Telling the Story

Geoff Mead is the founder of Narrative Leadership Associates, a consultancy focused on the use of storytelling for sustainable leadership (www.narrativeleadership.com).  As an organizational consultant, keynote speaker and workshop leader, he has taken his work on narrative leadership into the boardrooms of blue chip companies, universities and government departments, for the past two decades.After a successful police career, life took a different turn when he discovered the magic of stories and began to explore their power to liberate the human spirit. Now, he performs traditional stories and runs story-based workshops in the UK and as far afield as Spain, Canada and Japan. His first book Coming Home to Story: Storytelling Beyond Happily Ever After was published in 2011 by Vala (www.valapublishers.coop).Pursuing various academic and research interests, he has been awarded an MBA, a postgraduate diploma in Gestalt psychology and a PhD in personal and leadership development, resulting in his appointment as a visiting research fellow at the University of Bath. He has also designed national public service leadership programmes and served on the faculty of the Prime Minister's Top Management Programme.Geoff has four children, five grandchildren and an entirely unreasonable love of Morgan sports cars. He divides his time between his partner’s house in the Cotswolds and Lyme Regis, where he lives and writes in sight of the sea.

• Acknowledgments xiii Foreword xvIntroduction: Turning the Page 1Narrative Leadership 2Once Upon a Time 4Why We Need New Stories 5About This Book 8Water on the Rock 10SECTION ONE: FOUNDATIONS 13Chapter 1: Why Stories Matter 15Swimming in a Sea of Stories 15Imagining Ourselves 18Imagining Each Other 19Imagining the World 21Changing the Story 26Bonus: Life of Pi 27Summary 28Chapter 2: Rethinking Leadership 31Making Common Sense 33Case Study: The Force Review 38Conclusions 40Bonus: Erin Brockovich 42Summary 43SECTION TWO: ON STORIES 45Chapter 3: Stories in Our Bones 47Logos: The Science of Storytelling 49Mythos: The Story of Storytelling 53Bonus: Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner 60Summary 61Chapter 4: The World of Stories 63Fact, Fiction, and Fantasy 63Finding the Plot 71Bonus: Big Fish 74Summary 74Chapter 5: How Stories Work 77Information, Argument, and Story 82Bonus: An Inconvenient Truth 87Summary 89SECTION THREE: NARRATIVE LEADERSHIP 91Chapter 6: The Art of Narrative Leadership 93Vinoba Bhave 98Developing Our Capacity to Lead 105Bonus: Alchemy in Action 109Summary 110Chapter 7: Know Thyself 113The Storied Self 114Being and Doing 117Bonus: Groundhog Day 127Summary 128Chapter 8: Only Connect 131Creating Communicative Spaces 132Listening to the Story 138Conversation Matters 139Whose Stories Count? 141Bonus: Local Hero 144Summary 145Chapter 9: Stand for Something 147Leading Minds 148What Is Your Story? 152Bonus: The Man from Hope 161Summary 162SECTION FOUR: STORYTELLING 165Chapter 10: So You Want To Tell a Story 167What Kinds of Story Work Best? 176Where Do I Find Stories to Tell? 179Bonus: Made in Dagenham 181Summary 181Chapter 11: A Good Story Well Told 183Castles in the Air 195Bonus: The Simple Shapes of Stories 197Summary 197Chapter 12: On Your Feet 199Story Coaching 200Introducing Stories 205Holding their Attention 206Making Sure You Can Be Heard 210Finding the Right Language 212Bonus: The King’s Speech 214Summary 214SECTION FIVE: TIME AND CHANGE 217Chapter 13: Time and Narrative 219Learning from the Past: The Told Story 222Standing in the Present: The Unfolding Story 232Shaping the Future: The Imagined Story 236Bonus: The Insider 241Summary 242Chapter 14: Storytelling for a Change 245Don’t Think of an Elephant 246Empires of the Mind 251Bonus: The Foresters 261Summary 262Chapter 15: Life in the Fast Lane 265Modern, Post-modern, and Hypermodern 266The Medium and the Message 270Storytelling in a Global Village 272Signs of the Times 275Bonus: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room 282Summary 283SECTION SIX: BETWEEN STORIES 285Chapter 16: Heart and Soul 287Missing the Boat 289Ambit and Ambition 292Two Countries 296Narrative Wreckage 299Welcome to Wonderland 301Bonus: Beasts of the Southern Wild 304Summary 304Appendix: Additional Resources 307Index 311

"With Mead's experience running a narrative leadership consultancy, the book is an insightful contribution to the field of leadership." (Elite Business, May 2014) "Mead's tips on how to speak clearly and honestly are as good as anything on the market, and this book is as rich and absorbing as the most compelling yarn." (People Management, June 2014) "... it does a good job of explaining how the language and metaphors that we use through the telling of stories can influence our actions, and change how we and others think about the world." (Talk Business, June 2014) "This book sets out a solid foundation for the role and position of story-telling and weaves it into a modern narrative around leadership explaining how the oft-over-looked human elements of organizational leadership can be sustained through the sense-making of stories." (Developing Leaders, August 2014) "... an informative and interesting book for leaders and management consultants wanting to expand their horizons to include story and storytelling in their toolkits." (Facts & Fiction, August 2014)