The action-based guide to powerful, influential organizational storytellingCircle of the 9 Muses captures the best practices of the world's most influential story consultants and knowledge workers to help you find, tell, and draw value from your organizational stories as impetus for action. This rich toolbox is loaded with fun, graphical instructions and dozens of unique, replicable, and facilitated processes that require no special training or expertise. You'll discover your organization's hidden narrative assets, use different templates and frameworks to tell the stories of your past, present, and future and then draw team members into rich meaning-making dialogue that translates into action. These activities can be exercised in endless permutations, and expert advice steers you toward the right activity for a specific purpose, including managing change, setting strategy, onboarding, defining the brand, engaging supporters or customers, merging cultures, building trust, and much more.Organizational storytelling is a powerful managerial tool and an essential change management technique. This is about your influence as a leader. Knowing the right story to tell and how to deliver it effectively gives you and your organization enormous influence, and helps connect employees to strategy by providing understanding, belief, and motivation in their personal contribution. This book is the ultimate field guide to becoming an influential storyteller, with concrete, actionable guidance toward all the storytelling fundamentals.* Identify your organization's "narrative assets"* Craft an elegant, well-constructed organizational story* Capture, bank, and share stories with extraordinary engagement* Facilitate a dialogue to draw out meaning and induce changeThe growing interest surrounding organizational storytelling has many change agents focused on "trying to tell better stories," but goals are useless without a plan of action. Circle of the 9 Muses helps you weave narrative wisdom into organizational development activities, engaging employees and driving change.

Introduction: Dispatches from a World of Stories 1Scene I: A Small Club in Nashville, Tennessee 1Scene II: A Cave in the South of France, 1994 3Scene III: A Conference Room Somewhere in Paris 4It All Began with a Sheep 7What's Inside 10Stepping into the Stream 179 Muse Story Recipes 23Branding Recipes 24Team Building/Relationship Building Recipes 25Leadership, Strategy, and Change Management Recipes 26Organizational Development Recipes 26Part I: Fundamentals 29Chapter 1: The Four Core Stories 31Identity Stories 34Vision Stories 35Values Stories 36Stories of Change and Learning 38What Are Your Core Stories? 39Three More Cores! 42Where Do I Go Next? 43Chapter 2: Host a Story Circle 45Decide How You Will Frame It 47Find or Create a Third Space 50Decide Who Needs to Be There 52Set Ground Rules 52Put Participants in Groups 54Begin the Session and Manage the Time 55Your Role as Host 56Ready to Get Started? 56Where Do I Go from Here? 57Chapter 3: Story Prompts 59First, Some Don'ts 61Plant the Suggestion 63"Tell Me about a Time " 63Story Buckets 64Extreme Prompts 65Emotional Prompts 66Aspirational Prompts 67Go Wide Open 68Go for the Heart 69Stories Beget Stories 71Where Do I Go from Here? 71Chapter 4: Capturing Fire 73First, Pick a Story to Work On 75Clarify Your Intent 76Your Turn: What Is Your Intent? 77Connect Your Story to Universal Plots 78Your Turn: Choose a Plot Archetype 86Other Story Structures: FWA 88Declare Your Intent 89Other Tips and Techniques for Better Stories 90Technique 1: Throw 'Em Right into the Action 90Technique 2: Add Emotion ("The King and the Queen") 91Technique 3: Add Sensory and Motion Information 93Technique 4: The "MacGuffin," or Gleaming Detail 94Technique 5: Play with the Timeline 95Technique 6: Make It Shorter! 96Your Turn: Provide Some Final Polish to Your Story 97Bringing it All Together: Geoff 's Story 98Where Do I Go from Here? 99Part II: Branching Out 101Chapter 5: Twice-Told Stories 103Explain the Process to Your Story Circles 105Begin the Story Circles 106Close the Story Circle Experience and Select One Story to Retell 106Create the Story Theater and Begin! 107The Critical Epilogue: Name the Bigger Story 108Modifying the Exercise for Diff erent-Sized Groups 110Capture it Visually! 111Another Delivery Option 112Where Do I Go from Here? 113Chapter 6: Summoning the Muse (Story Listening and Sense Making) 115Meaninglistening and Storymaking with Your Team's Stories 120Roll the Dice! 121Listen Better 123Taking It Deeper: A Geography of Meaning 124Option: Use the Archetype Cards 127The Power of the Spontaneous Invitation 127Meaning Making and Individual Conversations 128"For Lack of a System": A Story from Lori Silverman 129Where Do I Go from Here? 130Chapter 7: Story Circle Variations (Riffs, Jams, Jazz Licks, and Sitar Solos) 131Visual Story Mining 133Stories in Words 135The Client Sets the Frame 137Invite the Witness 138Story Distilling 139Audience Carousel 139Getting Personal: Stories and Signifi cant Experiences 140Show and Tell ("Relics") 142Capture Family Legacies 142Chapter 8: Leadership Story Archetypes 145The 16 Archetypes of the 9 Muses 149Putting the Archetypes to Work 155Identify the Frame for Conversation 155Present the Archetypes 155Place Participants in Groups 156Have Participants Each Identify Three Archetypes and Write Them on Sticky Notes or Index Cards 156Present Your Cards 157Analyze and Discuss What Just Happened 157Taking It into the Future: The Transformational Question 158Using Archetypes as a Directed Listening Framework 159How to Apply Archetypes to Your Stories 160Where Do I Go Next? 161Chapter 9: Future Story Spine 163Where Did the Story Spine Come From? 165Get Ready for This Exercise 166Introduce the Story Spine 166Start with the Climactic Event: "Until Finally" 166Identify a Single Event That the Group Will Focus On 167Complete the Story Spine! 168Where Do I Go from Here? 169Chapter 10: Visual Timeline 171Identify the Story You Want to Tell 172Establish the Start and End Dates 172Draw a Line That Tells the Story! 173Reflect for a Moment 174Fill in the Story Details 175Draw out the Meaning 175Applications 177Other Options and Ideas 178Where Do I Go from Here? 179Chapter 11: Fractal Narratives 181Let's Start with an Example: Values Stories 183Storytelling and Institutional Memory 184Other Fractal Story Frameworks 186Where Do I Go Next? 187Chapter 12: Fractal Narratives and the Hero's Journey 189The Manager of a Thousand Faces 191An Introduction to the Hero's Journey 192Introduce the Hero's Journey 195Connect Stories to the Stages of the Journey 195Option: Ordeal Storytelling and Prophesying Your Ending 197Where Do I Go from Here? 197Chapter 13: Story Element Extraction 199The Classic Version: Working with a Few Stories 200Going Deeper with Story Element Extraction 202Distribute the Stories 203Collect Ideas 203Cluster the Answers 204Name the Clusters 204Describe the Attributes of the Clusters 205Transfer, Group, and Name All the Positive and Challenging Attributes 206Assess and Reflect 206Chapter 14: Creative Tension Pictures 207What's Going On Here 209Options for Creative Tension Pictures 210The Fast Version: Visuals Speak 211Build it, via the Think with Your Hands Methodology 212Where Do I Go from Here? 213Chapter 15: Strategy Is a Story 215A Journey of Heroes 217Example: A Strategy Narrative "Message House" 220Share the Story 221Strategy Is a Storyboard 224Option: Cast the 9 Muse Archetypes in Your Storyboard! 226Where Do I Go Next? 227Chapter 16: Innovation Storyboarding (and Storyboarding Frameworks) 229Classic Innovation Storyboarding 232The Fast Version 235Other Storyboarding Frameworks 236An Example: My Creative Process Storyboard 236Building the Exercise 238Now Begin the Activity 240Where Do I Go Next? 241Storyboard Your Offering Using Presentation Software 241Chapter 17: Step into a Story: Story Field Trips 243Identify the Special World 246Issue the Call to Adventure 249Cross the Threshold 250Bring Back the Elixir 252The Stories Keep Working on You! 253Chapter 18: Digital Storytelling 255Comic Book Applications 256Movie-making Applications 258Slide Applications 259Photo Book and Storybook Applications 259Image Resources 260Appendix 263The "Icon Cheat Sheet for Left Brainers" 264The 10 Story Types, the Seven Basic Plots, and the 36 Dramatic Situations 266Booker's Seven Plots from The Seven Basic Plots 267Polti's 36 Dramatic Scenarios 267Bibliography 270Contributors, Partners, and Friends 274About the Author 290Connect with David 291Index 292