Business Storytelling
Spoken storytelling for leaders and their teams
1 day, with a follow-up session for senior teams
In-house, or live online
Up to 14 participants
Senior leaders and leadership teams
One programme, two versions, chosen with you at the consultation:
From Strategy to Story – for a leadership team with a strategy, a change or a direction to communicate. The day is spent on that. The team builds the organisation’s story together – where we are, why we’re changing, where we’re going, what it means for you – names the story already running against it, and each leader finds the personal stories that make the shared narrative theirs. Then the harder part: one story, many voices, told consistently from the boardroom to the front line.
Mastering Business Storytelling – for leaders who want storytelling as a working skill. Participants learn what every business story needs, build a repertoire from their seven signature stories – identity, leadership, lesson, motivation, customer, success, values – and use Story Maps to give a pitch or presentation the shape of a narrative rather than a report.
By the end, your leaders will be able to:
Turn a dense strategy, a page of data or a hard decision into a narrative people understand, remember and believe – with the evidence still in it.
Tell the “why” of a change so it connects to what matters to their people – and meet the story already running against it, instead of talking past it.
Tell one organisational story in many voices: the same narrative from the CEO to the board, the GM to the division, the team leader to the front line, each in their own words.
Draw on their own true stories, ready to tell – in the moment, or inside a strategy briefing.
Find the stories their organisation already holds – customer, front-line, hard-won – and use them.
Use AI to help find and shape a story – and never to write one, because the room can tell.
They take away: the organisation’s story, drafted together · a couple of their own stories ready to tell · the Story Map tool and templates · a copy of Step into the Spotlight · a six-week series of prompts from Russell to keep the practice going · and, for senior teams, a follow-up session a few weeks on, where each leader reports how the story landed and sharpens it.
A keynote or short workshop
60–120 minutes
In person or online
Any group size
Russell speaks and runs a working session on why strategies get announced rather than told, and what to do about it – often the way an organisation first meets this work. Storytelling is also part of The Arena, our mastery programme for senior teams.
Questions we get asked
Is this brand storytelling, or marketing?
No. We don’t write brand stories, taglines or website copy. This is spoken storytelling for leaders – what you say to your people, your board, your clients, in the room – built on twenty years of presentation training. If you’re looking for help with marketing narrative, a brand or content agency is the better call.
Do people need to be good presenters first?
Yes. Storytelling is the thing everyone wants right now, and it’s a powerful skill – but it sits on top of the fundamentals. A leader who can’t yet articulate an idea clearly won’t be helped by a story to wrap it in. So Leading with Stories is for people who’ve done The Spotlight, or who are senior enough to be competent communicators already. If your team isn’t there yet, start with The Spotlight and come to this second – it’s the order most of our clients take.
Which version should we choose?
If you have a strategy or a change to communicate in the next few months, From Strategy to Story – the day is spent on your actual material, as a team. If your leaders want storytelling as a general skill, Mastering Business Storytelling. For senior leadership teams we can combine the two, and shape the format around the calendar – two half-days rather than one full one, say. We’ll work it out with you at the consultation.
Do we need to have our strategy sorted first?
Yes. A story is only as good as the strategy underneath it, and when we dig in, that work sometimes hasn’t been done. We’re not strategy advisers – we don’t help you decide where the business is going. What we do is take a strategy that’s been properly thought through, which very often arrives as an eighty-page slide deck from a consulting firm, and help your leaders turn it into a narrative people can hear, remember and act on. If the strategy is still being worked out, finish that first. Then bring it to us.
What's a Story Map?
A narrative structure for a whole encounter – a pitch, a strategy briefing, a change announcement. It gives a presentation the shape of a story: where the audience is now, where you need them to be, and what carries them across. There are several, for different jobs – clarity, motivation, persuasion, instruction.
What are the seven signature stories?
Seven true stories every leader should be able to tell at any moment: who you are and why you do this; what great leadership looks like to you; a lesson learned the hard way; what gets you out of bed; a customer served extraordinarily well; a success earned through persistence; and a moment of someone living the values. Participants leave with a couple of theirs ready to tell, and the prompts to find the rest.
How many people, and where?
Up to fourteen, at your premises anywhere in New Zealand – Australia when clients ask – or live online, though we’d rather be in the room. Every programme is built around your organisation after a thorough consultation.
What our Clients Say
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