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Tapping into the Space of Innovation through
the Power of Stories
Terrence Gargiulo – Chief Storyteller
Drawing each other into spaces of innovation requires us to put the natural power of
stories to work. How do we tell our innovation stories?
Below are seven steps of the story life cycle. We’ll look at this from the perspective of
engaging with external clients. Keep in mind that the ideas presented are applicable with
any stakeholders we’re seeking to collaborate with to incite innovation.
These seven steps are presented as a mix of story techniques and best practices for
maturing our stories and moving them through our external and internal channels:
STEPS DESCRIPTION
1. CRAFT OPENING STORY Even before launching into a full story we begin
PROBES with either rich rhetorical questions or statements.
Use phrases like…”Can you picture”…”What if…”or
“Imagine if…” The goals of doing so are to:
a. Paint a compelling picture
b. Engage listeners
c. Test and gauge responses of our listeners to
dynamically pick a story path
2. CHART A STORY PATH My Passion stories are about you. Let the client
connect to you. Let them have a peek behind the
My Passion scenes of you. Give yourself permission to bring
“Why do I care about this more of your authentic self to your clients.
technology? What is my personal
relationship to the technology, Find out more about the technologies and
approach, challenge or innovations you are pitching. For example, share
opportunity being addressed?” stories of how these technologies came into being.
These are also the stories of how these
Innovation Background technologies have been adopted, grown and been
“What’s the background story of developed.
this innovation? How did this
technology come into existence or Start thinking about how you can bring your case
studies alive. Focus on moment and think in terms
STEPS DESCRIPTION
woven into your organization’s of characterizing the people, situations, and key
practices?” moments. Less is more here. Written credentials
contain the requisite rigor and details your stories
must be vivid to be memorable. See ICE below.
Innovation in Action
“What does this innovation look
like when it delivers business
benefits to others? How might
these benefits translate for your
client’s business? How will it feels
to implement this innovation with
us?”
3. SHAPE YOUR NARRATIVE I switch to word narrative here to indicate there are
Make decision about how you are likely to multiple stories and or story forms in what
going to use stories. Put yourself you craft. For example your narrative could include
in the client’s shoes. Picture the all three story paths outlined in Step 2. Here’s a
setting. Who is the audience? litmus test for your narrative it needs to melt the
What’s in it for them? What are ICE (it needs to Inform, Connect and Emote). When
their concerns? What is going to you get really good at this you will be able to do it
pique their interest? What will on the spot without thinking about it. You will have
pull them into the conversation? a rich index of stories and be able to create
Set a target length for your mashups on the spot that are impactful.
narrative.
For your individual stories within the narrative use
the Story Journey Map to help you. Reach out to us
if you need help and not sure how to construct a
well formed story.
4. PRACTICE Work with a story coach and your colleagues to get
comfortable with telling your story. Storytelling is
physical you’ve got to do it to get good at it. No
formula, tools or templates are going to make you
a storyteller.
For the serious we have a Business Storytelling
Masterclass. Click here for more info.
5. TELL STORIES to ELICIT Bring stories to your clients and teams. Remember
STORIES the only reason to tell is a story is to hear a story.
Hearing stories sharpens our sensitivity to the
needs of our clients and opens a space of trust that
STEPS DESCRIPTION
leads us down a path of discovering opportunities
and co‐creating solutions.
6. REFINE & INTEGRATE Return to your narrative and make new narratives
from the stories you hear. Tweak your narrative to
work with different clients and industries. See how
quickly you can Lego together new narratives that
resonate with different audiences.
7. SOCIALIZE Stories are not about collecting and hoarding
power in the form of information…stories stoke the
fires of meaning. Meaning is to be shared. The
growth and evolution of ideas feeds off the
frequency and intensity with which we engage in
sense making with each other. Stories are the
currency that buys new dreams and fashions
unimagined futures.
Want to explore this further. Here’s a video with Accenture’s former Chief Storyteller
with some examples to help you see how this works:
CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO VIDEO
We're pleased to share with you a set of storytelling performance markers we've
identified in building teams of sales executives:
Do you have embedded learning strategies and experience in your organizations that
cultivate these skills? Would you be interested in creating a network of peer‐to‐peer
coaches that elevates the performance of people in your organization to hits these
markers? We'd love to share things that have worked in other organizations and
collaborate with you to create performance solutions that will work in your organizations.
Storytelling & Human Centered Design
Human Centered Design (HCD) and Innovation are buzz words right now. It's good we re‐
brand and rename the basics from time to time. If you are going to put people at the
heart of any collaborative processes you're going to need master storytellers.
There are three pillars of storytelling that support the communication, interaction,
research, collaboration and innovation activities of Human Centered Design:
We've been working with a number of Fortune 100 clients to help them integrate and
scale the concrete behaviors contained in the story listening, story thinking, and
storytelling pillars. Here's a snapshot of a new learning asset we have developed:
This course is designed to:
Introduce practitioners to storytelling to galvanize Human Centered Design with
the natural power of stories.
Provide tools & methodologies that are applicable to any collaborative, problem
solving context
Facilitate the connection and application of storytelling methodologies across
initiatives, projects, and teams
The overall objectives of the training are:
Define three pillars of storytelling (story listening, story thinking, and storytelling)
and how they can be used in HCD.
Receive instrument‐based feedback and personalized coaching on storytelling
skills.
Practice story listening, story thinking and storytelling skills.
Apply tools and techniques of story listening, story thinking and storytelling to HCD
activities.
Review and practice facilitation techniques.
Develop greater comfort using storytelling presentation skills to share ideas with
greater confidence and influence
SETUP A MEETING TODAY TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR LEARNING ASSETS
Terrence earned his Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from
Brandeis University. The Thomas J. Watson Foundation of IBM
awarded him a fellowship for a year of independent study and
research in Hungary on peak performance. Shortly thereafter,
Terrence earned his Masters of Management from Brandeis
University.
Terrence is the former Chief Storyteller of Accenture. He is the author of eight books several of which
have been translated into Chinese, Korean, and Spanish. For his creative use of narrative, INC Magazine
awarded Terrence their Marketing Master Award. His work as an internationally recognized
organizational development consultant earned him the 2008 HR Leadership Award from the Asia Pacific
HRM Congress for his ground breaking research on story‐based communication skills.
Highlights of some of his past and present clients include, GM, HP, DTE Energy, SalesForce, Nokia,
MicroStrategy, Dow, Visa, Citrix, Fidelity, Federal Reserve Bank, Ceridian, Countrywide Financial,
Washington Mutual, Intel, Guidance Software, Dreyers Ice Cream, US Coast Guard, Boston University,
Raytheon, City of Lowell, Arthur D. Little, KANA Communications, Merck‐Medco, Coca‐Cola, Harvard
Business School, and Cambridge Savings Bank.
Terrence wrote the libretto for his father’s opera Tryillias which was accepted for a nomination for the
2004 Pulitzer Prize in music. In 2009, Terrence and his sister Franca founded the Occhiata Foundation.
The Occhiata Foundation brings arts engagement to Monterey County schools through the multi‐
discipline prism of opera (http://www.occhiata.org ).
Terrence is a frequent speaker at international and national conferences including the Association for
Talent Development (formerly known as ASTD), International Society for Performance Improvement
(ISPI), Academy of Management, Conference Board, Asia Pacific HRM Congress, Linkage Inc, Asia HR
Summit, Association of Business Communications, Feast of Asia and he was a Field Editor for ASTD for 7+
years. His articles have appeared in American Executive Magazine, Journal of Quality and Participation,
Communication World, Training Industry Magazine, ISPI Journal, and ASTD Links.
Terrence enjoys scuba diving, cooking, singing, and the sport of fencing. He was Junior National
Champion, member of three US Junior World Championship teams, NCAA All American and an alternate
for the 1996 Olympics.
He has appeared in interviews on FOX TV, Comcast Network and CNN radio.
Cell: 415‐948‐8087, terrence@makingstories.net, web: www.makingstories.net