Dress ups and the book that changed my life

‘I’m wrestling with Wally’, my friend texts.

What?

Then I remember it’s Children’s Book Week. Her son is probably going dressed as Where’s Wally, complete with red-and-white striped shirt, beanie and round glasses.

In Australian schools, Book Week is one magical week when children get to dress up as their favourite fictional characters and celebrate books. It sounds delightful. Unless, of course, you’re the parent trying to craft a home-made Tin Man costume at 9.30 pm on Sunday.

I have always loved books. I was that child who read under the covers after official lights out at home.

And one book changed the course of my life.

You might know, I’m an economist by training. Don’t panic, it gets better.

As a senior leader in corporate Australia, I was constantly baffled by one question: why doesn’t data persuade people?

Then, on a long-haul flight, I got a copy of Stephen Denning’s book The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling. My economist’s brain recoiled at the title. Storytelling? At work?

But I was hungry for answers. I devoured the book on the plane and a light bulb went on in my head. Why was storytelling missing from leadership training?

I started badgering other leaders with the question. Most said some version of, ‘We know good leaders tell stories. We just don’t know how.’

I wanted to learn. The problem was that twenty-plus years ago, nobody was teaching business storytelling in Australia, or anywhere else. So, in 2005, in what I can only describe as a brave or mad idea, I co-founded Australia’s first storytelling company.

Most people thought we were nuts.

One expert cautioned, ‘This will never work. Nobody is going to pay for storytelling training. Get ready to join the dole queue.’

I get it. Back then, the thought of storytelling in business was as radical as proposing teaching Dolphins to play the ukulele.

And of course it was tough. We spent about 11 months just educating the market. But it was also exhilarating and the steepest learning curve of my life.

Since then, I’ve helped more than 500,000 leaders across 15-plus countries learn storytelling through keynotes and masterclasses.

All thanks to you, because if you’re reading this, have seen me speak or passed my name on, you’ve helped me keep doing work I love.

But imagine, it all started because I picked up a book.

So yes, Book Week makes me ridiculously happy.