Storytelling for Leaders

Our big idea: Empowering contemporary marketing leaders to drive progress and performance through creative storytelling.

Why now?

In a world of growing complexity, storytelling leadership and creative storytelling ideas are powerful forces in shaping our future. In the world of business and marketing, creative storytelling drives growth, performance, and change. But most marketing organizations aren’t equipped to unlock the power of creative storytelling. And in the context of fast-changing culture, media, and technology, marketing has become a non-stop balancing act: leading the short and long term, data and intuition, in-house and agency teams, new ways of thinking and working, communications and innovations, strategy and speed, ideas and execution, outside culture and inside politics, purpose, and ROI.

The Hero’s Journey’s founder Peter de Kuster helps you to realize the creative storytelling potential and creative storytelling effectiveness of your marketing resources: people, ideas, time, and money. Storytelling Leadership will accelerate your creative leadership capabilities and maximize creative storytelling in the marketing ecosystem and creative process. Together we will grow the brands and teams that create positive impact, for business and society.

WHAT YOU’LL GET:

  • tickCapabilities: Grow eight creative storytelling capabilities and maximize creative storytelling in 1) the marketing ecosystem and 2) the creative process.
  • tickCommunity: Become part of an exclusive network of ambitious peers, masters, and coaches to learn from the best.
  • tickContent: Get access to the One Great Story – Marketing Storytelling library with 100+ resources – videos, cases, articles, podcasts – with insights from companies like Benetton, Virgin, Google and Netflix.
  • tickTools: Start using cutting-edge creative storytelling tools and problem-solving storytelling methods

WHO IS THIS PROGRAM FOR?

  • tickMarketing managers in a senior and decision-making position, with minimum 10 years experience.
  • tickResponsible for strategy, brand, communications, digital, innovations, product, media, creative, design, and/or other marketing disciplines.
  • tickDriven by the ambition to generate business and societal impact and the curiosity to learn and grow.
  • tickDiverse group – mix of backgrounds, disciplines, company types, and industries – and maximum 40 participants.

PROGRAM JOURNEY

The program is a combination of learning and doing. In 5 days, you will participate in 10 modules. In each module, you will grow a specific creative storytelling capability and we will solve marketing storytelling challenges. The goal is to maximize storytelling effectiveness in the marketing ecosystem (4 modules) and the creative process (4 modules). In each module, you will spend approx. 30-60 minutes on (self) reflection and action, 30-60 minutes with Peter de Kuster, 90-120 minutes with your peers in small teams, and 60 minutes plenary with Peter and class.

MODULE 1. The Power of Your Story (the story inside)

Creative Storytelling Agenda:
– Mapping your challenges
– Setting your ambitions and goals
– Becoming self-aware and connected to others
– Defining your passion and purpose

MODULE 2. Stories in Culture and Society (the story outside)

Creative Storytelling Challenges:
– How to develop the cultural sensitivity needed to understand the role of brands in society and recognize opportunities for brands to contribute to society with creative work.
– How to develop a true understanding of the nature and impact of your business?
– How to create a culture of open-mindedness and curiosity?
– How to create a story about the world around you?
– How to stay open to new stories and unexpected opportunities in a world of complexity and chaos?

MODULE 3. Telling the Financial Story

Creative Storytelling Challenges:
– How to measure the business value of creativity?
– How to sell a risky idea or story to your CFO and CEO?
– How to deal with uncertainty in your story?
– How to foster a culture and language of creative storytelling in a non-creative environment?
– How to manage procurement to leverage creative opportunities?
– How to allocate creative marketing, storytelling and media budgets effectively?
– How to take ego out of the equation? How to put passion and purpose into the equation?

MODULE 4. The Travel Companions in your Quest: teams & agencies)

Creative Storytelling Challenges:
– How to cast and nurture diverse and inclusive teams?
– How to unlock the creative storytelling potential of your teams?
– How to build a culture of trust, transparency, equality, and freedom with shared storytelling?
– How to motivate people with storytelling to try new ways of working?
– How to build real partnerships with and between in-house agencies and external agencies?
– How to break down (cultural and disciplinary) silos to help people collaborate across boundaries?

MODULE 5. Storytelling in Media and Technology

Creative Storytelling Challenges:
– How to leverage and integrate storytelling opportunities across all media channels?
– How to set goals and measure the ROI of storytelling within specific media channels?
– How can brands make themselves with their storytelling mentally and physically available to consumers?
– How to create human storytelling experiences in the digital space?
– How to understand and use creative storytelling to create culturally relevant brands and (shopping) experiences?
– How to see the bigger story in data and technology?

MODULE 6 Your Clients Story

Creative Storytelling Challenges:
– How might curiosity and empathy with the Client’s Story help your organization to become more consumer-centric?
– How to balance short-term and long-term priorities?
– How to write the perfect storytelling brief with clear goals and KPIs?
– How to ask the right questions to discover the client’s story and define the right problems?
– How can strategy benefit from chaos?
– How do you create time and space and culture to explore the client’s stories (and the role of strategy)?

MODULE 7 Vision, Quest, Purpose

Creative Storytelling Challenges:
– How to define your brand’s purpose & its quest story?
– How to think big and boldly?
– How to create a point of view about the role of brands storytelling in society?
– How to influence and unify people through storytelling and narratives?

MODULE 8 Stories & Innovations

Creative Storytelling Challenges:
– How to deal with (in)security and confidence in the creative process using storytelling?
– How to make the creative process more successful by rewriting your stories about making mistakes and learning from failure?
– How to develop with the power of storytelling a founder’s mentality and an entrepreneurial mindset?
– How to make space through storytelling for the development of products and services with long-term impact?
– How to develop a mindset of testing and learning using prototyping stories?

MODULE 9 Stories in Action

Creative Storytelling Challenges:
– How to protect and execute great ideas in production?
– How to live the brand and lead creative direction throughout all phases of the creative process?
– How to push the organization for creative excellence?

MODULE 10 The Best Story Wins

The Story Effect
– Creating your roadmap towards implementation and impact
– Celebrating with your peers, coaches, and masters

About Peter de Kuster

Peter de Kuster is the founder of The Heroine’s Journey & Hero’s Journey project,  a storytelling firm which helps creative professionals to create careers and lives based on whatever story is most integral to their lives and careers (values, traits, skills and experiences). Peter’s approach combines in-depth storytelling and marketing expertise, and for over 20 years clients have found it effective with a wide range of creative business issues.

1523581_1382315678688481_338569992_o

Peter is writer of the series The Heroine’s Journey and Hero’s Journey books, he has an MBA in Marketing,  MBA in Financial Economics and graduated at university in Sociology and Communication Sciences.

PROGRAM DATES

28 June – 2 July

Application deadline: May 30, 2021

This 5 day seminar takes place in Rome

PRICE
€3,999 (excluding VAT and excluding travel expenses)

Includes:

  • Travelling Rome with guidance of Peter de Kuster, founder of The Hero’s Journey
  • Interactive discussions about storytelling
  • Interviews with inspiring creative leaders in Rome
  • Storytelling for Leaders Certificate