Discussion Assignment : Part 2 -Business Writer

Student 2-Unit 5 Discussion 1

Communicating by Storytelling

I have known many great leaders in my personal and professional life. Some leaders have skills

to communicate and others don’t. A leader that stands out to me the most is my pervious

manager, Katie. She oversaw the education and safety departments in a children’s hospital

research center. Her clear and concise communicate to her audience at all levels was supported

using storytelling. Her persuasiveness changed some of the research center’s culture for the

better.

Katie was very comfortable and good at communicating a story to her peers and superiors. She

did not use large slide presentations but relied mostly on her persuasiveness and ability to

support the desired outcome. She did this through moving the audience emotionally by showing

in her stories “what could be”. Katie’s visual stories provided certain information for her

audience of clinicians and researchers. She was careful with not singling anyone out but made

sure her stories could reach the heart of each person she presented to. Katie’s storytelling moved

and encouraged people. As explained by Sykes, Malik, & West, “An idea needs to inspire and

motivate people” (2012). Katie could inspire her researchers and clinicians and they acted as a

result of being motivated to make a change.

Katie could overcome complacency, as described in Stories that Move Mountains: storytelling

and visual design for persuasive presentations, due to her ability to communicate clear picture

and highlight core beliefs in a motivational manner. She changed the way people thought by

telling a story as a view into the future if people decided they would act. She knew the clinicians

and scientist had “their ways” and habits. Denison, Hooijberg and Leif explained habits and

routines are hard to change because they are closely interwoven (2012).

Leading culture change was hard to do with scientists and clinicians. Most of them developed

habits over time and this was hard to change. Katie could lead some culture change by

influencing key leaders that have been part of the organization for years. These lead researchers

she targeted had many researchers and students that looked up to them. As the main leaders’

minds changed and they agreed and acted on the change, so did some of their peers.

Katie, through storytelling, made desired outcome or change out to be the “good guy”. She did

this by building up the main idea and making it sound appealing to each person’s needs. For

example, Katie wanted to start a program, Future’s Matter, within the research institute for

minority and inner-city children to internship with top private investigators (PI). Some PIs did

not want this change because it would take away from their current students or it was too timely.

They would also have to pay the Futures Matter interns. Katie turned the program idea into the

hero. This character was introduced to increase the recognizability of each lab, shape future

scientists, and give good publicity to the PI. The hero would ultimately bring more money into

each PI’s budget for more supplies and staff.

The villain, on the other hand, was a large university in the area. This university housed

hundreds of students that would take the place of the Futures Matter interns. Many PIs preferred

the college students in their labs and each lab can only have a certain number of students. Katie

had to convince the audience students from the university instead of minority interns would cost

the PI’s good publicity, funding from groups which support minorities and the loss of making a

difference in a child’s life. The main characteristic of this villain was not being able to save a

minority teenager from joining a gang when they could have joined a team of researchers and

gone to college.

Resources

Denison, D., Hooijberg, R., & Leif, C. (2012). Leading culture change in global organizations:

aligning culture and strategy. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral-proquest-

com.library.capella.edu

Sykes, M., Malik, N., & West, M. D. (2012). Stories that move mountains: storytelling and

visual design for persuasive presentations. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral-proquest-