COURSE NUMBER: MBA291S.1B
COURSE TITLE: Storytelling for Leadership
UNITS OF CREDIT: 1
INSTRUCTOR: Arina Isaacson
E-MAIL ADDRESS: arina@haas.berkeley.edu
MEETING DATES: Tuesdays, April 3,10,17,24 May 1st
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.
www.arinainc.com
Sharif Karmally, MBA
Helping people realize their full potential is what brings
Sharif to life.
While completing his MBA at Berkeley-Haas, Sharif took on six
Graduate Student Instructor positions to help teach MBA courses. He loved it so
much that he auditioned for and earned a position with the Berkeley Executive
Coaching Institute in 2014, to continue helping leaders reach their potential.
He graduated from the full-time program in 2015 as class valedictorian, and has
been an Assistant Lecturer at Berkeley-Haas ever since.
In addition to his teaching work, Sharif is a Senior PMM at
Adobe Systems, managing Adobe’s K-12 Education business. In this role, Sharif
helps provide young people and teachers with tools to unlock their full
potential, tell rich visual stories, and build the future through engaging
digital media. Sharif draws on his career in Technology and his former career
in Investment Banking to translate class material into strategies that students
can use in their everyday life.
When Sharif is not working, you might catch him performing at
All Out Comedy Theater in Oakland, where he is a cast
member for the Saturday night main stage show. He also performs in showcases at
BATS Theater in San Francisco. Sharif has been studying and performing improv theater
since 2013, and he draws on its principles and exercises when teaching concepts
like presence, spontaneity, creativity, collaboration, and communication.