Discussion Overview
This week’s discussion is intended to help you with your assignment. Take advantage of peer review to create the best presentation you can.
Assignment Overview
Tell a story to inspire through leadership. Think of it as your personal TED Talk.
What You Need to Know
One way to engage others and build excitement is through storytelling. You may have memories of a grandparent or older friend telling you stories as you grew up—whether it was stories of their life or fairy tales. These stories likely inspired specific emotions in you and helped shape your ideas and views of the world. As a business leader, you can motivate those with whom you work using storytelling to make them feel part of your story and motivating them to embrace new ideas or strive for greater heights of achievement. But before you can influence others by telling a story, you have to build relationships that encourage a climate of trust.Storytelling is an effective tool often used in business today. You see it in almost every Ted video that you watch on YouTube, and read about it in many different business and academic journals. Why? Because storytelling done right is incredibly effective in helping to engage your audience. This activity will help you understand how to use Gallo’s emotional, novel, and memorable framework to tell an effective story. Completion of this activity will help you with this week’s assignment.
Communicating Clearly in the Information Age, Chapter 7, “Oral Communication and Graphics” to prepare for completing your slide presentation.
Write Your Discussion Post
Storytelling
This week’s discussion is a space for you to brainstorm, share, and practice the skills you will need to complete your story in this week’s assignment. Use this discussion space to learn from your peers and ensure that you understand the elements of a story, or to get feedback from your peers as you work.Consider one or more of the following for your post this week:
Have you discovered any resources that you have found helpful, either describing or illustrating storytelling? Post links to or descriptions of the resources and how you plan to use them.
Explain how the elements of your story align with the elements outlined by Gallo.
Are there any issues you are having with the assignment that your peers might be able to help with? Describe the issues you are having or post your story in writing or video and ask for help.
Assignment Instructions
STORYTELLING
Create a brief slide presentation, with graphics and your voice presenting, which analyzes the tools and strategies that leaders can use to build trust and collaboration, and explains why you believe storytelling is one effective tool for you to use to lead your team.
The Ariel Group explains that a story needs to follow a basic four-step format that gently leads the audience into the story, through the story, and connecting the story:
Use this format, based on page 9 of the Ariel group resource, to create 7 slides (including cover page and references):
Slide 1. Cover slide with title and your name, and a graphic for interest (be sure to credit the graphic artist in the reference slide).
Slide 2. Introduce the Subject Matter or Business Content, much as the introduction to a paper would do.
Conversation example: “I think you’ve been doing a great job heading this initiative despite the hiccups you’ve encountered along the way. I want to make sure you don’t beat yourself up over this too much…”
Presentation example: “Today I would like to speak to you about a new marketing strategy for our product…”
NASA Example: “NASA has a reputation for communication issues among teammates, but our team is going to change all of that.”
Slide 3. Provide an overview of the importance of storytelling. Specifically, analyze at least two tools leaders can use to build trust and relationships, foster collaboration, and help employees feel engaged with their work (storytelling is one of those tools; mention one or two others). Also, explain ways in which leaders use storytelling to build trust and relationships.
Slide 4. Transition into the Story. This slide should transition into your story, setting the expectations of the audience of what is to come.
Conversation example: “In fact, back when I was a team leader, I had a similar experience…”
Presentation example: “Let me share with you a story to illustrate a vision of how we can work together…”
NASA Example: “I once worked at another company that had some major communications issues. It wasn’t life or death like here at NASA, but we did have some serious problems in communications that impacted our ability to be effective.”
Slide 5. Tell the Story. This slide should actually tell your story:
Set the stage.
Describe the conflict.
Describe the resolution.
Example: It’s 2012. I’m out on the soccer field with my son when he turns to me and says…
NASA Example: “About 10 years ago I was working as a shift leader at a manufacturing facility where safety was supposedly part of the culture, yet we had a frighteningly bad safety record…” Continue the story.
Slide 6. Connect the Story to a Teaching Point or Subject Matter. This slide should bring your story back to the issue at hand.
Personal learning: “What my son said to me reminded me so powerfully that there is always a fresh, new way to look at any challenging situation.”
Message for the group: “Ladies and gentlemen, are we willing to shift our marketing strategy in a whole new direction, to take a risk in the way that my son did? I certainly am.”
NASA Example: “In this situation we learned this and that. Here at NASA, we can do the same thing. We can prove that communications this and that.” Think of this like explaining the moral of the story.
Slide 7. References. Include references here. You do not have to have audio on this slide.
Deliverable Format
Presentation: Attach a PowerPoint presentation that has a cover page, five content slides per the above, and a references slide. You must have exactly seven slides—learning to follow established guidelines is important in school and the workplace .
Resources. Note that your slides should not be text heavy. However, you should make ample use of presenter notes. While the presenter notes do not have to be a word-for-word transcript, they should be very close to what you say in your audio. Use the slide software recording tools to record audio of your slides—you actually telling your story. Note that any slide file lacking audio will automatically lose 30 points, so be sure to doublecheck that your audio works correctly before you upload your slide file.
Refer to the writing resources in the MBA Program Resources in Tools and ResourcesCompetencies Measured
By successfully completing this assignment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:
Competency 2: Apply leadership strengths and behaviors to workplace situations.
Apply storytelling skills to a workplace situation where trust and collaboration are essential.
0 comments