The Sixth Sense

Why shows like X Factor are a hit

Have you ever wondered why shows like X Factor (think American Idol if you’re from the States) are such a hit? We all reguarly mock them. We only ever admit to ‘catching a bit on an episode’ on the way to doing something more meaningful. But the truth is, here in the UK at least, 1 in 6 people watch X Factor and Saturday night. Why is this?

It hit me this last week as to why I think these shows work. And it all ties into this theme of ‘Story’ that I’ve been endlessly pursuing this last week or so. The truth of the matter is that shows like X Factor aren’t a hit because of the singing, good as some of the people are. The shows are a hit because of the stories attached to the people doing the singing.

At least as much of the show delves into the life stories of the various contestants. We hear about how they got to this point of entering the contest. The obstacles they had to overcome to this point. The other characters that helped or hindered their journey. And suddenly, before we know it, we are no longer just listening to a random individual trying to sing; we are caught up into an unfolding story. 

Its strange, but when you think about it, how much of life makes much sense at all outside of story? The movies we love are the ones with the most moving stories. We come back to work on Monday morning and we share our stories from the weekend. We lose ourselves in the fictional world novelists draw us into. Really, how much of life would make sense - or at least be enjoyable - except for story?

What do you think?

Character - ‘As he chooses, he is’

I’m still thoroughly enjoying ‘Story’ by Robert McKee. I thought it might dry up somewhat as I got further into it, but it is just fascinating to read. I’m am learning so much about - you guessed it - story. As someone who is definitely wanting to become a better story-teller, it is really helpful and insightful.

Today I thought I’d share a few more great quotes on character:

“True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure - the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character’s essential nature.”

“The only way to know the truth (about someone’s character) is to witness him make choices under pressure to take one action or another in the pursuit of his desire. As he chooses, he is.”

“Pressure is essential. Choices made when nothing is at risk mean little. If a character chooses to tell the truth in a situation where telling a lie would gain him nothing, the choice is trivial, the moment expresses nothing. But if the same character insists on telling the truth when a lie would save his life, then we sense that honesty is at the core of his nature.”

The context for these quotes is obviously related to building quality characters into a story. But I think these speak a lot of truth about being people of character too.

What do you think?

Some great quotes from ‘Story’

As I mentioned on Friday, I’m thoroughly enjoying a book called ‘Story’ by Robert McKee. It is filled with some outstanding comments, insights, and observations. Here’s a few more I thought I’d share with you.

“Story isn’t a flight from reality but a vehicle that carries us on in our search for reality, our best effort to make sense out of the anarchy of existence.”

“When society repeatedly experiences glossy, hollowed-out, pseudo-stories, it degenerates. We need true satires and tragedies, dramas and comedies that shine a clean light into the dingy corners of the human psyche and society.”

“Master storytellers know how to squeeze life out of the least of things, while poor storytellers reduce the profound to the banal. You may have the insight of a Buddha, but if you cannot tell story, your ideas turn dry as chalk.”

“The world of a story must be small enough that the mind of a single artist can surround the fictional universe it creates and come to know it in the same depth and detail that God knows the one He created.”

Why we go to the movies

I’m reading a book called ‘Story - Substance, Structure, Style, and the Substance of Screenwriting’ at the moment. It’s by a guy called Robert McKee. I’m only a few pages in, but this quote absoultely leapt out at me. Really powerful.

We go to the movies to enter a new, fascinating world, to inhabit vicariously another human being who at first seems so unlike us and yet at heart is like us, to live in a fictional reality that illuminates our daily reality. We do not wish to escape life but to find life, to use our minds in fresh, experimental ways, to flex our emotions, to enjoy, to learn, to add depth to our days.

This definitely resonates with me deeply.

What about you?

Inclusive vs. Exclusive

Yesterday I got an exclusive invitation to be part of an online tribe at www.triiibes.com. It’s tied in with something Seth Godin is heading up linked with his forthcoming book entitled ‘Tribes: We need you to lead us‘.

This got me thinking about organisations that are inclusive and others that are more exclusive. I guess, to be fair, I’ve veered towards being anti anything exclusive.

This stems from my frustration with churches in particular which seem to take pleasure in keeping people out rather than welcoming them in. Not all churches, but more more than it should be.

Tied in with this, as Mosaic here in Sheffield, we have often talked about the need to be an inclusive community. We don’t want to exclude people. We want to be welcoming, no matter who the person is.

But then yesterday, a big part of the draw to accept this invitation to www.triiibes.com was the very fact that is was exclusive. That was a big part of its appeal. In fact, if it was just an open group, I’m not sure that I’d of been that bothered about it.

What does this tell us though? Does the very nature of the role and function of a church or charitable organisation make this a totally different issue than for businesses? Or is the same?

Is exclusive always bad? Could charities and faith based organisations leverage exclusivity to attract proactive, highly involved people to work them? 

I’m still trying to get my head around this. What do you think?

A great time in London

I’m on the train back from London now. Quite a bit of travelling in one day, but well worth it.

It was great spending time with Ellie, Gabriel, and Rhiannon who are really keen to start something to serve humanity in London.

I love spending time with passionate people who want to DO something and not just talk about. They are all very different but I could definitely see the start of a great team.

Exciting stuff!

Hancock (lessons in character)

We went to see the Will Smith movie ‘Hancock’ last night. I enjoyed it. It wasn’t a great movie, but was definitely entertaining.

It was interesting from a character perspective. We did a series called ‘Heroes’ last year at Mosaic and one of the things we covered then was that we all have super-hero potential. The problem however is often not a lack of talent in our lives which stops us becoming great, but a lack of character.

Seeing the transformation of Hancock’s character and the resulting change in how he used his super-powers was fun to watch and something relevant for us all in different ways.

So yeah, not a must-see movie. But if you have a free evening, then it’s worth watching.

Anyone else seen it?

Freedom Writers

After much persuasion from my friend Byrney who’s staying with us at the moment, I finally watched the movie Freedom Writers last night. I loved it! Really powerful and moving story. And made all the more so because it is based on actual events that happened.

To be honest, I love these sort of films. It reminded me of films like Coach Carter and Remember the Titans.

Anyone else seen this??

Staying people AND performance focussed

It doesn’t matter what type of organisation it is, finding the balance between being people focussed and performance focussed is a challenge. And obviously the two are completely linked. 

If people are not valued and engaged then the performance of the organisation is going to suffer. And yet, if we become so people focussed that we stop challenging, setting goals, and raising standards, then the performance will also drop.

Of course, if the entire focus is on endlessly improving the performance, then we are going to end up losing people and leaving them behind. Then we are left without the very people who are essential to the performance of the organisation.

So the question we need to grapple with is: how do we keep a healthy balance between focussing on people and focussing on performance?

To propose an answer, here is a paragraph from an article in the Harvard Business Review on this subject. After studying lots of different CEO’s handing the balance between people and performance, the ones who did it best did so my combining four strategies:

“First, they earned the trust of their organizations through their openness to the unvarnished truth. Second, they were deeply engaged with their people, and their exchanges were direct and personal; employees in the companies we studied had a particularly close connection with the CEO and were seldom surprised to meet him or her. Third, having earned legitimacy and trust, these CEOs were able to mobilize their people around a focused agenda. Finally, while they were all strong individuals, these senior leaders realized that they could succeed only as part of a committed leadership team, and they devoted considerable efforts to building their firm’s collective leadership capabilities.” (Emphasis mine)

What do you think?

Implementing change

The world we live in is constantly changing. As a result, the businesses, organisations, churches, etc, we are part of also need to be constantly changing. This is becoming an increasingly prevalent issue as the speed of change continues to increase.

This begs the question of how do we go about building flexible and adaptable organisations that are able to change in order to stay relevant to the changing world outside.

I was reading a great article in the Harvard Business Review entitled: Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail (subscription required for full article). The article by John Kotter lists eight reasons for failing to implement change. I’ll mention just the first one today: Transformation efforts fail because of a failure to establish a great enough sense of urgency.

The article then quotes someone who said the purpose of establishing a sense of urgency is “to make the status quo seem more dangerous than launching into the unknown.”

This really makes sense. If people don’t sense how important it is for the change to occur, why would anyone be motivated to get onboard?

Have you had experiences of trying to implement change in a team you lead or an organisation you’re part of? How was it? What did you learn?