CHAPTER 8
Vision Stories
WHEN I WAS a kid my mother taught me table manners by suggesting I’d need them “in case the queen ever invites you to tea.” I’m over 45 and so far I’ve received no royal invitations, but I do have lovely table manners (as do all of my mother’s past fifth-grade students). The Queen’s tea party was my mother’s version of a Vision story. When you are ten, using a short fork for salad is ridiculous without the “You’ll thank me some day” story. Unpleasant chores, training, routine maintenance, disruptive changes in procedure usually offer little immediate gratification. Frustrations experienced in the here and now are borne only because we can imagine the payoff somewhere, sometime in the future. A good Vision story makes otherwise ambiguous promises for future payoffs come alive with carefully crafted sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings that eclipse the work we do today for tomorrow’s payoff. Overwhelming obstacles shrink to bearable frustrations that are worth the effort.
A Vision story raises your gaze from current difficulties to a future payoff that successfully competes with the temptation to give up, compromise, or change direction. Without a visceral and easily remembered vision of why in the hell we ever wanted to do this in the first place, it is easy to forget. A Vision story casts the future, just like a bright shiny bicycle in a store window might motivate a child. The child rummages through trash for bottles and cans, baby-sits little monsters, and even washes his parent’s station wagon with only a daily glimpse of that bright shiny future. When we see, taste, touch, smell, and hear a shiny future, nothing feels too menial or difficult.
The word “vision” has been distorted for many of us by bad experiences of smarmy consultants, endless management retreats, and oversold and underdelivered promises. Story forces substance back into the vision process. Laminated cards with core values and quippy “$2 billion by 2010” sound-bite visions are exposed as superficial and one-dimensional when compared to Vision stories. When you apply the discipline of interpreting any vision by way of a story, the process inevitably exposes any gaping holes that beg the questions: What does this mean? To whom? And who benefits if I get there? Exploitation, superficiality, and unintended outcomes are more likely to be exposed by the rigors of storytelling.
Vision stories demand a lot, but they deliver a lot too. Scenario planning is a popular application of storytelling to vision. Future goals are interpreted through various scenarios in a narrative simulation of several possible futures. Goals are subjected to reality tests of the imagination through realistically possible future stories. Scenario planning is more “reality based” than more objective strategic planning methods. The critical difference is that your presence is required. Subjective contexts, emotionally stimulated responses, and nonlinear changes are more predictable when smart people take the time to “live the story” in their mind’s eye. You can’t imagine the future unless “you go there.”
It works because at an imagined sensory level you go “there” to the future(s) so you experience places and times intimately enough to play out the possibilities. Walking around in the virtual reality of a story often identifies otherwise unpredictable implications, consequences, and correlating factors that are only visible when imagining specific times and places set in a reality-based story.
The “failure of imagination” implicated as a hole in U.S. domestic security by the 9/11 Commission is a good example of the limitations of objective strategic planning. Think of a Vision story as subjective strategic planning. Vision stories are successes of the imagination. Scenario planning is one type of Vision storytelling. Shell Oil’s use of scenario planning led them, decades ago, to see South Africa’s apartheid as bad for business (in addition to being morally wrong). They constructed several scenarios of a post-apartheid South Africa, but none of them “felt” possible without an unquestionably ethical leader, ideally home grown.
Shell certainly didn’t invent Nelson Mandela. Yet, thinking about the Shell scenario-planning team I have to wonder whether you and I would know Mandela’s name without scenario planning and the subsequent attention and support those scenarios prompted. Certainly, there have been corporate power plays that encouraged wars—why not a corporate power play that avoided one? Playing out future stories is a good way to blend your goals and objectives with deeply motivating imagined futures.
Finding a Vision story is different from scenario planning in that we aren’t testing our goals with lots of different stories but looking for a story that communicates the “desired state” of our goal as a place/time/condition worthy of sacrifice.
Our purpose here is to build a future story that pulls us to it. A “pull” story works best when it conjures positive emotions like desire, hope, belonging, or happiness. Stories based on negative emotions like fear (greed is just another word for fear) fuel stress (another word for fear) by feeding perceptions of danger, scarcity, and us/them thinking. Fear is a physiological and psychological state that literally narrows vision and limits creativity. It narrows your peripheral vision to a tiny percentage of the available input and toggles your options back and forth between two options: fight or flight. Fear makes you stupid. It compartmentalizes every IQ point you have into tiny loops of worst-case scenarios. Hope and love, on the other hand, expand peripheral vision and network to connections and possibilities only obvious to a relaxed eye.
A good Vision story builds resilience and optimism so work groups recover quickly from setbacks and judiciously sacrifice personal gain for group success. It is important to remember that a good Vision story also validates the difficulties of achieving your vision. “Pie in the sky” visions that ignore real pain, sacrifice, and frustration can burn out your optimists and fail to motivate the “realists” in your group. You don’t want to lose those people—they are important. You don’t want to overpromise either. That’s just borrowing trouble.
Vision stories give a lot and they demand a lot. Before we embark on finding a story, you need to do some groundwork to build substance into your story. Begin with your personal vision first. Group Vision stories should be developed from group process.
STEP ONE. What is my vision? Write about a day five or ten years from now that would describe the kind of day you might observe if your dreams came true:
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Now list a few of the obstacles that pop up when you imagine this future:
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The Vision stories you seek may be found from stories that illustrate your vision or from stories that illustrate overcoming similar obstacles. You will find both as you come up with ideas from the four buckets of stories. Ideally you can find one that blends the why and how into one. This is a rare gem—a story that not only motivates but suggests strategies to get there.
STEP TWO. Read through these four examples of Vision stories to get your juices flowing with ideas and jot them down as you go along:
A Time You Shined
During the fall of 1992, I was working at J. Walther Thompson in Melbourne, Australia. I had just completed a successful pilot program for the Ford dealer network set to expand in the next year from a budget of $200,000 to $2 million. The powers-that-be decided to bring in someone with more experience to run “my” program. I didn’t take it well. Other unpleasant events led me to conclude that I wasn’t cut out for advertising. Earlier that year I had attended one of those weekend workshops where I was asked, “If you had all the money in the world, what would you do?” I knew immediately: “I would do something to help groups get clear on who they are and why they are here.” I was tired of “unpleasant events” and convinced I could help people avoid turf wars, favoritism, untruths, etc. But that “vision” was so vague so I muddled along without making any real changes.
One night I had a dream that changed everything. I dreamed I was at a train station—a big one with over twenty platforms. I sat with my mother, drinking coffee, surrounded by our luggage waiting for our train, which was due in an hour or so. I stood up and announced I was going to walk around a bit. I decided to find our platform and check it out. It was a long walk and down an escalator. As I stood on the platform our train arrived—an hour early—and the loudspeaker said it was leaving in three minutes. I didn’t have my luggage. I didn’t have a ticket. My mother didn’t know where I was … but I got on anyway. If I took the time to get everything I needed, I would have missed the train. I distinctly remember thinking, “I’ll make it up as I go” and began practicing my explanation for the first problem I’d encounter—no ticket to show the guy who checks tickets.
When I woke up that next morning, I knew I would quit my job, move back to the United States, find a graduate program or a mentor, and invent a new career. Some people thought I was having a meltdown—my mother in particular. Common sense says you need to have a job before you quit one—at the very least a general idea of a job. I had neither. On April 23, 1993, I flew home to Louisiana, drove across country that June, and by August I had found both a graduate program and a mentor. By 1997, I had a graduate degree, two years’ experience with my mentor, and a contract for my first book. When my book came out, I started my own business. I just got on the train without a ticket or luggage and trusted that I would figure out the details as they arose.
You’ve done it before and you can do it again. Life spirals around and around again to the same kind of lessons. There is a part of you that wants the same thing today that you wanted ten, twenty years ago. Think back to the last few times you “went for it” and succeeded. Even small wins count. Think of a time when you were in a similar situation facing similar obstacles and you (and your team) made it through.
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A Time You Blew It
One of my first bosses had to see every letter I wrote and rehearse every presentation I was to make before I was allowed to send or present it to the client. Letters came back from her, dense with red pen marks, deleted sentences, and scribbled rewrites. Presentations were rearranged and reworded to Linda’s satisfaction. I didn’t fight her. I had lost all my confidence the year before in a rather brutal public-speaking course, where the instructor stopped me in the middle of an extemporaneous speech and the other participants voted me off the stage. I was devastated. Survivor may make good TV but it’s not a nurturing format for developing communication skills.
My presentations were boring, tedious, and painful for me and for anyone else suffering through them. It was agony. One day I was asked to present a status report in Linda’s absence. She was off getting her boobs done (you can’t make this stuff up). I had no taskmaster to please, so I just did it my way. My fifteen-minute presentation wasn’t designed to please Linda but designed by me to please the client. And boy did it please the client. I was embarrassed by all the praise I got afterwards. The client congratulated Linda’s boss because the only explanation that made sense to them was that my newly coherent and smooth delivery must have been due to his coaching skills. He just smiled.
From that day forward I vowed to never deliver someone else’s words or someone else’s message. I decided I would be me, do it in my style, take the credit if it succeeded, and pay the price if it didn’t. I knew that if I couldn’t make the presentation of information or ideas truly mine—then I shouldn’t be presenting.
In the same spiral of repeating themes you will find a recurring mistake that sabotages your efforts … or used to, anyway. What was it that used to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? Tell a story about how you used to play this old pattern. Telling the story can help inoculate yourself from repeating this old mistake. When did you give up and regret it? When did you refuse to listen to the quiet voice inside you? When did you have an opportunity to achieve something wonderful but didn’t try, gave up, or let someone talk you out of it?
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A Mentor
If you have ever gotten into trouble for telling the truth then we have something in common. Since I was five years old I’ve been blabbing uncomfortable truths or naming elephants that might have sat happily unnamed for decades. Rather than an extra dose of courage I suspect my behavior is better described as a total lack of discretion. But since that’s who I am, I needed skills. I hunted for someone who could teach me these skills. I need to know how to tell the truth and NOT get burned at the stake. I found a mentor in the man Galileo. He is one of my all time favorite truth-tellers for lots of reasons, but most of all because he did NOT burn at the stake. Others did. One of his contemporaries named Brutus said the exact same things Galileo said and he burned. Galileo was asked by a friend to step in and try to save Brutus. He chose to remain silent. Can you imagine that? Letting someone hang?
This detail forces me to admit there are times when impulse control is the best way to achieve a larger vision. Galileo even signed a confession (even if it does drip with sarcasm), admitting that he was wrong and acknowledging that the sun did in fact orbit the earth. He continued writing and speaking, but he stayed well beneath the radar. His final punishment was that he was confined to his own house in ugly old Florence in his seventies. This was during the Inquisition, when others burned for much worse.
My vision is to tell even dangerous truths, but also to stay alive and keep my clients, and so I regularly ask myself W.W.G. D.? What would Galileo do? Any reading of his biography is a lesson on how to be savvy and when to keep my mouth shut. Brutus was someone he knew—an old friend who mouthed off to the extent that he was burned at the stake. Galileo received a letter from a friend begging him to intervene, and yet he didn’t. He didn’t have enough clout, so he stayed silent. I’m reminded of the serenity prayer phrase, “the wisdom to know the difference.” Galileo had a passion for the truth but he did not have a martyr complex. When strong-armed by the Pope (who might have secretly agreed with his proofs) to sign a confession, he folded like a cheap tent. It was just ink on paper.
But his crowning achievement—still in print—was a story he published where three characters argue the virtues and validity of both sides of the argument. He published his story in a book titled Dialogue. Galileo used story to get his points across. His characters make points, ask questions, and expose silliness he was forbidden from discussing. Galileo was a crafty old coot. He was dedicated to the truth and he was flexible enough to moderate his approach and silence his ego when danger threatened—lessons I try to remember.
Recognizing a mentor requires humility. Likewise, anyone who inspires humility in you is a perfect prospect to become the focus for one of your Vision stories. Think of any man or woman who inspires you, and set out to tell their story. Research their story without an agenda and you will be blessed with creative insights and perspectives that offer new paths, new strategies, and help you avoid unforeseen obstacles. Every human drama is to some extent a repeat of one that went before. If you look closely you will find a time when an individual you admire faced obstacles similar to yours, overcame those obstacles, and won.
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A Book, Movie, or Current Event
There are plenty of movies that offer great Vision stories. Miracle, about the 1980 U.S. ice hockey team, teaches about cohesion. Seabiscuit represents the galvanizing spirit of the underdog. The Greatest Game Ever Played straightens my spine as it reminds me that I decide who I am and where I belong—not other people. But all of these movies are about contests—sports where there are winners and losers. I enjoy contests but my overarching vision for my life is not a contest. More than a decade ago I decided to live my life as an artist. I think business and organizations need art as much as any other part of society to express truth, tackle tough subjects, and seek meaning and beauty. I see part of my job as living a creative life so I can bring new thinking to those who don’t have time for “white space.”
I wasn’t sure what changes I’d need to make in order to live life like an artist. I read autobiographical accounts from my favorite artists: Maya Angelou, Johnny Cash, Anne Lamott, C.S. Lewis, and others. I learned that artists aren’t slaves to routine. They leave plenty of white space to think and that “thinking” is part of what artists mean when they say, “I’m working.” Artists face hopelessness, make mistakes, and invite harsh criticism. I don’t like criticism. In order to stay the course, that is the one thing I need the most help with: handling criticism.
Johnny Cash invited lots of criticism, much of it deserved. I was curious, how did he tell the difference between deserved and undeserved criticism? I find it hard to tell the difference when criticism is directed at me.
Johnny Cash was a prolific artist. During his recording career starting in 1955, he released over 450 singles, 1,500 long play albums, and more than 300 compact discs across twenty-six different countries. Each of those sold thousands, some millions. After 1968, when he married June Carter and got his addictions under control, it seems that most fights with his “handlers” were over issues of authenticity. He said in his autobiography, Cash, that he got tired of CBS (his record company) telling him about demographics, the “new country fan,” the “new market profile,” and all the other trends working against him. By 1974, he felt “mentally divorced” from CBS. It all came to a head when Cash gave CBS a record called “Chicken in Black,” which was “intentionally atrocious” He even forced CBS to pay for a video shot in NYC where he dressed up like a chicken. The next year (1986) CBS declined to renew his contract. Big surprise. I love this story because it supports my natural inclination to reject numbers that don’t create a meaningful connection I can feel in my bones. If it doesn’t feel right, I don’t do it.
Johnny Cash’s long career proves that standing his ground paid off. At age 61 he launched yet another comeback that reached deep into the very demographics CBS would’ve killed for. Rick Rubin, “in clothes that would’ve done a wino proud,” convinced him that he wanted to produce whatever music Cash wanted to record. Rubin, producer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Beastie Boys, told him, “I’m not very familiar with the music you love but I want to hear all of it.” Cash asked if he didn’t think it might be a stretch to think his music would appeal to a younger audience. Rubin answered that “they only need to see the fire and passion you bring to your music. We’ll just be totally honest.” Their honesty produced four Grammy-winning albums.
Authenticity—the good and the bad—is synonymous with the Cash legend. Johnny Cash’s life is testament to never giving up on your art and to never selling out. When I wear my Johnny Cash T-shirt, strangers give me the thumbs-up sign in the grocery store. I feel the same.
Fiction is a dangerous place to go hunting for Vision stories. I prefer nonfiction for Vision stories because even great fiction is an invented world designed by one mind—perhaps a genius writer but not necessarily a genius at living a good life. Fiction often serves to proselytize, vent, or escape reality. A fiction writer can bend characters and events in ways that you cannot match when dealing with reality. It’s best to choose nonfiction for Vision stories. I can see where fiction might work—it is just not something I’m willing to do personally. You may struggle for a story, but this research (often quite frustrating) forces you to distil your vision. True stories also reveal obstacles and opportunities you might not have considered. And once you find one that resonates, a true Vision story is very powerful. You can also use the movie or book to prompt dialogue with your work group. This dialogue can reveal hidden resistance and flesh out incongruent perceptions earlier rather than later. What book or movie inspires you to do more, be more, last the distance?
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STEP THREE. Choose one of these ideas to develop into a story. Write the story here in your journal. Do not edit. Write in whatever order it comes, including every single detail you can remember. Provide sensory details for all five senses. Write as much as you can remember.
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STEP FOUR. Now put your journal away and find someone who will listen to a “test-telling” of this story. Tell your story without these notes (storytelling, not story reading!) to someone you trust.
STEP FIVE. Ask your listeners for appreciations. Ask them to respond to your story with any of the following appreciation statements, and record what they say:
“What I like about your story is …
“What your story tells me about you is. …
“The difference hearing your story might make to our working relationship is …”
“I can see you using this story when (client situation) in order to (impact) …”
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STEP SIX. Now write your own thoughts about this story. What do you like best? When you tell it again what do you want to remember to say first or last? Are there any new details you can include to make this story more vibrant or alive? Is there a particular order that is more engaging? Do you need to go back to your story ideas and find another one? Testing up to five ideas for a Vision story is normal. The effort will pay off.
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