Some of us have watched WeWork’s fall from grace with the interest of a voyeur. It is no longer the coolest startup on the planet. Only a couple of years ago, things were different. No meat and no poultry at parties, only fish. Cool people as community managers. All round party-like atmosphere. That’s how I remember my time at WeWork.
Andheri, a suburb of Mumbai, is thousands of miles away from the birthplace of this company. Yet, I did not miss the peculiarity of the community co-working space.
“Being here means you are being noticed yaar.” said the marketing head of the company I consulted with. That was the aspiration WeWork had built.
They truly seemed to be breaking the mould of what it is to be working from an office. Futuristic offices, the domain of tech companies, were now available even to freelancers. The founder of a digital agency confessed that all his clients worked from the same office. In fact, he had found them after moving into that particular WeWork. The eight years I worked in a central Mumbai office building, I had no clue who occupied other floors.
In a way, WeWork proved that every product can deliver a lot more than its functional value. They had taken something as straightforward as co-working and turned it into a neo-hippie gathering. Even corporate India wanted to be a part of this new and bold generation.
But what is, or rather, who was the source of all this?
Without a doubt, Adam Neumann.
The Hulu documentary on WeWork gives good insight into his communication skills and charisma. It goes without saying that Adam was(is?) deeply flawed. But it is also true that other sane and reasonable founders could do well to learn from his storytelling. This is especially true for scores of Indian founders. Many of us struggle to bring customers, investors and partners on board. It is not because our products aren’t great. It is because we aren’t able to build a compelling story around it. Indian founders narrate their brand like anyone else could have built it.
The truth is customers, investors and employees want to be a part of something great. And it is the founder’s job to showcase the greatness of his/her mission.
With that out of the way, let’s look at Adam Neumann’s Softbank-winning communication skills and let’s learn.
“I was 28, and she said you have a lot of potential. But right now, my friend, you are full of shit.”
The documentary narrates how Adam would talk about his wife. This is a story he often repeated to the media, at events and I guess whenever he had the chance. Apart from the fact that it is self-deprecatingly funny, the story reveals a lot more. One, that Adam respected his partner to the point that he accepted Rebekkah as his coach. Now, that is an endearing quality for millennials and GenZs(and that was their audience).
Two, the power of repetition.
Most of us feel that great communicators come up with new and interesting things to say all the time. That’s not true. Good communicators narrate a few stories but keep improving the narration. Founder-storytellers are like stand up comedians who have a set of stories ready for any given situation.
Adam did not shy away from narrating personal stories either. He probably understood that it helps audiences feel connected to him and his mission.
So two things:
- Make yourself relatable with personal stories(funny, vulnerable, failure, etc)
- Repeat and improve your story and narration.
“What are you looking for?”
“I am looking to raise the consciousness of the world.”
I agree with what Derek Thompson from The Atlantic says in the documentary. He talks about the 2000s where one was rewarded if you could articulate a vision of your company. A company that wasn’t just going to make money, but was also going to change the world.
The only thing I disagree with is that this wasn’t real in the past, it is true now and will be for as long as we can foresee.
Everyone is looking for meaning. That’s how religious philosophies get propagated. That’s why we choose Narenda Modi or Barack Obama over their rivals(remember ‘Acche Din” or ‘Yes, we can’?).
A future narrative is important. Everyone wants to live in a better world, and we are ready to support someone who we believe can build it. Adam had the ability to tap into that innate need of ours(and even that of Masa’s of Softbank). Adam and Rebekkah had this one line that they repeated all the time.
“We want to elevate the consciousness of the world.”
Well, of course, many will argue that the statement is full of air. But those who have worked with them will agree that it was strong enough for them to work round the clock.
“We are creating systems where everyone is forced to help each other.”
Adam said this in a media interview. This, to me, is having a clear vision of the future. Adam talked not only in cold numbers.
If you are a startup founder, or founders, ask yourself: ‘what is the future we are trying to build?” If the answer to that question is a number then it is the wrong answer. Vision may be measured in metrics, but they are not one and the same. Another person who paints a vivid picture of the future is Prof. Yuval Harari. We can learn from him how to create stories of the future to convince people of your beliefs. Will write about him some day soon.
Prof Galloway lambasts WeWork saying, “You are running desks for god’s sake!”
Well it’s true that they were running desks but that does not mean they had to stop at that. The business model may be flawed, the ethics of the co-founders could be questioned, but their narrative ability, less so. I do agree that they went too far in the S1 for reasons highlighted in the documentary. But their narrative contributed to their success, rather than taking away from it.
So if you are a founder, it is time to “frame the future”.
Another thing – the founding belief of the company.
“We understand that we can be more successful by helping each other.”
Adam Neumann said this in a media interview. And to me this is the founding belief of the company. An interesting book to read to understand this is Jim Signorelli’s StoryBranding 2.0. Signorelli argues that brands are just like people and there are inner and outer layers to them as well.
The outer layer behaviour of WeWork is what you get to see. Open plans and easy community access exist because the company’s inner belief is about collaboration.
We all want to collaborate to be successful. And WeWork was meant to be the partner in this process.
So in that sense, WeWork’s inner belief matched its outer layer behaviour. Most startup founders are not even aware of their beliefs, and that to me that is not a good place to start. And because they haven’t, their communication is superficial to say the least.
Origin story matters.
“Every great business has an origin story.”, says Randall Lane of Forbes in the documentary.
Another thing WeWork did well was identifying and narrating their origin story. The documentary reveals that both Adam and Miguel were raised in communes. Miguel grew up in Oregon, and Adam in Israel. It made sense that they got together and built a commune for work. That’s essentially what WeWork was.
A good origin story feels effortless. But the fact is many times it isn’t. Identifying your singular origin story and narrating it well takes work.
Many founders do not have the slightest clue about what their origin story is. And there is a good reason for that. Chris Watson, a fellow storytelling coach, said it well that our stories become ‘white noise’ to us. That’s why he says we need professional help to identify and narrate them.
In any case, it is important to share and discuss your stories with your team, customers and with others. As soon as an interesting story pops up, make a note of it. Keep evaluating which one makes the most sense and work on connecting it with your startup’s message.
And more importantly, perfect your narration over a period of time.
Stories of the future.
Another type of communication that founders have to get good at is future-gazing. We could call it just that, but I call it future stories.
In one of the media interviews, Adam said, “We know the future of the world is in small businesses and not in corporate America.”
Having a mission isn’t enough. Most successful founders also narrate a compelling vision of the future. That doesn’t happen only with cold, hard numbers. You need to bring your audience’s imagination alive with words that paint a picture. ‘The future of the world is in small businesses’ is great in that respect. It paints a picture of many freelancers and teams working out of WeWork offices, and that helped Adam.
So building and narrating future stories is also an exercise that as a founder you need to undertake.
Feedback and practice.
Adam also received communication coaching from Rebekkah. She was present for many of his interviews. There is indication that Adam would practice his lines and messages with her. Later, when she became one of the co-founders, the two parroted the same lines. Not a bad thing in my opinion.
Founders get into many high stake communication events with little or no practice. And surprisingly they receive very little feedback for improvement. I have been witness to founders taking a bad pitch from one meeting to another, and yet wondering why it isn’t working. Feedback is communication gold.
The better thing to do would be to have a few friends share constructive feedback from time to time. I am not sure if co-workers can provide great feedback, as they have the same blindspots that we do.
Those were the great things about Adam’s storytelling. But he miserably failed at the most important one. Action.
Your actions and behaviours tell the real story. So don’t be like Adam. Make sure that the stories you narrate and the ones you live are one and the same.
Hope you found this blog useful. If you did, do consider subscribing to my newsletter ‘Win With Stories’. In this weekly email, I share one short story, and deconstruct good communication into easy to replicate tips. Here is the link.
Btw, if you’d like to watch the Hulu documentary on WeWork, you can subscribe to the streaming platform here.
