Recently I led a seminar on how leaders can use the art of storytelling to be effective and memorable leaders. It was a lot of fun. In it I personally demonstrated to get beyond the facts and help others to catch your message by telling a compelling, interesting and entertaining story. One of those stories was one which I had not told before, but was based on my experience a couple of decades ago when I was working on large productions in Southern California. It’s a great reminder to all of us who aspire to be leaders that sometimes it’s best to keep our message to the point and moving along quickly, lest we lose our ability to influence because our audience has checked out. It’s a story I call Frozen Chickens. Here it is…
Let me tell you a story…
Years ago I worked on a couple of major productions in Southern California. One was a spectacular presentation of the last week of Jesus’ life, from his triumphant entry into the city of Jerusalem through his death and resurrection a week later. The production included a cast of hundreds, professional actors and soloists, dozens of flying angels, and a virtual zoo of live exotic animals, which in between performances were visited by thousands of school children bused in each day for a month.
In the scene in which Jesus is brought before Pilate for trial, there is a great lesson for all of us who aspire to be great leaders and excellent communicators. As the scene opens, two huge flame throwers on either side of the throne of Pilate ignite, lighting up the stage and giving the audience a blast of heat. Jesus is crouched on the floor in front of Pilate with several guards keeping watch over the proceedings. In addition, there are two extremely large and menacing wild animals on either side of Pilate. On one side is a huge black panther and on the other the largest Bengal tiger I’ve ever seen. Standing next to them are their trainers, dressed as palace servants. We have no way of knowing if it is biblically accurate that these cats were present for Jesus’ trial, but it dressed the stage very nicely!
The cats were virtually a foot or two from the actor playing Jesus and only restrained by the trainer’s leashes, almost comically, as the cats were many times larger than the trainers. The key to keeping them calm and controlled was that just before the flamethrowers go off and the scene begins, the trainers handed each animal a very large frozen chicken. The cats would chew on the chicken throughout the scene, and as long as the chicken held out, they were uninterested in anything else. By the time the chicken was consumed, the scene was over. Good news for the actor playing Jesus!
Picture in your mind – Jesus, Pilate, guards, flame throwers, black panther, huge Bengal tiger and a couple of very unfortunate frozen chickens.
Here’s the point. When communicating as a leader, whether it be in a dramatic scene, a lecture, a sales presentation or a seminar: Never go longer than your frozen chicken will last! You may end up somebody’s lunch.
So with that, I say thank you and lead well!