Communications Thinking: Seeing transcript

So, we're going to start off talking about SMUBA and we're going to focus on the "S". It's

actually originally from this book [Making the World Work Better]. It was written by a good friend of

mine, Jeff O'Brien, and it was about our Centennial in 2011. Jeff was trying to look back to

understand how progress happened. And he looked back over all of the different transformations

that IBM has had, and there's been many and they're always difficult. And he focused particularly on

the moon and the moon landing. That big challenge, that moon shot of trying to do things that

haven't necessarily been done before.

And there was a speech that was given by JFK in 1962, that rallying cry at Rice University. He

was communicating to an audience in order to try and not just win over commerce and government

and people, trying to embrace scientists, trying to, you know, look all the challenges within the

space race. He opened up with the three most glorious lines: "We meet in an hour of change and

challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance."

One of the best opening lines of any speech that I've ever heard. Ted Sorensen, his

speechwriter, slaved over that for weeks and weeks and weeks. It could have been written last

week, couldn't it? It seems as relevant today as it was back then.

Well, the moon landing and those Mercury and Apollo missions followed the process of SMUBA:

seeing, then mapping, then trying to understand what needed to be done, then trying to rally belief

and trying to get people to unite around that common goal, then having actions that are successful

so that within the decade, man could set foot on the moon.

But what we've since discovered is that that exact same framework was used long before the

moon landing and is still used today in quantum with Dario Gil. The way that we're trying to innovate

around new technologies. The way that we're trying to communicate what it is that we do around
social impact. And science, the way that the world is trying to embrace the technologies that we're

creating and we need to share what they are.

Some of this stuff is really technical, isn't it? It's really, really hard. We talk about cloud and

intelligent workflows and quantum and blockchain and AI. Well, a lot of it has to start with: Where do

we understand all of the components of these stories before we can try and break them down into

something that's emotional? How do you do that? You know? Whether you're a Band B, C, [or] A,

whether you're Band 7, it's all about the art of seeing. Trying to see as much as possible.

The great filmmaker, Stanley Kubrick, said that observation is a dying art. A good story is

more like music than fiction. It should be a projection of moods and feelings. But before you can get

those feelings, you also need to figure out the notes. You need to understand the symphony, what

people are going to play together, and the roles that each person is going to do.

So, what we have here [is] #1, the Story Canvas, [from] Seeing, part one of SMUBA, is really

these little boxes that you can try and fill in, about all the things that you need to build a great story,

the foundation that's going to help rally people to your point of view. Or, even just to try and engage

in audience around something.

Now, whether you need to speak for 30 seconds, for 3 minutes, [for] 20 minutes of a TED talk;

[or it] could be orals, [a] design thinking workshop, [or] a keynote speech. Whether you're on the

stage at Davos, or whether you're in a virtual Webex with your small team, you need to see all of the

things that are relevant for the story that you're telling. First of all, you've got to understand: what's

your unique point of view? What have I got to say and who exactly am I speaking to? Am I in

competition with anybody else? And why is this going to be different? Why is this story going to be

different than anything that they've heard before?

may even need to speak from presenter notes.

There's a special rule with that as well. Don't think you can't tell an emotional story if someone else

is giving you a script. You know why? There's a rule.

It's called the 7-38-55 rule by Albert Mehrabian, and it was done in the 1960s at UCLA. And a

very basic conclusion. Only about 7% of what people engage with, nonverbal communication, only

about 7% is often your words. In terms of how did they engage with what you have [said]. [I] talked

before about, you know, your words and your numbers are processed by a part of the brain, but not

the part of the brain responsible for decision making and emotions, the part that we need to drive

great decision making, that drives that emotional story that makes people want to work with us, and

it takes our story on board so [that] they remember it. So, you've got to try and understand. It's not

what I say. It's the way that I say it.

That piece of research showed 38% is your tone. In terms of what people remember, that

means that your tone is 5 times more powerful than the actual words that you say. And even more

than that, 55% is everything else. The way that you dress, your background. What are you thinking

about me right now, with all the storytellers that I'm surrounded with? All of my favorite things, all

my books and my Lego. Certain things pop into your mind incredibly quickly, and it's all part of trying

to see the things that might make a connection with the audience.

Where do you sit within the story and how could you bring something different? It may just be

your tone. You may have 60 seconds, [a] chance just to give that personal introduction. This is your

chance. So, you put all of that down on the sheet.

Then what we need to do is, we start needing to go systematically around the room trying to

understand what are all the things that need to be part of the story.
Maybe other people have opinions. Maybe they have decks, maybe there's statistics, there's stories,

there's a demo that you may need to include. Maybe there's all these different pieces that often

create this patchwork quilt of stories. But you need to collate it all together to start with, because

the art of storytelling is as much about elegant editing as it is about the way that you tell it and

communicate it.

It's all about what you leave out. In fact, many business leaders have said, "I'm more proud of

the things I didn't do than I am of what I did. [If] you try and squash too many things into a story,

[the] audience will completely forget it.

So, what's the topic? Is there any conflicts? Is there elephants in the room that we might

need to address? Do we have a unique value proposition? Sometimes we do. Not always. A lot of

IBM's think that we're differentiated. In fact, there's some research that's been around a couple of

decades. It's constantly updated. It's called the delivery gap. Generally, [it] shows that about 80%

business professionals like you and I often believe that the story we're telling or the proposition, the

products, the offerings are unique and differentiated. But only 8% of customers agree. And within

that gap, that delivery gap, something falls short. You think you're differentiated. [The] audience

doesn't believe it. We'll get to the belief bit later on.

What's your unique point of view? Do you have a mission? Who are the heroes in this story?

The audience is always the hero, but is there going to be a transformation story? The hero could be a

boss or your colleague [from] the project you just delivered. What are the internal stories, the

external stories? Do you have some magic numbers? And could you do that number in a big way?

Maybe even just repackage it?

I've heard a couple times that 85% of transformation projects fail. Well, that sounds big and

scary. I'd like to turn that on its head and say, well, that means there's a 15% success rate. So, the
odds are heavily stacked against you. Still not generating any emotion, is it? What if I told you that a

15% success rate is only 2% higher than the odds of gambling in a casino? Those are the odds of

IBM trying to come in and transform the business for the better. Now this number has a slightly

different meaning.

So, there's ways that you put all of the things onto the sheet. That's why it's called the canvas,

you put everything on it. All the stuff that you think is not relevant. Some people might want to do

this as a mural. This can be post-it notes. It could just be in your own private notebook. If you're

working with promotion, that piece on the left-hand side, for example, or the job that you don't have

yet, the industry that you want to push into.

We might even go one level deeper. We won't look at it now. But just Google "Ikigai". The

Japanese concept of finding your purpose and your why. "I. K. I. G. A. I. What do you love? What

does the world need? What are you good at? What do you get paid for? If you can get those four

buckets to align just like the four canvases on the left-hand side of the sheet, then all of the sudden

you become a completely different communicator. Because everything you say is rooted in a deep

passion and the desire to change things. It's really not enough to say, "Oh, I'll be passionately

enthusiastic." Everybody says that [and it] doesn't help me one bit. But if you can find your Ikigai and

you're connected to the "why" and there's purpose behind your story, you're going to be well on the

way to telling a wonderful story.

So, let's look at how we put all of this together. We take everything that we've seen. Now we

need to do what's next. We need to put it into a map. You ready? Let's have a look.