Some people think if you are telling stories you’re not being analytical. When I speak, I use stories a lot. I would encourage those who speak or are con- vening people to share powerful, real-life stories.
Is there a particular story that has stuck with you throughout the years? I tell one that encapsulates why authoritarian- ism isn’t going to last around the world. We were in Romania in 2005, and the Romanian people told us about the time when the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu went into a public square in Budapest and was telling people what he had done for them. All of a sudden, one elderly woman yelled,
“Liar!” into the crowd, and then 10 people and then hundreds and then thousands yelled the same word. He and his wife Elena were eventually exe- cuted — and it sticks in my mind that the moment people let go of fear, when a policeman or soldier refuses to fire into the crowd or moves away from the Berlin Wall, people assert themselves. That story about Ceausescu has stuck with me
as a powerful way that people were sharing a vivid image of why authoritarianism can’t last. There always will be one brave person in the crowd. And [the message] is best communicated by a story.
. ON THE WEB
Condoleezza Rice is a founding partner of the international consulting firm RiceHadleyGates LLC. Learn more about her work at ricehadleygates .com.
Susan Sarfati, CAE, is CEO of High Performance Strategies LLC (
sarfatihighperformance.com), which focuses on organizational assessments, innovative thinking in organizational strategy, leadership and management, moving from ideas to execution, and building a human- focused learning culture. She served as CEO of The Greater Washington Society of Association Executives and executive vice president of ASAE. She can be reached at
susan@ssarfati.com.
This interview is presented courtesy of the Washington Speakers Bureau.
PCMA.ORG
JUNE 2013 PCMA CONVENE
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