Imagine sitting around the conference table with your colleagues and having the meeting’s leader begin the day’s agenda with—“Once upon a time…”
I can tell you from experience, holding up a “Little Golden Book” when conducting a meeting is an effective way to tap into the memories of your team and make the messages you want to convey really resonate. Messages that apply today as much as they did when we were in grade school.
The following are five of my favorite stories and how I used them to boost engagement at the meeting table. (Rest assured, none of what I’m about to say involves asking your team to gather ‘round and sit crisscross-applesauce…)
Walt Disney’s Three Little Pigs: A great reminder about the importance of having a clear vision and taking the time to build a strong foundation/culture so that you’re better equipped to withstand the “blows” of our industry.
Use this fable as a catalyst for ensuring everyone is clear on what your company or branch stands for and values. Identify who your ideal clients are, what their needs are, and how to best serve them. Then create a vision of what that looks like by formulating a mission statement everyone buys into (which may be worded differently than corporate’s overarching—and dare I say it—stale one). Afterwards, your team can put processes and systems into place that allow everyone to move through challenges as a team.
Watty Piper’s The Little Engine That Could: Perhaps one of the first books written about neuro-linguistic programming—“I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.”
(Note: Because anyone who knows me has been gifted the book, What to Say When You Talk to Yourself by Shad Helmstetter, I can’t help but change “I think I can…” to “I can…” Let’s just say, it’s a subconscious thing.)
When we encounter new challenges, it’s an opportunity for us to develop our skills, overcome fear, and learn something new. Our self-talk either encourages us to or discourages us from doing so. The Little Blue Engine faced a challenge she had never faced before, and through her self-talk motivated herself to take action. We have the ability to choo-choo choose (sorry, couldn’t help myself) what we tell ourselves and either move forward—baby steps are OK—or stay stuck. When challenges arise, remind your team to think of the wise words spoken by the Little Blue Engine. She thought she could, so she did.
Aesop’s The Tortoise and the Hare: For anyone who’s taken the DiSC Profile and identified as a “high C,” this one’s for you. In fact, a tortoise is actually used to represent a “C” (which stands for “conscientious”). Furthermore, I used this book to help my team understand why it’s important to ask ourselves, Will this help me move closer to or further from achieving my goals? Answering this question by saying “yes” to doing things that move us closer to our goals and “no” to doing things that distract us from our goals helps keep us on track. The tortoise had a vision. The hare also had a vision; however, he didn’t create and follow a strategic roadmap to success. And we all know how well that turned out.
Walt Disney’s Dumbo: This story is truly about moving beyond preconceived limitations. Dumbo’s ears became his fortune after he recognized they were his unique strength. (It’s actually quite funny how in the “Little Golden Book” version, it says, “Timothy became Dumbo’s manager, and he saw to it that Dumbo got a wonderful contract with a big salary and a pension for his mother.”)
How often—in business and life—do we try to be like everyone else and see what makes us different or unique as not holding much value? Yet, the very people (and animals) who make history are the ones who embrace their differences. Encourage your team to evaluate and use their strengths in a unique way, i.e., to find the right seat on the bus. Because there is a spot for each of us.
In addition, remember the noisy boys and the circus clowns who made fun of Dumbo? Look around and make sure that you and your team are surrounding yourselves with people who support your journey, like Timothy the mouse…
Patricia Polacco’s Babushka Baba Yaga: Given to me by a vendor who wanted to add her favorite after seeing the collection of children’s books I kept on the shelves of my office library. It’s about an outsider who, in the end, gets to join in.
“Babushka” means “grandmother.” Baby Yaga longed to be a babushka—only she was the last of her kind and part of a legend that made her a feared forest creature. One day she saw some clothes on a clothesline drying. She took them and made herself up to look like the babushkas in town, where she was able to help a woman take care of her son. Baby Yaga loved the boy as if he were her own grandson. Then one day, while sharing stories with the other babushkas, one of them told the story of “The Baby Yaga” and how scary she was and how, if given the chance, she would come and eat your grandchildren. This saddened Baby Yaga, who’d been disguising herself as a babushka.
That night, she retreated back into the forest. The boy missed her and would go sit right outside the forest, where he and Baby Yaga used to spend their afternoons. One day, the boy was suddenly surrounded by a pack of wolves. Baby Yaga heard screams of fear and ran to see what was happening. She found the boy she loved so much surrounded by wolves and a helpless crowd, including his mother. Baby Yaga ran the wolves off and scooped up the boy to protect him. The crowd then saw Baby Yaga for her true self and welcomed her.
The message I derived from this tale is—don’t be too quick to judge, especially based on hearsay and appearances. Almost every time I do a workshop that helps teams identify one another’s behavioral styles, I see stronger interoffice relationships develop. As the adage goes—When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.
I’m a big proponent of having a lending library available to one’s team. Mine was and is filled with multiple copies of professional development books—including those focused on self-talk, mindset, neuroplasticity, the power of the subconscious mind (which is also a title of one of my go-to books)—and children’s books.
After all, communication is the foundation of a strong, collaborative culture, which is made up of people. And the shortest distance between two people is a story.
Still unsure about keeping board books in your boardroom? There are a few other benefits children’s books offer executives that you may find interesting…
For one, studies show that being read to at any age has cognitive benefits.
Secondly, children’s books have pictures. Tomes written for adults might talk about “visual learners,” yet how many include illustrations (other than pie charts)? In fact, let’s do a little mind-traveling back to about 1300 B.C. and observe ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Most of us think of these as simply pictorial representations of what eventually evolved into language. But did you know that these glyphs also represented sounds?
Fast-forward to today and look at the emojis and gifs we use to clarify or emphasize the words we’ve written via text or email. Yep. A picture is worth a thousand words. (I’ve never had any interest in comic books or graphic novels; however, I highly recommend reading Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud. It is a course in communication like no other.)
Another benefit of sitting back with a good picture book is that they serve as great stress relievers. Their simple storylines and nostalgic illustrations take us out of the non-linear, multiple plots occurring in our heads and cause us to be mindful…which wellness experts emphasize can help us live happily ever after.
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