Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM JUNE 2019 48 T he woman awoke with the rising sun, and by early morning she was busy with her day's work as a roaming shopper. Traveling with a small group of friends and coworkers, she visited one favorite haunt after another. Some places offered delightful surprises, but others were downright shady. She grabbed what she could. By midday she was home again, unpacking the morning's spoils as she shifted her attention to her rambunctious children. She enjoyed a lunch of fresh mushrooms, greens, and frog legs – her healthy diet and regular exercise kept her as fit as a marathon runner. On this day, like all others, she had moments of worry and struggle, but she also took time to delight in life's small pleasures. This idyllic story of the lifestyle of a professional shopper may seem enviable, but don't quit your job just yet, because the story likely happened 30,000 years ago. This snippet of a day in the life of an ancient forager in the land we now know as China is derived from a bestselling book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari. The book reviews our history as a species and offers some remarkable insights that speak to the nature of modern businesses and institutions and what makes them tick. THE ARRIVAL OF A SUPERPOWER The first humans appeared about 2.5 million years ago in East Africa. Harari describes them as "animals of no significance," residing unremarkably in the middle of the food chain for countless millennia. Then, about 70,000 years ago, in the brain of one species of humans – homo sapiens, a.k.a., you and I – something extraordinary happened. Almost overnight, we acquired two abilities that would change the world forever: highly sophisticated language skills, and imagination. Suddenly, we could communicate in complex, precise ways about all aspects of our existence, and then remember and build upon the details. This meant that the most important tribal information could be stored and advanced. If, for example, a tribe member survived a close encounter with a tiger at the watering hole at dawn, she could describe the event around the evening campfire. In the enlightened imagination of all who listened, it was as though they, too, had felt the tiger's breath. The storyteller's lesson was now the tribe's learning. No one would go near the watering hole at dawn again. The far greater benefit of our new skills, however, was that we could create entirely new realities, beyond the sum of what our senses told us. Thus humans gained the ability to create fiction, and it opened the door to our domination of the planet. IDEAS RULE THE WORLD Humans are the only beings who can communicate about fictional things. Religion, law, money, even the USA – none of these entities exists in purely physical terms. They are ideas that we collectively imagine to be real, and it's our imagination that gives them their power. Our love of make-believe is not a weakness. It is our greatest strength. Fictions enable cooperation on a mass scale. Fictions inspire people to work together and to sacrifice in the name of lofty goals. Fictions make it easy to trust total strangers. For example, our collective recognition of the fiction of money means that a 5-Euro bill can be passed happily from a Japanese tourist to a Tunisian merchant in exchange for a handmade artifact in Morocco. The fiction of law means that an American attorney can peacefully settle a dispute in France with an English businessman who lives in India. Fictions, married with technological innovation, sparked the agricultural and industrial revolutions, inspired the Seven Wonders, and sent humans to the moon. And in all cases, they were brought to life through storytelling. YOUR FICTIONS, YOUR SUCCESS Whether you're aware of it or not, fictions rule your business as well. If your buildings were to burn down tomorrow, your company would remain. Your brand wouldn't be destroyed, your status wouldn't be revoked – you could rebuild. However, if judges or banks find you in violation of their codes, your brand and your business might die, even as your inventory and assets remain. Your business and your brand are unique types of fictions that reside in the minds of your customers, employees and stakeholders. Like all fictions, they rise or fall on the basis of your storytelling, more than any other factor. The challenge is not just to compose the right stories, but to deliver them in ways that people will believe and respond to. Your business is an idea. Your brand is a promise that inspires people to engage, share, and purchase. What are the stories that will bring to life what you're offering them? Equally important, how are you telling your stories, and how do you know they're working? FICTION : A HUMAN SUPERPOWER Mario Juarez Business Mindset RO Mario Juarez is an organizational consultant, coach, and motivational speaker. He focuses on helping organizations and individuals achieve better business results through strategic storytelling. An award-winning former journalist, Mario led a series of innovative communications initiatives at Microsoft before founding his company, StoryCo, which serves clients across a range of industries.

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