Business Storytelling and Authentic Leadership

Business storytelling is about using authentic experiences to drive a point, by gift wrapping facts in context and meaning.

Business storytelling is about using authentic experiences to drive a point, by gift wrapping facts in context and meaning. The empathetic connect created by storytelling can be a powerful source of competitive advantage. Your story is what makes you unique and enables you to connect, engage and inspire. This power can be harnessed for internal and external communication, collaboration, selling, marketing, recruitment, positioning, and more.

We have three signature leadership team sessions. One that helps you think about what stories you’d love to be able to tell in future. And another that helps you think about how to tell your existing stories effectively. And a third that helps you introspect and ensure that you are authentic in your leadership and storytelling.

Membership Program

Dreams to Reality Workshop

Leadership teams often have great hopes for the future of their organisations but are so caught up with their day-to-day tasks and firefighting, that they are unable to take the time out to do anything about it. And when they do, they tend to focus on goals.

Now goals are great to get things done in the short-term, but they don’t necessarily help in realising long-term dreams. After all, the exercise of goal setting has the in-built flaw of projecting forwards from where you currently are…and that isn’t necessarily the stuff dreams are made of.

In the Dreams to Reality Workshop for leadership teams, we:
  • 1. Dream.
  • 2. Explore tools for creative thinking.
  • 3. Come up with creative ideas for how our dreams can be realised.
  • 4. Employ critical thinking to evaluate which ideas are implementable.
  • 5. Assign owners and co-owners for the implementable ideas.
  • 6. Drill down to individual action plans with timelines, milestones, success criteria, and dates in the diary to measure against them.
The end results:
The opening exercise builds immense camaraderie and leads to mutual respect of each member of the Leadership Team.
A set of goals are created that have the buy-in of all stakeholders because the leadership team came up with the goals themselves.
An actionable and measurable path is charted out to lead the organisation towards the future it dreams of.
This workshop brings the team together and builds an enhanced sense of cohesion. Each person gets on the same page and behind the same purpose.

A Comedian’s Guide to Communication Strategy

A stand-up comedian in an expert communicator and storyteller. He is also a brand. While his brand message and point of view remains the same, his audiences change across cities and countries. In an age of 140 characters and limited attention spans, he needs to craft his messages in a way that grabs attention immediately, and brings his target audiences over to his point of view. He adapts the way he communicates to his target segments, often using storytelling to tug at heartstrings. While organisations may get customer feedback via social media, phone calls or emails, a comedian’s feedback is received instantly.

Membership Program
This module helps develop a customised communication, marketing, storytelling or content strategy, by using strategies employed by professional stand-up comedians. Insights from the session include:
  • Precursors to communication
  • How to grab and retain attention.
  • Segmentation strategies & customer selection.
  • Communicating intent.
  • Customising your message.
  • Dealing with feedback & dissent.
  • Educating the customer.
  • Understanding barriers.
  • Changing the playing field.
  • Strategies for innovation & growth.
  • Learning from stakeholders.
  • Crafting your USP.
Business Storytelling and Authentic Leadership

Naked Leadership

Naked Leadership is a unique module for senior leaders. The first part of the module involves watching a critically acclaimed one-man show by an award-winning international comedian. This is a show that has been invited to premiere on Broadway in New York and the Soho Theatre in London.

The ethos behind the show ‘Naked’, is that as human beings, we build walls around ourselves that hide our deepest hopes and fears. One brick at a time, the performer removes these metaphorical walls, exposing himself with all his vulnerability and all his pain. It is terrifying yet exhilarating at the same time. In the end, while he is completely naked, he is completely free.

The hilarious yet vulnerable performance sets the right foundation for honest introspection. A discussion in small groups is followed by a larger group debrief. Risk taking, authenticity, communication, spontaneity, storytelling, vulnerability, positivity, gratitude and personal growth are but some of the areas where participants draw insights from.

Naked Leadership inspires you to live, lead and tell your stories from a place of authenticity. The idea is that you can only be the second best Steve Jobs or Indra Nooyi, but you can be the best you in the world. And it is exactly that uniqueness that is your superpower and should be embraced, as a leader or an organisation.