The Raving Fish Got Cheesed And Didn't Get It

Are you a fan of business parable books? You know, the little books that spin a fictional tale with underlying meanings that pertain to business. Fish, Who Moved My Cheese and Raving Fans are just a few examples.

Perhaps this is a tale of my own ignorance, but I hated parable books with a passion. Once I reached the age of fifty however, I began to mature. Looking back it wasn't the books that cheesed me off, it was corporate America's mandate: "Here is a copy of Fish. Read it. Afterwards we'll have a meeting to discuss how your morale KPI charts. We're expecting a significant increase."

Other than Mark Matteson's work, parable books had been off my radar for a long time until recently reading, They Just Don't Get it! Leslie Yerkes' book is about those times when you're trying to tell someone something and they just don't get it and what you need to do to transform their resistance into understanding.

Holy light bulb Batman! You mean if I read Leslie's book I'll be able to transform my technicians into correct-paperwork-completing-machines? Maybe. Maybe not. I'll give you one hint but you really need to read the book. Transformation begins with that really good looking person in the mirror.

A super huge red flag moment for me came when I read what some others had to say about They Just Don't Get It! To sum up: "I could read five bullet points about the book, get it, and save fifteen bucks." At first I thought wow, they don't get it! Then I thought, no, their left brain gets it. If they could only step off the Hamster Express for just a few minutes and engage their right brain a whole new world of possibility will pop right before them. At this point their left brain will kick back in and say, "the return on this fifteen dollar investment will pay back in 1.15 days."

Next week I'll offer suggestions on how to read business parable books using the right side of your brain.

Photo credit, Jan Tik