Lead with Narrative!
Lead with Narrative is an innovative leadership storytelling training workshop, led by Jordan Bower.
Jordan Bower is a transformative facilitator and a recognized thought leader in business storytelling.
trans·form·a·tive (adj.):
causing or able to cause a change. especially : causing someone's life to be different or better in some important way
Elevate your mindset about effective leadership storytelling.
Storytelling in leadership is about much more than delivering a message in dry, corporate language. Today’s highly effective business leaders are instead leaning into a new approach called “strategic narrative”, which combines strategy, audience understanding, and your own perspective as a leader into intelligent, motivational communication that goes far beyond a polished beginning, middle and end.
Simplify a complex, data-driven change agenda into clear, accessible language for stakeholders
Use an authentic, emotional approach to move your audiences, generating belief and buy-in
Reframe logical and argumentative communication into messaging that will get to yes… and
Position yourself as a competent, visionary and highly effective corporate leader
“Investing in the development of human capabilities doesn’t just build organizational resilience: It improves worker resilience, well-being, and mental health”
— 2024 Global Human Capital Trends, Deloitte
Jordan’s expertise is developing strategic storytelling leaders.
Jordan has led leadership storytelling training workshops for nearly 200 organizations, and 1000s of business and corporate professionals. By developing and applying the foundations of leadership storytelling—like creative problem solving, emotional intelligence, and audience analysis—Jordan will help your ELT:
Discover precisely which aspects of your messaging/narratives need to be improved
Define new, outside-the-box mindsets and frameworks that improve your leadership immediately
Develop individualized, creative solutions that connect your ideas with your audiences
Deliver your new messaging to receive feedback from peers, powering the cycle of continuous learning
"If the strategic objectives of your business include developing innovative solutions, creating alignment around complex objectives, building support across cross-functional teams, and engaging your stakeholders with authentic and visionary leadership communication, then Jordan Bower’s work fits your needs.”
Jordan’s Lead with Narrative! is a powerful storytelling training for corporate leadership teams that will kickstart immediate improvement in your impact.
Here’s how:
OLD IDEA:
“Telling the story”:
Delivering a polished, structured message full of facts, features, and benefits that everyone repeats verbatim (whether they actually connect to the message or not).
NEW IDEA:
“Strategic Leadership Storytelling”:
Conveying strategic, data-driven messages in an authentic and emotionally meaningful format that changes for every speaker, context and audience.
Working with Jordan, you will:
elevate your ability to engage as a leader
be more dynamic and compelling
stop communicating in bullet points! 😝
improve how you inspire and motivate others
embed strategic storytelling into the DNA of your team!
Better leadership storytelling is accessible today.
Leadership storytelling is a skill that can be developed and embedded into every company. It’s the foundation of the engaging, dynamic and innovative organizations that are thriving in today’s rapidly changing world..
Join these companies who are bravely expanding their leadership storytelling by working with Jordan Bower:
Introducing Lead with Narrative!
Lead with Narrative! is an innovative storytelling training workshop that immediately improves your skills, strategic mindsets and leadership impact.
Key Details: Lead with Narrative! Leadership Storytelling Training
Standard Length: 1-1.5 days
Standard Format: In-Person Facilitated Workshop
Workshop includes: Structured business storytelling exercises, highly interactive “innovation process”, customized takeaways, expert facilitation from a strategic storytelling expert
Workshop focus: Immediately improving real team messaging selected and approved in advance
Ideal size: 8-20 participants.
Expert Facilitator: Every workshop is led by leadership storytelling expert, Jordan Bower.
Lead with Narrative! In Detail:
Learn about our unique, highly-interactive leadership storytelling training workshop.
What Lead with Narrative! Covers:
A strategic narrative is an argument, presented in emotional/imaginative terms, that contextualizes facts, features, data and information for stakeholder audiences.
Strategic narrative is among the least understood concepts in leadership—and, according to Harvard Business Review, among the most important.
In Lead with Narrative!, your leadership team will analyze and improve your real strategic narratives directed to internal and/or external stakeholders.
See your existing strategic narratives anew:
Strategic narratives apply to the full range of leadership functions, including vision, purpose, and mission narratives; change and transformation narratives; sales, marketing and fundraising narratives; hiring and cultural narratives; project and team narratives; and individual leadership narratives.
The goal of Lead with Narrative! is to step back and see these narratives with new eyes. By using our tools, frameworks and exercises, you will be able to see simple, actionable, and, often, outside-the-box tactics that will allow you and your leadership team to create greater uptake on your strategic or change agenda.
Dive deep into important strategic questions:
Forget about plots, characters and Hero’s Journeys—Lead with Narrative! is about much more than learning “how to tell a story”. (You can save that for Toastmasters.)
Instead, your team will dig deep to ask the important strategic questions that will make your real narratives more effective immediately: Who are you trying to reach? How can you speak their language more effectively? What is the core of your message? How to make it interesting and creative?
With Jordan’s expert guidance, you’ll apply your answers to these questions to real examples of your messaging—achieving new insights and improvements immediately.
Introducing Your Facilitator
Jordan Bower is a dynamic creative thinker who has facilitated storytelling trainings & workshops for nearly 200 business and corporate clients.
Meet Jordan Bower. (That’s me! 😝)
A dynamic creative thinker, expert group facilitator and accomplished business storyteller, Jordan Bower has been teaching the art, craft and science of strategic storytelling in business for nearly fifteen years.
Jordan has delivered more than 150 storytelling workshops to organizational clients, including tech companies like Autodesk and Mozilla, large scale corporations like King’s Hawaiian and Canadian Tire, as well as many groups across small and medium-sized business, non-profits and the public sector. As a keynote speaker, he has delivered talks and workshops at conferences and events in North America, Europe and Asia.
Jordan often supplements his workshops with transformational coaching, consulting and advisory engagements. He is based in Vancouver, Canada.
FAQs
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The training includes 3 learning modules:
Overview of Business Storytelling: What it is and why it is relevant
Foundations and Frameworks of Business Storytelling: How to think about integrating storytelling ideas in business mesages
Putting the ideas into practice: Applying new insights to the team’s real messaging.
These modules are supplemented with a mix of interactive exercises, peer learning groups and large group facilitated conversation.
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Very! We keep the energy up with real world examples of effective business storytelling, dynamic content and facilitation style, and plenty of structured exercises in pairs and peer learning groups.
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This training takes a principle-based approach to business storytelling. That means the principles can be applied broadly to any kind of business communication. We address written and verbal communication in emails, reports, Powerpoint decks, presentations, videos, social media and much, much more.
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Yes! The principles learned in this workshop apply to storytelling with data and other visuals. Participants learn how to clarify their message, find the emotional core and relate it to their stakeholders or other audiences. Then, they practice applying these ideas to real examples of their workplace messaging.
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Yes! Before every workshop, we conduct research that allows us to customize content and examples to your group. Before the session, we will suggest examples of your real messaging that can be “workshopped” during the training. These examples may be marketing materials, a slide from a Powerpoint deck, or other relevant “stories”.
Don’t worry, we will guide you to the best stories to work on in the training, and you will approve everything in advance!
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Yes! We love working with our clients to maximize the value they get from our training. Just send us a message!
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No! The workshop uses a mix of structured exercises, peer-learning groups and large group sessions to introduce and learn the material. Your team will participate in exercises in pairs and groups of four, but no one will be obligated to present anything in front of the entire group.
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Yes! I have custom designed the content, and I deliver it in a tailored way to every group. I have successfully delivered more than 100 storytelling workshops!
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Yes! Your team will receive additional materials, recommended readings, and tools to continue developing their storytelling skills after the workshop.
Additionally, I will meet with your leadership after the workshop to reflect on the learning experience and to recommend customized next steps.
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This storytelling training is often the first step in a change initiative. Transformation is my speciality! I will be happy to discuss a longer journey if you like, after the training. For more info, check out my homepage.
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This content is presented as a workshop, rather than a storytelling training for business, because participants will “workshop” real examples of their mesaging. The workshop is highly engaging and interactive, focusing on developing storytellers rather than “training” them.
Get in touch with Jordan
Let’s schedule a 30 min consultation to discuss your group, your goals, and how I might be able to help.
