| STORYTELLING WEEKEND MAY 4-5, 2007 Leadership
and Storytelling: Note: as of April 6, 2007, the Friday workshop is filling up fast. At this rate, it will be sold out by mid-April. So if you're interested in participating, don't delay: register here NOW! And don't forget the Saturday workshops. Fourteen speakers. Exciting subjects. Get more details and register here NOW! SMITHSONIAN ASSOCIATES Friday May 4, 2007, 8.30a.m. to 5 p.m. Although the myth of the individual heroic leader lives one—someone who by his gallant acts singlehandedly changes the world—in reality leadership in the modern economy is a distributed function involving multiple interactions. The “look-up-and-yell-down” approach to management is increasingly recognized as ineffective. Instead leaders need to be able to engage people in conversations. While we all tend to imagine we are conversing all the time, there is much to learn about the impact conversations have—for better or worse—on the performance of people and organizations. What exactly is a conversation? What role do conversations play in organizations and in leadership? What makes a conversation effective and engaging? How does the context (physical space, technology, agenda, sponsorship) affect a conversation? What is the role of storytelling in conversations? Which conversations are worth preparing for or capturing? In this stimulating and practice workshop, you will learn how to use conversations for constructive organizational purposes such as winning commitment to change, solving conflicts, enhancing collaboration, sparking innovation and leading people into the future. Larry Prusak, co-author of “Working Knowledge”, “What’s the Big Idea?” and “In Good Company”, will present an overview of the role of conversations in organizations. He will also discuss the role of conversations as a tool for developing new ideas and building social capital, and review the role of physical structures and the signals and symbols that enable and encourage organizational conversations. Steve Denning, author “The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling”, “Squirrel Inc” and “Storytelling in Organizations” will talk about the relationship between conversation and storytelling, and show how conversations can help resolve conflicts and inspire people to change. He will discuss how we might shift from the current context of abstract adversarial arguments to a world of lively, open-minded, spirited exchange of narratives. Ken and Mary Gergen, authors/co-authors of many books, including “Therapeutic Realities”, “Social Construction: A Reader”, and “The Saturated Self”, will engage the audience in a conversation that illuminates the way in which conversation and storytelling create individual and group identities in the organization, and the consequences of this process for the success and failure of the organization. Nancy Dixon, author of “Common Knowledge”, “CompanyCommand” and “Dialogue at Work”, will discuss how conversations that shape us - the intentional use of peer-to-peer conversation as a tool for professional development; how organizations are structuring opportunities for peer-to-peer conversations and what professionals are gaining from them. Throughout the day, Madelyn Blair will be facilitating and orchestrating the conversation at the event itself. The authors’ books will be available for signing after the event. You can register now here. Coffee and pastries are served at 8:30 a.m. Participants provide their own lunch, 12 noon to 1:30 p.m. SATURDAY MAY 5, 2007 Golden Fleece Day Details available at http://www.goldenfleececon.org/ Fourteen great speakers. Seth
Kahan and Larry Forster:
Connect-and-Collaborate in a Command-and-Control
World Learn about the innovative work on conversations at Shell with Seth Kahan and Larry Forster. Listen to Svend-Erik Engh from Denmark talk about his new book on storytelling. Interview with Gerry Lantz by Seth Kahan I
just got off the telephone with Gerry Lantz (http://www.storiesthatwork.com/
) He has a truly remarkable story for us on May 5, at the GoldenFleece
conference (registration details at the end). Here’s what he
told me: “Dove
wanted to have an authentic conversation with their customers. They
said, ‘There’s a lot of fog out there… women talking
about aging and women trying to prevent aging. Why don’t we
talk about how every woman is great the way she is and show that we
are a brand that recognizes that?’ They started a conversation
around the question, ‘What makes real beauty?’ They ran
some startling photographs when the campaign started in the UK. They
were showing women wearing only underpants and bras and sitting around
talking and laughing. These were not provocative shots. They were
trying to show them as they were. It was the theme, ‘Real beauty
is more than skin deep.’ It rang a bell for women who had until
then be made to feel they had to buy hope in a bottle. “At
the same time they set up an interactive website that started an enormous
discussion. They were asking the question, ‘What is real beauty?’
It opened the myths of beauty that have been foisted upon people concerning
size, shape, complexion and everything else. The women not only shared
with Dove, they started talking to each other. “Then
they evolved the campaign to address aging. They ran startling print
ads and a few TV executions. It is a kind of jujitsu with the category.
They are leveraging the clichés of the category against itself.
For example, they take a rather plain model … this happened
in Canada… and show how she is made up, retouched, and glamorized
so she doesn’t look anything like she does in real life. They
implied, ‘If this is what real beauty is, then it’s impossible
to measure up.’ They did this by showing the make-up and re-touching
via time-lapse photography. The process included photographically
lengthening her neck! This is normal in the advertising world, trying
to get the best image to convey the feeling. But, Dove was turning
this process back on itself. “The
top account person said, “I don’t want to destroy the
competition. I want to change them.” That’s pretty interesting.
Normally marketing is described in terms of warfare. You know, targeting
an enemy and destroying them and all that. Here they are talking about
social change and changing the conversation in the advertising industry. “Then
they ran an ad in the Super Bowl on the Self Esteem Fund for girls
(http://www.dove.ca/doveselfesteemfund/ ). When you see these things
during my presentation, they will be very impressive. When other marketers
saw them, they started ordering copies to find out what Dove Self
Esteem was about. The ad is about positive body and facial imagery.
This campaign is aimed at young girls. Of course, these things are
tied in with selling products. During the Oscars they ran one commercial
in which a Dove user films a commercial of herself in the shower.
It’s very home-movie-ish, and she talks about the benefits of
using Dove. They used a celebrity to introduce the ad, which is a
little hokey. But, still, this is a real person talking about real
benefits and she shot it herself. “Then they introduced a line of pro-aging - not anti-aging – but, pro-aging products. They have run some shocking photographs that have caused some controversy because it’s older women shot nude. Of course, they are done demurely, but they are their real age and proud of it. They have wrinkles. It’s not your standard cosmetic product advertising. I am looking forward to showing these films at the Golden Fleece conference. You will be amazed.
The
2nd day of the Washington, DC, storytelling conferences will include
a presentation by Loren Niemi (http://www.storytelling.org/Niemi/
). When I first met Loren years ago I was impressed by his capacity
to constructively venture into difficult topics with sensitivity and
care, and liberate the life force. I called him last week to talk
briefly about his presentation. Here’s what he said: “What
I am going to be doing is facilitating one of the most difficult conversations
that people have, need to have, and often don’t get to, which
is the discussion about race, class, and sex. I ask people to sit
down and tell their story, be heard, speak the story of their experience
on both the receiving end of prejudice and the distribution end. I
ask people to tell those stories, and then we have a conversation
about what those stories are and what understanding can flow from
it. We look at questions like, ‘Who is the Other? What can be
learned from the Other?’ I’ve done this workshop a number
of times. It flows from the public policy work I’ve been doing
with communities of color and extremely poor people. If
you ever want to hear someone who is really marginalized and whose
story is never really heard or asked for, speak to a woman of color
who is in poverty. Most people don’t want to hear how they got
there, why they are there, what they want. Yet, if we were sensible
about welfare and social policy, these people would be the first we
would talk to. Elizabeth
Ellis and I wrote the book, Inviting the Wolf In: Thinking About Difficult
Stories (to read more, go to this page and scroll down: http://www.storytelling.org/Niemi/books.html
) It explores the value of stories that are hard to hear and harder
to tell. I will have copies of that book with me. Whenever I’ve done this workshop, there are two values which I see participants getting. The first is the surprise that comes when people have the opportunity to speak their story directly. The second is in the ensuing conversation, people become aware in fundamental and emotional ways that there are common bonds in spite of differences. Every time I do this workshop, people have one or both of these experiences. The workshop is a safe, facilitated way of dialoging with both our fear and our prejudice. Participants will walk away with some tools for dealing with tough topics. This experience it will give you a sensitivity to how to know when a topic arises, and show you some ways of how to respond to it. Details available at http://www.goldenfleececon.org/ |