Storytelling in Business: The Authentic and Fluent Organization

This book is a report on what the author has done in some organizations. It is not a "how to" book.

A bit simple.

Two important observations about this brief, yet thorough book. First, it should be required reading by EVERY corporate communications professional, and EVERY marketing professional. Second, it should be required reading for any executive faced with a tough turnaround challenge or faced with implementing critical changes - whether a CEO of an entire enterprise or a manager of division or business line. (In fact, a subtitle for some of the examples Forman presents might be "How to Save Your Company with Storytelling.") For a corporate communications or marketing professional, the story telling principles outlined in this book should be a key part of your arsenal. If you haven't created an "authentic" and "fluent" story or set of stories for your company or your product line, get this book and see how it gets done, and do it for your business. Through a series of case studies from four companies - Schering-Plough, FedEx, Chevron, and Philips - Forman delves deeply into how these businesses formulated their stories and implemented their delivery to key audiences. (Forman also brings in examples from other companies besides these four). Forman lays out the lessons learned and provides a set of checklists for you to use in developing your own stories. And while Forman's case studies come from large organizations, the principles and lessons will work for smaller enterprises. However, the book is more than a how-to book. It also weaves in examples from literature, film, and personal stories. For me, the most compelling part of the book is Forman's section on the turnaround of Schering-Plough, and how CEO Fred Hassan and his team used storytelling principles in their effort to resurrect what Hassan called "a wounded company in prolonged decline." By formulating a 5-chapter prospective narrative about where they planned to take the company, Hassan and his team laid out a turnaround vision that was used to communicate with employees, stakeholders, and regulators. This story dovetailed with the turnaround strategic plan and roadmap. As I was reading the Schering-Plough section of the book, it was astonishing to me how much effort and intelligence were brought to bear to formulate the story, deliver the story over a long time period, AND implement business changes necessary to make the story come true. Whatever the company paid Hassan and his team was not enough. Though the story was never quite finished as originally formulated - Schering-Plough eventually merged with Merck - you know that the ending would have occurred as planned. "Storytelling in Business: The Authentic and Fluent Organization" - the end product of a four-year effort and hundreds of interviews with business leaders - is an outstanding treatment of this important business communication technique. And done in a little more than 200 pages.

As a digital storyteller, I thought this book did a great job articulating the importance and power of storytelling as the best form of communicating.

I have several storytelling books on my shelf, but Forman's, Storytelling in Business: The Authentic and Fluent Organization, is now my favorite. Her research for this book includes interviews with more than 140 storytelling experts including corporate communication directors, CEO's of small companies, business communication university faculty, and filmmakers. Using this research, she develops a four-component framework of organizational storytelling: authenticity, fluency, trust, and a focus on business objectives. While Forman admittedly leaves theoretical jargon behind, her book is built on a strong foundation of expert practical experience as well as the latest research. In addition to practical diagnostic checklists, Forman takes us on a journey through four best practice storytelling organizations. In a world where employees, customers, and investors insist on more engagement, Forman shows us how stories can help us make better connections with our constituents-- not only incorporating their stories into our organizational stories, but by carefully listening to their stories to better understand their perspectives.

Storytelling in Business is the ideal guide to help remind executives and leaders how to engage employees, shareholders, stakeholders and customers through the bewitchery of story. Its current case studies demonstrate how major companies like FedEx, Schering-Plough, Chevron and others use the power of authentic, purpose-told stories to captivate internal and external audiences and move mountains. It's the best primer for business storytelling I've seen in some time.

I'm interested in the topic addressed by the author, but I think the book tends to repeat to many times the same ideas. Surely the readers can figure out the importance of storytelling because are reported many examples of famous companies. Maybe the chapters "lesson learned" make the reading a bit heavy, the same concepts is repeated too many times