When Steve Jobs was a young boy in school, he had a neighbour up the street who most of the young boys and girls in the neighbourhood were afraid of. He was a widower, 80 years old and rather grumpy and scary looking. However, Steve had mowed his lawn for pocket money and had developed a relationship with him. One day the old man called Steve in and took him to his garage. In the garage he showed Steve a dusty old rock tumbler. A rock tumbler is a contraption that is used to tumble polish rocks. This rock tumbler was rudimentary. Made up of an old coffee tin, a motor and a rubber band between them. He then took Steve to the back garden and got some rocks. Some regular old ugly rocks. The old man then proceeded to put the rock in the can, poured some liquid and then some abrasive grit powder. He then turned on the rock tumbler and told Steve “Come back tomorrow”. As Steve left, he remembered that the can was making quite a racket. The next morning when Steve returned the rock tumbler was still turning and still making quite a racket. The old man stopped the rock tumbler and opened the can and out came some amazingly beautiful polished rocks. The same common ugly stones that had gone in through rubbing againsteach other, creating a little bit of friction, creating a little bit of noise had transformed into beautiful polished rocks. For Steve this was a great metaphor for a team that is working on something that they are really passionate about. It is through the team of incredibly talented people bumping up against each other having arguments, having fights sometimes making a bit of noise that they polish each other, they polish the ideas and what comes out are these really beautiful outcomes, like those really beautiful stones. What a powerful metaphor! Business Points ( Tags ) #storytelling #business #bestseller #stories #collaboration #conflict #teamwork #Teamforming #settingexpectations #forming #norming #storming #performing
