On Oct 14, 2005, at 9:46 AM, Ted Gould wrote:
This is a great story, and I hope that you've told it to the people at Xara. I was reading "Things that make us Smart" and the author was talking about how storytelling is a very human interaction. When he observed business meetings he noticed that they usually started with someone giving a slide presentation containing lots of data, then everyone sat around and told stories about the problem, and then a decision was made. The stories were closer to the decision than the data.
I'd really suggest reading "Crucial Conversations" by Patterson, Grenny, McMillan & Switzler.
"The Startling Discovery" in chapter two has an even better story.
:-)
Actually, I'd suggest that it would be very important for all Inkscapers and Xara-ites to read it. What they stress sounds like exactly what is slowing down things between us, and can pretty much be completely avoided. (Oh, and get it for work and make your boss pay. It will be worth it :-)