The StoryBank
Stories have impact. When we use them in our business conversations, they make our messages clear and memorable. We are all great storytellers, but we can't be a one-story wonder. This podcast is designed to help you build your story collection.
Episodes
161 episodes
Episode 162 – Curiosity Not Contempt – Zip Your Lips
All of us have met that person. The new leader. The consultant. The expert. The person who has barely arrived but already knows what’s wrong with everyone else’s work.Sometimes we’ve been that person ourselves. The strange thing is that...
Episode 161 – Intuition or Analysis – Six Lives At Stake
In the world of business, full of buzzwords like brainstorming, analysis, rationality, is there still a role for instinct and intuition?Today’s story will convince you there is.It’s about a split-second decision, made with zero ...
Episode 160 - Facts Inform. Stories Move - A Lesson from 9/11
You’ve presented the data. Made the case. Shown the numbers. And still nothing moved. Sound familiar?The reason that happens is that logic and data alone is often not enough. Canadian neurologist Donald Calne spent his care...
Episode 159 – Bruno Fernandes, The Assist Maker – The Best Leaders Make Others Score
In a world that worships the goal-scorer, this week’s story is about the man who made the goals possible.As a Manchester United fan of 32 years, Bruno Fernandes breaking the all-time Premier League assists record didn’t just make me smi...
Episode 158 - He Should Be My Boss - Satya Nadella’s Unexpected Move
A story that touched my heart about a CEO I admire and an act I never expected to happen in a dog eat dog world.Listen on.For more #storiesatwork do have a look the playlists of stories on our website - https://bit.ly/SW_S...
Episode 157 - The Rose That Changed History - Florence Nightingale’s Data Revolution
Is having data and sharing data enough to convince people to take action? Of course not. We need to help people see reality clearly enough that the right answer becomes obvious. While Data Storytelling is a very powerful way to do it, today's e...
Episode 156 – Power without Mastery – The AI Blind Spot?
Like many of you, I'm navigating two very different emotions about AI — the excitement of a kid in a candy store and the fear of someone standing at the edge of a cliff. And with every new release, both are intensifying.Many of us are r...
Episode 155 – No One Briefed The Gorilla – Prepare Then Let Go
Yesterday, Sir David Attenborough turned one hundred years old.No one alive has done more to make ordinary people like me fall in love with the natural world.A man with a microphone and a camera crew and an extraordinary gift fo...
Episode 154 – AI Needs Fresh Eyes – Walk out the door and come back in
Every good leader knows how to manage change. New processes, new structures, new tools etc. These are hard, but they're familiar.But AI is asking for something far more challenging. It's not asking us to learn a new tool. It's asking us...
Episode 153 – The Man Who Said No – Human in the loop
IC has been reading this book by Ethan Mollick called 'Co-Intelligence', and there's this really interesting paradox he talks about.You'd think that now that AI can look up facts, write code, summarise research, basically do all the "bo...
Episode 152 – The Bad News Office – Don’t trust good news
Most leaders I work with assume their teams tell them the truth. After all, they have open-door policies. They say, "Bring me bad news early”. And they mean it.Yet somehow, the bad news comes late. Or softened. Or not at all. Not becaus...
Episode 151 – The Streetlamp Trap – The Harder Question
Is there a lesson we can learn from the demise of Encyclopaedia Britannica on how organisations should deal with AI?Since its first publication in 1768, until the early 1990s, Britannica ruled the encyclopaedia market. A 32-volume set, ...
Episode 150 – Consequence Gets Compliance – The Yo-Yo Test
I was talking to Joy Bhattacharjya yesterday about today's story, and it triggered one from his own memory bank.This was around 2008, when Joy was the Team Director of the Kolkata Knight Riders. A recurring problem had emerged: some of the ...
Episode 149 – The Doctor Who Prescribed Parakeets – Purpose Changes Behaviour
During my years in the corporate world, a question that had often been on my mind was what makes people want to bring more of themselves to work?Disengagement at work does not always look dramatic.People do not always rebel. The...
Episode 148 – The Meter in the Basement – What Gets Measured Gets Managed
“What gets measured gets managed”, has been one of my steadfast beliefs in both my personal and professional life.Good intentions and goals are not enough on their own. They have to be measured regularly to see if we are indeed on track...
Episode 147 – Zoom In. Zoom Out. – When Details Aren’t Enough
When people ask me about my success mantras, my answer is simple: luck, discipline, hard work and attention to detail. Attention to detail is a strength I have always been proud of.But early in my career, a boss gave me a piece of advic...
Episode 146 - Six Feet of Land – The Wisdom of Knowing When to Stop
Sometimes hidden behind the cloak of ambition is something we rarely name, and that is greed. A goalpost that keeps shifting. Because if we can achieve more, then why not?That's when the team stops celebrating wins and starts dreading a...
Episode 145 – The Dunning-Kruger Effect – Unskilled, and unaware of it
What if you're too incompetent to realise your incompetence? We explore this in today's story.We now live in a world where crafting a question takes much longer than getting an answer.You type a prompt and get a polished answer....
Episode 144 – Upstream
Have you been in a situation where after tirelessly trying to address a crisis you realised that you were addressing the symptoms rather than the problem itself?In today’s episode I will move away from my usual approach of sharing a rea...
Episode 143 – The Woodcutter – When to sharpen the Axe
Have you ever been under so much pressure that time available seemed to be inadequate? What was your solution?For many people, the answer will be to work longer and harder. But is that always the right answer. Isn’t that mistaking effor...
Episode 142 - The Two Monks
Sometimes we end up holding onto things for far longer than they need to be held on to. And it may need an outsider looking in to identify that. This story talks about one such perspective that can be used when one needs to show an...
Episode 141 - The Zipper Trap - Explain It, Please
“Is this really the same guy I shared lunch with in school? How did he turn out this way? Is he really so rabid? Why is he so stupid?”. Have you read WhatsApp messages on a school group and reacted in this manner. Their views feel ...
Episode 140 - Blind Faith - The Dangers of Outsourcing Judgement
Have you ever blindly followed Google Maps... only to end up somewhere you definitely shouldn't be? I have.That tiny frustration reveals a much larger pattern in business: we increasingly hand over judgment to external “advisors” — data...
Episode 139 - Are Humans Rational? Dice, Discount & Dishoom
Answer this question with a yes or a no - Do you believe that intelligent human beings usually take rational decisions?Most business strategies are built on a quiet assumption: that customers behave rationally. For example, we believe t...
Episode 138 - The Dancing Boxer - Mastering What Others Ignore
Many professionals spend their entire career sharpening the same set of skill. Because it is initially rewarded because it gets the job done, many double down on what has already made them successful. That is why many eventually plateau.
