John Fanning reviews a new book which claims that at a time of increasing polarisation, conflict, and fragmentation, story has the power to bridge divides and help us tackle pressing challenges
Storytelling is an essential ingredient of successful marketing communications but we tend to ignore the substantial body of literature examining the theory and practice of the subject. A new book by Zoë Arden, a storytelling and leadership coach, is entitled Story-Centred Leadership: Crafting Cultures of Change.
The book offers a practical and comprehensive introduction to the subject. Arden sets out her stall clearly at the start of the book as she outlines her objectives; writing a practical guide to how stories can communicate our purpose and values, how we can sharpen our storytelling skills and how stories can be used creatively to accelerate social change.
Like all the the best textbooks, Arden begins with a few definitions, but what struck me most about this section of the book was a quote from film director Jean-Luc Godard: “Sometimes reality is too complex. Stories give it form”. Thinking about that line should alert you to the importance of taking storytelling more seriously. We’ve been telling each other stories for a long time. The famous cave drawings of Lascaux depicting how we communicate with our stories are over 30,000 years old. Our ancestors were making sense of the world through playful and powerful stories.
- Story listening: walk in the shoes of others to gain empathy;
- Story building: craft the ingredients of a compelling narrative;
- Story shaping: improve with peer feedback and practise;
- Story sharing: seed stories to help grow purpose-led, fearless cultures;
- Story living: strengthen personal leadership to expand influence and impact
One of the most practical sections of the book deals with the critical issue of understanding our target audience and that involves what is now being referred to as ‘deep listening’. None of us are very good at really listening to what other people are saying; we’re too busy formulating our own response in advance.
Being aware of the problem is the first step to listening properly. We then need to slow down the process, not being afraid of the odd silence and continually probing by looking people in the eye saying ‘tell me more’. This will enable us to build stronger connections with our audience and formulate more powerful stories.
In a world of ChatGPT, storytelling, and the ability to connect with other human beings, has become a critical skill – Zoë Arden
The book includes several practical checklists which will help sharpen our storytelling skills when directly addressing staff or clients. The Six Ps is a good example: process, prepare, practice, pace, paraphrase, productive pauses. We should begin by processing the results of our ‘deep listening’. The next two are obvious but it is still useful to be reminded; we invariably neglect to prepare thoroughly enough and we rarely practice enough.
The next Ps are even more interesting as I suspect most of us rarely consider them all that relevant when preparing to address an audience. Pacing our material can make our impact more powerful, paraphrasing and repetition helps understanding by allowing the brain to catch up with the tongue and productive pauses facilitate understanding among the audience and helps to clarify our own thoughts.
Optimistic
Many of the examples in the book involve stories that help to advance progressive causes, in particular climate change and sustainability. The book draws on interviews with more than 100 people worldwide, alongside the author’s experience delivering workshops to over 30,000 leaders across the globe.
In a post-woke world progressive causes have taken a bit of a back seat, but Arden, a former communications director at BT, the European managing director at Weber Shandwick and a fellow at the University of Cambridge Institute for sustainability leadership, is optimistic as well as inspirational.
“Social movements draw on the power of their creativity to reimagine a different world and to help other to understand the possibilities of reshaping the world in line with new ways of seeing and thinking,” she wrote. Little gems like this make Story-Centred Leadership worth reading.
Story-Centred Leadership: Crafting Cultures of Change by Zoë Arden is published by Routledge
John Fanning lectures on branding and marketing communications at the UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School; john.fanning44@gmail.com
