Hooked: How Leaders Connect, Engage and Inspire with Storytelling

Chapter 4

Crafting your stories

What really counts is that I am Irish and I know how to tell a story.

Jack Welch, American business executive and author, when asked about his most important attribute

Rosemary Reed was a risk adviser with a large global company. One of the key challenges Rosemary faced was explaining to her colleagues in the business that the role of the risk adviser was not to manage risks for the business, but to provide them with the knowledge and advice to manage their own risk. They, however, thought it was her role to manage risk. She tried to tell them several times that this was not the case, but the message did not get through. This is the story she came up with to make them understand and remember.

The copperhead snake

I grew up in the country and can always remember my mum telling me about the dangers and risks around our property: from red-back spiders, to the dangers of the creek and the snakes in summer. She always used to say, ‘When you come across these risks you need to know what to do because I will not always be there’.

One stinking hot day, Mum kept telling me to go and get my bike, which I had left at the bottom of the garden path. I remember reluctantly running down the path to get it and just as I got close I noticed a huge copperhead snake curled up in front of my bike, basking in the sun.

I slid to a stop and froze … my first reaction was to go running and screaming back to the house to tell Mum. But I didn’t … I played statues and, ...