Storytelling for Business

Saturdays, 9:00am - 6:00pm

Effective leaders and managers possess a knack for attracting and holding the attention of audiences.  They teach, entertain, persuade, inspire, and in so doing, win people to their side and help companies move forward.  One powerful tool these executives use for engaging people is the art of storytelling. It is a traditional medium of communication that has resurfaced in the 21st century as a compelling strategy to connect with clients, colleagues, and customers.  As narratives designed to meet a practical end, stories stimulate the imagination: they work on visual, aural, and kinesthetic planes, thus appealing to an audience's multiple learning modes. Stories also connect the heart and the head, the right brain and the left brain.  They enable audiences to see their own truth in symbolic ways, and permit the storyteller to reveal an authentic self and emerge as a highly credible communicator.

The two-day workshop will engage you in the art of storytelling as applied in a corporate environment.  Three components will be tackled: choosing a story, crafting the story, and then delivering the story.  You will initially practice with existing stories then move on to develop and write your own corporate stories, which you will perform before the class.  An essential lesson is for you to acquire a theme and a personal point of view in narrating the story. Transform narratives into personal statements with a collective implication.  Further, supplementary readings will be assigned to guide you in developing and performing your own stories.

Essentials of Supervision
April 12, 13, 19, & 20

Habit of Excellence: Driving Bottomline Results
September 15 & 22

After the course, you will:

• Learn how stories could be a creative tool in delivering your ideas;
• Project the desired confidence during presentations; and 
• Establish rapport to your listeners.

Business executives, corporate trainers, training directors, and other professionals looking for confidence boosters.

I.  Storytelling in Business: An Overview

II. Choosing a story
    A.    Existing sources
    B.    Personally collected stories
   
III. Crafting the story
    A.    Personalizing the story
    B.    Establishing a point of view
    C.    Establishing a theme
    D.    Establishing memory hooks
    E.    Writing effective beginnings and endings
    F.     Editing and further research

IV. Delivering the story
    A.    Flexing the imagination
    B.    Vocal variety, including the use of The Pause
    C.    Facial expressions and body movement
    D.    Handling nervousness
    E.    Handling extemporaneous speech
    F.    Use of humor

V. Storytelling showcase
    Each participant will deliver a five-minute corporate or corporate-related story in front of the class. Time will be allotted to practice    the delivery in small groups.

is a board member and the artistic director of Metropolitan Theater Guild Foundation, the coordinator for Theatre Arts, Fine Arts Program of Ateneo de Manila University, and a professor from the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of the same university.