Storytelling, a practice that once was not considered in business, has now become a leader’s most important tool and can be used effectively for change. Storytelling has the power to influence, energize, and motivate followers to move forward despite uncertainty of the internal and external environment. Of course, like all leadership skills, storytelling is an art and must be crafted with the intent to demonstrate why change is necessary, why there is an urgency, and at the same time offer a vision that allows the listener to see a better environment. Whether a change initiative is revolutionary or evolutionary, storytelling is beneficial to lessen resistance, gain buy-in and avoid unnecessary confusion. In section two of your final organizational development proposal, you conducted a thorough problem diagnosis and determined the barriers that hinder progress. Assuming you are the organization’s OD consultant, you must influence senior leaders that innovation and system change is essential for long-term sustainability through storytelling. Taylor (2021) states, “Innovation storytelling is more than a clever communication strategy. It is a way to ignite creative, interdisciplinary thinking, and even accelerate innovation cycles by decreasing the time it takes to garner buy-in or make go/kill/pivot decisions” (p.46). In turn, Gothelf (2020) offers five strategies for crafting a powerful story: Be audience specific. Contextualize your story. Humanize your story. Make it action oriented. Keep it humble. To ensure the story delivered to executive leadership has an impact, craft your story using the five strategies and follow the guidelines of the assignment. Also, the story should be shared in your final presentation. For each of the strategies, write a paragraph or more that addresses the problem/change/solution. (See examples from Gothelf (2020) article) After writing five individual paragraphs aligned with the strategies, combine the paragraphs so that the story flows. Discuss how you will incorporate the story into your final presentation, why you believe the story is powerful, and your projected outcome
Storytelling, a practice that once was not considered in business, has now become a leader’s most important tool and can be used effectively for change. Storytelling has the power to influence, energize, and motivate followers to move forward despite uncertainty of the internal and external environment. Of course, like all leadership skills, storytelling is an art and must be crafted with the intent to demonstrate why change is necessary, why there is an urgency, and at the same time offer a vision that allows the listener to see a better environment. Whether a change initiative is revolutionary or evolutionary, storytelling is beneficial to lessen resistance, gain buy-in and avoid unnecessary confusion.
In section two of your final organizational development proposal, you conducted a thorough problem diagnosis and determined the barriers that hinder progress. Assuming you are the organization’s OD consultant, you must influence senior leaders that innovation and system change is essential for long-term sustainability through storytelling. Taylor (2021) states, “Innovation storytelling is more than a clever communication strategy. It is a way to ignite creative, interdisciplinary thinking, and even accelerate innovation cycles by decreasing the time it takes to garner buy-in or make go/kill/pivot decisions” (p.46). In turn, Gothelf (2020) offers five strategies for crafting a powerful story:
- Be audience specific.
- Contextualize your story.
- Humanize your story.
- Make it action oriented.
- Keep it humble.
To ensure the story delivered to executive leadership has an impact, craft your story using the five strategies and follow the guidelines of the assignment. Also, the story should be shared in your final presentation.
- For each of the strategies, write a paragraph or more that addresses the problem/change/solution. (See examples from Gothelf (2020) article)
- After writing five individual paragraphs aligned with the strategies, combine the paragraphs so that the story flows.
- Discuss how you will incorporate the story into your final presentation, why you believe the story is powerful, and your projected outcome
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