Meet the team: Aaron
Last but by no means least in our Meet The Team series: Our Chief Operating Officer, Aaron Patience-Davies. Hari puts Aaron in the spotlight to share more about how he supports our Delivery team, ensuring the global projects and training we deliver run smoothly and successfully.
Where are You Based?
London, UK - although I work with clients and our Delivery team all over the world, so I’m always open to time zones!
Tell Us About your role at 13 Times…
I’m the organiser and enabler for our storytellers, rather than a storyteller myself. I make sure that everything is set up for them to deliver their training and coaching sessions as effectively and enjoyably as possible.
I’m often found lurking behind the anonymous “13x Producer” nametag on virtual sessions, fingers poised, ready to fix any technical problems that come along. I also run the business side of things making sure everyone is paid on time and that the business runs as smoothly as possible.
Why is storytelling important to you?
Despite all that I said above, I believe 100% in the power of storytelling, even though I may not be a trainer. Twenty years ago, I trained as a Journalist and then was a Freelance Writer, and Instructor on the MA in Magazine Journalism at City University. I know how powerful a good story can be. Nothing in business works well if you don’t have the hearts and minds of your colleagues and customers, and a good story is so much better at winning those than any amount of cold data.
Stories are how we interact with the world around us; it’s how we place ourselves in our communities, how we learn from, and teach others around us.
As someone who spent years running projects and programmes of work in technical businesses, working with everything from AI to financial software, websites to apps, content management systems to community sites, I saw again and again how it was the story that you told your customers, colleagues or clients that made the difference between success and failure.
Share your superpower…
My superpower is both calming troubled waters and solving problems. These are two sides to the same coin. It doesn’t matter how technical the projects I have worked on have been; if you get the people working well together, problems are quickly solved without blame or recrimination.
Getting everyone to talk to each other is key to that, and, of course, the things they share are all stories. It’s not deep involved tales, it’s the short stories about what you did at the weekend, why you chose solution A over solution B, why you couldn’t make that meeting, that really create strong bonds.
What’s your best client transformation story?
Around 2016, I was brought in to manage a global programme of work which had run into difficulties. Things just weren’t being delivered on time, senior team members were finger-pointing, and the wheels were falling off. The client was based in California, the client’s boss was in Paris, and the team was spread across New York, London, Romania, and South India.
The first video call I got on with everyone was a silent sea of black as no one had their cameras turned on. And no one wanted to talk to each other. I got everyone to turn their cameras on and share a story about what they had done over the weekend. They complied, and then on the next call, I asked them to do the same.
Over time, they just started doing this as a matter of course. Conversations were happening across three continents; people found common interests, whether they were from Bangalore, Brooklyn, or Bucharest. It didn't happen straight away, but within a month or so, everything was back on track, problems were melting away, and the client was happy. More importantly, so was the team.
Share something you think everyone should try!
When you meet new colleagues or put a new team together, try sharing a non-work-related anecdote on a call - nothing involved, just something you did the day before, and invite them to do the same. The difference that the first exchange can make as the pressure piles on is amazing. Demonstrating your humanity and showing interest in others’ lives builds trust and makes it much easier to solve problems together.
As well as managing our operations, Aaron also leads our Coaching programmes to help others build confidence and capability across public speaking, project management, and self-confidence coaching.
