The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling – Stephen Denning | Free Book Summary

The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling – Stephen Denning

Storytelling helps leaders to inspire employees, sharing a vision, defining company values, teaching necessary concepts, and even helping employees to get to know their leaders better.

Motivation behind Storytelling

In the working environment, storytelling fills in as an essential, powerful tool for successful communication.

It gets people excited about a thought, or maybe some information that probably wouldn’t have been as intriguing before.

Make it an individual story

Incredible stories uncover a piece of yourself.

Ask yourself:

• What compels you to care about the work that you do?
• Which part of you beyond your work is available within that world?

If you are in financial services, for instance, what is it behind the numbers and information that are at the emotional core of your work?

Show passion while you’re recounting a story

What’s so interesting about what you’re talking about?

If the audience knows why you are interested, they will have a reason to care about them. In other words, the story must have value. And they don’t have to be significant.

You can create a great story from little things if the storyteller is interested in it.

What’s to gain for Leaders through storytelling?

• Can keep a consistent focus on the vision of the company, 
• affirm faith in the near term intent of the leadership, 
• strengthen brand loyalty, 
• build support from the organizational team at every level,
• resolve conflicts,
• reaffirm company values.

Considerations when employing storytelling

• Invest in a highly competent Director of Communication.
• Be central in choosing stories.
• Personally convey your vision in compelling stories.

Focus on one Theme/Big idea

You always want to think carefully about what you are leaving your audience with.

What is the theme of your story? What is the big idea? Your story will be full of details, of course. In fact, one of the best things about storytelling is that the details create the world.

So, the more detailed you are in the story, the more global the story becomes. But think about how all the details of your story relate to the big idea.