PM360 BOOK Review

By Craig DeLarge
The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative, by STEPHEN DENNING

Steve Denning’s The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling marks an excellent latest stage in his progression of thought and methodology that makes the art of storytelling accessible for leaders and managers looking to use this relatively rare leadership tool to enhance their effectiveness. Denning wrote this guide to espouse a simple but powerful idea: “The best way to communicate with people you are trying to lead is very often through a story.” For most, this goes without saying but practicing what we know can be a challenge, and this book helps us get beyond knowing to doing.

Storytelling Can Define an Organization
In the first section of this book, Denning discusses the role of storytelling in organizations—defining them, rationalizing them—and deals with the challenge of telling a story right. He acknowledges storytelling as a performance art by examining the four critical elements of storytelling, namely, style, truth, preparation, and delivery. He makes it clear that there is no substitute for observation, strategizing, and practice in becoming an effective organizational storyteller. And yes, for the analytics among us, he also addresses the question of whether storytelling yields a positive ROI.

In the second section, he cites the key business narrative patterns in what he calls the Storytelling Catalog. These patterns are applied to:

1) sparking action
2) communicating who we are
3) branding, or communicating who our companies, products, or services are
4) transmitting (organizational) values
5) fostering collaboration
6) taming the (organizational) grapevine
7) sharing knowledge, and
8) leading people into the future

He devotes a chapter to each narrative pattern complete with examples, guidelines, caveats, and a template for crafting, evaluating, and practicing each. The use of stories to tame the grapevine was most surprising, as he talked about how stories can be used to neutralize the rumor mill, a “normal organizational response” to change. He calls this “fighting story with story”—not with “argument and denial,” but with gentle, self-deprecatory satire when the story is not true and by putting it in proper perspective when it is true. The author warns that this is risky territory, so tread carefully.

A Good Story Can Be the Decisive Factor
Coming back to the question of how this book is relevant for a pharma (or any other) professional, we see that storytelling is a skill that all of us can learn and strengthen to the benefit of our industry, organizations, teams, and careers. In this time, when old opportunities are, well, old, and we are still gaining competence with new ones, when competition for attention and funding of our ideas and programs is fierce, and when every request is challenged with a demand for ROI, an appropriately told story can achieve what rigorous analysis cannot do on its own. It can be the decisive factor between success and failure.

A well-timed and told story can reach beyond the minds of our stakeholders and customers to their hearts and emotions, resulting in real and authentic relationships. Such relationships make for better-functioning and more resilient organizations and for deeper and more loyal customers. I highly recommend this book and am interested in hearing about your successful use of storytelling in your own professional experience.

Craig DeLarge is Associate Director, eMarketing & Relationship Marketing, at Novo Nordisk (www.novonordisk.com). He can be reached at cadelarge@yahoo.com or www.linkedin.com/in/cadelarge.