William Benson.

November 22nd, 1963, John F. Kennedy was shot while riding in the back of car with his wife.

That afternoon, as the events unfolded on the television, a man by the name of Warren Benson was writing an orchestra piece for stringed and woodwind instruments. Stricken by the abrupt loss of America's leader, he rewrote the last movement of the song to incorporate the gentle, strained, yet unmistakable chord progression of the hymn "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God."
The composer of more than a hundred works, this honest and sorrowful work titled "The Leaves Are Falling" became the most notable of his career.

Your job isn't just your job. What part of you is allowed to affect your performance?
How can you translate that into work that becomes the most notable of your career?

forgiveness builds.

Below is a excerpt from an award-winning article by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, titled "How Great Companies Think Differently"
This story exemplifies the power behind processing each disagreement or conflict with emotional intelligence, identifying the core issues rather than heated emotions being the forefront of leaders' priorities.

Read the anecdote below and try NOT learning anything. Good luck.

"In South Korea, after the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, Shinhan Bank set out to acquire Chohung Bank, a larger and older bank that the government had bailed out. The moment the acquisition was announced, 3,500 male employees of a Chohung Bank union, whose ranks extended to management levels, shaved their heads in protest and piled the hair in front of Shinhan’s headquarters in downtown Seoul. The acquirer then had to decide whether to go ahead with the acquisition and, if it did so, what it ought to do about Chohung’s employees.

Shinhan’s leaders applied institutional logic. They negotiated an agreement with the Chohung union, deferring formal integration for three years, giving equal representation to both Shinhan and Chohung managers on a new management committee, and increasing the salary of Chohung employees to match the higher wages of Shinhan employees. The acquirer also handed out 3,500 caps to cover the heads of the protestors. Shinhan invested heavily in what it called “emotional integration,” holding a series of retreats and conferences intended not only to spread strategic and operational information but also to foster social bonding and a feeling of being “one bank.” According to financial logic, the acquirer was wasting money. In terms of Shinhan’s institutional logic, the investments were an essential part of securing the future.

The result: Within 18 months, Shinhan had grown both banks’ customer bases, and the Chohung union was having a hard time fomenting discontent against the benign acquirer. Although a formal merger wouldn’t occur for another year and a half, Shinhan and Chohung employees were working together on task forces and discussing best practices, and ideas were spreading that began to make the branches look more similar. Employees were, in essence, self-organizing. By the third year, when formal integration took place, Shinhan was outperforming not only the banking industry but also the South Korean stock market."

http://hbr.org/2011/11/how-great-companies-think-differently/ar/1

about the person.

There are always two stories you can tell -- one with names, and one without.
Check out the difference in what you feel about these two sentences from a tragic event that happened to day in New York City.

"Three members of two popular Iranian indie bands who were living and working in the United States were shot and killed in Brooklyn early Monday by a fellow rocker who then turned the gun on himself, police said."

And now this.

"The dead included Soroush Farazmand, 27, whose rock band the Yellow Dogs was featured in a 2009 CNN report about Iran's burgeoning underground rock scene. Farazmand's brother, Arash, 28, a drummer with the band the Free Keys, was also shot and killed at the same location as was a third Iranian musician, Ali Eskandarian, 35."

The human element is incredibly powerful in storytelling. We as humans have an innate desire to connect with other people. It's how we're created. The first paragraph is significantly more ambiguous, and we're noticeably more isolated from the horror because it's happening to nameless, faceless individuals.

Paragraph #2 hits the reader hard in the face, jarring our evening. With a name like Soroush we instantly pair the word with a foreign face, creating a person, an identity. Then in the second sentence the weight of what happened truly starts to hit home as the victim's brother is named.
I have a brother.
He has a name.
The third man is named.
The ages of all three are listed as well. These were people. We know people that either are or are close to those exact same ages.
And what was initially an news story about a tragedy starts to sink in far more than it did when we started reading.

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When telling your story, whether it's about your business, your family, funny or sad, a sales pitch or referral, use the human element. It's what we connect with. It brings what we're saying to life. The ambiguous takes shape, a name, face, and identity appear to your listener. Tell your story well. Make it not about merely people, but individuals.
If it's a product or a mission statement, who is involved, what are their names and what do they look like? What did that product or idea do for a person specifically? Which person?