“The potential for creating novel brilliant solutions is not going to be found at one ivory tower or the other but in the middle, and we have to destigmatize what it looks like to be in the middle.” Annette Simmons
Working with each other, rather than against each other, is what the world needs especially in times of conflict. While competition is inherently human, it can as well be divisive and cause people to pull towards different directions instead of working towards achieving a common goal. Annette Simmons is passionate about having collaborative narratives, and believes that storytelling is a tool that can enable people to see the bigger picture.
Annette Simmons is a successful consultant and author of five books including her most recent, Drinking From a Different Well: How Women’s Stories Change What Power Means in Action
(2021)
Simmons’ solo career started in 1997 with the success of her first book Territorial Games: Understanding and Ending Turf Wars at Work (AMACOM, 1997) a deep examination of the micro-behaviors that discourage truth telling, information sharing and resource re-allocation. As a follow up Annette developed a facilitation guide called, A Safe Place for Dangerous Truths:Using Dialogue to Overcome Fear and Distrust at Work (AMACOM, 1998), full of tips for sharing truth in a safe way as well as principles and tools to shift the “truth telling” norms for one-on-one conversations and meetings. Her book about storytelling, The Story Factor (Basic Books, 3rd ed. 2019) introduced the business use of storytelling and was named one of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time (Penguin, 2009). She followed it with a workbook designed to develop a reader's “six stories” titled Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact (AMACOM, 2nd ed. 2015)
She started out with a marketing degree from Louisiana State University (1983) and a move to Australia that provided ten years of international business experience with Ericsson and J. Walter Thompson. Annette returned to the USA to earn a Masters Degree in social psychology and adult education at North Carolina State University in 1994.
Annette has been featured on CNBC’s Power Lunch, NPR’s Market Watch, talk radio programs, quoted in Fortune, Working Woman, Harvard Business Review, The Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, and dozens of other respected publications. In addition to English her books have been published in Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean, Swedish, Norwegian, German and Russian.
In today’s episode, Annette talks about the power of storytelling, and why it is important to have collaborative narratives when looking for solutions to shared problems.
Listen in!
Books by Annette;
- Drinking From a Different Well: How Women’s Stories Change What Power Means in Action
- Territorial Games: Understanding and Ending Turf Wars at Work
- A Safe Place for Dangerous Truths:Using Dialogue to Overcome Fear and Distrust at Work
- Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with Power and Impact
Social Media Handles
https://www.linkedin.com/in/annettesimmonsstory/
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