The Secret Language of Leadership

The Uniter vs The Divider

My article, "The Uniter vs The Divider", about the use of story by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, has been headlined in OpEdNews.

"As Hillary Clinton learns to tell her story, and for the first time generates genuine enthusiasm among her supporters, she also runs the risk of being seen as 'the divider'. Meanwhile if Barack Obama is to continue to be seen as 'the uniter', he must learn to tell a wider set of stories, including those of gun owners and small-town America."

Read the full article here

Best Business Books of 2007

On December 8, 2007, the Financial Times selected The Secret Language of Leadership as #2 in its list of the Best Business Books of 2007.

On December 17, 2007, 800_CEO_READ published its selection of the Best Business Books of 2007. The Secret Language of Leadership was included as one of the top four books on leadership.

THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF LEADERSHIP.

“If business leaders do not immediately grasp the vital insights offered by this book, both they and their organisations are doomed.” Financial Times, August 29, 2007

An Inconvenient Truth for Republicans

My previous entry discussed Hillary. A similar message is equally applicable to Republicans, as explained in a current New Yorker article:

“In every Republican debate, [Romney] glows with the bright effervescence of a born salesman. But a political campaign may not be as susceptible to the strategies of management consulting as a business, where advising a corporation to reinvent itself is standard practice. Romney’s strategic audit of the 2008 campaign suggested that his party was hungry for a reliable Republican. For Romney, the danger is that of going too far in attempting to please every constituency. In doing so, he may have underestimated the importance of authenticity, an asset that in politics is sometimes more valuable than ideological purity.”

Read the full article at here

An Inconvenient Truth For Democrats

There are eerie parallels for Democrats between 1999 and 2007. The "obvious" nominee has not yet learned the language of leadership. Read my article on OpEdNews here

Financial Times reviews The Secret Language of Leadership

Book review:

Let me tell you a story about Al Gore

On August 29, 2007, the Financial Times published a 700-word review by Stefan Stern of The Secret Language of Leadership. Here are some of the highlights:

“If business leaders do not immediately grasp the vital insights offered by this book, both they and their organisations are doomed. But the good news is that there are examples of executives out there who have taken this book’s messages to heart, and have acted successfully on them…

“This new book represents a considerable advance on the earlier work. The squirrels have been superseded by an intelligent and sustained analysis of the art of contemporary leadership. Those bosses who quietly despair of ever getting their people to change should spend a bit of time learning how to speak Denning’s ‘secret language.’

“One leader who does seem to have got the message is former US vice-president Al Gore. In a superb opening section, Denning takes Gore’s lousy presidential bid of 2000 apart, showing how at each stage the man of destiny from Tennessee blew his chances…

“Denning is a subtle and astute reader of audiences’ minds. Don’t try to out-reason deeply sceptical employees, he says. You have to make a personal – and emotional – connection with them first. Indeed, facts may be the last thing people want to hear right now. They will simply be discounted and rejected.

“Of course, there is still a need for reasoned arguments, he says, but it is crucial to get the “sequencing” of messages right. Get people’s attention, “stimulate the desire for change”, and then wheel out the rationale.

“’Leadership communications begin as monologue,’ Denning says. ‘If they are successful they turn into dialogue and then conversation. The conversation emerges because of the enduring enthusiasm for change that has been inspired.’

“Some business leaders may be sceptical about the need for language skills these days, but this “secret language of leadership” will reward further study.”

Read the full review here (subscription required)

The Secret Language of Leadership

The
Secret Language
of
Leadership:
How Leaders Inspire Action through Narrative
A book by Steve Denning
To be published in October 2007 by Jossey Bass

Is it really possible to say anything new on leadership that has been already said many times before? A number of distinguished leadership experts believe so: 

Advance praise for The Secret Language of Leadership

"Steve Denning is the Warren Buffett of business communication. He sees things others don't and is able to explain them so the rest of us can understand.”

Chip Heath, co-author of Made to Stick
Professor of Organizational Behavior,
Graduate School of Business, Stanford University

"I highly recommend you get it today and read it tonight. Tomorrow will be an entirely different kind of day if you do.

Jim Kouzes
Co-author of the best-selling, The Leadership Challenge
and A Leader’s Legacy

What it's about:

How do leaders connect and engage with their audiences? In this sequel to The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling (2005), business narrative expert Steve Denning, explains why traditional approaches to leadership communication don’t work and reveals the hidden patterns that effective leaders use to spark change. The book shows how anyone can inspire enduring enthusiasm for a cause, even in skeptical, cynical or even hostile audiences. The book is a comprehensive guide to the nitty-gritty of transformational leadership.

The book's lucid explanations, vivid examples and practical tips are essential reading for CEOs, managers, change agents, marketers, salespersons, brand managers, politicians, teachers, parents—anyone who is setting out to the change the world.

More advance praise for The Secret Language of Leadership

“The Secret Language of Leadership has been instrumental in helping me overcome the challenges of rapid growth and intense competition. It’s all about the story.”

Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix Inc.

"I don’t think I have ever read a more compelling preface. And best of all, the advice Denning gives to the reader about speaking and writing is exemplified in the way he has written this impressive book."

James MacGregor Burns
Distinguished Senior Scholar,
James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership, University of Maryland
Author of Leadership

“Engaging and erudite, this book draws on very wide reading and research to help any leader or manager master the arts of narrative in a way that is both pragmatic and original.”

Larry Prusak
Co-author, What’s the Big Idea? and Working Knowledge

“Out of the morass of strategies leaders are given to transform organizations, Denning plucks a powerful one—storytelling—and shows how and why it works.”

Dorothy Leonard
William J. Abernathy Professor of Business, Emerita, Harvard Business School
Author of Deep Smarts: How to Cultivate and Transfer Enduring Business Wisdom.

“The Secret Language of Leadership is not only the best analysis I have seen of how and why leaders succeed or fail, it's highly readable, as well as downright practical. It should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in engaging a company with big ideas who understands that leaders live and die by the quality of what they say.”

Richard Stone, StoryAnalytics Master, i.d.e.a.s.

"A primary role of leaders is to create and maintain meaning for their organizations. Denning clearly demonstrates that meaning-making comes from stories well told."

Thomas Davenport,
President's Distinguished Professor of I.T. and Management,
Babson College
Author of The Attention Economy

"Steve Denning is one of the leading thinkers on the power of narrative in business settings. His latest book is a smart, useful guide than can help leaders of every kind add value to their organizations and add meaning to their own journeys."

Daniel H. Pink, author of A WHOLE NEW MIND

“The Secret Language of Leadership shows why narrative intelligence is central to transformational leadership and how to harness its power.”

Carol Pearson, Director, James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership, University of Maryland
Co-author of The Hero and The Outlaw

“There is something very special about The Secret Language of Leadership. A lot of authors write about storytelling and other methods of leadership communication. What sets Steve Denning apart is his authenticity. He is one of the rare few who write about it from intensely personal experience. This book offers a genuinely refreshing perspective and an uncommon insight into the narrative life of leadership."

Jim Kouzes
Co-author of the best-selling, The Leadership Challenge
and A Leader’s Legacy

What's different about The Secret Language of Leadership?

For a very long time, we’ve been living with the idea that leadership and change are driven by the efforts of a few exceptional people. This book puts forward a different idea. It says that change and leadership don’t require exceptional people at all. Leadership and change are driven by ordinary people who act and speak in a different way. Once people grasp what's involved in acting and speaking in that way and take the trouble to master it, then they find that anyone can drive change, if they want to.

For too long, we’ve been thinking that leadership was some kind of innate gift, a mysterious kind of genetically inherited charisma. But once we’ve deciphered the language of leadership and understood its essential enabling conditions, transformational leadership is no longer a mystery. Once the hidden patterns of the language of leadership are made explicit, leadership becomes accessible to anyone. As Malcolm Gladwell has noted, the difference between generating resistance and enthusiasm is narrower than we imagine.

What's nice is this: when ordinary people have learened the language of leadership, they find they can have extraordinary impact.

Who needs this book?

Anyone who is trying to change the world, whether you're a CEO, a manager, a change agent trying to change your boss, a marketer, a salesperson, a brand manager, a politician, a teacher, a parent—anyone who looks out on the world and wants to do something to make it a better place. In fact, the only person for whom the book isn’t relevant is someone is totally complacent and happy with everything in the world, exactly as it is now.

The conventional wisdom: Pick up almost any leadership book these days and what do you find? Leadership is presented almost solely as an issue of inner conviction. Find the leader deep within yourself. Become the person others will want to follow. Discover your strengths. Become emotionally intelligent. Merely through increased self-awareness, self-regulation, and positive modeling, authentic leaders develop authenticity in followers. When you visualize, then you materialize. Be true to yourself and change happens.

Would it were so.

The reality: The reality is that sustained, enthusiastic change doesn’t occur by osmosis or extrasensory perception. If leaders’ inner commitment to change is to have any effect, they have to communicate it to the people they aspire to lead. True, the leaders’ actions will eventually speak louder than words, but in the short run, it’s what leaders say—or don’t say—that has the impact. The right words can have a galvanizing effect, generating enthusiasm, energy, momentum, and more, while the wrong words can undermine the best intentions and kill initiative on the spot, stone dead.

What are the main elements of the language of leadership? The central triad of every effective leadership communication involves a shift from the traditional approach of,

“describe problem >> analyze problem >> give solution”

to the new triad:

“get attention >> elicit desire >> reinforce with reasons”

The book shows:

• 18 ways to get your audience’s attention;
• 20 ways to elicit desire, and
• 8 ways to reinforce with reason;

It also explains which of these work best and why. The book tells you what other books on leadership never got round to revealing: what you have to say, and how to say it, so as to inspire enduring enthusiasm for your cause.

Narrative intelligence: The book introduces the concept of narrative intelligence. Narrative intelligence is an ability to understand and act and react agilely in the quicksilver world of interacting narratives.

The enabling conditions of the language of leadership: The language of leadership will make the maximum impact if certain enabling conditions are in place. Without these enablers, the words that leaders use—the spoken language of leadership—risk sounding glib and superficial. The book identifies six enabling

• An inspiring leadership goal: Why isn’t winning likely to be a goal that inspires enthusiasm? What’s involved in crafting a goal that can inspire enthusiasm?
• Committing to the goal: The fox knows many things, while the hedgehog knows one thing. Transformational leaders are hedgehogs: of all the many things that could be accomplished in the world, they focus on a goal and pursue that with relentless intensity. The intensity of their belief in the goal is reflected in the stories they communicate.
• The audience's story: What’s involved in understanding your audience: Why are managers handicapped in having a real conversation with their subordinates? How do you go about determining what will—or will not—resonate with your audience.
• Narrative intelligence: Why is this key to the central task of leadership? What are its dimensions? How can you measure it? What’s the difference between direct and indirect narrative and why does it matter? What are the relative strengths of abstract versus narrative modes of presentation? Of direct versus indirect modes of presentation?
• Leadership presence: the body language of leadership: What are the essential basics of leadership presence, that turn ordinary presentations into the extraordinary? What’s the role of leadership online? Can written leadership communications inspire? What’s the appropriate role of PowerPoint in inspirational leadership?
• The role of truthfulness in leadership: Why is truthfulness an essential element in leadership? When does it make sense to shade the truth? Is it feasible in business to be fully truthful?

To learn more and read a chapter, go to http://www.stevedenning.com/SecretLanguage.htm

Harvard Management Communication Newsletter discusses my work

May 2006

Harvard Management Communication Newsletter of May 2006 has an article about storytelling. It’s entitled: “Leading Words: How to Use Stories to Change Minds and Ignite Action: The right story at the right time can be a very powerful leadership tool,” and is written by Cynthia M. Phoel.

It's about my work and begins: “As a program director at the World Bank (Washington, D.C.) in the mid-1990s, Stephen Denning was at a loss for how to convince his colleagues of the value of knowledge management. Presentations built on solid research and carefully constructed PowerPoint slides got him nowhere. Then he started telling this simple story…” It goes on to tell the Zambia story and describe the characteristics of a springboard story, the various purposes of organizational storytelling, how to perform the story, and the various tips and tricks of business narrative.

It summarizes material from my book, The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling (2005). And if you want a crisp, clear and succinct summary of what business narrative is all about, you could do worse this than article. It’s available from Harvard here:

The publication of the article is also a sign of the growing recognition in the mainstream business world of the central importance of storytelling as a leadership tool.

Smithsonian storytelling weekend

If you weren't able to make it to the Smithsonian storytelling symposium on April 21 or the following day's events, you can visit a growing set of resources about the weekend, including audio recordings and PowerPoint slides at http://www.storyatwork.com/

The World's Premier Organizational Storytelling Event: Smithsonian Symposium

The annual Smithsonian symposium on organizational storytelling is just around the corner and this year there is a dynamite roster of speakers from all around the world. As in the past, there will be a Friday event at the Smithsonian on April 21 and a Saturday event on April 22 hosted by the Golden Fleece Group.

If you want to sample some of the top class speakers who'll be there:

Linking the organizational story and the personal story

Jim Stuart will be a keynote speaker at the Smithsonian storytelling weekend in Washington DC on April 21, 2006. Jim is the former president and CEO of Val-Pak, founding executive director of The Florida Aquarium, and co-founder of The Leadership Circle, will examine how the organizational story” and the personal leadership story” are similar and different in thei”r impact on the collective. One builds vision alignment; the other trust. Both are essential capacities in an effective, humane enterprise. I talked to Jim recent and you can read his interview here:

http://www.stevedenning.com/slides/InterviewWithJimStuart.pdf

Some tidbits from Jim's interview:

·      "They were each in some way thought to be impossible to do, but they both were done.”

• “The story never goes away.”

• “This domain is what gives access to emotions and spirit.”

Can storytelling be turned into a business?

Ashraf Ramzy founded a consulting firm based on narrative in The Netherlands in 2002.  Ashraf will be one of the international speakers at the Smithsonian storytelling weekend in Washington DC on April 21-22, 2006. (He speaks on the Saturday.) Ashraf talked with me recently about his experience to date. Here are a few tidbits from his interview:

• “Too many clients came in with a briefing, but no story to back it up or to sustain it.

• “I learned that organizations suffer the most from the shadow of their strengths and resist the hardest what they need the most.”

• “Our identity is the source of our action and, without knowing who we are as people and as a business, we have no real grip on our strategy and actions.”

Listen to Ashraf Ramzy at:

http://www.stevedenning.com/slides/InterviewAshrafRamzyMar06.pdf

What’s happening in organizational storytelling in Scandinavia?

What’s happening in organizational storytelling in Scandinavia? Svend-Erik Engh launched an organizational storytelling business in Denmark in 2000 and has since been active throughout Scandinavia.  Svend-Erik will be one of the international speakers at the Smithsonian storytelling weekend in Washington DC on April 21-22, 2006. (He speaks on the Saturday.) Svend-Erik talked with me this week about his experience to date.

You can read the full interview at:

http://www.stevedenning.com/slides/InterviewSvendErikEngh.pdf

Here are some tidbits from Svend-Erik’s interview:

• “Be both King and humble servant in the same person.”

• ”When I ask myself: ‘What did I do that day?’ and when I think about it, I have to admit: ‘very little.’”

• “These imaginary characters became living people with us in all our work – the stories were feeding the other side of the brain.

• “Actually this is one of the biggest secrets of my art. That you listen while you tell.”

The Smithsonian storytelling weekend is a remarkably diverse, international event, with speakers hailing from UK, Denmark, Netherlands, Austria and Canada, and from within the US, from Philadelphia, California, Colorado as well as Washington DC. So if you want to get a quick overview of what’s happening in organizational storytelling around the world, this is where to get it.

The event is filling up fast. So don’t delay - register now!

For the Friday April 21 event, go to:

http://residentassociates.org/otoapr/storytelling.asp

For the Saturday April 22 event, go to:

http://www.goldenfleececon.org/

For details of both day’s events: go to:

http://www.stevedenning.com/Smithsonian06-r2.html

To watch a short video (3 megs) on the event, go to:

http://www.stevedenning.com/slides/Smithsonian2006.wmv

To download a brochure (96 kb) that you can share with colleagues and friends, go to:

http://www.stevedenning.com/slides/Brochure-Smithsonian-06.pdf

Smithsonian Storytelling April 21-22 2006

Believe it or not, April is just around the corner and that means the annual Smithsonian symposium is just around the corner. As in the past, there will be a Friday event at the Smithsonian on April 21 and a Saturday event hosted by the Golden Fleece Group. Here are some details of the Friday and the Saturday events.

A. ALL-DAY FRIDAY SEMINAR AT THE SMITHSONIAN

BOOKINGS ARE NOW OPEN: GO TO http://residentassociates.org/otoapr/storytelling.asp

Leadership and Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Organizational Narrative

Fri., April 21, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Though executives have spent their careers learning analytic business skills, these days they are hearing much about the organizational benefits of storytelling.  In addition to their other skills, they are expected to reach beyond the fact-based argument, persuade even difficult audiences, and touch the heart as well as the mind.  Though mastering the principles of effective organizational narrative is not particularly difficult, it does require a shift from the traditional analytical mind-set. Learn how narrative can captivate an audience and communicate on issues involving dilemmas, conflicts, unpredictable futures, change management, disruptive innovation, strategic initiatives, and crisis management in this stimulating and practical seminar.

            Steve Denning, former program director of knowledge management at the World Bank and author of The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling, reviews the role of storytelling as a leadership tool and explores how narrative can help meet the most important challenges of organizational leadership, including sparking change, communicating who you are, enhancing the brand; transmitting values; fostering collaboration, sharing knowledge, managing risks, taming the grapevine, and leading into the future.

            Madelyn Blair, CEO of Pelerei Inc., a consulting firm involved in organizational development, research and training, with clients in 10 countries, in the Americas, Europe, and Asia, demonstrates the latest tools for capitalizing on the social potential of a gathering and provides tips and techniques that participants can apply to their own work.

            Victoria Ward, the co-founder of Sparknow, and Stephanie Colton, who leads Sparknow's story practice, show how inducing fundamental change in any organization involves both de-storying and re-storying—finding useful application in old stories, letting go of stories which block progress, and discovering how old stories can be interwoven with new stories to achieve organizational objectives. Sparknow is a UK consulting organization specializing in dialogue and story,

            Jim Stuart, former president and CEO of Val-Pak, founding executive director of The Florida Aquarium, and co-founder of The Leadership Circle, examines how the organizational story” and the “personal leadership story” are similar and different in their impact on the collective.  One builds vision alignment; the other trust. Both are essential capacities in an effective, humane enterprise.

            Steve Denning’s book, The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling (Jossey-Bass), is available for signing after the program.

CODE: 1M2-012

Location: Smithsonian Associates S. Dillon Ripley Center, Education Center, 1100 Jefferson Drive, SW-Washington DC.

Resident Members $95; Gen. Admission $140

Coffee and pastries are served at 8:30 a.m.

Participants provide their own lunch, 12 noon to 1:30 p.m.

B. SATURDAY APRIL 22, 2006:

MORE ORGANIZATIONAL STORYTELLING SPONSORED BY THE GOLDEN FLEECE GROUP

The second day of the weekend, Saturday April 22, 2006 is organized by the Golden Fleece group. It will be at the National 4H Center at 7100 Connecticut Ave, Chevy Chase from 9 am to 5 pm.

The exciting lineup of speakers is:

9:00 to 9:30            Kelly Cresap, Laughing Muse              

9:30 to 11:00   

Glory Ressler (Canada): Leadership Connext: the Use of Story in a Canadian Voluntary Sector Leadership Development School 

Atieno Fisher: Developing Simulations from Personal Stories to Facilitate Sustainable Learning         

11:00 to 11:15            Break   

11:15 to 12:15   

Hannes Maier & Christoph Harringer (Austria): Leading Companies into the future: The role of storytelling in the strategy process             

Ashraf Ramzy (Netherlands) If You Can’t Calm the Story, Change the Story

Viktoria Berlik: Retelling Ruth’s Story

12:15 to 1:15            Lunch   

1:15 to 2:45            Gerry Lantz:

StrategicStory ™and CultureStory ™: hard and soft narrative tools to spur action and to bond cultural values to an oganization      

Svend-Erik Engh (Denmark): A Storyteller at Work   

Joe Mancini: Investigating Your Archetypal Leadership Story

2:45 to 3:00            Break   

3:00to 4:30      

Patricia Digh: Mind the Gap: moving from a finite to an infinite game using narrative         

Sally Strackbein: Leadership Communication through Storytelling       

Terrance Gargiulo: Story at Work: Using Stories to Improve Communications & Build Relationships

4:30 to 5:00            Kelly Cresap, Laughing Muse              

Fees are $55 for regular attendees and $35 for full time students.

Registration will be at the door, or through PayPal (details to be announced shortly).