Strategic Storytelling
Why Some Stories Drive Your Success at Work But Others Don’t
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- 2,99 €
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- 2,99 €
Publisher Description
In today's connection economy, the most successful leaders inspire their people with purpose and meaning. Powerful corporate storytelling can mobilise people around an organisational objective in a way that a focus on market share never will. Be it a digital transformation or a diversity and inclusion initiative, corporate change needs the support of the people in that organisation in order to stick.
Yet, while all stories can move people to take action, storytelling isn't a one size fits all. The most effective influencers learn to flex their narrative based on the audience's time or their level of expertise.
A story that works on the stage doesn't work in the boardroom
A story that works in the boardroom doesn't work in a team meeting
A story that works in a team meeting doesn't work in a one-to-one conversation
A story that works in one-to-one conversation doesn't work in sales...
Anjali Sharma introduces leaders and ambitious influencers to the Who, Why and How of strategic storytelling in business, enabling them bring about change and drive corporate success by telling exactly the right story in the right way.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this ho-hum debut, Sharma, founder of the management consulting firm Narrative, details how corporate professionals can use storytelling to craft successful pitches to their superiors and coworkers. Identifying five types of "storytellers," Sharma suggests "reflective storytellers" draw on personal experiences to make their case, while "marketer storytellers" aim to connect with their audience by demonstrating vulnerability. Sharma describes how to draw on the strengths of all five to create "maximal and minimal narratives," the former of which explains "where we have come from, what is causing the pressure to change, where are we headed," whereas the latter sticks to "where we are now and where we can be." Steps for telling maximal narratives include recounting a story of someone negatively impacted by a problem and describing how one's proposed solution would solve it. The advice is solid if unsurprising, but it's hampered by confusing terminology that asks readers to distinguish between "maximal and minimal stories" and "maximal and minimal narratives" (the latter of which are apparently more "forward-looking"), as well as "journalist" and "reporter" storyteller types. (The former finds stories while the latter communicates them, raising the question of whether the former should count as a "storyteller.") Readers will have to sort through confusing jargon to reach the straightforward guidance buried underneath.
