thank you so much for coming out to
support Ted it’s really important but I
I hate it when people applaud before you
speak because it just sets the bar so
high so it’s the Summer of Love 1967 but
I’m not in haight-ashbury I’m working at
a state mental hospital outside of
Detroit as a psychiatric for aid an
award for cute schizophrenics I had
always been fascinated by the human mind
one of my earliest memories is of asking
my mother when I was five years old how
I could know that anything real existed
outside of my head when she assured me
that she was indeed real I wasn’t in any
way convinced walking through the locked
door under the hospital ward was
entering another reality Ludwig was
nervously pacing the hall as always
repeating red light green light red
light green light Bruce is in the day
room delivering a speech from
meticulously prepared notes to an unseen
audience that wasn’t at all happy with
what he had to say but of all my
patients I found Peter the most
disconcerting he would come up to me and
say you think I’m crazy don’t you and
despite my denials he would continue you
think I’m crazy don’t you
well you’re the crazy one I’d roof over
my head three meals a day all the
television I can watch and I don’t have
to do a thing you have to come here and
work every day I had to admit the
validity of Peters logic and there was
no reasoning him out of it nor could I
convinced Ludwig that he didn’t need
stoplights to ward off his demons or
Bruce that the hostile audience wasn’t
real I could see that my patients lived
in a world of their own making and I had
to ask whether we all did I wasn’t the
only one questioning this was the late
1960s and the air was filled with
speculation about the
nature of reality and the smoke that
generated good deal that speculation but
it wasn’t just idle speculation if the
world existed in our heads and we
changed our heads then we could change
the world and the 60s was about both
some years later I found myself teaching
at a remarkably undistinguished college
in the small New England town while I
was there this pristine little village
was wracked by controversy the town had
agreed to sell developers a ski around
the outskirts and they then come back
and requested a zoning variance to build
runs condominiums alongside the runs
half the town was in favor because of
the promised economic benefit half was
opposed because what they feared it
would do to the quality of life so town
hall meeting was called to decide the
question the developers were up first
they presented a compelling argument
that seemed to preempt any possible
objections when they were done the
moderator called for comments you know
old Yankee stood up in the back of the
room looked at the developers and said I
don’t know nothing about all these
numbers and you do seem like nice
fellers to me but you know you request
for a zoning variance reminds me of a
friend that’s always got to have a
pickle with a sandwich for lunch I mean
it takes the bite of the sandwich then I
bite of the pickle then another bite of
the sandwich and another bite of the
pickle but it’s only when he’s finished
both did he feel satisfied gentlemen
you’re asking for one hell of a big
pickle and with that he sat down the
room is completely quiet because nobody
had any idea what he was talking about
but after a few moments there was a
little bit of laughter on the back and
the laughter built and built and built
until a roar swept through the hall
I suspect the laughter came from the
ridiculous comparison of a multi-million
dollar development to what is a rather
silly food but a pickle also means a
difficult situation and the townspeople
got the message from that point on the
development was known as one hell of a
big pick
when a vote was called the zoning
variance was soundly defeated a mere
story overcame the formidable resources
and impeccable logic of the developers
now while the developers very well may
have existed outside of the minds of the
townspeople
what was going on inside their minds
determined how they thought and felt
about the development how could a simple
story about a pickle change that so
profoundly it just didn’t seem
reasonable and it wasn’t the
neuroscientist Antonio Damasio scanned
the brains of subjects playing a simple
gambling game and found that they made
their decisions emotionally if reason
had any role at all to play It was as an
after-the-fact justification for a
decision that had already been made
stories are thoughts wrapped in emotions
so the pickle story went white at the
decision making of the townspeople a
story is told by Michael Gazzaniga about
being called in for consultation at
sloan-kettering Memorial Hospital in New
York City the patient had a lesion in
the area of a brain responsible for
location in space but all of her other
cognitive functioning was just fine
after about 15 minutes of the standard
diagnostic questioning Gazzaniga asked
her where she was she responded doctor I
know you’re not gonna believe me because
the other doctors don’t but I’m in my
house in Freeport Maine well if you’re
in your house Gazzaniga asked how do you
explain that bank of elevators outside
the door without missing a beat she
answered you have no idea the amount of
time and money it took me to have those
installed
now clearly she was making it up as she
was going along but it was real to her
bezanika bleeds we all make it up as we
go along
does our reason is no more than a story
we tell ourselves and the physical world
of bricks and mortar conforms to it now
when I’m in a discussion with someone I
recognize that they’re probably telling
themselves a story that is immune to my
reasoning and I know that I’m telling a
story
it is immune to the errors hopefully it
makes me just a little bit more
open-minded but thinking that were
rational calculators of costs and
benefits is an illusion not all that
different from those of my patients in
the mental hospital we are storytellers
but some of us tell more comfortable
stories than others if we encounter a
story that’s more attractive we take it
as our own a study at Princeton in 2010
found that when we’re listening to a
story
our brains begin to mirror the same
pattern of activation as the storyteller
if we encounter a more attractive story
we’re gonna take it as ours and the most
attractive stories are aspirational all
great leaders tell an aspirational
narrative with the promise of a
transformation at the end one that were
even willing to sacrifice to attain
advertisers have long sold as an
aspiration ours if we buy their product
those of us with too much disposable
income aren’t immune and will buy the
product even when the promise
transformation is beyond the bounds of
reason Steve Jobs understood that story
is our user interface and he built the
most valuable company in the world by
turning it into theater those of us that
own an iPhone probably stole hold on to
the attractively designed box even if
there’s no reason to it’s
chapter in the story Apple is telling
the customer the next chapter opening
the box when you hold the top of the
iPhone box it takes precisely seven
seconds for the bottom to drop out Apple
calls it the box drop test and all of
their packaging must pass it why the
delay Apple wants to build anticipation
just like the suspense in a story so
that the climax of your aspiration for
that new phone is as satisfying as it
can possibly be I’m a storyteller in the
corporate world helping my clients
create and tell narratives because they
fill in the details business plans leave
out and they’re far more engaging a set
of objectives can only cover so much of
what people need to do but an
aspirational narrative ensures that
everyone knows what to do in every
situation like not just creating a
package for a product but creating an
experience for a customer it builds
loyalty the story the organization tells
itself is its culture and the best
leaders make it their top priority to
shape it a story is so much more than
just a simple anecdote to illustrate a
point a story is a lanús to view the
world and a lever to transform it
knowing that stories drive reason
enables us to use reason to drive
stories we can infer the story that
others are telling and then we can shape
ours so that we obtain the outcomes that
we need everything is fair game for the
storytelling in mind including itself
while we are the story we tell ourselves
we can consciously decide to tell
another tell ourselves a story about how
confident talented and contented we are
and that’s who will become the more we
tell it the more its embedded in neural
networks and the more it becomes our
reality
so the answer to my childhood question
what is real is the story we choose to
tell ourselves and we might as well tell
it so we all live happily ever after
thank you
[Applause]
support Ted it’s really important but I
I hate it when people applaud before you
speak because it just sets the bar so
high so it’s the Summer of Love 1967 but
I’m not in haight-ashbury I’m working at
a state mental hospital outside of
Detroit as a psychiatric for aid an
award for cute schizophrenics I had
always been fascinated by the human mind
one of my earliest memories is of asking
my mother when I was five years old how
I could know that anything real existed
outside of my head when she assured me
that she was indeed real I wasn’t in any
way convinced walking through the locked
door under the hospital ward was
entering another reality Ludwig was
nervously pacing the hall as always
repeating red light green light red
light green light Bruce is in the day
room delivering a speech from
meticulously prepared notes to an unseen
audience that wasn’t at all happy with
what he had to say but of all my
patients I found Peter the most
disconcerting he would come up to me and
say you think I’m crazy don’t you and
despite my denials he would continue you
think I’m crazy don’t you
well you’re the crazy one I’d roof over
my head three meals a day all the
television I can watch and I don’t have
to do a thing you have to come here and
work every day I had to admit the
validity of Peters logic and there was
no reasoning him out of it nor could I
convinced Ludwig that he didn’t need
stoplights to ward off his demons or
Bruce that the hostile audience wasn’t
real I could see that my patients lived
in a world of their own making and I had
to ask whether we all did I wasn’t the
only one questioning this was the late
1960s and the air was filled with
speculation about the
nature of reality and the smoke that
generated good deal that speculation but
it wasn’t just idle speculation if the
world existed in our heads and we
changed our heads then we could change
the world and the 60s was about both
some years later I found myself teaching
at a remarkably undistinguished college
in the small New England town while I
was there this pristine little village
was wracked by controversy the town had
agreed to sell developers a ski around
the outskirts and they then come back
and requested a zoning variance to build
runs condominiums alongside the runs
half the town was in favor because of
the promised economic benefit half was
opposed because what they feared it
would do to the quality of life so town
hall meeting was called to decide the
question the developers were up first
they presented a compelling argument
that seemed to preempt any possible
objections when they were done the
moderator called for comments you know
old Yankee stood up in the back of the
room looked at the developers and said I
don’t know nothing about all these
numbers and you do seem like nice
fellers to me but you know you request
for a zoning variance reminds me of a
friend that’s always got to have a
pickle with a sandwich for lunch I mean
it takes the bite of the sandwich then I
bite of the pickle then another bite of
the sandwich and another bite of the
pickle but it’s only when he’s finished
both did he feel satisfied gentlemen
you’re asking for one hell of a big
pickle and with that he sat down the
room is completely quiet because nobody
had any idea what he was talking about
but after a few moments there was a
little bit of laughter on the back and
the laughter built and built and built
until a roar swept through the hall
I suspect the laughter came from the
ridiculous comparison of a multi-million
dollar development to what is a rather
silly food but a pickle also means a
difficult situation and the townspeople
got the message from that point on the
development was known as one hell of a
big pick
when a vote was called the zoning
variance was soundly defeated a mere
story overcame the formidable resources
and impeccable logic of the developers
now while the developers very well may
have existed outside of the minds of the
townspeople
what was going on inside their minds
determined how they thought and felt
about the development how could a simple
story about a pickle change that so
profoundly it just didn’t seem
reasonable and it wasn’t the
neuroscientist Antonio Damasio scanned
the brains of subjects playing a simple
gambling game and found that they made
their decisions emotionally if reason
had any role at all to play It was as an
after-the-fact justification for a
decision that had already been made
stories are thoughts wrapped in emotions
so the pickle story went white at the
decision making of the townspeople a
story is told by Michael Gazzaniga about
being called in for consultation at
sloan-kettering Memorial Hospital in New
York City the patient had a lesion in
the area of a brain responsible for
location in space but all of her other
cognitive functioning was just fine
after about 15 minutes of the standard
diagnostic questioning Gazzaniga asked
her where she was she responded doctor I
know you’re not gonna believe me because
the other doctors don’t but I’m in my
house in Freeport Maine well if you’re
in your house Gazzaniga asked how do you
explain that bank of elevators outside
the door without missing a beat she
answered you have no idea the amount of
time and money it took me to have those
installed
now clearly she was making it up as she
was going along but it was real to her
bezanika bleeds we all make it up as we
go along
does our reason is no more than a story
we tell ourselves and the physical world
of bricks and mortar conforms to it now
when I’m in a discussion with someone I
recognize that they’re probably telling
themselves a story that is immune to my
reasoning and I know that I’m telling a
story
it is immune to the errors hopefully it
makes me just a little bit more
open-minded but thinking that were
rational calculators of costs and
benefits is an illusion not all that
different from those of my patients in
the mental hospital we are storytellers
but some of us tell more comfortable
stories than others if we encounter a
story that’s more attractive we take it
as our own a study at Princeton in 2010
found that when we’re listening to a
story
our brains begin to mirror the same
pattern of activation as the storyteller
if we encounter a more attractive story
we’re gonna take it as ours and the most
attractive stories are aspirational all
great leaders tell an aspirational
narrative with the promise of a
transformation at the end one that were
even willing to sacrifice to attain
advertisers have long sold as an
aspiration ours if we buy their product
those of us with too much disposable
income aren’t immune and will buy the
product even when the promise
transformation is beyond the bounds of
reason Steve Jobs understood that story
is our user interface and he built the
most valuable company in the world by
turning it into theater those of us that
own an iPhone probably stole hold on to
the attractively designed box even if
there’s no reason to it’s
chapter in the story Apple is telling
the customer the next chapter opening
the box when you hold the top of the
iPhone box it takes precisely seven
seconds for the bottom to drop out Apple
calls it the box drop test and all of
their packaging must pass it why the
delay Apple wants to build anticipation
just like the suspense in a story so
that the climax of your aspiration for
that new phone is as satisfying as it
can possibly be I’m a storyteller in the
corporate world helping my clients
create and tell narratives because they
fill in the details business plans leave
out and they’re far more engaging a set
of objectives can only cover so much of
what people need to do but an
aspirational narrative ensures that
everyone knows what to do in every
situation like not just creating a
package for a product but creating an
experience for a customer it builds
loyalty the story the organization tells
itself is its culture and the best
leaders make it their top priority to
shape it a story is so much more than
just a simple anecdote to illustrate a
point a story is a lanús to view the
world and a lever to transform it
knowing that stories drive reason
enables us to use reason to drive
stories we can infer the story that
others are telling and then we can shape
ours so that we obtain the outcomes that
we need everything is fair game for the
storytelling in mind including itself
while we are the story we tell ourselves
we can consciously decide to tell
another tell ourselves a story about how
confident talented and contented we are
and that’s who will become the more we
tell it the more its embedded in neural
networks and the more it becomes our
reality
so the answer to my childhood question
what is real is the story we choose to
tell ourselves and we might as well tell
it so we all live happily ever after
thank you
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: