Storytelling and Narratives in Business, University of Chicago (Booth)

This course aims to help students excel in one of the business world's most important competencies: the ability to construct and to deliver a powerful, influential narrative. What differentiates those who are more successful interacting with bosses and colleagues inside an organization? How do managers create trust and change the attitudes and behaviors of their teams? What differentiates the entrepreneurs who succeed in raising money from those who fail? Why are some companies more successful in attracting and retaining both employees and customers? How do companies that are yet to turn a profit command the value of billions of dollars? What is the basis for effective lobbying and rule-shaping? Whether interviewing for a job, advancing in your career, leading organizations, motivating people, creating strong brands, building and sustaining reputations, or working effectively with politicians, regulators, and the media – successful managers, entrepreneurs, and companies share a few common, potent skills: they appreciate the importance of stories, they develop and maintain coherent strategic narratives – and they know how to tell them. In this course we will study the critical role of stories in driving success in many real-life situations. We will gain an understanding of how our reality is comprised of stories, we will establish a critical perspective on stories in the arenas of business, economics and politics, and we will study the characteristics of successful stories and storytellers. All the while, we will practice and hone the telling of our own powerful, personal stories. This course will feature two to three guest lectures of leading figures from the industry. Students enrolled in this class will have the opportunity to learn and engage with guest lecturers who hold, or have held, prominent roles in large corporations where they effectively employed their unique storytelling skills. The instructor of this course has discussed their understanding of the role of literature in forming character; see https://www.chicagobooth.edu/why-booth/stories/impact-effective-storytelling. This information has been collected for the Post-Discipline Online Syllabus Database. The database explores the use of literature by schools of professional education in North America. It forms part of a larger project titled Post-Discipline: Literature, Professionalism, and the Crisis of the Humanities, led by Dr Merve Emre with the assistance of Dr Hayley G. Toth. You can find more information about the project at https://postdiscipline.english.ox.ac.uk/. Data was collected and accurate in 2021/22.