The action-based guide to powerful, influential organizational storytelling Circle of the 9 Muses captures the best practices of the world's most influential story consultants and knowledge workers to help you find, tell, and draw value from your organizational stories as impetus for action. This rich toolbox is loaded with fun, graphical instructions and dozens of unique, replicable, and facilitated processes that require no special training or expertise. You'll discover your organization's hidden narrative assets, use different templates and frameworks to tell the stories of your past, present, and future and then draw team members into rich meaning-making dialogue that translates into action. These activities can be exercised in endless permutations, and expert advice steers you toward the right activity for a specific purpose, including managing change, setting strategy, onboarding, defining the brand, engaging supporters or customers, merging cultures, building trust, and much more.
Organizational storytelling is a powerful managerial tool and an essential change management technique. This is about your influence as a leader. Knowing the right story to tell and how to deliver it effectively gives you and your organization enormous influence, and helps connect employees to strategy by providing understanding, belief, and motivation in their personal contribution. This book is the ultimate field guide to becoming an influential storyteller, with concrete, actionable guidance toward all the storytelling fundamentals.
- Identify your organization's "narrative assets"
- Craft an elegant, well-constructed organizational story
- Capture, bank, and share stories with extraordinary engagement
- Facilitate a dialogue to draw out meaning and induce change
The growing interest surrounding organizational storytelling has many change agents focused on "trying to tell better stories," but goals are useless without a plan of action. Circle of the 9 Muses helps you weave narrative wisdom into organizational development activities, engaging employees and driving change.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Dispatches from a World of Stories 1 Scene I: A Small Club in Nashville, Tennessee 1
Scene II: A Cave in the South of France, 1994 3
Scene III: A Conference Room Somewhere in Paris 4
It All Began with a Sheep 7
What’s Inside 10
Stepping into the Stream 17
9 Muse Story Recipes 23
Branding Recipes 24
Team Building/Relationship Building Recipes 25
Leadership, Strategy, and Change Management Recipes 26
Organizational Development Recipes 26
Part I: Fundamentals 29
Chapter 1: The Four Core Stories 31
Identity Stories 34
Vision Stories 35
Values Stories 36
Stories of Change and Learning 38
What Are Your Core Stories? 39
Three More Cores! 42
Where Do I Go Next? 43
Chapter 2: Host a Story Circle 45
Decide How You Will Frame It 47
Find or Create a Third Space 50
Decide Who Needs to Be There 52
Set Ground Rules 52
Put Participants in Groups 54
Begin the Session and Manage the Time 55
Your Role as Host 56
Ready to Get Started? 56
Where Do I Go from Here? 57
Chapter 3: Story Prompts 59
First, Some Don’ts 61
Plant the Suggestion 63
“Tell Me about a Time ” 63
Story Buckets 64
Extreme Prompts 65
Emotional Prompts 66
Aspirational Prompts 67
Go Wide Open 68
Go for the Heart 69
Stories Beget Stories 71
Where Do I Go from Here? 71
Chapter 4: Capturing Fire 73
First, Pick a Story to Work On 75
Clarify Your Intent 76
Your Turn: What Is Your Intent? 77
Connect Your Story to Universal Plots 78
Your Turn: Choose a Plot Archetype 86
Other Story Structures: FWA 88
Declare Your Intent 89
Other Tips and Techniques for Better Stories 90
Technique 1: Throw ’Em Right into the Action 90
Technique 2: Add Emotion (“The King and the Queen”) 91
Technique 3: Add Sensory and Motion Information 93
Technique 4: The “MacGuffin,” or Gleaming Detail 94
Technique 5: Play with the Timeline 95
Technique 6: Make It Shorter! 96
Your Turn: Provide Some Final Polish to Your Story 97
Bringing it All Together: Geoff ’s Story 98
Where Do I Go from Here? 99
Part II: Branching Out 101
Chapter 5: Twice-Told Stories 103
Explain the Process to Your Story Circles 105
Begin the Story Circles 106
Close the Story Circle Experience and Select One Story to Retell 106
Create the Story Theater and Begin! 107
The Critical Epilogue: Name the Bigger Story 108
Modifying the Exercise for Diff erent-Sized Groups 110
Capture it Visually! 111
Another Delivery Option 112
Where Do I Go from Here? 113
Chapter 6: Summoning the Muse (Story Listening and Sense Making) 115
Meaninglistening and Storymaking with Your Team’s Stories 120
Roll the Dice! 121
Listen Better 123
Taking It Deeper: A Geography of Meaning 124
Option: Use the Archetype Cards 127
The Power of the Spontaneous Invitation 127
Meaning Making and Individual Conversations 128
“For Lack of a System”: A Story from Lori Silverman 129
Where Do I Go from Here? 130
Chapter 7: Story Circle Variations (Riffs, Jams, Jazz Licks, and Sitar Solos) 131
Visual Story Mining 133
Stories in Words 135
The Client Sets the Frame 137
Invite the Witness 138
Story Distilling 139
Audience Carousel 139
Getting Personal: Stories and Signifi cant Experiences 140
Show and Tell (“Relics”) 142
Capture Family Legacies 142
Chapter 8: Leadership Story Archetypes 145
The 16 Archetypes of the 9 Muses 149
Putting the Archetypes to Work 155
Identify the Frame for Conversation 155
Present the Archetypes 155
Place Participants in Groups 156
Have Participants Each Identify Three Archetypes and Write Them on Sticky Notes or Index Cards 156
Present Your Cards 157
Analyze and Discuss What Just Happened 157
Taking It into the Future: The Transformational Question 158
Using Archetypes as a Directed Listening Framework 159
How to Apply Archetypes to Your Stories 160
Where Do I Go Next? 161
Chapter 9: Future Story Spine 163
Where Did the Story Spine Come From? 165
Get Ready for This Exercise 166
Introduce the Story Spine 166
Start with the Climactic Event: “Until Finally” 166
Identify a Single Event That the Group Will Focus On 167
Complete the Story Spine! 168
Where Do I Go from Here? 169
Chapter 10: Visual Timeline 171
Identify the Story You Want to Tell 172
Establish the Start and End Dates 172
Draw a Line That Tells the Story! 173
Reflect for a Moment 174
Fill in the Story Details 175
Draw out the Meaning 175
Applications 177
Other Options and Ideas 178
Where Do I Go from Here? 179
Chapter 11: Fractal Narratives 181
Let’s Start with an Example: Values Stories 183
Storytelling and Institutional Memory 184
Other Fractal Story Frameworks 186
Where Do I Go Next? 187
Chapter 12: Fractal Narratives and the Hero’s Journey 189
The Manager of a Thousand Faces 191
An Introduction to the Hero’s Journey 192
Introduce the Hero’s Journey 195
Connect Stories to the Stages of the Journey 195
Option: Ordeal Storytelling and Prophesying Your Ending 197
Where Do I Go from Here? 197
Chapter 13: Story Element Extraction 199
The Classic Version: Working with a Few Stories 200
Going Deeper with Story Element Extraction 202
Distribute the Stories 203
Collect Ideas 203
Cluster the Answers 204
Name the Clusters 204
Describe the Attributes of the Clusters 205
Transfer, Group, and Name All the Positive and Challenging Attributes 206
Assess and Reflect 206
Chapter 14: Creative Tension Pictures 207
What’s Going On Here 209
Options for Creative Tension Pictures 210
The Fast Version: Visuals Speak 211
Build it, via the Think with Your Hands Methodology 212
Where Do I Go from Here? 213
Chapter 15: Strategy Is a Story 215
A Journey of Heroes 217
Example: A Strategy Narrative “Message House” 220
Share the Story 221
Strategy Is a Storyboard 224
Option: Cast the 9 Muse Archetypes in Your Storyboard! 226
Where Do I Go Next? 227
Chapter 16: Innovation Storyboarding (and Storyboarding Frameworks) 229
Classic Innovation Storyboarding 232
The Fast Version 235
Other Storyboarding Frameworks 236
An Example: My Creative Process Storyboard 236
Building the Exercise 238
Now Begin the Activity 240
Where Do I Go Next? 241
Storyboard Your Offering Using Presentation Software 241
Chapter 17: Step into a Story: Story Field Trips 243
Identify the Special World 246
Issue the Call to Adventure 249
Cross the Threshold 250
Bring Back the Elixir 252
The Stories Keep Working on You! 253
Chapter 18: Digital Storytelling 255
Comic Book Applications 256
Movie-making Applications 258
Slide Applications 259
Photo Book and Storybook Applications 259
Image Resources 260
Appendix 263
The “Icon Cheat Sheet for Left Brainers” 264
The 10 Story Types, the Seven Basic Plots, and the 36 Dramatic Situations 266
Booker’s Seven Plots from The Seven Basic Plots 267
Polti’s 36 Dramatic Scenarios 267
Bibliography 270
Contributors, Partners, and Friends 274
About the Author 290
Connect with David 291
Index 292
About the Author :
David Hutchens is an author and creator of learning experiences for organizations around the world. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Learn more at www.DavidHutchens.com
