The Secret Language of Leadership

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

The news through a narrative lens: Tom DeLay "twists in the wind"

According to the Washington Post this morning, "DeLay scales back power plays."

DeLay is used to doing what he feels like, not what his aides tell him. Suddenly, the old Texas brio that carried him through years of smaller controversies is on the wane.

The Facts	Republican story	Democratic story
Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, continues to defy political gravity. Three of Tom Delay former aides have been indicted in an investigation of campaign fund-raising practices; a close lobbyist friend is under criminal investigation; the House ethics committee is preparing to reconsider allegations that Mr. DeLay and his staff members violated travel rules.	Republicans in the House have not run from Tom DeLay. Rather than try to protect themselves and engineer a coup, Republican members are throwing a tribute party for him this week. President Bush is also standing firm, even taking him along on Air Force One. Republicans says he has done nothing wrong - that he's the target of unfair attacks from Democrats bent on partisan revenge. He is a noble hero, fighting off the democratic Mob at the Gates.	Democrats present DeLay as a red-cheeked tyrant who started out as a bug exterminator and rose to power in Congress with a force that earned him the nickname "the Hammer." Democrats are content to let DeLay twist in the wind. The slower the death, the better. Every day he stays in office is a boon for their efforts to demonstrate Rot at the Top.

Viewing the news through a narrative lens: Social Security

On the surface, the news comprises a cacophony of competing narratives. At a deeper level, the narratives fall within a much smaller number of archetypal stories. Robert Reich has suggested the following four: two of hope and two of fear:

• The Triumphant Individual. This is the tale of the little guy who works hard, takes risks, believes in himself, and eventually gains wealth, fame, and honor. E.g. Rocky Balboa, Norma Rae, and Erin Brockovich. The moral: with enough effort and courage, anyone can make it in the United States.
• The Benevolent Community. This is the story of neighbors and friends who roll up their sleeves and pitch in for the common good. The story is captured in the iconic New England town meeting, in frontier settlers erecting one another's barns, in neighbors volunteering as firefighters and librarians, and in small towns sending their high school achievers to college and their boys off to fight foreign wars.
• The Mob at the Gates. In this story, the United States is a beacon light of virtue in a world of darkness, uniquely blessed but continuously endangered by foreign menaces. Hence the endless efforts to contain the barbarism, tyranny and evil within and beyond the borders.
• The Rot at the Top. This is about the malevolence of powerful elites. It's a tale of corruption, decadence, and irresponsibility in high places--of conspiracy against the common citizen.

Other archetypal stories make their presence felt – heroic Quests, tales of people fighting real or imagined Monsters that threaten the Republic, along with tragic Vietnams, when the story goes bad. The press spends much energy finding new heroes, actively building them up in Rags to Riches stories, and then dragging them back down again, cutting them down to size, showing that after all they had feet of clay and had become part of the Rot at the Top. A favorite spectator sport is watching the former great twist in the wind. Fairy stories of both Good and Evil bound, with metaphorical Fair Maidens under threat or being rescued.

Characters resonate if they plug into familiar archetypes – Bill Clinton (Zeus), George W. Bush (prodigal son); Gore, Kerry (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern); Hillary Clinton (asexual warrior goddess – Athena).

One can look at the news through a narrative lens, and see that it is not so much about facts, as it is about: what's the story?

The news	Republican story	Democratic story
Bush makes proposals to reform Social Security, with progressive indexation of benefits.	Social Security is a wasteful financial Monster, that comprises handouts, i.e. taking money away from the deserving have’s (the Triumphant Individuals who have deservedly gotten rich) and giving it to the undeserving have not’s, lazy good-for-nothings, who should have saved for their retirement, not have it given to them. Thus in cleaning up Social Security, Bush is moving to fix the financial Rot at the Top, caused by decades of liberal elite misgovernment. Bush is on a Quest to save the country from bankruptcy from the Monster of Social Security.	Just as Iraq was a fake crisis of WMD, so Social Security is another fake crisis, a mere fairy story, since the financial problems of Social Security will only materialize in 2040, if then. The actual crisis is the budget deficit, which Bush – ostrich-like – refuses to address. Bush’s real motive is to destroy Social Security. It is Bush who is the Monster, who is attacking the Fair Maiden of Social Security, thereby putting the social fabric of republic in peril. Democrats expect that cutting back on benefits will backfire politically, because it undermines the Benevolent Community, hence Democrats are keeping quiet, letting Bush twist in the wind.