Steve Denning, world expert on leadership, innovation, business narrative and organizational ttorytelling

 

 

ILA WEBINAR MARCH 27, 2008: NOON TO 1.30 PM

Session title: The Secret Language of Leadership: How Leaders Inspire Action Through Narrative

Registration: ILA members may register for one or more Webinars free of charge as a benefit of membership.  Non ILA Members are welcome to attend at a cost of $20 each.  Register here 

Session description: How do you persuade people to want to adopt something new, something different, even something a little strange? How do you spark enduring enthusiasm for a cause, even in difficult, cynical skeptical audiences? In this session, Steve Denning, author of The Secret Language of Leadership, will show what’s involved using stories to engage staff or clients quickly and compellingly and spark action. They will learn why traditional approaches to communication don’t work and discover how to to get an audience's rapt attention, how to make a complex idea sound simple and intelligible, and how to reinforce the desire for taking action with powerful, memorable reasons.

In this session, you will:

  1. Understand why the traditional communication (state problem>> analyze problem >> give solution) not only doesn’t work: it’s counter-productive.
  2. Understand how we can fundamentally rethink communication so as to make a step change in our communication effectiveness.
  3. Know how to engage people’s positive emotions and connect with people at a deeper level.
  4. Know how to get people on the edge of their seats so that they give rapt attention to what you are about to say.
  5. Learn when to stress the negative and when to accentuate the positive
  6. Discover how to get an audience’s attention and learn which work best.
  7. Discover how to stimulate desire in people to want to change, even before they have understood the reasons for change.
  8. Learn how to make your reasons compelling and memorable, so that you will never be boring again.

Target audience: Any individual or team faced with a change they need to lead themselves and others through. The changes may be professional- new technology, new government regulations, recent or pending mergers or acquisitions, new product launch, new sales incentive plan, organizational restructuring, promotion or demotion, new boss, new management team,. - or personal: or someone in your family or community who needs to act differently. This session is for anyone going through change, or anyone trying to make change happen.

Maximizing the Value of the Webinar

  • Read the advance reading: The webinar presupposes that participants will have read the opening chapter of The Secret Language of Leadership, which is available here. 
  • Come ready to participate: The webinar will proceed on the basis that there will be an active discussion among participants.
  • Invite others to participate. Structure a group "lunch and learn" session and invite other colleagues to attend.
  • Debrief the lessons learned. Set aside time at the end of the Webinar to discuss takeaways, and how they apply to your group or organization
  • Tap into your training budget. Ask your HR group or manager to underwrite the Webinar as part of your organization's ongoing staff development effort.

About the presenter:

Steve Denning, organizational storyteller extraordinaire, is the author of several books on leadership and organizational storytelling, including "The Secret Language of Leadership” (Jossey-Bass 2007) and “The Leader's Guide to Storytelling” (Jossey-Bass 2005). Steve's article, "Telling Tales" was published by Harvard Business Review in May 2004.

Steve is the former program director of knowledge management at the World Bank.

He is currently a Senior Fellow at the James McGregor Burns Academy of Leadership at the University of Maryland.

 Praise for The Secret Language of Leadership:

 Financial Times: “If business leaders do not immediately grasp the vital insights offered by this book, both they and their organizations are doomed.”-- Financial Times, August 29, 2007.

“Chip Heath: "Steve Denning is the Warren Buffett of business communication. He sees things others don't and is able to explain them so the rest of us can understand.” --Chip Heath, co-author of Made to Stick Professor of Organizational Behavior, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University

Jim Kouzes: "I highly recommend you get it today and read it tonight. Tomorrow will be an entirely different kind of day if you do. –Jim Kouzes, Co-author of the best-selling, The Leadership Challenge and A Leader’s Legacy

Registration details

ILA members may register for one or more Webinars free of charge as a benefit of membership.  Non ILA Members are welcome to attend at a cost of $20 each.  Register here for Steve Denning 

 

 
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Steve Denning consults and gives workshops and keynote presentations on topics that include: leadership, innovation, organizational storytelling, business storytelling, springboard storytelling, knowledge management, branding, marketing, values, communication, communities of practice, business performance, collective intelligence, tacit knowledge, business collaboration, knowledge, learning, community, performance improvement, visionary leadership, social potential, institutional community building, and internal communications. You can contact Steve at steve@stevedenning.com

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