Storytelling for Executives

Summary

Look at last year’s budget and find a project you decided to stop funding. Somebody wanted that project, possibly for very good reasons. Why did you put the money elsewhere?

A decent answer to that question will tell people more about your strategy than a slide titled “Our Priorities.”

In this training, you’ll learn to explain decisions to people who weren’t in the room when you made them, and to people who may still think you made the wrong call. You’ll also look at how stories can serve a broader purpose than you might expect. If a conversation with a customer gave you the idea for a new service, that’s may be a useful place to start your pitch to the board. A story about your first boss can help a new team understand why you lead the way you do. And a good story about last year’s budget can help someone else decide what’s worth funding this year.

Learning Outcomes

• Find decisions from your own experience that show what a strategic priority means in practice.

• Understand the strategic function of storytelling in leadership and decision-making

• Explain a difficult choice fairly, including the strongest argument for the option you turned down.

• Tell a personal story about a time someone changed your mind or brought you news you needed to hear.

• Adapt the same account for a board discussion, an investor update, a media interview, or a staff town hall.

• Decide when a story will help you answer a difficult question and when the person asking deserves a straight answer first.