Poppy magazine - issue 3 by White Light Media

Poppy HOW TO SAVE THE BANKS. AGAIN. BRAIN FOOD FOR COMMUNICATORS IN FINANCE

Surviving and thriving in the mobile, cashless, robot age

Leadership lessons from the Bard No more Mr Whippy branding Humour makes us human

ISSUE 03

UP PERISCOPE Hamsters would no doubt concur, if asked, that very little can be achieved on a hamster wheel beyond more of the same and eventual exhaustion. Poppy’s raison d’être is to encourage you to step off the wheel, look up, and consider new ideas and better ways to work A common thread that runs through all the stories in this issue is the need to future-proof and play a longer game. No one ever questions the need to forward plan, but its very nature often makes it feel deceptively less important than today’s ‘urgent’ task. It takes discipline to step away from the production line or, more likely today, the inbox, and address something which isn’t an immediately critical problem. But old expressions like, “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining,” and, “Shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted,” have lingered long and with good reason. Whether it involves tackling genuine existential crises as traditional banks must, or addressing what may seem like more abstract questions such as leadership philosophy, the integrity and authenticity of your brand, or how best to articulate your values, today we urge you to come up for air, gaze into the future, set aside some time to think and be creative, tackle a non-urgent task, and allow the same for your colleagues and employees. And you can start by devouring these five portions of brain food. There should be something here for anyone with an interest in technology, society, business and the future, and plenty to consider for anyone working in comms and marketing roles in the financial services sector. Please enjoy these big ideas responsibly and let us know what you think via feedback@readpoppy.com.

THE POPPY TEAM

THE LEGAL & GREEN BIT

WHITE LIGHT MEDIA

Publisher: Fraser Allen Creative Director: Eric Campbell eric@readpoppy.com Editorial Director: Simon Lyle simon@readpoppy.com Editorial team: Christina McPherson, Malcolm Triggs, Ewen Hosie Design team: Islay Brown, Matt McArthur, Rachel Cameron, Angela McKean Business Manager: Jo Allen Cover illustration: Øivind Hovland

All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission from White Light Media Co Ltd is strictly prohibited. The paper used for this publication is made from FSC certified sources using 100% ECF pulp. This magazine can be recycled through your kerbside collection or at a local recycling point. Not many people read this bit.

Poppy is published by White Light Media, a content marketing agency that works closely with clients to create intelligently written, beautifully designed print and online campaigns. If you would like to explore how our team could help your comms or marketing strategy, contact Fraser Allen at: fraser@whitelightmedia.co.uk or 0131 555 6494.

White Light Media, 54 Timber Bush, Edinburgh EH6 6QH. 0131 555 6494.

MANIFESTO

bunch of individuals and we want Poppy to reflect their adventurous spirit and enquiring minds.

The launch of Poppy was inspired by several trends we have observed in design, marketing and publishing:

BIG IDEAS Many of our clients tell us that they are constantly fighting fires – work is busy and stressful; they don’t have time to think about the big picture. That’s where Poppy can help. Each issue will comprise a small number of in-depth features exploring big ideas that deserve attention.

BORING BUSINESS MAGAZINES Most business magazines haven’t changed in 30 years. They rely on the same tired, cluttered formats, with content designed to attract advertisers and promote events. They’re boring to read and even more boring to look at – black and white pics of middle-aged men in boardrooms abound. Our financial services clients are a diverse

4 8 12 14 17

SLOW JOURNALISM We enjoy reading a magazine called Delayed Gratification published by the London-based Slow Journalism Company. Conceived as a reaction to the 24-7

rolling news agenda, it reflects intelligently on the past, providing a fresh perspective on stories that have fallen off the news carousel. Poppy is informed by some of that thinking and doffs its cap to their pioneering work. COLLABORATIVE JOURNALISM The scribes of News International could learn a few lessons from the way content marketing journalists create copy. We don’t tap phones, ruin people’s lives or sit in ivory towers. Instead, we work with our clients to create accurate, useful, well-written content. Poppy takes the same constructive approach. Each feature is created by a talented writer working closely

with an industry-leading expert. We call it collaborative journalism. THE GOLDEN AGE A fresh generation of entrepreneurs is shaking up the magazine world. Publications we admire include Monocle, The Gentlewoman, Cereal, Printed Pages, the aforementioned Delayed Gratification and our own award-winning Hot Rum Cow (www.hotrumcow.co.uk). The influential blog MagCulture describes this new wave of craft publishing as ‘The Golden Age of Magazines’ – and Poppy is keen to spread the golden rays of this enlightenment through the backwaters of business magazine publishing.

“THIS WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING” As the disruptive innovation of mobile computing takes the financial world by storm, writer, editor and publisher Andy Pemberton highlights five banks that have risen to the digital challenge.

“ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH, DEAR FRIENDS” As 21st-century leadership evolves, approaches to its education are changing. Son of thespians Lawrence Olivier and Joan Plowright, Richard Olivier considers what Shakespeare himself has to offer.

MONEY-MAKING MACHINES Brett King, futurist, author and mobile banking guru, envisions that by 2020 bank branches will be obsolete. With robotics on the rise – the world of personal banking is set to change beyond recognition.

STICK OF ROCK v MR WHIPPY An areated confection perched flimsily atop a generic base or a sticky body wrapped around a clear message? Branding and creativity expert Mark Taylor talks sweet banking metaphors.

HUMOUR MAKES US HUMAN Professional storyteller Fiona Herbert knows the secret of telling authentic, relatable and believable brand yarns: humour. In order to help you understand, she’ll tell you hers.

CONTENTS 3

WORDS Andy Pembertun ILLUSTRATION Tom Humberstone

“THIS WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING” Smartphones have transformed the financial world. But will they be the death or the salvation of banks? Andy Pemberton highlights five ways banks are meeting the digital challenge

t’s not often a business leader, even one as feted as Steve Jobs, gets to hold a piece of history in his hand – and recognise the fact at the time. But, when the Apple CEO stepped onstage in January 2007 and held aloft a slab of plastic, metal and silicon about the size of a wallet, he did just that. In front of wide-eyed Apple acolytes, he introduced the smartphone to the world. As The Economist later pointed out “Apple’s iPhone exemplifies the early 21st century’s defining technology.” Today smartphones are everywhere. Officiallythefastest-sellinggadgetsinhistory, they outsell personal computers by a ratio of four to one. Half the adult population owns a smartphone. By 2020, 80% will. And Jobs was right. The device he held in his hand back in 2007 is changing everything. Much more than a phone (voice calls continue to be a function used less and less), they are powerful mobile computers – the first truly personal computers – capable of reshaping entire industries and transforming society too. Your phone goes where you go, knows whom you talk to, what websites you visit. It collects that data, data that can be used by business, government and others for all kinds of purposes. Smartphones are “digital census takers”. They are opening up new markets too. Over half the adult population of the world still lack bank accounts. Mobile is increasingly the means by which they can be drawn into the banking system. That will have a big impact not only on banks’ bottom line, but on entire economies too. In developing countries, a 10% rise in mobile phone users adds a percentage point to per captia GDP. How fast will all this happen? At lighning speed. Uber, for example, is now a household

name, operating in 55 countries, yet it is not even five years old. And banking services are on the front line too. It took Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba just seven months to become China’s largest seller of money market funds and three years to become a $16 billion lender. Consulting giant Accenture believes a third of traditional bank revenue will be eroded by competition from non-banks by 2020. At the time of writing, Apple has just launched its Apple Pay service in the UK. The technology allows shoppers to make small purchases by waving their iPhone 6 or Apple Watch over a till terminal. Many of the UK’s biggest retailers have signed up. But days before Apple Pay launched, HSBC – a participating bank – accidently let slip to the press about the launch plans. Almost overnight HSBC vanished from the list of launch suppliers. The bank – and its six million customers – had to wait an extra month to get on to the service. Had the mighty Apple punished the world’s local bank for its mistake? Maybe, maybe not. But are tech companies going to be in a position to slap down banks soon? Accenture thinks so. It believes mobile digital is a fundamental challenge to retail banks. If banks don’t get their finger out, Accenture says, new competitors such as Apple could restrict banks to a limited role as back-office utilities, while non-banks become the new face of their customers’ financial lives – all via the smartphone. Or, put crudely, whoever controls the mobile app, controls the customer and therefore the banking business. The answer for banks could lie in them moving further into the commercial lives of their customers. Banks can use their significant clout – their vast reservoirs of transaction data, for example – and combine it with new digital tools to help customers make

297 x 420mm (+3mm bleed top, bottom and RHS)

decisions on what to buy, where and when to buy it – dinner, a movie or even a new home. The widespread use of smartphones represents a bigger set of opportunities and threats than banking has seen for years. Here are five global case studies of banks that have grasped the nettle and pioneered ideas that meet the challenge of mobile and beyond – with real results.

1. Commonwealth Bank of Australia did mobile payment years ago

ustralian banks are way ahead of the bell curve when it comes to smartphone payments. Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, Credit Union Australia and Bendigo Bank have all released mobile payment apps. ANZ Bank and National Australia Bank say they have them in the works. In 2011, Commonwealth Bank of Australia led the pack when it launched ‘CommBank Kaching’ for iPhone. It was part of its drive, launched the year before, to become a “truly mobile bank”. Kaching initially only worked for iPhone, allowing users to pay each other through peer-to-peer networks such as email and text through their mobile. Apple had been holding off introducing near field technology to its phones so the iPhone 3s and iPhone 4s that were knocking round in 2011 weren’t equipped. So CommBank developed an iPhone case that had the technology built into it. Australians could now bump their mobiles together to pay each other. A deal with Mastercard made tap-and-pay in shops possible. THE RESULT: By 2012, after hundreds of thousands of downloads of the iPhone app, CommBank extended Kaching to Android. In 2013, after AU$4 billion of payments on the app, Commbank withdrew Kaching and offered the same services though its regular app, signalling that what was revolutionary had now become normal.

use it on a date without looking cheap. Since launch, Bank of America’s BankAmeriDeals have served 1.5 billion offers to 30 million online customers and 14 million mobile banking customers. THE RESULT: It has helped customers save more than $20 million since the programme began in 2012. BofA has retained 30 million online banking customers since January 2012, and the number of mobile bankers increased by 4 million since May 2012. BankAmeriDeals generated $200 million worth of spend for merchants during the past two years. THE TAKEAWAY: Merchants get more business from the right customers as well as better value advertising, while the customers get deals that are relevant to their everyday spending. And the bank profits too. Win-win-win.

Ziraat has installed lots of them in areas that don’t have Ziraat branches, especially in the small towns that can be found across Anatolia, as well as in large cities, shopping centres, airports, and bus, metro and petrol stations. Once inside the booth, which is open 24/7, the customer deals with a human bank employee over videoconference software. They can withdraw funds, pay bills, buy foreign currency and make investments. THE TAKEAWAY: as a state-run bank, Ziraat has a greater responsibility than private lenders to provide a service like this. As banks use more and more technology to make banking increasingly mobile, they also must remember that they will leave some customers behind.

4. E-commerce giant Amazon launches its loan service around the world 3. Videobanking is taking off in Hong Kong and Turkey

n 2013 Standard Chartered Hong Kong opened its first ‘digital’ branch, in which customers were greeted by giant screen TVs, the bank’s mobile apps in a special experience zone, and QR code scanning on an iWall, as well as e-signature pads and virtual queuing. THE TAKEAWAY: According to a spokesman, the aim was to provide an interactive experience that is “as much about entertainment as it is about banking”. That‘s where the Video Teller Machine (VTM) comes in. Ziraat reckons it is a world first. LINK bit.ly/1E6NPsr

THE TAKEAWAY: Because CommBank struck quickly, NFT mobile payments remain in the hands of banks in Australia where elsewhere in the world the mighty Apple holds the whip hand. LINK bit.ly/1NGVNbN

2. Bank of America builds a win-win-win ecosystem

ank of America’s BankAmeriDeals is an example of a bank generating a value ecosystem for its customers, its merchants and itself that has generated multi-million dollar value in just two years. Launched in 2012, BankAmeriDeals analyses credit card transaction data to give customers tailored discounts on transactions at shops and bars they use a lot. Users pay full price at the till and receive monthly cash back rewards. There are no outward signs that a customer is using a BankAmeriDeal, so you can

nternet giant Amazon is rolling out an invitation-only lending service to thousands of the sellers that use its market place. It should allow sellers to expand their stock and diversify. It is a win-win strategy. As Amazon takes a cut on sales, if its customers increase profits, Amazon’s profits go up too. Amazon has lots of capital but it also has excellent relationships with its vendors. So while banks spend serious time and money on lead generation, Amazon has a captive audience, as well as all the data it could ever need to model the risk in those businesses. But it’s also cheap. An Amazon loan will cost 5.9% plus a 1% arrangement fee. There’s no early repayment fee and no admin – repayments are taken directly from monthly sales proceeds. It’s going to be cheap and it’s going

to be easy. The loans will be offered in China, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy and Spain. It already offers the service in Japan and the US. THE RESULTS: Too soon to tell. THE TAKEAWAY: Online lending currently accounts for about 3% of the roughly $1 trillion of outstanding personal and small business loans in the United States. But it is growing.

5. Amex encourages a “social takeover” to gain 10 million social media impressions in two weeks

S credit company American Express staged a “social takeover” to gain 10 million social media impressions in two weeks. The company launched #MyAmex in 2015, when six influencers took control of the company’s Instagram account. The key “influencers” showed on Instagram how they regularly used the card, including buying morning coffee and using free air miles for business trips. Amex says Instagram is the social media platform most used by its customers. THE RESULTS: According to Amex, the #MyAmex posts generated 23% more engagement than the brand’s other Instagram pictures. Amex also doubled its average number of daily Instagram followers for two weeks. In total, the campaign generated more than 10 million impressions and 40,000 engagements. Amex began using social media “influencers” in 2014. That’s when artists such as Andy Hau and Supermundane created Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Vine posts, and during New York Fashion Week, fashion bloggers posted sketches on the brand’s social accounts. LINK bit.ly/1rOG18j

THE TAKEAWAY: Turning a profit is getting harder for Amex. Card issuers are providing bigger rebates for purchases, more frequent flier miles and longer interest-free periods for those willing to transfer from other cards.

BANKS’ BIGGEST OPPORTUNITY FOR 100 YEARS Mobile banking will soon double the number of bank accounts in the world. And it’s going to happen very fast indeed.

SEVEN

THREE $4bn

The time it took Alibaba to become China’s largest seller of money market funds.

The time it took Alibaba to become a $16billion lender

FOUR

10m

The increase in mobile bankers at Bank of America since 2013 thanks to BankAmeriDeals

Generated by AmEx’s #MyAmex social media campaign

MONTHS MILLION

33%

Percentage of traditional bank revenue eroded by competition from non-banks by 2020*

And finally

AUS DOLLARS The amount of payments made on CommBank’s Kaching app by 2013

IMPRESSIONS

4:1 50% 80% Ratio by which smartphones outsell personal computers

Percentage of the adult population that owns a smartphone

Percentage that will own a smartphone by 2020

140 80% 50% Times the average user checks their phone a day

Proportion who check it within 15 minutes of getting up

Proportion of adults in the world who still lack bank accounts

1% $20 .5bn Increase in GDP per person by adding 10 mobile phones per 100 people

Cost of an African smartphone

Amount of Africans estimated to have a smartphone by 2016

*Accenture.

If dealing with the disruptive innovation caused by cheap mobile computing wasn’t enough, the banking sector might well be hit by another tsunami. The Blockchain. Blockchain is the digital ledger that makes Bitcoin work. While the mechanics are complicated, the result is simple. It is a method of creating an accurate, reliable and constantly updated record of every Bitcoin transaction. As this record is publicly available and reliable, it has turned Bitcoin from an interesting idea into a credible alternative currency. Blockchain can, and will, be applied beyond Bitcoin and some commentators see it as an innovation on a par with the internet itself, one that could spell doom for banks as it seems to do away with the need for a trusted third party to clear payments. Unsurprisingly, banks are growing increasingly interested in how it works and researching how they can adapt it into their own operations. Blockchain is an innovation that goes beyond digital. It redefines payment, clearing and money, and therefore it redefines everything that banks do. Just like the iPhone, “this will change everything.”

YEARS

This feature was created by Andy Pemberton, Andy Cowles and James Lumley of London-based agency Furthr. Andy Pemberton edited Q magazine in London, launched Blender magazine in New York and also edited Spin. He has written for the New York Times, GQ, Esquire, The Sunday Times, The National (Dubai) and The Times of India. Andy Cowles worked for nine years as Editorial and Creative Director for IPC Media, the UK's biggest consumer publisher, was art Director of Rolling Stone and Creative Director of Mademoiselle in New York. James Lumley spent a decade at Bloomberg News reporting on, amongst other things, financial crime, regulation and legal matters. He also spent three years as a writer at FTSE 100 insurer Aviva Plc.

WORDS Richard Olivier ILLUSTRATION Glen McBeth

“ ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH, DEAR FRIENDS” So declares the Bard’s Henry V as he rallies his troops before besieging the French town of Harfleur. In his rousing speech, Henry unifies his army in a common cause by skilfully appealing to their patriotism and elevating their status to that of noblemen. It is only one example of Henry’s inspirational leadership in a play that Richard Olivier believes holds many relevant lessons for modern-day leaders

The son of thespians Laurence Olivier and Joan Plowright, and a theatre director for more than 10 years, Richard took his fascination with storytelling and turned it into Olivier Mythodrama, a leadership development consultancy that uses theatre to harness the power of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. It is a rather alternative approach to leadership education, but as Richard explains here, one that is very much needed as 21st-century leadership evolves and takes on many new facets

he notion of storytelling has always been a big part of my life. I grew up in a theatre family; my mum and dad were both actors and from a very young age, I would go to the theatre to watch their plays. Following the death of my father when I was still relatively young, I explored my own personal development and became interested in what the life of a mature man looked like in the modern world. I came across a menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s movement led by the American poet Robert Bly that utilised mythopoetics â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the idea of going deeper into the narrative of a story to try and identify, what I call, its mythic backbone. All great stories have a skeleton under the surface that holds the real meaning and drives the

narrative. Over the course of three years, I immersed myself in these ideas and carried out research into menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s development in an organisational context. It became clear that stories could be used as containers for learning within a professional organisation.

The indefinable nature of genius

I was then asked to direct Henry V for the opening of the Shakespeare Globe Theatre in 1997. While working alongside Mark Rylance, who also believed in the mythic structure, we studied the play as a map of human development. Broadly about a young leader grappling with a big project, it is full of lessons about inspiration and purpose, passion and motivation. Encouraged by business guru Charles Handy and poet David Whyte, we had the idea to present a Mythodrama experience to

business leaders – the ‘mytho’ being the great stories and insights into human nature that Shakespeare created and the ‘drama’ being the learning experience and the vehicle for communicating the story. Shakespeare is a wonderful gift. He just had it, and the result of that genius is enduringly relevant and rich case studies about leaders and their followers. The treatment of Othello, or Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew, may be outdated in terms of societal changes but the human dynamics

underneath the plays are eternal. Henry V is an inspirational leader; Julius Caesar concerns the themes of power, politics and influence; Macbeth explores the dangers of derailing behaviour; The Tempest seeks to understand the dynamics of change; and As You Like It enables positive change culture. I took Henry V as a leadership intervention to Cranfield School of Management and Saïd Business School, and the response was overwhelmingly positive. Participants could easily identify with Henry and his struggles,

“I believe authentic leaders are ordinary people able to draw on extraordinary talents”

HENRY V: THE 15TH-CENTURY CEO Henry V was the first play we developed for organisational leadership. During the course of the play, many leadership issues arise: from communicating a vision to managing conflict and maintaining momentum, overcoming self-doubt and inspiring others. At the beginning of the play, Henry must shed his playboy image and win the respect of his followers before leading them to France to reclaim England’s lands. The analogy for business is clear. He’s a new leader, brought into an organisation rife with problems. He unites his team around a common goal, seeing off his closest competitor. Henry’s success is due in part to his ability to play more than one role.

In France, he uses his leadership skills to solve the challenges before his army. The play culminates at the Battle of Agincourt, where Henry and his exhausted troops must face the enemy. Henry has a restless night as he faces his own doubts and fears but on the battlefield we see the warrior leader in action. After the battle, he then must turn his attention to healing relationships with France and yet another type of leadership is required. Henry also embarks on his own journey of personal development as he prepares for leadership. He seeks out what we would now call his individual sense of purpose: what really gets him up in the morning with a smile on his face to be leader of England plc.

and then reflect on their own situation and experiences through the story. From this success, Olivier Mythodrama was born, using storytelling and drama as a means to demonstrate the essence of modern leadership. The methods we use help to prepare leaders for the events that will ultimately define their leadership. As a leader, you need to be the chief storyteller and control the narrative of your organisation. Any organisational challenge is an opportunity to tell an effective story and engage your audience. But this is not a typical strength of many CEOs. We all know how to tell stories as kids but once we become number crunchers, we forget. Storytelling is a skill that needs to be learnt once again.

Good King, Warrior, Good Mother, Medicine Woman

In the past, there has been a temptation for people, particularly leaders, to compartmentalise their lives and leave their personalities at the door; they are warriors at work and loving parents at home. But the modern workplace, and certainly the future workplace, needs to be populated by people who are self-aware and emotionally intelligent; who are collaborative rather than competitive; who don’t get stuck in silos but are aware of the complex map of stakeholders relying on them. Once upon a time the best leader was seen to be unshakable – a strong helmsman, as it were,settingthedirectionof theorganisation. Since I started this 20 years ago, I have noticed adistincthumanisationinleadership.Leaders are becoming more adaptable and more willing to respond to the situation around them. Indeed, they are gaining more credibility than those who refuse to show doubt or ask questions. The demands on 21st-century leaders are becoming bigger and more varied. The number of stakeholders leaders must engage with is continuing to rise and it is more complex than even half a generation ago. A different level of consciousness is required to tackle this. A leader needs to exhibit a rounded personality; think systematically as opposed to linearly; and have the ability to hold paradox. At Olivier Mythodrama, we use Archetypal Psychology, which is essentially characters of communication found in all cultures past and present – the Good King (building consent around common goals), the Great Mother (the power of listening and encouraging collaborative effort), the Medicine Woman (adapting personal energy) and the Warrior (upholding accountability). People usually have a prejudice against their least favourite archetype. For example, people in the Good King mode are very logical and ordered. They may resent innovative shaman types and unconsciously try and clamp down on that innovation. Yet, archetypes are essentially human potentials and anyone can learn to access the ones they find difficult. It’s a question of motivation, but to work at full potential, we require access to all four characters and the ability to switch between them as appropriate, depending on the situation.

A second Renaissance

The next stage of Mythodrama’s development is to adapt non-Shakespeare stories. The Middle Age tale of Parsifal and the quest for the Holy Grail has valuable lessons in how leaders need to accept who they are, failures and all. This two and a half day course gives leaders an opportunity to reflect on the fertiliser of their lives, as they transition from the first adventure of leadership (proving your worth) to the second of leaving a legacy.

DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE W e are living in a pivotal time when women need to step fully into leadership roles and embody their full selves without having to compromise and use masculine energy to ‘get things done’. Using the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone came out of a strong commitment to working more with women to help them address the challenges they face in the corporate world. The story is fundamentally about how women operate effectively and skilfully in a patriarchal world that doesn’t always support them: how do they take on systems that are oppressive and continue to access what is best in themselves? In mainstream culture, people understand the story as the creation of the seasons. Persephone is abducted by Hades and taken to the underworld, and her mother, Demeter, must use her skills and resources to rescue her. The outcome is the seasons: in winter everything goes underground; in spring there is growth; summer is when everything comes to fruition; and autumn is a time of harvest. These transitions, or cycles, are apparent not only in a woman’s life but also in organisational life when planting seeds and growing a new project or innovation. Whereas Henry V is primarily focused on external realities, Demeter and Persephone is powered by a sense of self. As Persephone emerges regenerated, re-born and more fully herself at the end of her journey, we encourage women to focus on their own personal development: they have time to reflect, examine the bigger perspective of their lives and recognise the privilege and opportunity they have in their roles to influence others. By working with the triple goddess of Maiden/ Mother/Crone, women can explore the inner transformations through these stages in their lives, and how to move towards reunion and integration internally and externally.

The best leaders are those who sustain their people and their culture in an ethical manner. They are committed to leaving the world a better place. Leaders must ask: how can our organisation be fit for purpose in 2050? Big organisations need to be run ethically in the short term but also sustainably in the long term. As the world changes, there are lessons about leadership that Shakespeare could never have envisioned. The stories of the past can only develop modern leaders’ skills to a certain capacity. It’s vital that we research and source new stories for the future of leadership development as well as use the great wisdom of the past.

I believe authentic leaders are ordinary people able to draw on extraordinary talents. The next two generations of leaders will have a fundamental impact on the world around us. I believe we are at a crucial point in history, similar to the Renaissance, which was a time of great change that required a shift in the level of consciousness about the world. In the same way that people grasped that the Earth was not the centre of the universe, I would argue that we now need to realise that we are not the centre of the universe. Both leaders and organisations are part of this systemic shift, and we want to help leaders see the big picture.

Richard Olivier has worked extensively in the fields of Organisational and Personal Development and is the founding voice within Mythodrama. Olivier Mythodrama’s mission is to help leaders act with integrity, tell a compelling story and release the potential of those around them. The Guild of Mythodrama-accredited consultants have helped senior executives around the world grow their leadership skills. More information on Olivier Mythodrama’s offerings can be found at www.oliviermythodrama.com or by emailing info@oma.uk.com.

WORDS Ewen Hosie ILLUSTRATION Angela McKean

MONEYMAKING MACHINES What role will robots play in banking’s future? Futurist, author and mobile banking app innovator, Brett King, on the rise of the robots

rett King is a man on a mission. The prominent futurist was inspired to found the mobile banking app Moven while he was doing the tour for his best-selling book Bank 2.0, a speculative examination of the future of banking. An Australian born in Melbourne but now based in New York, he sees a distinctive future for banks – one without physical branches. He envisions that by 2020, people won’t need to go to a bank branch to pay at all, as we will all be using our phones instead. “How would that change the way a bank account works?” he asks. “You wouldn’t need a signature, you wouldn’t need physical artefacts; it would be very information- and context-based; what is a bank, and what is the next evolution of a bank account?” The use of robots in banks is a concept still in relative infancy, though there have been some notable breakthroughs in this field in the last few years. Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ has a diminutive robotic assistant called Nao placed at its central branch by Tokyo Station, which has been ‘employed’ to greet customers and help them with simple day-to-day interactions and administrative tasks. Nao has been introduced as a potential way to help internationalise the Japanese banking experience in preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics; it can recognise several languages and also utilises facial recognition systems. At a cost of around £5,000, the robot represents a significant saving on a human employee in a similar position. Meanwhile in Chennai and Mumbai, Polaris FT has created Robin, a robot ‘bank manager’ that can help customers with banking and insurance issues, and speed up tedious application processes for customers, with the intention of rivalling the expedient experience provided by an app. But such efforts may not necessarily prove the best approach given the preponderance for an increasingly online-looking banking future, and the rise of the sharing economy. “You have to look at the trends in branch engagement overall,” says King. “It’s massively down because we just don’t need

to go to branches as much as we used to, so whether you put robots or humans in those branches is not really going to reverse that trend. I think the biggest change we’ll see over the next 10 years will be some sort of personal money coach built in to a Siri-like competency, which can manage your money on a day-to-day basis, giving you advice on purchases, or how to save better, or whether you should take that part-time job at Uber on the side, or how many hours a week you should work with them to supplement your income – these things will become embedded in your cloud or your digital ecosystem. I think that’s a more prominent form of machine intelligence when it comes to banking and money matters that we’ll see become more dominant than a robot in a building.”

British bank branches are in decline. In 1990, there were more than 17,000 across the country, but the Campaign for Community Banking Services has predicted that there will be fewer than 7,000 by 2018. Increasingly, young customers have turned to online banking and apps in lieu of visiting branches. There is debate over the future direction of the banking industry; King believes that in the next decade, we may not have any branches left at all. “What we tried to do with Moven in terms of the design of the business was to create a benchmark for a downloadable bank account with the realisation that by 2020, people wouldn’t go to a bank branch to open one, but just download it to their phones,” he says. “Robotics aside, this is an overarching behavioural shift that we are seeing societally, and will only be accelerated as two billion people enter the banking system over the next decade, exclusively on their phones.” Indeed, in countries that have no precedent for the banking experience, it may be easier for such a notion to take hold than in countries with more firmly ensconced banking habits: “There are people who’ve never been in banks before in the developing world,” says King. “So the world’s bank account will be the phone by the middle of next decade, if not sooner, and that will change the way we think – in 10 years’ time it will become completely normal, in the way that it is normal today to write someone an email instead of writing them a letter.” It may take some time for people to make the adjustment, but the impact felt by such disruptive influences is nothing new, and harks back to other revolutionary influences such as the radio, TV or the internet itself. A point of concern over the digitisation of banking is identity protection, but King maintains that it may actually prove safer than current methods, which he deems archaic. “Well it’s funny isn’t it, because we are concerned about security, and concerned about how increased digital transmission of money and so forth will affect things with regards to fraud, but a signature is about the weakest possible artefact from a security perspective we could ever think up,” he explains. “It’s something that came about a thousand or 1,500 years ago, and it is no

“There’s a lot of biomimicry in robotics. There is an advantage to this in terms of its comfort level, except when you get to the Uncanny Valley, where a robot looks close enough to a human that it’s scary” Though King sees a banking future better served by automation than automatons, he concedes that there may be some room for robot servers as a form of marketing, but that the future for robotics in banking will appear in more subtle ways. “I think there is a possibility for some sort of in situ service capability in various scenarios and whether it’s a robot or a human we can be a bit agnostic about. I think we will be starting to see robotics, as long as you see robotics as machine automation, not just in the physical form of a robot,” he explains. “Things like voice response systems are getting pretty sophisticated in terms of natural language capability, including biometrics and voice recognition, and these sorts of things will become more commonplace, but the problem with robots, as with humans, whether advisors or tellers, is really around location.”

longer a unique identifier; it’s not secure in any form, it’s a really bad mechanism for identity management and security. Why do we still use signatures for account opening for example, where nine out of 10 banks still require you to sign a signature? It just doesn’t make any sense.” It will probably take around 20 to 30 years for people to truly get past the notion that digitisation represents a threat to personal security, and that given the openness surrounding today’s society with regards to the transparency of information posted on social media, we will need to ‘upgrade’ our concept of identity as a society. King says: “We need to decide what information is private and sacrosanct and what is

public with regards to our identity. Our date of birth, for example, should never be used as a mechanism for defining who we are from a security perspective exclusively, because it’s something we regularly share – stuff like that we will have to rethink.” Whether the future of banking involves bank branches served by robot staff, or the death of the bank branch altogether, it will hold momentous changes. The experimental use of robots in banks in India and Japan could serve as a comforting influence for customers on a psychological level, but there are limits to this. The attempt to emulate traditional methods through new technology is referred to as biomimicry. “There’s a lot of biomimicry in robotics,” says

King, “but there doesn’t have to be. There is an advantage to biomimicry in terms of its comfort level, except when you get to the Uncanny Valley, where a robot looks close enough to a human that it’s scary. I think if we are going to have humanoid robots the trend for a period of time will be to make them clearly, distinctly robots, and not try to mimic humans too closely, certainly in terms of facial expression. As we talk about augmented virtuality and augmented reality and digital overlays into our world, augmented data feeds, augmented imagery and so forth – it is going to change the way we perceive the world as well. I think the vast form of robotics will tend to stay away from human emulation.”

Brett King is the CEO of mobile banking app Moven, and a prominent author. He has also spoken to international audiences on the future of banking, and is the host of popular radio show BREAKING BANK$, which is listened to by millions.

14 GRITY TE

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WORDS Mark Taylor ILLUSTRATION Eric Campbell

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STICK OF ROCK

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MISTER WHIPPY

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Confecting brands, integrity and trust in financial services with branding and business creativity expert Mark Taylor

he humble stick of rock was once a powerful symbol of collective memories and shared experiences … the great British seaside holiday. Countless resorts up and down the country proudly produced and promoted their stick of rock, with the unique name of their town shot through the centre in dayglo pink, for people to take home as a reminder of their carefree holidays. At a moment in history when the reputation of financial services companies of all colours and flavours remains laid low after the ravages of the last financial crisis, the simple stick of rock offers us a port in a storm, a life raft on rough, open seas and a lighthouse for calmer times. Simply stated the ‘stick of rock’ is a great metaphor for trust, integrity, a good business and a brilliant brand: a cohesive, sticky body, wrapped around a clear ‘message’, consistently expressed no matter at what point or indeed stage you ‘break’ that stick of rock. A good business is a clear, cohesive and consistent force, like a stick of rock: an arrangement of resources and assets all sticking together through a unifying culture and values, in the collective pursuit of a driving purpose. A brilliant brand is also a collective force of consumer and company employee aligned and engaged with the same compelling and competitive meaning of that company, in their hearts and minds. Financial services (FS) businesses and brands that are truly sticky are few and far between (although I have been lucky enough to work on a few crackers like

Artemis – The Profit Hunter, Threadneedle, Avantia Insurance and NatWest). But the sad truth is that many FS businesses/‘brands’ are more like Mr Whippy than a stick of rock … highly aerated confections, sitting precariously atop a bog-standard, generic and flimsy base, constantly at risk of melting at the slightest rise in emotional temperature. Financial services, as we all know, were for too long hooked on the rationalities of product, performance and process. And whilst some companies evolved their ‘propositions’ (a very rational notion in itself ) into the warmer climes of emotional positioning and CRM, many did it badly – like Dad dancing on a crowded dance floor. There was also too much focus on frothed-up communication and too little attention paid to the fundamental, underlying importance of the depth and substance of the organisation, its people and what they actually do. They largely ignored the important, day-to-day business of what the company did, how it did it and why it did it in the first place. It was style over substance, and still is in many cases. It’s so much easier to communicate than to be. Communications have become such a key part of the way that FS companies do business and ‘connect’ with their audiences. But the problem is that whilst some communication, at the frontiers of creativity and imagination, is actually able to connect with consumers, most of it falls short – communications peppered with stereotype and littered with facts masquerading as ‘insights’. Communications have become pieces of Nike-like legislation … Just Do It! Not based on the fundamental desire to share the business and promote engagement.

Communications, I often quip to clients, are actually what you do if you fail to make enough friends and impact by actually doing interesting and valued things in the first place. Many ‘cult’ brands in many sectors, from Innocent in drinks to Octopus in finance, have been built through their actions not communications, deeds not words. They have a point of view and they do things to bring that point of view to active life, through their business deeds. They’ve understood that to be a brand is to share an idea with people inside the company and outside. It’s about offering a shared agenda that is furthered through the collective actions of its participants, rather than a raft of one-way communications plans, ostensibly designed to try and control a relationship between company and consumer. Relying on just communications in a financial firestorm, such as we inherited post 2007, is a bit like trying to put out fires with a petrol-sozzled beer mat.

Temperatures rising

When the meltdown enveloped the industry, company credibility and trust burnt up in seconds. Leaving just the badly charred remnants of ice cream cone business after ice cream cone business. Brands are trust and trust is fundamental. Trust was damaged because money was lost. Personal relationships built from decades of expensive communications campaigns vaporised. The shutters on the front desk of consumer confidence in banks and others came down and stayed down. Consumers were put back in their box and exposés of back-office dealings filled the media. Fragile trust, which requires openness, accountability and fulfilment of expectation, had buckled and burst.

Y I

Then there is the strategy for ensuring ongoing engagement of the company’s most important EGRIT EGRIT BRANDresources, its people, in BRAND NT NT the re-articulated direcEGRIT BRAND NT tion and meaning of the business and its brand. Not forgetting the customer in all this, attention turns to how each area of operation is stitched together to seamlessly deliver the brand and the customer experience that is itself cohesive and consistent. That takes a bit of effort and demands collaborative working across departments and disciplines as joined-up teams to craft a joined-up experience. And finally … finally … there are those communications to plan. Well actually, more importantly, there is the content that the brand needs to deliver to engage with customers/clients, which is probably stickier stuff than The process for that journey back to basics traditional communications. needn’t take forever or cost the earth, but it does need to be followed.

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EGRIT NT EGRIT EGRIT NT NT Y I

And so all FS companies can be considered glass box businesses and we can see US TRUST right through them. AndTR T this has made us all more TRUST cynical and more demanding than at any point in history. Consumers are the empowered ones in crowded, commoditising markets like financial services, increasingly democratised by technology and new ‘outsider’ competition. We expect companies to do what they say, and only then say what they do. We want them to mean something that they really truly mean. We expect focus and truth to ooze from every corporate pore, cohesively. From how the business operates day-to-day, to whom they hire and promote, to whom they do and don’t do business with as business partners. We expect them to exhibit consistency in their behaviours, which express their centre of gravity time and time again, not changing carousel-like with every new campaign, new agency hiring or company CEO. People want sticks of rock not Mr Whippy.

BRAND BRAND BRAND

Glass box business

TRUST TRUST TRUST

“Embarking on building a brand with stickiness and substance is a long-term, 24/7 commitment. It can’t be picked up and noisily run with, only to be put down quietly when another pressing priority is deemed to have arrived”

Stick of rock brands

Businesses that have achieved superior self-awareness, been asked provocative questions and developed truthful, compelling answers, are the ones that transcend into stick of rock businesses and brands – financial brands you can trust with the holy trinity of integrity, depth and substance. Brands that are verbs.

How to make rock?

It’s surprisingly simple … 1) First, you need to identify the sticky core of what will sit at the centre of the business and cause adhesion of all parts of the company to it. This is what the company is all about and here to do. What do you stand for? It’s not a confection, it’s the core truth of who you are, what you do and why you do it. 2) Second, you’ll need to be comfortable working and re-working the sweet, sticky stuff that can create cohesion between people, into a unifying culture of shared values, beliefs and stories. What I refer to as “coadhesion” is at the heart of creating a stick of rock brand in financial services (as in any other market space). It’s a set of strategic principles that foster internal brand alignment and engagement, to turn a business into a brand and employees into ambassadors, at every level, every day. But for financial services, the concept is doubly apt and essential because of the superior deficit of trust and integrity amongst FS companies in recent times. Re-building it will take time. It’s a fundamental review and re-invention of something as basic but powerful as purpose and culture. Increment list fiddling with the ice cream flavours or the shape of cone won’t be enough. We are talking sticks of rock. And all that means asking some very uncomfortable questions of a business and its very raison d’être.

Assimilation

First look to define the ‘area of opportunity’ for the business, based on a thorough review of all the key areas of stimulus and influence for the business itself – the context of the market, the strategy, outlook and activity of the competition, consumer (or client) insights (needs/wants), and perhaps most critically, the internally and honestly assessed competencies and culture of the company itself. This degree of facilitated self-awareness from within the business will prompt ideas and platforms on which to base the business solidly and with integrity for the future. Critically, because the phase involves understanding the current culture of the company, any emerging ‘positioning’ ideas will be supported by the reality of how things are done around here, as culture, providing some substance for the whole brand development process.

Articulation

Defined precisely but with imagination, what will the brand you want to be, be about? Map out the basic purpose, values, idea, personality. Do it collaboratively. Marketing departments historically tend to own this because they get the lingo but share it. Brand should be a common currency shared amongst all parts of the company and its employees. Involve as wide a group of stakeholders from the business as you possibly can. From this approach comes greater representativeness and accountability. And better chances of human engagement from the outset.

Animation

Once the brand is nailed, it’s time to nail your colours to the mast, by re-appraising every aspect of the company and its people, in what they are doing for customers. How is and could the business be better ‘aligned’ behind the brand? This should take in everything from the basic structure of the business and how it faces the outside world (the brand architecture), products and services, HR policy, processes and procedures, physical environments, designed identities, alliances, partnerships, etc., etc.

So where are we with our stick of rock?

We know consumers demand the depth and substance, integrity and trust symbolised in a stick of rock business and brand. We know what they look and feel like. We have some insight into how they can be built. But the most important thing left is actually to start and commit to the journey. Making sticks of rock from financial services will be full of twists and turns. There will be sweet moments of truth but many moments of darkness and doubt with the potential to shatter the opportunity: • Leadership never fully engaged in the idea of making rock in the first place • People never had their say • It was never a representative process • Too much was attempted too soon/quickly • Communications were still prized over observable behaviours (walking the talk) • The purpose was not clear, the culture was not defined • Nothing was measured, so success was elusive • Another ‘initiative’ came along to take precedence • Loss of momentum and energy and commitment • Short-termism. We should remember the prophetic words from the RSPCA: “A dog is for life not just for Christmas.” Embarking on building a brand with stickiness and substance is a long-term, 24/7 commitment. It can’t be picked up and noisily run with, only to be put down quietly when another pressing priority is deemed to have arrived.

The end of Mr Whippy

A stick of rock business and brand can be the ideal metaphor for how financial services companies under suspicion can re-discover their integrity and re-claim the clarity, cohesion and consistency of why they exist in the first place. Such sticky thinking might allow them to once again bask in the sunshine of trust from the Great British public, whatever the financial climate.

Mark Taylor has more than 23 years branding and business creativity experience,working with the likes of Unilever, Nesté, Rémy Cointreau, Artemis (The Profit Hunter), Standard Life and the soon be be reintroduced Great Western Railway. His independent company, Mr Taylor’s Brand Emporium provides counsel to big thinking boards and entrepreneurs needing to define and deliver brands with more inspiring difference and stronger internal engagement.

WORDS: Fiona Herbert PHOTOGRAPH: Rex Features

HUMOUR MAKES US HUMAN

To sell your brand, you need to know your story. But you don’t just dream up your story: you come to discover it. You must share the stories of the individuals who make up your organisation. To share them, you must tell them well. And to tell them well, you need to be authentic, relatable and believable. Humour can help, says Fiona Herbert

torytelling isn’t lecturing. It does give information, and it might give advice, but it’s not crammed full of facts and figures. The most important thing is that it engages. With brand storytelling you need to know your brand, your missions, your values, your culture, your history and, of course, your audience. You need to know the point of your story, and you need to know how to craft it. In order to let me help you tell your stories, I’ll tell you mine. I moved to Scotland 10 years ago. I’d been living in London, where I’d moved under the impression that it would be glamorous. It wasn’t. I lived in Hackney – before the gentrification. I found the Scottish Storytelling Centre when I was looking for a fudge shop. I asked: “A storytelling centre? Is that a thing?” It was. Up until that point I’d been a teacher, and although I do love teaching, I’ve always loved writing and acting. Here, I could get back into being creative. I loved the immediacy that storytelling can offer you. It’s an immediate art form, and one that can establish bonds between you and your audiences. So I set about finding out how to become a storyteller. I was told I needed a wide repertoire of tales, with experience telling to a wide range of audiences in a wide range of locations.

On the buses

About that time I discovered that Edinburgh Bus Tours were looking for tour guides. “Brilliant,” I thought. “It will all be covered in the training, and there’ll be a wide range of audiences – adults and children and people of different nationalities. It’ll also cover a wide range of locations because we’ll be moving!” I went along to the training and had to learn a lot of facts, and then tootle around Edinburgh rehearsing before sitting an exam. I passed, was awarded a baseball cap, and was finally ready to tell stories to a paying audience. On my first day I greeted the driver with enthusiasm: “Hi! I’m Fiona, what’s your name?” “The driver,” he drolly replied, after an excruciating pause. Now, this was a very angry man. He had been working for the company for several years, and hour after hour, day after day, month after month, he’d listened to the same snippets of stories. It had done him some damage. As a result, whenever we got to an area of Edinburgh that was particularly crammed with historical interest, he would accelerate. But could you blame him? This is how the script opens: “Waverley Bridge. 1894–1896. Engineered by Cunningham and Westland. Built on 42 cast iron columns, it incorporates the heart of the original metal bridge of 1870 built by the railway company’s chief architect, J.H. Bell, which in turn replaced the original bridge of around 1845, probably by W.H. Playfair.” Learned by heart. I lasted one summer. Latterly my driver had been replaced by a new man whose wife had set up a walking tour company, so I joined her, and I learned a very important thing: get to know your audience.

Relating to your audience

Instead of having to stick to a script in front of large groups of strangers, I would have small groups of people. I would be able to find out where they were from, what they were interested in, their ages, their nationalities, and I could tailor my stories to suit them. I could also go at my own pace; I didn’t have to rush. I left out all of the facts and dates and names and statistics, and I told the stories. I started, then, to build up on my experience in schools, libraries, pubs, festivals, and was eventually listed in the Professional Directory of the Scottish Storytelling Centre as a professional storyteller. There was a problem though: I was developing a reputation as a historical storyteller, and that wasn’t what I ever had in mind. I missed being funny. In 2011 I entered a competition called Tall Tales. It’s an annual competition in which the audience votes for the best story. I invented a story using a series of lies about Edinburgh’s Royal Mile. I looked at all the names of the closes, got them in the right order and created a narrative based on false reasons for all their names. It was clever, it was imaginative, it was original. But it didn’t win.

That’s because it wasn’t relatable

I have since learned that if you want to get that laughter that really connects you with your audience, you have to give them something to which they can relate. To really bond, laughter comes from recognition. That type of humour bypasses all the defence and logic of the left brain and goes into the right brain where we really live – the home of our imagination and emotions. If you can connect with your audience that way, they

NOW, THIS WAS A VERY ANGRY MAN. HE HAD BEEN WORKING FOR THE COMPANY FOR SEVERAL YEARS, AND HOUR AFTER HOUR, DAY AFTER DAY, MONTH AFTER MONTH, HE’D LISTENED TO THE SAME SNIPPETS OF STORIES.

IT HAD DONE HIM SOME DAMAGE. AS A RESULT, WHENEVER WE GOT TO AN AREA OF EDINBURGH THAT WAS PARTICULARLY CRAMMED WITH HISTORICAL INTEREST, HE WOULD ACCELERATE.

Using her experiences working as an Edinburgh tour bus guide, Fiona began crafting her storytelling technique

can really connect with your stories. And this can come in any number of formats, not just getting up and telling a story. I told a story that year at The Stand comedy club in Edinburgh. It was a true story of how my sentimental delusions about dolphins had been shattered when I was beaten up by one. I sustained a hairline fracture. I also endured wearing a rubber wetsuit that made me look like a badly crafted black pudding. I got quite a few laughs, but you may be wondering what the audience could relate to in that story; not many of them had swum with wild dolphins or sustained hairline fractures having been beaten up by one. But there was something to which they could relate: the shattered delusions and the humiliation. We’ve all had delusions shattered at some point, and we’ve probably all been humiliated before, so these were common emotions to which the audience could relate. The audience was laughing at my expense; no doubt a ridiculous mental image was created. But look at advertising – the best adverts I know mix the ridiculous with the relatable.

A mutual enemy

The following year, I signed up to Tall Tales again. This time I was going to be relatable. I was going to use a mutual enemy, a mutual foe, a source of hatred which we could all share: Edinburgh Trams. I created a story called ‘Tramworks Troll’ in which I encountered a troll that had been made homeless by the excavations of the tramworks going on in the city. I met her, and I was going to help her. I found her refuge at the sewage works, but she asked me if she could stay with me until Edinburgh Council stopped digging up the roads. At that point I knew I’d won the competition; at the time, nobody in Edinburgh

thought the council was ever going to stop digging up the roads. The laughter came down, and I went away the winner, but my point is this: it wasn’t the idea of the troll that won me the award; in fact, the troll wasn’t actually relevant at all. The common frustration that we all had against Edinburgh Trams, however, was. If you can create a story that creates bond and emotion, your credibility will soar.

Don’t pitch: entertain

Is humour always appropriate, though? Well, they say that just about any story can be told as either comedy or tragedy, and sometimes laughter isn’t the best medicine; if you’re entertaining on a hernia ward, it’s probably not appropriate. But I think the times when humour is completely inappropriate are rare. You’ll find that within just about every story there is going to be some gentle humour. People tire of anger and sadness. Yet we are faced by the horror of this world daily; how quickly compassion fatigue sets in when we open up a newspaper today. Humour is quite a way to go instead. It has been used to sell life insurance. It has been used to raise awareness of bowel cancer too. Humour works. In advertising, it establishes rapport. It makes adverts memorable. It helps comprehension and likeability. Audiences prefer to be entertained rather than pitched to. I’m not telling you how to advertise – there are agencies for that. What I can tell you, though, is that you need to know your stories before you even approach agencies, and the best way to learn them is by listening to everyone in your organisation, from the cleaner to the CEO. Only then will you evolve and learn from your mistakes. Ask your colleagues and your clients questions that don’t involve one-word answers but rather

ones that inspire stories. It’s no secret: people love to tell stories. I’ll end with a short tale of my own. A while back I was telling stories in an old folks’ home. They hadn’t been getting on that well with one another – there were frequent rows and many tears. The manager had asked me to come in and tell stories. I told a few and then asked them for theirs. One of them had been a night warden in Clydebank during World War II. Another had been a housemaid at Holyrood Palace. Another shared a recipe for fruitcake that her mum used to use. They all started bonding with each other. The only reason they had had so many arguments before was because they had never heard each other’s stories. As I was leaving the manager said: “That was great – I never get to hear any of these stories until I’m at their funerals because there simply isn’t time.” But we should always find the time. In storytelling, the best humour can bond us and help us make sense of life. When life is at its cruellest, it can be used as a salve. It can be used to defend or attack. A joke is the shortest distance between two people. Humour makes us human.

Fiona Herbert is an award-winning storyteller who offers performance coaching and narrative consultation. She runs storytelling and creative writing workshops for children, and for adults provides training in storytelling for both personal and professional development. She helps both commercial and non-profit organisations develop their own stories and the skills to tell them well. Visit www.fionaherbert.co.uk for more information and to get in touch.

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