Issue 5 - September 2nd 2024

This week, I invite you to consider storytelling when...

You want to lead without Micromanagement

A dominant part of a manager's job is to execute business plans, in other words, to turn a vision into reality. In primary or secondary industries, this task is fairly self-explanatory and leaves little room for variation in execution (harvest x amount of..., build y amount of...). When it comes to providing a service (tertiary industry), there are several possible ways of execution and it is often unclear which one will lead to the best results. This makes it more difficult to coordinate each activity in the team.

Some managers "solve" such a problem by setting the goal together with a detailed description of how to archive it. While this authoritarian method has its advantages in terms of efficiency, it's disadvantages in terms of team motivation and innovation often lead to failure (the most prominent case may have been the command economies of Eastern Europe).

But how can you align a team around a joined goal, coordinate the efforts and leverage the ideas from everybody? You guessed it: With storytelling

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Our cognitive system has a wonderful ability to piece together disparate information to form an understanding (Steve Jobs used to call it "connecting the dots"). This allows us to tap into knowledge from different fields and origins. Brainstorming was invented as a tool to harness this ability, just as the service industry became the dominant driver of the economy.

All what it takes to start the process is an inspiring vision and a joined understanding of what good looks like. How storytelling is the best choice for this purpose was already covered in previous versions of The Troubadour.

Get your team to set the sails! You are about to enter a great leadership journey without micromanagement.

About The Troubadour

Storytelling can be a powerful tool - even for those of us who are not professional writers. There are numerous books, videos and classes on the subject. Typically, they provide insights on HOW to draft and present a story.

The Troubadour is about WHEN to leverage storytelling.

The use cases and examples presented in the newsletters are all based on my personal experience as someone (a manager) who has the responsibility to archive a business outcome by leveraging a team of humans. Although telling stories usually was not something I was compensated for, I found the techniques superior to many other means of communication.

The Troubadour is about storytelling as a MANAGEMENT TOOL.

Storytelling is often taught by journalists, actors or others who were professionally trained to excel in this art. What I am sharing are my own observations, lessons learned and numerous sources reviewed on the subject.

The Troubadour is based on my PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AS A MANAGER.

Do you like The Troubadour? Please forward to anyone who could be interested.

About Me

Storytelling has been part of my professional life for more than 20 years. Although I was never trained to become a professional writer (or narrator), relying on stories to communicate better has always felt natural to me.

Besides of blogs and articles, I published a novel (The Lion of Ishtar) which is available in book stores with the ISBN?9783757809959 and 9783757881603 (Book 1 and 2).

Outside of my day job, I am also coaching with special focus on storytelling.

About the Logo: For centuries, troubadours were the dominant tool of mass communication. Their ability to (select &) present content ultimately determined their income (and survival). Troubadours were masters of storytelling.