PUT TING STORIES TO WORK
Putting stories to work
TM
The business world is complex, unpredictable and fast-paced.
Leaders, at all levels of an organisation, must help to create
significance and meaning for those around them. They need
better ways to influence, share what they know, and inspire
Storytelling
for Business
Leaders
*
Quite frankly a leader can be anyone
who needs to influence others,
communicate insights and spark action.
And who doesn’t these days?
those people to take action.
Developing our innate storytelling skills
helps build confidence, create greater levels
of engagement, convey ideas clearly and
effectively, and most importantly, present
to our colleagues our humanity.
We all want to convey our ideas with impact, yet eyes instantly
glaze the moment you beam your PowerPoint presentation laden
with slides and dot points. We know informally that stories are
engaging; we tell them at dinner parties and people listen and
they ‘get it.’ Yet few leaders systematically harness storytelling
to communicate ideas, convey the organisation’s values or inspire
and motivate people.
Find out more www.anecdote.com.au
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Putting stories to work
TM
INFLU
EN
CE
“The choice for leaders in business and
W H AT T H E O N E D AY W O R K S H O P I S A L L A B O U T
delivering your tale to an enraptured audience. Rather,
involved in storytelling—they can hardly
-
do otherwise—but rather whether to use
I
storytelling unwittingly and clumsily
AC
TI
—or intelligently and skilfully.” Steve Denning
T
O
that contributes to the achievement of business outcomes.
ED
others’ experiences in an authentic and empathetic way
organisations is not whether to be
LL
INSPIR
it relies on people finding and retelling their own or
O
S
S T O R Y-T E
Telling business stories is not about concocting events and
H
N
S
IN
IG
A NEC DOTE HA S DE VELO PED A TH REE -STE P PROC ESS TO GU I DE YOU
CO M PA N I ES W H O
Prospecting
Patterns
Performance
H AV E U S E D O U R
Everyone has stories to tell, but in many
We can improve the way we tell our
Stories influence and communicate
cases we are unaware of them.
stories by understanding the story
meaning. Achieving this requires knowing
Prospecting involves asking the right
structures and patterns appropriate for
when to use particular stories and in the
Challenger Financial
Services
questions, using tools to trigger memories
the task. During the workshop, we will
audience having a sincere belief that the
AE Smith
and creating a conducive environment
explore a few story patterns and help
story is authentic. People judge authenticity
AXA
for people to remember experiences that
participants re-craft their stories based
on how the storyteller delivers their story
Allinta Energy
convey their values and vision.
on these story patterns.
and whether the story is plausible, based
Malaysian Airlines
on their own experience. Participants
Australian Tax Office
will learn ways to develop a comfortable
Ergon Energy
delivery style and feel at ease telling stories
SKM
STORY TELLING
S E R V I C E S T O D AT E :
IBM
regardless of the setting.
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Putting stories to work
TM
This workshop is for anyone wanting to improve their ability to influence people, spark
YO U R FAC I L I TAT O R S
action, and communicate vision and meaning.
Shawn Callahan and Mark Schenk are
two of Australia’s most experienced
narrative practitioners with more than
seven years of hands-on experience in conducting narrative
projects and over eighteen years as consultants and
researchers. These projects have helped tame a variety of
seemingly intractable issues – such as trust, understanding
the cash economy, and workplace safety.
YO U S H O U L D AT T E N D T H I S C O U R S E
I F YOU A RE I N TE RESTED I N :
• communicating your organisation’s mission,
vision and values in a way that’s memorable
• influencing people by listening to their stories
as well as telling your own
• motivating and inspiring people
• conveying desirable and undesirable behaviours
• sharing what you have learned in a way people
will listen to and understand
• becoming a more effective leader
• sparking action.
Earlier this year I had a tough client
meeting scheduled and I wanted us to
avoid a blame session. Before we got
into the main business I recounted an
experience one of our clients had recently.
For years, he and his wife had endured
a bathroom that desperately needed
updating. They finally organised it
and he returned home from a business
W H AT YO U W I L L L E A R N A N D L E AV E W I T H :
• the outline of some key stories you can use as a
leader and how these can be applied in different
circumstances
• useful techniques to build engagement through
listening to people’s stories in both one-on-one
and group situations
• a better understanding of what makes an
effective story in a business context
W H AT AT T E N D E E S H AV E S A I D :
• an understanding of how to best craft questions
to discover stories
“Indeed the very practical
nature of this workshop is
its greatest strength.”
• when to use what story pattern – building
confidence in telling your story.
trip knowing the renovation was
complete. His wife proudly showed him
the new bathroom.
He gazed at the sparkling refurbishment, looked up and said, “so what’s
with the unfinished tiles.” His wife
grabbed him by the ear and dragged
him down the hallway and said, “shall
we try that again?”
On his second look he said how great
the bathroom looked and discovered
that the last bit of tiling would be done
tomorrow. “I hope you don’t do that at
work?” his wife said. He immediately
recognised that he often did.
“Shawn has a most honest, open and engaging approach
which is what is shown to work best with this technique
and creates an enjoyable workshop.”
“Honest, thoughtful, valuable. The staff are very
generous with their expertise and resources. They are
open and approachable, acknowledging both their
achievements and how they learned from their mistakes.
These people are the real thing. You get a strong sense
of how these processes can be applied in business
settings. A really great workshop.”
After sharing this story everyone at the
meeting kept positive and proactive.
Shawn Callahan
Find out more www.anecdote.com.au
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