Graham Williams - The Halo and the Noose: The Power of Story Telling and Story Listening in Business Life

The Halo and the Noose

The Power of Story Telling and Story

Listening in Business Life

The Authors

Graham Williams is a management consultant, author, and founder of Centre-ing Services, a company active around the world in leadership development, customer service delivery and steering transition successfully. He finds that the power of story is universal, crossing all boundaries. Grahams formal disciplines are psychology, economics and business economics. E-mail:

Dorian Haarhoff is a poet, writer and mentor who is steeped in story. A former Professor of English, he now runs his own business, Creative Workshops. He facilitates corporate story workshops for a number of companies in Africa and elsewhere, and acts as a writing coach for local and international clients. E-mail:

Tony Grogan has been an editorial cartoonist for the Cape Times and other South African newspapers since 1974. His cartoons are noted for their perceptiveness, wryness and wit. He is also well-known as an illustrator. Seven books of his own work have been published and have become sought-after Africana.

Acknowledgement

We wish to thank David Taylor, Director of Companies and Management Mentor, for his support and generous assistance.

Cover design by Porat Jacobson

Originally printed in South Africa

ISBN 978-0-620-39699-8 Copyright 2009 Graham Williams and Dorian Haarhoff

All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recorded or otherwise without written permission from Graysonian Press.

Whilst every care has been taken to check the accuracy of the information in this book, the publisher cannot be held responsible for any errors, omissions or originality.

Copyright

Published by Heart Space Publications
PO Box 1085, Daylesford,
Vic, 3460, Australia.
Tel 0450 260 348

Graysonian Press South Africa is an imprint of Heartspace Publications.

Postal: PO Box 4389, Cresta, 2118 Tel +27 11 431 1274

For information about this or any of our other books email us at:

or visit us at:

http://www.heartspacebooks.com

All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.

Originally printed in South Africa

Whilst every care has been taken to check the accuracy of the information in this book, the publisher cannot be held responsible for any errors, omissions or originality.

Copyright 2009 Graham Williams and Dorian Haarhoff

ePub ISBN: 978-0-9874997-1-4

Testimonials

The Halo and the Noose offers an innovative approach to the stories that beat in the heart of an organization. Here are techniques and practical applications. At a deeper level the book shows a way of being in business and doing business. It will raise your Story IQ, so you can hear and tell your work life in a new and vital way. The authors set out their complex and important themes with an impressive directness and clarity. They achieve this, by the simple, persuasive device of practising what they preach. For the narrative moves between argument and story in a seamless way which argues a deep but unobtrusive scholarship in the literatures, cultures and traditions of many societies.

The Halo and the Noose should be seen as an exciting further step in the long process of re-connecting business life to the mainstream of human history, experience and potential.

Ralph Windle, Founder/Director: The Creative Value Network

This is the best book about leadership and business that I have seen in a long time. It is fresh, interesting, needed and written to reach out and touch the toughest part of each of us. This is not just about story telling, but more importantly, about how we can all change our story and create a future distinct from the past. Read this book. Peter Block, author (Flawless Consulting) and consultant, Partner in Designed Learning, USA. Masters Degree in Industrial Administration (Yale) A great piece of work which stimulates one to look at life differently very useful for consultants, trainers and coaches; who can draw on the various aspects of storytelling in ways that traditional methods simply cannot.

Angelo Kehayas, CEO Profweb, Fellow Certified Management Consultant, BSc, MBA

The Halo and the Noose

The Power of Story Telling and Story Listening in Business Life

by

Graham Williams & Dorian Haarhoff

Illustrated by Tony Grogan

Foreword

People involved in business at all levels have time constraints. They are bombarded with data: electronic, printed word and voice, much of it unnecessary.

They need to find time to continue their education, particularly in their chosen business fields. There is so much to read and so little time and often little to capture the imagination. This book The Halo and the Noose is a very different type of business book. It covers the necessary theoretical aspects of business management, but the story telling captivates one.

We remember stories from childhood and some of the better fiction read in later years. The 100 stories and poems in The Halo and the Noose enchant and educate and will do for many years whilst we remain in harness. If you have taken very few memories away from this wonderful book, that of Nasrudins Donkey is worthwhile relating to your children, your students, colleagues and very definitely to your boss.

David Taylor, Director of Companies and Management Mentor

Dedication

To Lynette, for being who she is

To Elma, who connects many stories

Thoughts

A halo has to fall only a few inches to be a noose

Dan McKinnon

mutato nomine de te fabula narratur (All you need do is change the name and its about you, this story)

Horace

I see story as a honeycomb, a structure to hold the honey

Workshop participant

Orientation

Stories can free us or trap us. They are like the two-edged sword. It depends on the telling, the motive for the tale and how we interpret the meaning. They can open us to new possibilities or keep us choked by or strangled in existing paradigms and orientations whether these be about belief systems, values, religions, thinking styles, business and life journeys, strategies or behaviour patterns. Writer Dan McKinnon advises, A halo has to fall only a few inches to be a noose. We acknowledge him for the books title.

We also dedicate the book to those readers who seek the liberation of the halo and wish to escape the entrapment of the noose.

At a rural gathering a famous actor is invited to recite something. He chooses Psalm 23, The Lord is my Shepherd. He recites grandly, eloquently, perfectly. At the end there is applause. Then one of the locals points to an elderly man. He also knows that Psalm. So after much persuasion the old man gets up and recites in a quivering voice, making a few mistakes. As he ends there is a poignant silence. Someone asks the actor, What was the difference between your rendering and his? The actor responds, I know the Psalm. He knows the Shepherd.