Fundamentals of Storytelling in Organisations

The art and skills of Storytelling becomes more and more necessary nowadays, because flowcharts, arrows and PowerPoint bullets don't measure up to what is needed in organisations anymore.

Organisations do change and develop all the time.
People need real stories to become committed.
People need authentic storytellers to listen to before they get involved knowinly and motivated willingly.

Authentic storytelling is not about persuading people to think like you do, to act like you want them to. It is about people telling stories to make a real difference in their (privat or) professional life.
Authentic storytellers in organisations know the difference between management and leadership.

If that's true, why do I time and again get the shivers when I read about storytelling? It's not that most often storytelling solely seems to be applied to social media, to commercials, to marketing and to sales, to change management, to organisational development, to building corperate identity, even to justify views on our international aid for the non western world. I like a good story in commercials!

I presume that I get shivering once the basic assumption proves to be that storytelling is superimposing the views, morals, intentions, etc. of the storyteller upon the listeners. Then storytelling (probably with the best intentions) just will be a nice wrapping up of persuasion.

Nowadays quite often on international fora I like to combine my scientific background (critical thinking) and my storytelling skills (creative thinking) for sharing both the possibilities, the challenges and the art of the storytelling itself. Storytelling can be far more then molding the hearts and the brains of people.

In my view storytelling is a multi-dimensional experience. It is a great way of meeting people both above and below "the waterline". Storyteller and audience interact. They exchange and share.  Authentic storytelling is about people telling stories to make a real difference.

In my view businesses and organisations are not just managerial objects run by ceo's. Businesses and organisations are living entities. Businesses and organisations are made by people. The people àre the business, the organisation. Without them no organisation, no business can survive.
Stories are profound ways for employees, managers and ceo's (etc. etc.) to cocreate a flourishing, prosperous company; government, ngo and non profit organisation alike.

Stories are so usefull for communities around the world, too. By telling, sharing and cocreating stories people empower their community (whatever, however, whenever they want). For them stories are profound ways of relating to and exchanging with the outside world, as well. (watch this trailer).


The art of  Storytelling is like Archery (read the story). The storyteller is responsible for the arrow and the shooting: tension and relaxation, gripping an letting go, aiming and hitting, but be aware, that every listener among the audience is responsible for his/her own bull's eye. (watch the teaser).

The practice of Storytelling is learning about message, performance and interaction. Is is learning how to mold the content, how to adept your way of telling a story and how to communicate with your audience.

Want to know more? 

Welcome to participate in a Keridwen Workshop

or Keridwen Interactive Presentation. 

For example: September 2014 - Hungary & The Netherlands, November 2014 - Sweden, March 2015 - South Africa

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Want to get more information?

 Watch this slideshare-teaser and please contact me at Keridwen

Looking forward to your response!

Marcel van der Pol

www.keridwen.com