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.
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