Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to Kathe Sweeney, Mary Garrett, Erin Moy, Beverly Miller, and the entire Jossey-Bass/Wiley team for their many helpful suggestions and for their commitment to this project.
About the Author
Stephen Denning is the author of eight books, including The Leader's Guide to Radical Management: Reinventing the Workplace for the 21st Century (Jossey-Bass, 2010). His book, The Secret Language of Leadership: How Leaders Inspire Action Through Narrative, was selected by the Financial Times as one of the best books of 2007.
The first edition of The Leader's Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative, was published in 2005. It was named by the Innovation Network as one of the twelve most important books on innovation in the past several years.
Squirrel Inc.: A Fable of Leadership Through Storytelling was published in 2004. Denning has also published Storytelling in Organizations (2004) and The Springboard (2000), as well as a novel and a volume of poetry.
Denning consults with organizations in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia on topics of leadership, management, innovation, and business narrative. He worked at the World Bank from 1969 to 2000, where he held various management positions, including program director of knowledge management from 1996 to 2000.
In 2000, he was named one of the world's ten most admired knowledge leaders by Teleos, and in 2003, he was ranked as one of the world's top two hundred business gurus by Tom Davenport and Larry Prusak in their book, What's the Big Idea?
Denning studied law and psychology at Sydney University in Australia and worked as a lawyer in Sydney for several years. He then earned a postgraduate degree in law at Oxford University.
In 2009, he was a visiting fellow at All Souls College, Oxford University.
Denning's Web site (http://www.stevedenning.com) has an extensive collection of materials on radical management, leadership, innovation, knowledge management, and business narrative.
Index
A
A&P
Abstract understanding
Adam's Task (Hearne)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Twain)
After Virtue (MacIntyre)
Al-Qaeda
Amazon
American Idol (TV show)
Amidon, Debra
“Animal trainers” category
Anomalies: description of; knowledge-sharing story focus on; negative outnumbering positive
Anti-story problem
apartheid (South Africa)
Apollo and Daphne myth
“Apollo run amok,”
Apollo space program
Apollonian culture
Apple Computer
The Arabian Nights
Aristotle
Around the Corporate Campfire (Clark)
AT&T
Audience: building trust with a new; connecting with your; ensuring that they hear the story you tell; ensuring that they want to hear your story; geographical differences between; interactive leader inviting reactions from; knowing your; pick story protagonist who is similar to the. See also Listeners; Presentation
Authenticity: being yourself; interactive leadership building on; of internal brand communication by firms; of life story; of true stories
Authority-compliance leadership
B
Back to the Future (film)
Bad news
Barbalet, J. M.
Barnum & Bailey
Baron, Robert
Bateson, Mary Catherine
Bazaar magazine
Beauty: interactive leadership appreciation of; neglect of
Being lively
Being yourself
beinggirl.com
Ben & Jerry's
Berlinger, Norma
Bickerstaff, Melinda
“Bitees” category
Blair, Madelyn
Blake, R.
Block, Peter
Blue Ocean Strategy (Kim and Mauborgne)
Blue Tales (JetBlue blog)
The Body Shop
Bohmer, Richard
Booz Allen
Branding narrative: based on organization values; communicated
within the firm; customer stories on social media,
description of; organizational examples of social media for; template for crafting; 20th century marketing model for; 21st century marketing model for. See also Corporate culture; Organization brand
Brent Spar oil rig
Bristol-Myers Squibb
British Royal Astronomical Society
British Telecom
Bubbles/infant delivery story
Budweiser
Building trust narrative: by communicating who you are; how to tell your story; with a new audience; understanding the importance of the; where you tell your story; why you tell your story. See also Credibility
Built to Last (Collins and Porras)
Burns, James MacGregor
Bush, George W.
Bush, George W. H.
Business design
Business models
C
Cahill, S.
Campbell Leadership Descriptor
Capellas, Michael
Car Talk (radio show)
Carroll, Dave
Case, P.
CDC Web site
Champions for change
Change: IBM and making the case for; impact of storytelling for implementing; official and emerging stories gap during; pitched battles over; rational case for; springboard stories used to initiate; study of computer programming community during; transformational leadership as embodying values of the. See also Innovation; Transformational change
Change idea: finding example of accomplished; have springboard story fully embody the; having clear and worthwhile; link springboard story to the
Chappell, Kate
Chappell, Tom
Chesbrough, Henry
Christensen, Clayton
Churchill, Winston
“Cinderella” (fairy story)
CIO (chief innovation officer)
Cirque du Soleil story
Clark, Evelyn
Cliché
Clients: expectations of; goal of work as delighting; iterations driven by. See also Customer stories
Clinton, Bill
Clinton, Hillary
Clio (Renault ad series)
The Cluetrain Manifesto (Searls and Weinberger)
Coaching story telling
Coca-Cola
Cohn, Mike
Collaboration: hierarchy concept in discourse of; meaningful experience of high-performance; shared values as basis of; strategies for nurturing; template for nurturing; work patterns of; work situations benefiting from. See also Fostering collaboration narrative; Work groups
Collins, Jim
Communication: building trust through; conversation model of; manager's interactive; by people with people; 20th century marketing model one-way. See also Listening; Social media; Storytelling
Communities: changing meaning of; collaboration patterns of; encouraging own story of; face-to-face storytelling in; getting extraordinary results from; group learning through exchange of stories; high-performance teams with characteristics of; naming; narrative catalyzing; narrative jump-starting; networks compared to; networks and work groups which are also; taxonomy of collaboration in; virtual
Communities of practice
Communities of Practice (Wenger)
Compaq
Compelling future stories: avoiding cliché in; evocation to create; keep it simple for; Lou Gerstner's; positive tone of; rarity of; shortcut to the future provided by; work backward from image of the future to create
Complications (Gawande)
Conley, Chip
Connecting: importance of; interactive leader use of storytelling for
Context: created for knowledge-sharing story; knowledge-sharing narrative inclusion of; telling your story with
Continu
ous self-improvement
Conversation: dialogue voice of conversation model; interactive leadership as modeled on
Cook, James
Copley Medal
Corporate culture: Apollonian; description of; repetition of same stories in; social bond created in; stories reflecting health of the; stories that form the; understood but unwritten norms of. See also Branding narrative; Firms; Organization values
Corroborating stories
Costco Wholesale Corporation
Counseling story telling
Country club management
Covert and agreed stories
Covert and contested stories
Covey, Stephen
Credibility. See also Building trust narrative
Cultivating Communities of Practice (Wenger, McDermott, and Snyder)
Customer stories: changes impacting the use of; description and impact of; social media used to spread. See also Clients
D
Damasio, Antonio
Dasani story
Date and place
Davenport, Tom
Decision making
Deep Change (Quinn)
Delighting clients
Delivery: being comfortable during; being lively component of; connecting with the audience; emotional tone determined by; using gesture as part of; getting out from behind the podium during; importance of storytelling; knowing your audience for effective; preparing for your; visual aids used during
Dennett, Daniel
“Depthlessness,”
Descriptions of risk
Design: as backbone of effective storytelling; balancing structure and spontaneity
The Design of Business (Martin)
Dialogue: interactive leadership based on conversation model of; voice of conversation model of
Dietz, Karen
Dionysian leadership
Disney, Walt
Disneyland
Disruptive innovation
Dobbs, Lou
DuPont
E
E053 error message story
East Asian audiences
Ego
Einstein, Albert
Emotional intelligence
“The End of Innovation” (Murray)
Enron's “Statement of Values,”
Espoused vs. operational values
Ethical values: firms which display; three basic components of
Experience: Car Talk (radio show) sharing of; E053 error message story example of sharing; expanding through storytelling; using groups to accelerate interchange of; high-performance team and meaningful; knowledge-sharing narrative as leveling and sharpening; Xerox's Eureka program for sharing. See also Knowledge-sharing narrative
External story aspects
F
Facebook: communication revolution of; Steven Slater's followers on
Failure stories: knowledge sharing through; power of success and
Fast Company (Zax)
Fence-sitters
The Fifth Discipline (Senge)
Financial Times (newspaper)
Finkelstein, Sydney
Fiorina, Carly
Firestone
Firms: bigness and consistency tendency of; branding narrative used by; communicating brand narrative within the; corporate culture of; differing stories in different parts of the; employee stories on; hierarchical authority in; using narrative to transform your; “near-death” experiences of; neutralizing rumor mill in; stories on products or services of; stories reflecting health of the; stories on the; template for crafting character story of the. See also Corporate culture; Management; Organization values; Organizations
Fisher, Jodie
“Five Killer Strategies for Trouncing the Competition” (Stalk and Lachenauer)
Flickr
Fog, Klaus
Ford's “Fiesta Movement,”
Fostering collaboration narrative: adjusting the mandate; catalyzing high-performance teams/communities; description of; group learning through; having respected messenger tell the story; jump-starting teams or communities; setting group objectives; shaping client's expectations; template for nurturing; uncovering deeper reason for managerial misdirection; World Bank use of. See also Collaboration
Four Ps of marketing
Franklin, Benjamin
Fraud
Freeman, Kenneth
From Good to Great (Collins)
Fry, Art
Future stories: anti-story problem of; comparing springboard stories to; creating compelling; different kinds of; inherent difficulty in telling; innovation and role of; negative tone of; other aspects of; rarity of compelling; reasons for telling
G
Gandhi, Mahatma
Gardner, Howard
Garfield, C.
Garvin, David
Gates, Bill
Gawande, Atul
“Geeks in a garage” stories
General Electric (GE)
General Motors (GM)
Genuinely ethical values: firms which display; three basic components of
Geographically dispersed teams
George, Bill
Gerstner, Lou: compelling future stories by; IBM transformation under; making the case for change; stories for setting expectations; storytelling style of; storytelling truth as expressed by
Gestures
Getting Change Right (Kahan)
Gingrich, Newt
Global Consulting story
Globalization: international discourse on; modern leadership trends accentuated by
Google's “do no evil” principle
Gossip. See Taming the grapevine narrative
Greenpeace
Greenwich longitude story
Group learning
“Guide to Ethical Conduct” (Tyco)
H
Haas, Martine
Hackman, Richard
Hall, L. Michael
Hamel, Gary
Handy, Charles
Happy endings
Hardball strategists values
Harrison, John
Harvard Business Review
HCL Technologies
Hearne, Vicki
Heath, Chip
Heath, Dan
Hedges
Helplessness stories
Hewlett-Packard (HP)
Hierarchical authority: collaboration discourse on; interactive leadership as not depending on
High-performance teams: community characteristics of; description of; encouraging own story of; face-to-face storytelling in; getting extraordinary results from; group learning through exchange of stories; management of; meaningful experience of being part of; naming; narrative catalyzing; narrative jump-starting; virtual. See also Teams
Holistic perceptions
“Hollywood types” category
Holocaust
Holt, Douglas
Homer
Hornby, Nick
Hosford, Adrian
How Brands Become Icons (Holt)
How to Be Good (Hornby)
Hsieh, Tony
Humor: avoiding mean-spirited; identity stories told with; pitfalls of using; satire during pitched battle over change; using satire to kill a rumor; self-deprecatory
The Leader's Guide to Storytelling Page 37