COURSE TITLE: Storytelling for Leadership

UNITS OF CREDIT: 1

INSTRUCTOR: Arina Isaacson

E-MAIL ADDRESS: arina@haas.berkeley.edu

CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION: TBD

PREREQUISITE(S): None.

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

REQUIRED READINGS: Two textbooks 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, authentic 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 stories from personal experience that paints a picture and lands the message. Clear beginning (vertical take off), middle, end and learning.

· Story Content: defining the intent; the learning, theme, topic or teaching behind telling the story,

· Story Delivery: using voice, breath and mental centeredness to connect with the audience and be fully present and authentic 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, persuade and build trust, as a leader.

You will practice crafting and telling 'Who I Am Stories”? These are our leadership journey stories. Stories of inspiration, motivation and influence. There will be crafting and telling four leadership journey stories, outside reading, video viewing, a visual story project (River of Life) and one written 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, non profit, 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.