Powered by Storytelling: Excavate, Craft, and Present Stories to Transform Business Communication

Murray Nossel believes that stories are the DNA of your organization, and that it is important to use those stories in how you communicate to foster genuine connections within your company, and with the wider world. "Like DNA," he writes in his new book, Powered by Storytelling, "stories make possible the inheritance of core values while keeping open the possibility of evolution and adaptation as time and conditions change."

Nossel learned this in the real world in Zimbabwe, where as a young student of applied psychology he assisted his father's pharmaceutical company transition from the white minority rule of Ian Smith's government to that of Robert Mugabe, which issued a decree that black employees move into supervisory and managerial roles. (The country experienced severe economic decline under Mugabe, who resigned as Prime Minister late last year when it became clear he would be deposed if he did not, but the pharmaceutical company has survived 47 years of political and economic turmoil and continues to operate today.) He learned the power of storytelling again while working as a social worker in New York City during the AIDS epidemic, where he employed patients' personal stories in an effort to get anti-discrimination civil rights legislation and funding for research passed. He has learned it time and time again as he has developed his storytelling methodology over the past 25 years, and used it to help Fortune 500 companies, universities, and nonprofits create and tell stories that represent who they are and what they do. He has learned it anew as he employs it in theater and documentary filmmaking, for which he's been nominated for an Academy Award.

The Narativ Method he developed details how to excavate, craft, and present your story based on six principles:

1. Humans are hardwired for story.
2. Everyone has a story.
3. Everyone can learn to tell his or her story better.
4. Everyone's story will evolve.
5. Storytelling is every person's access to creativity.
6. There is a reciprocal relationship between listening and telling.

That last principle, about the reciprocal relationship between listening and telling, needs to be understood first, because understanding the obstacles that prevent us from fully listening—to ourselves and others—is the foundation to good storytelling. Consequently, Nossel dedicates almost half of the book to detail how we can go about removing those myriad obstacles. The other half details how to craft your own story and present it to an audience. It helps you determine the right story to tell to connect with others, to resolve conflict and boost creativity, improve teamwork and integrate storytelling throughout the organization.

In Powered by Storytelling, Murray Nossel employs all he has learned in his lifetime to teach others to listen without judgment, to present with emotion and authority, and to use your story to make genuine, lasting connections.

We have 20 copies available.