COURSE NUMBER: MBA291S.11

COURSE TITLE: Storytelling for Leadership

UNITS OF CREDIT: 1

INSTRUCTOR: Arina Isaacson

MEETING DATES: Sundays, 4/9 and 4/30, 9-5 pm

Please note the unusual format of this course, which meets all day on two Sundays (4/9 and 4/30). You must attend both sessions in their entirety in order to earn a passing grade.

CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION: TBD

PREREQUISITE(S): None.

CLASS FORMAT: In class presentations, skill building exercises, lecture and one self-reflection project.

REQUIRED READINGS: One textbook on Storytelling, two articles and several video viewings.

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: A mixture of class participation, storytelling presentations, self-reflection project.

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES: The journey to authentic leadership begins with understanding the stories of your life. Your life story provides the context for your experiences and through it, you can find the inspiration to make an impact on the world.

The ability to create and tell certain kinds of stories is not only a useful tool, but an essential prerequisite to being an inspirational leader. Stories provide visual maps and images for conveying who we are, where we came from and why we are going in a particular direction. Storytelling is data with a heart and soul. You will learn to harvest your own experiences for powerful lessons and identify the authentic moments that resonate with the audience. For leaders, whose job it is to manage change, storytelling facilitates learning and is a vehicle to assist others in overcoming obstacles, generating enthusiasm and team-work, sharing knowledge and ultimately leading to building trust and connection. It is an effective way to communicate to various stakeholders at every level of an organization. This session will give you strategies, skills and tools for connecting to and speaking from the place of your rich life experiences and true, natural voice.

The goals of this elective are for you to internalize the fundamental principles behind stories that educate, influence, motivate, inspire and connect. You will practice the three elements of telling powerful leadership stories:

· Story Structure: crafting concise and powerful story from personal experience that paints a picture and lands the message.

· Story Content: defining the intent behind telling the story, identify the heart of the message, and being authentic.

· Story Delivery: using voice, breath and mental centeredness to connect with the audience and be fully present while storytelling.

There will be an in class analysis, in terms of structure, story and delivery of several CEO’S that use stories in their presentations. These case studies provide you with real world examples of how to communicate narratives that are the building blocks of how to inspire, motivate, and persuade as a leader.

You will practice crafting and telling 'Who I Am Stories”? These are our leadership journey stories.

There will be crafting and telling three leadership journey stories, outside reading, video viewing, a visual story project (River of Life) and one written story as a homework assignment.

CAREER FIELD: Working with narrative/story is a most effective approach with any and every audience across all career fields: the worlds of science, engineering, technology, finance, medical, corporate, academia and purely data based.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Arina Isaacson MA is a communications consultant and executive coach specializing in Authentic Presence, Presentation and Storytelling. For 25 years, Arina has worked with leaders and senior leadership teams in Fortune 500 companies and institutions around the world and across diverse cultures and industries. She teaches expressive communication and presentation in executive education programs at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, UC Davis Graduate School of Management, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern and the Olin School of Business at Washington University. Arina is the principal of Arina inc, an executive coaching and consulting practice that specializes in developing authentic presence and creativity through communication, speaking coaching, story making and storytelling. She serves as an executive coach, worldwide, to seasoned senior executives, leaders, managers and entrepreneurs as well as emerging, aspiring young leaders. She is a senior consultant with Berkeley Executive Coaching Institute, an international communications consulting firm that creates cutting edge culture change in the corporate world.

Arina is an award winning director, improvisational actress, visual artist and master storyteller. She is the founder and artistic director of the San Francisco School of Improvisation.