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Storytelling as a Leadership Skill

Teaching storytelling at the Amsterdam School of Creative Leadership

Ever since the Barack Obama 2008 Presidential Campaign used storytelling to such great effect, storytelling in professional settings has been on an upswing. People are seeing its value not just in political organizing but also social change making and business management.

Why is this so?

Humans interpret the world in two ways: through narrative and through analysis. Analysis uses critical reasoning and evidence and deliberation to teach us how to act. Narrative uses story and emotion to teach us how we feel about things, which in turn tells us why we act.

Unfortunately, in nearly all of our communications, we tend to use analysis to persuade others, despite all the evidence suggesting that people are more effectively moved by stories. When it comes to getting people to act, the most brilliant piece of big-picture analytical reasoning is simply no match for the well-told, detail-filled, specific story.

Take, for instance, Acumen’s Jacqueline Novogratz. In her effort to demonstrate the interconnectedness of humanity in today’s world, the Acumen Fund founder could present an economic analysis about international trade and flows of goods and services.

Nobody would remember a word of it.

Instead she tells the story of her ‘blue sweater’. The sweater, which pictured zebras grazing in front of Mount Kilimanjaro, was Novogratz’ most beloved article of clothing throughout middle school. After a ninth grade classmate made fun of Novogratz for wearing the now ill-fitting sweater, during her freshman year of high school, Novogratz’ donated it to Goodwill. Fast-forward ten years: Novogratz is living and working in Rwanda when she sees a young boy wearing the exact same sweater. She runs over to him, looks at the sweater’s tag. Sure enough, her name is there, in faded black ink. The story makes the same point about the interconnectedness of humanity in a modern economy as a presentation on trade flows would—but it makes that point better. In a way we'd remember it.

Our storytelling workshops are based on Marshall Ganz' Public Narrative technique, developed at Harvard and used to transformative effect in the Obama presidential campaign.

Public Narrative is the art of translating values into action, through stories, and thus persuading people to help you make change. In the course, we explore storytelling as a leadership skill, breaking an effective story down into its three component parts and practicing each part before integrating back into the whole. We study videos of masters of this art, both expected virtuosos (Obama, Martin Luther King Jr, Shakespeare) but also some perhaps unexpected ones (Bono, J.K. Rowling, Sir Ken Robinson).

Each participant also develops their own story. And nearly always, when participants deliver their own public stories, I find myself wowed, half the time wiping away tears and the other half reduced to fits of laughter. It’s a tool that works, with the potential to transform the way we work with others (colleagues, clients, investors, partners, customers, etc) by focusing on why we do things and not merely on what we have to do.

We are SO PROUD to announce the participants in our first-ever Certificate in Social Innovation Management program, to be held in Nairobi from June - October 2013. This program embodies our vision for the direction that higher education must take, and the 15 participants exemplify the type of people who will be able to think outside the box to shape the future. They were selected from more than 150 applicants, and they come from 12 different countries. Click here to meet them all!

I'm reminded of the Social Innovation Manifesto written by our friends at Kennisland. Its concluding theme is the following:

The Future is Agile: The innovation cycle is speeding up all the time. Innovation takes place in a continuously iterative process whose core is the process of co-creation and the exploitation of new discoveries. Innovation programmes therefore need to make use of this short-cycle dynamic. Education, too, should acknowledge this iterative creative capacity. We need self-assured, passionate, modern, creative people to shape the future. Their adaptability, flexibility, and ability to think outside the box will be crucial.

We couldn't agree more! This is why we absolutely can't wait for them to join us in Nairobi, in just under 3 weeks, to begin this journey together!

This week, we are delighted to announce the list of courses and the people who will lead them for our upcoming Certificate in Social Innovation Management course, starting on June 1st. Check them all out here (and see a simple list below). They are a fabulous set of people from around the world and we're honored to be working with them over the rest of the year.

Why are these courses, and the whole Expertise (or Skill-Building) component of our program, so important?

Funnily enough, Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas Friedman's column in The New York Times addressed this very issue today. Here's an excerpt:

When I say that “everyone has to pass the bar now,” I mean that, as the world got hyperconnected, all these things happened at once: Jobs started changing much faster, requiring more skill with each iteration. Schools could not keep up with the competencies needed for these jobs, so employers got frustrated because, in a hyperconnected world, they did not have the time or money to spend on extensive training. So more employers are demanding that students prove their competencies for a specific job by obtaining not only college degrees but by passing “certification” exams that measure specific skills - the way lawyers have to pass the bar.

We don't have exams! But, like Friedman, we believe in the development of specific skills that will be crucial to success in leading social change in the 21st century. These are the skills that we're providing in our courses. And the instructors teaching them all embody and practice these skills in their own professional work - they were invited to teach at the Amani Institute as practitioners not academics. They do this work. For real.

Skills and Skill-Builders - Certificate in Social Innovation Management, 2013

1. Bootcamp: Skills and Mindsets for the New Manager - Rajiv Ball, Partner @ THNK; Former Partner @ McKinsey and Company
2. Design as a Change Agent - Rupa Chaturvedi, Founder @ Raaya Design
3. Social Entrepreneurship - Roshan Paul, President @ Amani Institute
4. Bio-Empathy: Learning from Nature - Dharshan Wignarajah, Partner @ Wignarajah Strategies
5. Systemic Change - Charlotte Millar, Strategist @ Finance Innovation Lab
6. Working with Young People - Ilaina Rabbat, Executive Director @Amani Institute
7. The Management Toolkit - Peter Gross, Business Development Manager Africa @ Microensure
8. Technology Skills for Social Change - Nick Martin, Co-Founder and President @ TechChange
9. Nonviolent Communication - Gabriella Reinwald, Certified NVC Trainer
10. Storytelling as a Leadership Skill - Roshan Paul, President @Amani Institute

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Know anybody who would be interested in taking these courses and joining our program? Encourage them to apply ASAP! We have just a few spots left!

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