Tis the Season for School Reunions!
Tomorrow I will help kick off the Kellogg Reunion Weekend by teaching a workshop on “What Story Are You Telling at Reunion?” This one particular part really stands out to me and I can’t help myself…. Here it is.
PART OF MY SCRIPT
“… It’s not business school until we have a 2×2, so I have to have my own 2×2 (a joke I hope would actually cause someone to laugh). Actually by the time, all the walk-ins are here, we will have over 2000 people at this event. 2000 people?! Realistically, each of you will only have about 15 to 18 hours of interaction time. So how do you divide up your time? And what story will you tell? Here’s why a 2×2 can help.”
“Information is what people at reunion know about you such as your undergrad, pre-business school experience, what year you went to business school, what you did after, your interests, family update, etc. Affinity is made up of 2 things: How much people LIKE you, and how much people ARE LIKE you.”
So there are four major types of audiences for your stories.
People who have high affinity and high information on you are your BFF (best friends forever). These people love you, know you and are always in your corner.
People who somehow have lots of information on you but low affinity for you are Stalkers. Let’s hope there isn’t any.
People who have low affinity and low information on you are Strangers, or as I’d rather see it, Future Friends you’re about to meet.
People who have high affinity and low information on you are your Fans.
At reunion, you’re not likely going to spend much time with your BFF, or Stalkers for that matter (well… you could, but you probably won’t know it). So the 1st group of people you’re most attracted to spending time with are your Fans. In practical terms, theres are people in your cohort, classes, clubs, industry recruiting groups, sport teams, etc. You have substantive time with them but you haven’t kept in touch with them. The 2nd group you are also likely to spend time with are people you once have the same affiliations but you didn’t get to know them at school. And finally, the 3rd group you may end up spending some time with are fellow alum who happen to stand in line next to you at the buffet lunch, sitting next to you at faculty presentations, or alum whose kids end up playing with yours at the family BBQ picnic.
With these groups in mind, what kind of stories are you telling? Should you tell the same stories? Will you get tired of telling the same stories over and over again? Are there elements you should emphasize depending on your audience?
If you know me personally, you would know that the last question is rhetorical. Of course, it’s a good idea to emphasize different elements depending on your audience! And here’s why.
It’s very natural and human to want to know the basics. So when you meet a stranger, you want to know the basic stats: his graduation year, what industry he belongs to, where he lives, etc. So the story you tell strangers should make up for that information gap. On the other hand when you talk to your Fans, you can immediately capture their attention by telling them about a specific event. If you craft your story well, you will have covered a lot of information that your Fans want to know anyway. Here’re two story examples.
Example 1: For Strangers
Since Kellogg, I realized that NOT knowing actually can be a real gift.
I graduated in 2009 without a job and with without a clear view on my future. Instead of doing recruiting, I spent ALL my time in school on two business ventures that I was SURE one was going to take off. But neither did. Upon reflecting on WHY those two ventures didn’t take off, I realized that technology was at the heart of the both ventures. But I had no background nor INTEREST in technology. So I wonder… I’d still love to try this entrepreneurial thing, but what can I do?
I ended up going into an ancient tradition, pre-industrial revolution, pre-renaissance, pre-everything, where in the caveman days, people set around the fire and told stories. But I wanted to apply storytelling in a business setting because in my gut I knew storytelling could make a huge difference. I just had to prove it.
Well, we all know that you need a little more than gut feeling to create a successful business. So I’ve spent the past 5 years testing my hypothesis and my gut feelings. But I really had more questions than answers, especially in the beginning. For example, in what industry could storytelling make the most difference? Who can benefit from it most? How do I get the word out? What is my elevator pitch? How do I price my services? What IS my service?
Because of a ton of encouragement from my friends and family, Kellogg classmates, and because of incredible support from faculty, I eventually had the opportunities to share my knowledge and expertise at Fortune 100 companies, and with large scale non-profit board of directors. And this year, I will start teaching for Kellogg executive education program.
I’ve also learned many hard lessons, like scaling vs. not scaling, like finding partnerships and ending up with the wrong ones. Last year around this time, I realized I made a huge hiring mistake that is continuing to cost me.
So I did have the misfortune of NOT knowing what my future looked like upon graduation. But that had forced me to think even harder on my choices. I feel incredibly lucky to have to go through this tough exercise. Because now, I’ve found my calling in teaching storytelling with business impact. I can really imagine myself doing this until one day I become so frail that I cannot move.
Example 2: For Fans
My business really took off in 2012, that was also the year my mom got cancer. I’ve really learned what it was like to be part of the sandwiched generation.
Mom lives in Hong Kong by herself. I live in Chicago with my family. My youngest child was 6 MONTHS OLD at the time when she first got her diagnosis. My husband and I also JUST bought a house, my business engagements were filling up at a pace where I started to feel overwhelmed. And then we discovered that my mother-in-law needed knee surgery. Oh by the way, she lives in Germany with my father-in-law.
I flew to Hong Kong to help take care of mom. I can still remember how tricky it was to pump milk on the plane. Thank GOODNESS mom was ok and then I flew back, dived right into my two BIGGEST engagements at the time, prepared for the move with the help of my in-laws. But then… on the actual day of the move, my father-in-law got so ill that we had to call the ambulance and checked him into Northwestern hospital .
It was a lot of changes and chaos ALL at once. I often wonder if it had left any lasting negative impact on my two kids.
But I HAD TO take care of my mom. And I just COULDN’T turn down the business opportunities. The house that we really wanted was ACTUALLY available and of course NONE of us expected that my in-laws would have health concerns too!
So, I am squarely in the sandwiched generation. So far, I feel like I could only “play DE-fense.” But it would be nice if I know a few “OFFensive moves.” Do you have any ideas?
…
END OF MY SCRIPT
You still have time to think about what stories you are telling at reunion. I hope this blog is helpful. Drop me a line!
