inhale!

Outside the train tracks of change, this podcast also interviewed?Chris Van Tulleken about his ground-breaking book, Ultra Processed People.?

It's a terrifying but compelling insight into why we should 'shop round the edges of the supermarket' and only eat whole foods.?

Again, it's delivered by someone so well-informed, articulate and compelling that it's hard not to take the message on board.?

All change managers need to learn how to be well-informed, articulate, and compelling about impending change. I teach these skills in my course,?'Sell Change with Confidence.'

Most recently, I listened to Yuval Noah Harari, the author of the influential book 'Sapiens', on the Diary of a CEO (DOAC) podcast.

A historian by trade, this guy has to be?one of the smartest and most clear-eyed thinkers I've encountered.

And isn't that marvellous!

Have you ever encountered someone in your working world who radiated brilliance and capability?

I've met a few, and they inspire me to this day.?

One was a gentleman who could whip up a compelling PowerPoint in an hour and then sell one of the trickier requirements of change management to the executive, such as why we need a dedicated training environment and no - using the test environment won't do, or why you can't endlessly shorten the training window and keep the same dates, just because the system delivery keeps slipping!

To solve complex problems, we must run incisive thought experiments.

In this podcast, you can see a master doing this in real-time.

He's not wedded to the argument but to the exploration of possibility.

Please look beyond the clickbait title on this episode. Unfortunately, high-alarm titles capture attention!

He's looking for questions that lead to better questions for ultimately better answers.

Of the many powerful insights from Yuval, I was struck by his highly quotable thoughts on storytelling.

Regarding the power of stories, Yuval said, for example, "Money is a story we are telling ourselves about trust and value between people."

That's doubly insightful as it frames a familiar thing (money) in a new context.?

And that's often the work of change. Have you ever thought about money as a construct based on trust??

In your work assignment, are you thinking laterally to reframe a negatively perceived change as a benefit??

Can you think of more than three ways to frame that negative as a positive?

Incidentally, Yuval also said, "History isn't the study of the past; it's the study of change."?

My father was a dedicated history teacher, and until Yuval said this, I had never considered the correlation between the preoccupations of the household I grew up in and my attraction to the change management profession - that's a powerful reframe!

Yuval said, "We are the dominant species on earth, not the chimps or the elephants, because of our ability to cooperate. We can cooperate because of the stories we tell ourselves. And we can tell those stories because of our superior language skills."

In the beginning was the Word.

The Word is?your?most compelling tool as a change agent to create fresh context, spark new neural connections and trigger the desire to adopt change.

We are in the business of giving users a better story about change adoption.

If you need a reframe, fresh context, and inspiration on your journey as a change practitioner, contact me about my?exclusive mentoring package for change managers.

We can have a complimentary 15-minute call. I guarantee you can tell me about your biggest change challenge, and I'll come up with at least three options to resolve it.

Finally, speaking of great questions, a mentee asked me about the best ones to ask on change assignments.?

I wrote them a list and decided it made a great giveaway.?

If you'd like a?free PDF, '40 Great Change Questions for Projects,' click here.

Sign up and go straight to downloading the free content.

I hope it serves you on your journey.

As always, here's to your change success!

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Get my free 52-page PDF workbook for change agents here??Bonus Workbook

Check out my Sell Change with Confidence Course for change managers here?? Digital Course

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Get my bestselling, gold award-winning book here??"Change Management that Sticks."

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