Stories of Heroesand the danger of all stories

What makes a hero?

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man

Perseus

Achilles

Greuceanu

Greuceanu

Luke is the Accounting Supervisor with the Finance Department and has been with the city for over 32 years! (she started when she was in grade school! Just kidding..) Luke has been the “go to girl” for the Finance department for many years, and has at one time or another, filled in or performed every job in that department---including Interim Finance Director! Luke works many long hours every week to be sure all the City’s accounts are balanced,  our investments are in line, and customers are well taken care of.

Luke never complains and is the first to pitch in and help her staff with whatever duty needs to be done. Her quiet sense of humor and positive attitude make her a joy to work with, and work for. She is someone her staff and boss can count on, and we do!

Recently, we upgraded our accounting software programs to a newer version of the program we use. Anyone who has been through such an event will immediately recognize how very stressful this is to undergo. Luke kept our accounts straight through the transition, and made sure all our finance employees were supported as we struggled through some very stressful days.

Congratulations Luke, and thank you so much for all you do for the City, your co-workers and our customers!

a pattern we look for

Employee of the month template

1. Establish baseline

2. Challenging & changing circumstances

3. Rising to meet them

4. While being a kind person

What is a story?

plot

characters

narrative point of view

Seductive

Viral

Heroes are seductive

Heroes are simple to understand

We want it to be true

So stories work

And stories of heroes work

But we’re missing important things

Dreaming big is great

Not confronting knowledge full on is not

Knowledge has been TED-fied

We pay too much attention to feeling good about it

We don’t learn when we feel good

We don’t learn by being entertained

What do we learn?

Complexity Hard problems

Ambiguity

Unclear victories

Contradictions

Losing

Agency &

Context

GOT is Better than TED

So what’s my point?

Stories make culture Easy stories make the

wrong culture

URGENT NOT URGENT

NOT IMPORTANT

IMPORTANT

Don’t take the easy way out

Thank you