As many of my current and former clients and students know, I like to tell stories. I also like to listen to stories. I find them fascinating and intriguing, influential and powerful. I grew up in a family of story tellers and I suspect I have passed this on to both of our sons.
Now, Some of my stories are quite long. Others are dramatic. And some are just crazy, comical and delightfully insightful.
After decades of consulting, teaching and many years of living and learning, I have come to the conclusion that we are wired as human beings to connect, understand, and remember stories, not just statistics or data. John Kotter, author of The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations (Harvard Business School Press, 2002), wrote: “The single most important message in this book is very simple. People change what they do less because they are given analysis that shifts their thinking than because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings. The flow of see-feel-change is more powerful than that of analysis-think-change.” From my experience, I believe the flow of story telling, namely hear-feel-change, is just as powerful and transformative as the see-feel-change process.
For many years when I was traveling and teaching, people would come up to me once I had told a story and say, “Geery - you got to write those stories down.” So, in late 2017 and early 2018, I sat down and started writing. The result was the booklet in the From Vision to Action Series called “The Map Is Not The Road”. It was a legacy project for me and important step in my journey personally and professionally.
Then, on June 1, 2018, after the booklet was published, I sat down for coffee with one of my Kitchen Table Cabinet people and gave him a copy. He looked at the cover, paused and said to me, “The road is not the journey, Geery.” And thus, I started a multi-year journey of reflection, many conversations, a vast amount of reading, and many cups of coffee and sharing, all of which has led me to new insights and greater perspective.
According to the dictionary, a road is defined as “a means to an end; a static creation; a way to overcome obstacles; the creation of an engineer.” On the other hand, a journey is defined as “a process over time” and it involves intent and choices. It also involves movement, but not always moving.
Our life is a journey, be that physical, mental, emotional, social, and ultimately spiritual. Our life is the sum of all the experiences we have had to date. It is a journey of highly interconnected relationships, experiences, and choices.
During the coming days and weeks of this new year, we need to remember that we are all a part of one, great big, never ending story. I am one small part of something really quite big. We are all a small part of something really quite big.
I think acknowledging this gives us the foundation to do two of the hardest things in the world, be that in the world of leadership or in our personal lives. First, we must start from the place of respecting all people, no matter the situation. My late brother-in-law Warren role modeled this so well. He never met a stranger in his life journey. And, second, we must remember that we are all connected, no matter our class, our privilege or our experiences. You and I are on the same journey. We are part of a larger whole.
During the following days and weeks, I will be sharing with you in this blog some important lessons I have learned in my life journey. The first lesson will begin on Tuesday. Until then, contemplate what lessons you have learned recently that you want to remember as we begin another collective journey around the sun.
© Geery Howe 2026
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