Stephen Denning

The Leader's Guide to Storytelling

Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

In his best-selling book, Squirrel Inc., former World Bank executive and master storyteller Stephen Denning used a tale to show why storytelling is a critical skill for leaders. Now, in this hands-on guide, Denning explains how you can learn to tell the right story at the right time.
Whoever you are in the organization-CEO, middle management, or someone on the front lines-you can lead by using stories to effect change. Filled with myriad examples, The Leader's Guide to Storytelling shows how storytelling is one of the few available ways to handle the principal-and most difficult-challenges of leadership: sparking action, getting people to work together, and leading people into the future. The right kind of story at the right time can make an organization "stunningly vulnerable" to a new idea.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Wiley & Sons
• Seitenzahl: 384
• Englisch
• Gewicht: 592g
• ISBN-13: 9780787976750
• ISBN-10: 078797675X
• Artikelnr.: 14101845

Autorenporträt

Stephen Denning is a private consultant specializing in knowledge management and organizational storytelling. His clients include GE, IBM, Shell, McDonald's, and the U.S. Army, among others. He is the author of the acclaimed book, The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations.

Inhaltsangabe

From the contents:

Part One: The Role of Story in Organizations.
1. Telling the Right Story: Choosing the Right Story for the Leadership Challenge at Hand.
2. Telling the Story Right: Four Key Elements of Storytelling Performance.

Part Two: Eight Narrative Patterns.
3. Motivate Others to Action: Using Narrative to Ignite Action and Implement New Ideas.
4. Build Trust in You: Using Narrative to Communicate Who You Are.
5. Build Trust in Your Company: Using Narrative to Build Your Brand.
6. Transmit Your Values: Using Narrative to Instill Organizational Values.
7. Get Others Working Together: Using Narrative to Get Things Done Collaboratively.
8. Share Knowledge: Using Narrative to Transmit Knowledge and Understanding.
9. Tame the Grapevine: Using Narrative to Neutralize Gossip and Rumor.
10. Create and Share Your Vision: Using Narrative to Lead People into the Future.

Part Three: Putting It All Together.
11. Solve the Paradox of Innovation: Using Narrative to Transform Your Organization.
12. A Different Kind of Leader: Using Narrative to Become an Interactive Leader.Notes.Bibliography.Acknowledgments.About the Author.Write to the Author.Index.

---

Preface. Introduction The purpose of the book and the process by which it
came to be written. Part One: The Role of Story in Organizations. 1 Telling
the Right Story: Choosing the Right Story for the Leadership Challenge at
Hand. Based on the author's personal journey of discovery, the chapter
offers a catalogue of narrative patterns and a cost-benefit analysis of
organizational storytelling. 2 Telling the Story Right: Four Key Elements
of Storytelling Performance. In an organizational context, telling the
story right usually begins by choosing a plain style in which you tell the
story as though you are talking to a single individual. You tell the truth
as you see it, and prepare carefully for the performance. In the actual
performance, you make yourself fully available for the audience and
endeavor to connect with them as individuals. Part Two: Eight Narrative
Patterns. 3 Motivate Others to Action: Using Narrative to Ignite Action and
Implement New Ideas. The challenge of igniting action and implementing new
ideas is pervasive in organizations today. The main elements of the kind of
story that can accomplish this--a springboard story--are the story's
foundation in a sound change idea, its truth, its minimalist style, and its
positive tone. 4 Build Trust: Using Narrative to Communicate Who You Are.
Communicating who you are and so building trust in you as an authentic
person is vital for today's leader. The type of story that can accomplish
this typically focuses on a turning point in your life. It has a positive
tone and is told with context. Sometimes it is appropriate to tell your
story, but sometimes it isn't. 5 Use Narrative to Build Your Brand: The
World of Social Media. Just as a story can communicate who you are, a story
can communicate who your company is. Stories that the company tells about
its brand are becoming less important than stories that customers tell. The
products and services that are being offered are often the most effective
vehicle to communicate the brand narrative to external stakeholders. 6
Transmit Your Values: Using Narrative to Instill Organizational Values.
Values differ: there are robber baron, hardball, instrumental, and ethical
values; there are personal and corporate values, and espoused and
operational values. Values are established by actions and can be
transmitted by narratives like parables that are not necessarily true and
are typically told in a minimalist fashion. 7 Get Others Working Together:
Using Narrative to Get Things Done Collaboratively. Different patterns of
working together include work groups, teams, communities, and networks.
Whereas conventional management techniques have difficulty in generating
high-performing teams and communities, narrative techniques are well suited
to the challenge. 8 Share Knowledge: Using Narrative to Transmit Knowledge
and Understanding. Knowledge-sharing stories tend to be about problems and
have a different pattern from the traditional well-told story. They are
told with context, and have something traditional stories lack: an
explanation. Establishing the appropriate setting for telling the story is
often a central aspect of eliciting knowledge-sharing stories. 9 Tame the
Grapevine: Using Narrative to Neutralize Gossip and Rumor. Stories form the
basis of corporate culture, which is a type of know-how. Although
conventional management techniques are generally impotent to deal with the
rumor mill, narrative techniques can neutralize untrue rumors by satirizing
them out of existence. 10 Create and Share Your Vision: Using Narrative to
Lead People into the Future. Future stories are important to organizations,
although they can be difficult to tell in a compelling fashion since the
future is inherently uncertain. The leader can tell a future story in an
evocative fashion or use a springboard story as a shortcut to the future.
The differences among simulations, informal stories, plans, business
models, strategies, scenarios, and visions are reviewed. Part Three:
Putting It All Together. 11 Solve the Paradox of Innovation: The Role of
Narrative in Continuous Innovation. None of the traditional approaches to
transformational innovation actually works. Solving the paradox of
innovation requires rethinking the whole concept of management.
Storytelling has a major role to play. 12 A Different Kind of Leader: Using
Narrative to Become an Interactive Leader. Effective use of the full array
of narrative techniques entails becoming an interactive leader, that is, a
kind of leader quite different from a conventional command-and-control
manager. The interactive leader is someone who participates, connects, and
communicates with people on a plane of equality and is relatively free of
ego. Notes. Bibliography. Acknowledgments. About the Author. Index.