Annette Simmons

Keynote by Speaker Annette Simmons

The Story Factor/ Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins

• The people you want to influence don’t want more information – they want faith. Faith in you, your ideas, your plan…your story.
• How can you tell your story in a way that is compelling? believable? long lasting?
• Discover how to tell a story that awakens people’s faith in you. They are more interested in what they see in your eyes than what they see in your powerpoint presentation.
• Every human being has a story to tell. Story is how we give meaning to our work, our ideas, our lives. People crave meaning. They will pursue almost any “what” if you deliver a meaningful “why” through the story you tell.
• Armed with a powerful story unbearable frustrations become tolerable and impossible odds seem less daunting.
• Storytelling is an ancient art easily adapted to today’s business world.
• Annette Simmons unlocks the secret of finding and telling inspirational stories.

Keynote by Speaker Annette Simmons

Territorial Games: The Saboteur of Collaboration

• Power, position, property. It’s been the name of the game throughout human history. And now territorial instincts are showing up more than ever as “people fight for more of the less they are supposed to be doing more with!”
• Anyone that needs cooperation across departmental, functional or international boundaries in spite of cultural differences needs to better understand the human dynamics that divides “us” from “them” – even when it is in our own best interests to work together.
• Discover how to tame the warring tribes by learning about the emotional origins of turf wars, and the ten territorial games (like camouflage, occupation, shunning, intimidation, etc.) that these emotions generate.
• Understanding the territorial dynamics that can hi-jack common sense will help you dismantle departmental, regional or pre-merger boundaries, diffuse the empire builders, and prevent ‘silo’ effects from sabotaging team efforts.
• One recent participant said, “I didn’t know there was actually a term for what I see everyday on the job”
• Not only is there “a term” for these previously covert activities, but there are solutions as well.
• Annette offers practical and realistic suggestions for what you can do to stop the game playing and get back to business.

Keynote by Speaker Annette Simmons

How to Create a Safe Place for Dangerous Truths a/k/a “the elephant in the room”

• If the “truth will set us free”…Where is it? Who has it? How will we know it when we see it?
• ‘Dangerous truths” are a gateway to creative solutions and shared responsibility.
• Un-discussable truths may cripple a group, but when you learn how to discuss the un-discussable you learn that you can also solve the unsolvable.
• Facing the scary stuff allows us to trade what we see for what “they” see and grasp a bigger picture.
• In today’s world what you know depends on who you know, how recently you spoke to them, and how much truth they chose to tell you.
• Vital information goes undetected in places where speaking the “truth” is perceived as career suicide. Dialogue is a way for a work group to get “un-stuck” when frustration and apathy threatens forward progress.
• Annette Simmons explores some of the dangerous truths currently sabotaging the workplace and the risks and rewards of truth telling.
• Learn the art of creating a safe haven so “truths” do not deteriorate into blame sessions, scape-goating, or hopelessness.