The boat took us deeper and deeper into the forest of green shimmers and blue ripples. A lone crane glided forward, as if nodding a gentle hello. The trees that hugged the shore bent over, as if trying to protect an untold secret; the sound of the silence broken only by the lashing of the waves and the flight of the birds. We could imagine the snake boats racing down the narrow canals even as a child stepped out of his home to float a paperboat that fluttered in the breeze.
Well, this is not a travelogue or a fiction story. A few weekends back, we were in Alleppey, a scenic stretch of backwaters in Kerala. And this is the story of the man who made it real for us. Manoj.
A tour guide with one of the hotels at Allepey, Manoj didn’t just take us around the backwaters. He made us experience it. And he made the experience unforgettable. Through his stories. He told us stories about the King, The Queen and the Prince of Spices. Stories about the hundreds of boatmen rowing down the backwaters every year on the day of the snakeboat race. Stories about the rich history of the land. And even a humorus quiz for the children.
Sample this: Which crop makes a lot of money for the state? The answer is in the question.
Cashew (in case you were wondering)
It was just a one hour ride. At best, we expected a scripted monologue from our tour guide. But Manoj surprised us. With his knowledge, his humor and his deep love for his land that shone in everything he said. Is Manoj just a great sales person? Or is Manoj a storyteller? An unlikely one at that? And maybe we connected with him because of his authenticity. He wasn’t putting on a fake act that slipped through like a fake accent. He was being real. Being himself.
Cut back to the boardroom where we often bottle up our natural instinct of being storytellers with the excuse that business needs to be boring.
Does it? Do we not find unlikely storytellers even in business? An investor who listens and helps a startup build their story instead of just showing the money. A leader who is humble enough to share a personal failure story. An analyst who crafts an unlikely insight story from data.
Don’t these unlikely storytellers inspire us more than just the goals and updates we expect to hear? And do they connect with us and make an impact, not just because they are unafraid to be real in the boardroom but because that’s so unlikely that we love the element of surprise? Would love to hear your thoughts and experience.
