It’s the Walk…Not the Talk

My last missive talked about how impact comes from the story…the emotion, not the facts.  Emotion is an interesting thing, so much of it is both sent and received below the conscious level.  This creates quite a conundrum when sharing your story: how to incorporate things you’re normally not aware of into your storytelling.

Everything is important, which only makes matters worse.  People have a way of focusing on some little thing to the exclusion of all else, no matter the importance or irrelevance of that thing.  If you doubt this, think about our current political debate…thirty years of experience reduced to one sound bite uttered when still in college, or even before.

With this in mind, I was tremendously amused when I happened upon the new book by Michael Eisner who, among other things, was CEO of Disney.  Theoretically, his book is all about how to work together, how to collaborate, how to reach something greater than the sum of its parts.  After all, the subtitle is “why great partnerships work”.

And the title itself?  “Working Together”.  Why was I so amused?  I looked closely at the cover and noticed that in huge black type at the top is the name Michael D. Eisner…with Eisner being twice as large as anything else on the cover.  Underneath Eisner’s name in teeny tiny white type he deigns to mention that the book is “with Aaron Cohen”.

I understand that Eisner is the Big Name.  I even understand that this is his homage to how wonderful he is as a leader…and partner. But what was he thinking?  Before you even open the book you already know the title is misleading. 

Which brings me back to where I started…emotion.  You need to be totally congruent in all you do.  And if you can’t think of the words, that’s alright.  People really want to watch your walk, anyway.

Disclaimer: in the interests of full disclosure, I never did get around to buying the book or doing more than looking at the cover.  I got the message and saved all that money and time.  

I suppose I should also mention that the only picture of the cover I could find came from Amazon which is why is has that cute little look inside arrow…which actually will take you to Amazon so you can, “look inside”.