Manga is very, very popular and illustrates the value of stories and masks brilliantly.

Consider the common facial expressions and what they convey relative to a product or service.

Consider how the common Manga images convey change in emotion or perspective, almost the same way as a person removing one Neuropersona mask and replacing it with another. 

 Cheers,

Nick www.neuropersona.com

I just saw the promotion for the new WordPress Theme P2 and it got me thinking about innovation.

The keyboard controls are just about right, but not quite, almost like comparing a Blackberry to a Motorola, Nokia, Sony or any Microsoft based device.

How is this story connected to NUMBERS which are the raw material of choice for the NUMERATI?  Innovation is mostly painfully slow if you are a manufacturer.  Very few, like RIM the Blackberry maker, get it right and so the numbers cut, chopped and sliced in a anemic attempt to convince customers there is market traction are just not available to the marketing blowhards.  Or the NUMERATI.

Marketers, accountants and the NUMERATI would be better served to understand the stories behind the success of RIM and other very rare companies who get it right.  Check out how winners observe and serve Peronae.

P2, heck NO!

Cheers,

Nick www.neuropersona.com

FOLLOW THE MONEY, not the numbers may confuse some folks but there is a huge difference.

Numbers simply represent what happened, a story or event an intersection of many stories.  Money, which represents value only when it exchanged, is only exchanged after something happens or the story unfolds.

While we generally think that stories travel quickly you should consider that money money travels faster still.  This simple observation is evident as when you watch an exchange of value for money there are many versions of what happened.  News stations report different versions, the Point of Sale systems and marketing systems of the buyers and sellers each report slightly different versions of the story, but the money has changed hands quickly and simply.

How does ‘Follow the Money’ help us succeed?

Consider that the story ‘closest’ to the money as it changes hands is the most accurate representation of what happened and why.  As we get further away we know less.  Typically by the time accountants and marketers get to analyzing the transaction it is a quarter or two later and we have to reconciled three or more versions of what might have happened depending on the perspective of the story we examine.

What can we do to Follow the Money?

Focus on the people and processes connected to the exchange of Money by understanding Persona Behaviour.

Cheers,

Nick

Microsoft anhialtes adCenter analytics or as posted here Microsoft Kills AdCenter Analytics

This is HUGE as analytics acts as an on-ramp to adCenter–see the Story Lens where we make the connection between Story, Process, Software, Brand and Metrics/Analytics.  Unless customers understand which words impact the Story to Analytics continuum they don’t know the most effective way to spend their money or event focus their attention.

MISSING LINK  –> Search words uses change at a rate of 30% daily

WHAT NOW? –>  Understand the Persona Behaviours and you will succeed by being in their ‘word proxity’

Word proximity means that they will understand that the search word combinations that you selected COMBINED with the story you have linked to the words will serve their needs BETTER than their other options.

PREDICTION –>  Microsoft will buy another analytics provider, soon, whether it is Yahoo, Omniture or other…IMHO

Cheers,

Nick

GRYO Analytics is the ability for the numbers and the stories used in Analysis or Analytics to adjust according to the needs of the user without programming or modification.  This is done with the concept of the MAGIC LENS.

A LENS provides the wearer PERSPECTIVE for CLARITY in their environment.  LENSES may be combined according to the need of the wearer, time, place and people which are being viewed.  This is a LENS WEARER…

 Cheers,

Nick www.scenario2.com

A NeuroPersona sees the world through LENSES and WE BUILD LENSES!

NeuroPersona LENSES

To understand the NeuroPersona or Persona behind the LENSES please see:

http://numerati.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/chanel-no5-and-neuropersona-behaviour/

Stories make up the mask of a NeuroPersona and are important to Numerati as they also are at the core of numbers.

Comments on LENSES that you may use are appreciated here:

http://numerati.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/neuropersona-and-story-lenses/

Cheers,

Nick www.scenario2.com

Understanding the connection between numbers and stories is critical, especially for people who believe that numbers are the only lens at which to view past, present and future.  My original post is a good start.

As a fully recovered accountant I have moved from someone who serves client processes to being a storyteller. Oddly enough I do this successfully by offering analytics services based on Microsoft, Cognos and Business Objects technologies in the international enterprise spaces which they occupy.

Here is how I make the link from stories to numbers with a little mantra that I call my ’story lens’.

Story Process Software Brand KPI

Tell a story twice and it becomes a Process.
Tell a story three times and software is made to speed up Processes.
Tell a story four times and you create a Brand value.
Tell a story five times and someone creates a KPI to measure.

Anyone can point this story lens at a corporation’s value chain to obtain a clear understanding of what is happening there today and what will happen in the next 6 to 12 months.

I add two simple tools to magnify the value of a story lens:

1. Personae–build key personae with a focus on behaviours
2. Scenarios–gather stories that are the core of the financial forecasts of a corporation and its key value stream partners.

First observe which Personae are linked to a corporation’s value stream stories and determine how those Personae might change their behaviours in the next 6 to 12 months.

Next identify the key stories attached to the corporation’s financial forecast–these stories are the orginial story bucket or Scenario at the core of the financial statements.

Then modify some of the original stories according to anticipated changes in Persona behaviours and add new stories which may occur in the future, not those that are a progression of current stories but rather those that may occur due to unforseen events such as Barrack Obama being elected as the next US President. Once the new stories are combined to those in the original Scenario label this bucket of stories Scenario2.

Then consider how you would have to manage and align the business if the world unfolds according to the stories in Scenario1, or your current financial forecasts or if the world unfolds according the the stories that make up Scenario2.

To come full circle, all this is possible by working with a story or rather a series of stories and linking them to Personae.

All storytellers intuitively understand that numbers and stories are complementary and as a storyteller I must point out that at one time stories and numbers were one and indeed even today a number evokes many stories–the numbers 7 or 4 in the Chinese culture or even the number 5 in our own.

Chanel No5–the link between Africa and the western world–

http://uma.chanel.com/fplus.php?chsetdefgnavdiv=13&landing=f&branding=n05

In the Yoruba tradition of Nigeria the deity of love, sexuality and finance is OCHUN and her number is 5.

Coco Chanel either new and used this mythical connection or was extremely lucky. Either way the connection of stories and numbers is illustrated effectively here and others who wish more proof can research as time permits with luminaries like Marie-Louise von Franz.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Marie-Louise%20von%20Franz

though I suggest this as a first read

On Divination and Synchronicity: The Psychology of Meaningful Chance. Originally Presented As Lectures at the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich (Studies in Jungian Psychology) (Paperback)
by Marie-Louise von Franz
http://www.amazon.com/Divination-Synchronicity-Psychology-Meaningful-Originally/dp/0919123023/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226257728&sr=1-7

Stories are the core of what we are and what we do, and for those with an unclear understanding of what a storyteller means let me offer this view–first a storyteller hears a story, repeats a story, modifies a story, builds a story and finally lives a story.

Cheers,
Nick
nick@scenario2.com

A storyteller is a ‘lens maker’ and provides tools to help people understand where they are and where they can go.

The atomic elements of any lens are Stories and Numbers as highlighted in the Story Lens below and found here:

Sample Lens STORY PERSONA PROMISE TIME MODEL

1. Story Lens: 
Story<->Process<->Software<->Brand<->KPI

A lens provides a unique way of using stories and numbers to provide perspective to its wearer and may be used in may ways.  From a commercial perspective a lens provides assessments of current state of an enterprise and its market environment and supports the alignment of content (sell side) to Customer or Persona needs (buy side).

2.  TIME Lens: C,C,E,S,S

Clock Time–Past, Present, Future (most common way of viewing Time)
Cycle Time–Relative Time based on intereaction of Processes (some flowers only bloom when Salmon are running)
Event Time–Event and Time only starts when participants arrive (party, cultural event…)
Story Time–Stories may be used to change Value of past, present and future data
Scenario Time–Time unfolds according to interaction of stories

3.  PROMISE Lens –> see bottom of this post for a Promise Lens diagram
Sell Side–Value Promise and Deliver
Buy Side–Persona Need and Ability to use or Accept the product

4. PERSONA Lens
Buy Side–Persona Needs and Content Navigation requirements
Sell Side– Company Product or Content creation and deliver

5. MODEL Lens
This lens provides a description of the relationships, mathematical or stories, that exist in a business environment. It can provide details or a high level view depending on the wearer’s need or the speed by which the wearer must apply the lens.  In our experience higher level views of models are generally sufficient and detail can be provided by using the other lenses available much more quickly than building detail models and structures.

My speciality is connecting the big picture to small details.  Sometimes this means Strategy to Action, which is difficult for most Strategy or Scenario Analysis people.  I do it with stories, lenses and with an understanding that stories are at the core of all numbers.

Cheers,
Nick  www.scenario2.com

PROMISE Lens Example

Do you believe everything coming out of MIT?

Here is an interesting article on a Brazilian tribe that does not use numbers according to MIT professor of brain and cognitive sciences Edward Gibson.

Hold on…have a look here… http://numerati.wordpress.com/2008/11/10/chanel-no5-and-knowing-the-future/ 

Western culture can’t distinguish between precision and perspective but the Brazilian tribe does perspective with precision and survives brilliantly in their environment.

For the tribe at MIT have a look at some work by a true master here:

On Divination and Synchronicity: The Psychology of Meaningful Chance. Originally Presented As Lectures at the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich (Studies in Jungian Psychology) (Paperback)
by Marie-Louise von Franz
http://www.amazon.com/Divination-Synchronicity-Psychology-Meaningful-Originally/dp/0919123023/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1226257728&sr=1-7

Stories are the core of who we are and numbers are ok, but not necessary.

Cheers,

Nick www.scenario2.com

From ‘Rubber hits the Road’ to ‘Rubbr hits the Air’…what happened to the reputation of Marketers?

Marketers are good with stories, except when asked to justify results or explain variances to the plan, and when asked to connect corporate strategy to markets and products…well it gets even worse.