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Ask for stories, not advice

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You’re better off with a story than the advice the story derived from.
Every bit of advice is a mere summary of the story that the advice derived from. I came across this advice — OK, it lacks a story — back in December as I looked for background on a new source for a report I wrote in December.

In a Forbes article by Clowdflower founder Lukas Biewald, “My board fired me, here’s what I learned,” Biewald tells why.

Ask for stories, not advice. Every piece of advice has a more memorable and interesting story behind it. In Silicon Valley, there’s no shortage of smart, successful people wanting to give you advice and, as a first time CEO, I didn’t have the experience yet to distinguish smart advice from empty advice.

… Read the rest “Ask for stories, not advice”

“Storytelling: Gimmick or Real?” My latest in Information Management

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I’m stalking the data-story story. One of the first stops is with a few smart people I know and trust to have given it thought. Scott Davis, whose name long-time Datadoodle readers will recognize, has thought about it deeply. I talked to him in June, and in August finally wrote it up.

By the way, part of the delay had to do with my attempt to make it into a podcast. That would have been a Datadoodle first, and there was no better way to start off than by hearing Scott say, “I’m going to give you a cliché that’s repeated so often it’s taken as truth, and I’m going to tell you it’s straight up false: Information is not derivative of data.”… Read the rest ““Storytelling: Gimmick or Real?” My latest in Information Management”

Antidote for too-dull-to-read case studies: fiction

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Users I interview for case studies tell me good stories. But most come with a poison pill: you can’t write it because it’ll embarrass someone. Just try getting it through the rounds of approval.

The smart marketer’s answer: Make up a composite!

If, as Financial Times columnist Gideon Rachman writes, fiction is the best way to understand Libya under dictator Muammer Qaddafi, then it just might work to understand the drama within organizations.

How much do you really understand from news accounts from Libya? Before the current crisis, most news emphasized Muammer’s weird style of dress, his ranting speeches, and his “voluptuous Ukrainian nurse.”… Read the rest “Antidote for too-dull-to-read case studies: fiction”