LookUP List: Three Stories, Two Sides
Food for thought for your Future, Culture and Selling Stories
This month we’ve been exploring the StoryTelling crisis at the heart of modern business, and the Three Stories that organisations needs to master to get back on track: Future Story, Culture Story, and Selling Story.
In our last newsletter, we gave you a really thorough immersion in the Three Stories, packed with insights from some brilliant panel sessions we ran at our January event. If you have’t had a chance to take a look at that yet, dig in here…
This LookUP List is designed to give you some resources to think about the state of the Three Stories - with some things to watch, read and look at.
And since there are two sides to every story, in each case we are giving you two different provocations to fuel your thinking.
1. If you are wrestling with the role of AI in your Future Story…
The acceleration of AI is a key topic for a lot of people trying to re-shape their Future Story right now.
As with any tech change, it’s easy to fall for the sizzle, not the sausage, and to get driven by either FOMO or Future Shock. Here are a couple of things to help you think constructively about where to go next.
To go from AI Gloomer to Bloomer, watch this:
An interview with LinkedIn co-Founder Reid Hoffman in which he takes a measured, but still overall very positive, near-utopian perspective on the potential of AI to solve societal issues.
There is a great section where he talks about the attitudinal groups of ‘Doomers, Gloomers, Zoomers and Bloomers’ and tries to encourage us to positively shape AI transformation as Bloomers, rather than to be passively depressive or excitable in the face of tech change. All part of the case in his new book, Superagency (which is still waiting on our reading pile.)
To get a reality check on where we are with AI, read this:
A recent post from the excellent Substack,
, ’s excellent tech blog, which has five contrarian ideas on the current state of AI. It’s easy as you adapt to a new technology to get sucked into an idea that you know where you stand.I hear a lot of people saying that AI is topping out, that it is egalitarian, that it is controllable, that it is expensive - some good counter-arguments on where we might actually be right now on the AI curve. I particularly enjoyed this one…
2. If you are struggling to work out the next phase of your Culture Story…
The volume of the Return to Office conversation is going up and up (even if the underlying data on how quickly it is happening seems to tell a different story.
It feels like we are at a point of divergence, so here’s two rapid injections of different thinking on the future of work…
For an extreme case against remote working, listen to this:
At a recent JPMorgan all-hands, a member of staff questioned the company’s return to office policy, given that their job was managing an international tech team.
This was the response from CEO Jamie Dimon - recorded and leaked.
As a statement of the kind of culture Dimon aspires to, it’s certainly a clear one, and perhaps for some this is aspirational (but it’s not for me!)
To understand what matters most, to most people, read this:
A great piece from the always excellent
by Bruce Daisley, with some headlines from some research around what matters most to people at work in different markets around the world.Some interesting variances between the different markets, but unsurprisingly what continues to matter most to people is:
Workplace culture
Employee treatment
Employee development
Work-life balance
A timely reminder of the fundamentals around which you can build a powerful Culture Story in your organisation, once the obsession with buildings recedes…
3. If you are looking at the role of social in your Selling Story…
Over the last 10 years, social media has swallowed marketing, and broader society, to an extraordinary extent. It’s also taken a massive hold on our psychology, and the shape of our lives.
So where are we with social selling? Is it a panacea, or a millstone around our necks?
For a smart way of thinking about social right now, read this:
An increasing amount of the best, most surprising brand content out there seems to be employee-generated content. The consistently excellent
recently had a great interview with Byron Stewart about the process of creating good, authentic content using employee engagement.This came to me via a very random route, but I found it helpful, perhaps you will too!
For reasons to unplug from social longer term, read this:
I think this came to me via the always-stimulating
newsletter, but it’s one of those pieces that just encapsulates everything that we are all swimming in already. Is the trajectory that social media is on at all sustainable?The case against, neatly summarised by Dazed here, and by Elon below…
OK, that’s it for this month. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed the start to this year of Three Stories. If you or your organisation want help with getting your Three Stories straight, then please do get in touch via matthew@wearelookup.com.
Next month, we’ve got some thinking to share about how to tell your story on LinkedIn, a much-vexed question for many of our readers.
And one last nudge to get the highlights of our January event below…
3 Stories that Drive Growth
In January, we ran our inaugural LookUP Event, the Year of 3 Stories. It was a wonderful morning, full of inspiration, and a sense of togetherness.