Aberdeen Leadership Forum
A Narrative Approach to Transformational Leadership

(New for 2012!)

How to lead the co-creation and management of meaning in the workplace through communicative inquiry and storytelling

The Aberdeen Leadership Forum is an annual transformative leadership programme aimed at developing an engaging way for leaders to use storytelling and communicative inquiry to bring about change and innovation, to motivate and align effort which informs, inspires and transforms.

Objectives:

To provide an experiential environment for participants to develop the leadership capacity to create and manage meaning in their personal and professional lives by developing their storytelling skills and capacity for inquiry.

“Management of meaning involves the effective communication skills required to elicit attention in others, including the use of visionary language expressed with inspirational emotion.” Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader.

Participant Profile:

For senior leaders wanting to become more transformative through creative expression and authentic communication in order to bring meaning to their own and their organisation’s lives.

A small select group of senior executives (from the Grampian area) will meet bi-monthly to discuss and learn the importance and skill of story/narrative in business generally, and, specifically with respect to their own transformational leadership style.

During the year you will discover:

• The theories underpinning storytelling and leadership.
• Why storytelling is essential to leadership.
• How to utilise the power of storytelling in your business.
• How to apply the techniques of telling stories effectively within your own leadership role.
• How to tell the right story for the right occasion to spark and enlighten.
• How to access and become the author of your own genuine leadership story.
• What the essential story is which needs telling in your organisation and how to co-create meaning and purpose and align these with effort and attention.

“Leaders with meaning enable greatness.” Jim Collins, From Good to Great.

“The best way to communicate with people you are trying to lead is very often through a story. . . . Management fads may come and go, but storytelling is a phenomenon that is fundamental to all nations, societies, and cultures and has been since time immemorial.” Stephen Denning, The Leader's Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative.