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Title: Squirrel, Inc.
Subtitle: A Fable of Leadership Through Storytelling
Author: Stephen Denning
Narrator: L. J. Ganser
Format: Unabridged
Length: 3 hrs and 54 mins
Language: English
Release date: 12-05-17
Publisher: Recorded Books
Genres: Business, Leadership
Publisher's Summary:
A private consultant who specializes in knowledge management and organizational storytelling, Stephen Denning has a list of clients that includes GE, IBM, Shell, McDonald's, and the US Army. In this witty book, he explains that storytelling can be the key to overcoming obstacles and generating enthusiasm in the workplace. With Denning's guidance, leaders can steer their companies toward new levels of success.
Members Reviews:
Four Stars
Ok
Engaging Hearts - Earning Commitment
In "Squirrel Inc.: A Fable of Leadership through Storytelling" Stephen Denning describes, in the spirit of a fable about squirrels leading change at Squirrel, Inc., how to use stories to engage constituents and earn their commitment to change.
Leadership, both formal and informal, is about engaging hearts, convincing minds, and earning committed actions. While we linear, logical thinkers are more prone toward selling through convincing logic (aka, `data'), both emotional intelligence and marketing research suggest that people buy (and buy-into) with their emotions before they commit with their minds. Effective stories touch the heart! Denning, uses the different requirements subsequent situations in the `change journey' at Squirrel, Inc. to demonstrate different story structures. Differing leadership objectives include: Sparking Organizational Change; Revealing Who You Are and Earning Trust; Getting Individuals to Work Together; Transmitting Values; Taming the Grapevine; Sharing Knowledge; and Creating a Future. To help readers recognize and remember appropriate story structures, Denning includes summaries of story structures at the end of each chapter. Much like most of us have graduated from black and white to colored presentations, effective leaders are moving from influencing solely through data/information and graduating to telling effective stories.
I recommend "Squirrel, Inc." for every leader who recognizes their need for engaging both the hearts and the minds of their team members.
Five Stars
A good short read on to use stories to stimulate and inspire change.
So this squirrel walks into a bar....
While I definitely agree with Denning's overall premise of honing the business narrative because it is so important, he told it through a ridiculous dialogue between squirrels. The tips in the margins are extremely helpful, but I would rather have read a list of those strategies of good storytelling, rather than listen to squirrels worry about their nut storage corporation. Th dialogue was purely awful and rather unbelievable. The idea of Squirrels running a company isn't even the real problem, it's how the story is constructed that makes it so terrible. I love Denning's other works, and I was really disappointed with this one.
Nuts R Us
Think about it. Who are among the greatest storytellers throughout history? My own list includes Homer, Plato, Chaucer, Aesop, Jesus, Dante, Boccaccio, the Brothers Grimm, Confucius, Abraham Lincoln, Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), Joel Chandler Harris, L. Frank Baum, and most recently, E.B. White.
