University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
The Springboard
Book

The Springboard

How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations

Stephen Denning
Butterworth-Heinemann, 2000
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Editorial Rating

7

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Recommendation

Stephen Denning is the senior executive responsible for knowledge management at the World Bank. As the author of several well-received books on the power of corporate storytelling, Denning is a recognized guru and pretty much dominates the storytelling franchise among business writers. He believes that simple stories, told face-to-face, possess a remarkable ability to convey information so that people readily understand it. Just as important, stories can be extremely inspirational if you tell them the right way. Use this powerful narrative technique to introduce new organizational strategies or change plans, to detail a corporate vision, to motivate employees, and to communicate with customers and other key external audiences. If you handle corporate communication, this book shows you how to put storytelling to work to boost your performance. getAbstract regards Denning as an innovative thinker and communicator, and recommends his thoughtful, valuable book. In fact, this book is worthwhile for anyone who wants to learn how to communicate more effectively, regardless of the purpose or circumstances.

Summary

Winning a Cynical Audience

How can you communicate effectively in an information-saturated society? As the media, in all of its myriad forms, blasts news and information constantly, how can your message break through the commotion? The best fog-cutting method is storytelling. This ancient narrative technique was the communication method of choice for humankind’s early ancestors, and it retains its magical power. Stories can communicate new ideas in the strongest possible way. They can uplift and inspire any audience. Storytelling infiltrates the minds of audience members, and gives them new insights and perceptions, so they see things differently. As such, storytelling can promote the need for organizational change. Indeed, it can communicate any important message.

Storytelling in no way replaces careful thought and analysis; however, it reinforces such thinking so that your listeners can conceptualize additional perspectives and possibilities. The most effective storytelling involves the “springboard story,” which provides its audience with an immediate, new line of thought. It enables them to experience a hitherto unavailable leap in comprehension about an important...

About the Author

Stephen Denning writes on corporate communication and business storytelling concepts. He provides workshops on leadership, performance improvement and business storytelling.

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