Page 75 - The Power to Change Anything

64 INFLUENCER

Become a Master Storyteller

We start by returning to the manufacturing task force whose
members came racing back from Japan because they wanted
in the worst way to tell their coworkers that if they didn’t
work harder, they’d all be out of a job. And that’s exactly what
they did: They told them in the worst way! They gathered a
group of their peers together and announced their finding—
their competitors actually did produce 40 percent more per
employee by working faster and more consistently. At the end
of this rather terse and unpopular announcement, the mem-
bers of the task force were booed off the stage by their own
union brothers and sisters.
Undaunted, the world travelers brought another group
together and told them the shortened version of what had hap-
pened. More boos. Finally, the team leader selected the best
storyteller and set him loose on the next assembly of em-
ployees. He didn’t ruin the message by quickly cutting to the
chase—“Workers unite or we’re dead!” Instead, this gifted
storyteller took a full 10 minutes to narrate in vivid detail what
had taken place.
The members of the task force had arrived in Japan, and
to a person they were absolutely certain the foreigners they
would soon observe would put on a show. Sure enough, they
did (jeers). But the task force wasn’t fooled (cheers). Next, the
storyteller related how they had sneaked into the plant after
hours and spied on the enemy (more cheers). But wait a sec-
ond; the employees were working even faster (silence). This
was depressing. If the Japanese workers continued to outper-
form the American workers, the Japanese companies could
keep their costs down and dominate the market. American
companies would downsize, and American workers would lose
their jobs.
After they spied on the Japanese workers, the members of
the task force returned to their hotel and tried to figure out how