Tell Me About A Time When … I Presented on Storytelling to the Brisbane BA Meetup

On August 3, 2016May 19, 2018 By Heath LympaneyIn Communication, Decisions, Presentations1 Comment

Last night facilitated the monthly Brisbane Business Analysts Meetup on Storytelling.

Why?

Well the more I learn about organisational story telling, the more I think it is a useful tool for a Business Analyst. I wanted to share this thought, and my experience learning about storytelling, with my peers.

Below is the script I wrote in preparation for the talk. Unfortunately, or fortunately, the talk was not recorded.

I veered off script immediately, as I knew I would. I embellished the talk with additional anecdotes and stories throughout. These are not captured here … as …. well … I can’t remember what they were … the impulse to tell a story welled up inside by and a story snuck out …

However, the structure of the talk below holds, and the key messages I wanted the audience to walk away are included.

Continue reading “Tell Me About A Time When … I Presented on Storytelling to the Brisbane BA Meetup” →

What Does the Size of a Pizza Slice Teach Us?

On July 21, 2016May 19, 2018 By Heath LympaneyIn Behaviour, Decisions

Have you seen this video that went viral a few weeks ago?

If not have a look now before reading further.

It is tempting to judge harshly. It is obvious to the watching outsider, it makes no difference how many slices there are … it is still the same pizza.

Well, technically yes.

But that is not how our minds work. That is not how we perceive what is going on around us.

Look at the following image. Continue reading “What Does the Size of a Pizza Slice Teach Us?” →

Handpicked: Classifications, A Listening Politician, Grown Men Cry and Leceister City

On July 17, 2016May 19, 2018 By Heath LympaneyIn Article, Behaviour, Book, Controlled Vocabulary, For Fun, Handpicked, Podcast, Systems Thinking

Articles I Saved

Intertwingled Book Excerpt

Benchley’s Law – there are two kinds of people in the world, those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world, and those who don’t – points us in the right direction. To collaborate, we must admit ambiguity and complexity, and avoid premature classification.

Intertwingled is in my top 10 non-fiction books. I enjoyed it enough to have read it twice within 12 months.

This article is one of a series of excerpt that Peter Morville, the author, has been writing from his books.

This article covers one of the core messages in the book, classification.

I am intrigued by the idea of how we classify things. It influences our conversation and the way we see the world. Many of the difficult topics are in some sense bounded by their classification; race, religion, equality, feminism etc. are all forms of grouping. We like to believe that there are clear boundaries, but the truth is never that binary. Things are never that clear.

The real world is grey. Everything is grey. We think it’s not. That is just an illusion.

It all depends on where you start from. If you can change the way a person classifies what they see, you change how they see, and therefore how they think about it.

I work with ambiguity all day. As a business analyst you have to be comfortable with ambiguity and complexity, because that is where the truth is. Continue reading “Handpicked: Classifications, A Listening Politician, Grown Men Cry and Leceister City” →

Handpicked: Listening, Censorship, Thresholds, and Writing

On July 10, 2016May 19, 2018 By Heath LympaneyIn Article, Book, For Fun, Handpicked, Podcast

A much shorter version this week. I was travelling with work and ended up reading and listening less than I thought.

Book am I reading (Non-Fiction)

People Skills by Robert Bolton.

The chapter I have been slow to read this week is called ‘Improving Your Reflecting Skills’.

Put another way this is about improved listening.

I won’t comment much further but leave you with a few selected quotes.

Many times a person will discuss his problems with a spouse or friend and leave without any solution in sight. The speaker will often have greater insight into the problem and the alternatives facing him. He may need time to mull over these ideas and options before moving on to a firm decision.

Though it can be frustrating for the listener to get involved with another and not see the problem resolved immediately, that kind of tension is part of the cost of being a creative listener.

That last passage gets to a question that has been on my mind reading this book, and probably gets to something I need to work on; When do you do more than listen?

He goes on:

When people are not heard and responded to, time can be saved in the short run, but in the long run, the resulting misunderstanding and alienation will often require far more time or take an enormous toll on efficiency. Experience has demonstrated that when employers do not take time to listen to employees, when salespersons do not understand their customers’ needs, and when teachers do not hear the concerns of their students, they are far less efficient in accomplishing their tasks. Listening often seems to be inefficient, but when there are strong needs, deep feelings, or important concerns, the refusal to listen is very detrimental and can result in wasted time, effort, and money.

It is hard to take the step back and listen. I find it easy at times, at work in particular. In my job I know that listening and getting it right up front pays off later in a project.

* Emphasis on those quotes is mine.

Knowledge for Action: A Guide to Overcoming Barriers to Organizational Change by Chris Argyris

Continue reading “Handpicked: Listening, Censorship, Thresholds, and Writing” →

Handpicked: Virtual Reality, Gangrenous Fingers, Travel Agents, Brexit, and Home

On July 3, 2016May 19, 2018 By Heath LympaneyIn Article, Book, For Fun, Handpicked, Podcast

A shorter, and hopefully more useful format this week. Let me know what you think.

Book am I reading (Non-Fiction)

People Skills by Robert Bolton.

This week covered body language.

You can read more on what I learn here.

As Gerard Egan says, the averted face may mean an averted heart:

“Our approach to communication stresses the primacy of feelings. Unquestionably the content of the conversation can be very important. When the emotions are strongly engaged, however, they should normally receive primary attention. Since nonverbals are the major means of communicating emotions, they are central to understanding many of the most important things that others communicate to us.”

Honourable Fiction Book Mention

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

I won’t normally mention a fiction book I am reading. Fiction is escapism for me, my evening reading when the brain needs a rest.

However, this book was mentioned in passing in a few podcasts. They never spoke about it explicitly.

It is worthy of mention here is it paints a possible future only 20 years out where Virtual Reality, in particular, has become the drug of choice. The parallels with our obsession with smartphones and Facebook are too easy to imagine. If you find yourself checking Facebook 10 times a day you could imagine yourself living a life in this alternate reality.

Continue reading “Handpicked: Virtual Reality, Gangrenous Fingers, Travel Agents, Brexit, and Home” →

Weekly Reading: Why is Body Language so Important?

On July 1, 2016May 19, 2018 By Heath LympaneyIn Book, Book Review, Handpicked3 Comments

I am going to try a different approach to my regular Handpicked series. My intention with that series is to share what I have read or listened to in the past week, with a brief comment on why. However I found myself writing longer paragraphs, not a succinct useful curated post.

With that goal in mind I will keep the Handpicked posts shorter. Where I feel the urge to go into more detail on a book, article, or podcast, I will write a separate post.

Below is what would have appeared in this weeks Handpicked post in the ‘What I am reading’ section.

People Skills by Robert Bolton

I haven’t read a lot of this book this week. I made it through one chapter that covered body language.

The theme of this chapter is that we cannot NOT communicate via body language.

Whether or not we intend to our body is always saying something. Usually our feelings and emotions leak through.

I have been fascinated by body language for years and even read a couple of books on the topic back in 2002/3/4. For example I pay attention to where I sit in meeting rooms. If you sit opposite the person, across a table, that creates a barrier, whereas sitting at an angle adjacent to them is less so. It makes for a less confrontational conversation.

Continue reading “Weekly Reading: Why is Body Language so Important?” →

Partner with Multiple Meanings

On June 28, 2016May 19, 2018 By Heath LympaneyIn Controlled Vocabulary

Words have multiple meanings. We have to know the context to know the meaning. And sometimes we have to know more about the person talking to know the meaning they intended.

This is one reason a controlled vocabulary in a work place is a good idea. Communication is hard enough without a single word meaning multiple things to the same person. Magnify that in a group setting and there is every chance someone misunderstood you.

I spotted one of these yesterday, in an out of work context. The word ‘Partner‘.

Continue reading “Partner with Multiple Meanings” →

Handpicked: We Can’t Read Minds, We Forgive Ourselves, And What Might Happen When we Lose Words

On June 27, 2016May 19, 2018 By Heath LympaneyIn For Fun, Handpicked2 Comments

This post is late following my distraction by the Brexit vote on Friday.

So here is my post on what I was reading or listening to last week.

Book am I reading (Non Fiction)

People Skills by Robert Bolton.

More from this book recommended at the end of the Secrets of Consulting by Gerry Weinberg.

One image, prompted by a similar diagram in the book, keeps coming to mind as I think about what I have read. Below is my own version. I have seen similar diagrams before.

Continue reading “Handpicked: We Can’t Read Minds, We Forgive Ourselves, And What Might Happen When we Lose Words” →

Who Should Make The Decisions?

On June 26, 2016May 19, 2018 By Heath LympaneyIn Decisions, Governance, Thought for the Day2 Comments

I missed Fridays posting deadline as I watched the Brexit vote come in. I couldn’t focus enough to write. The change in the status quo, in what I know, and in the unexpected result left me anxious. I couldn’t get into the right state of mind to write.

The next few weeks, months, and possibly years will be plagued with a degree of uncertainty because of this outcome. Mostly as a result of the size of the economy, its relevance in the western world, and whether it triggers similar movements elsewhere in Europe. Sentiment drives markets more than fact, so fun times ahead.

However, the Brexit vote is a real-time, at scale, live example of a topic that interests me, decision making.

Continue reading “Who Should Make The Decisions?” →

Handpicked: My Week of Learning

On June 17, 2016May 19, 2018 By Heath LympaneyIn For Fun, Handpicked2 Comments

Here is my weekly post on what I have been reading or listening to.

Book am I reading (Non Fiction)

The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right by Atul Gawande.

I finished this book on the weekend. It is a great read.

I reviewed the book and made more detailed observations in this post.

Favourite Highlight from the week?

“The fear people have about the idea of adherence to protocol is rigidity. They imagine mindless automatons, heads down in a checklist, incapable of looking out their windshield and coping with the real world in front of them. But what you find, when a checklist is well made, is exactly the opposite. The checklist gets the dumb stuff out of the way, the routines your brain shouldn’t have to occupy itself with (Are the elevator controls set? Did the patient get her antibiotics on time? Did the managers sell all their shares? Is everyone on the same page here?), and lets it rise above to focus on the hard stuff (Where should we land [the aeroplane]?).”

People Skills by Robert Bolton.

This book was recommended at the end of the Secrets of Consulting by Gerry Weinberg.

I am enjoying it. I can definitely learn from it. It is about communication and understanding. It is in many ways about perception. When I read the third quote below I knew this book was for me.

So far the book has discussed barriers to communication. The things we do consciously or not that get in the way of effective communication. There are twelve barriers he mentions, many of which are surprising.

I will break with my protocol and add a quote here form the book which is worth contemplating. This is a quote within a quote at the start of Chapter Two.

“A barrier to communication is something that keeps meanings from meeting. Meaning barriers exist between all people, making communication much more difficult than most people seem to realize. – Reuel Howe, theolgian and educator”

Continue reading “Handpicked: My Week of Learning” →