Right now, globally, work is anything but a happy place for most employees. Engagement levels are hitting rock bottom and stress levels, propelled by anxiety and fear are at all time highs. Sadly, rather than providing an outlet for us to live out our passions, unleash our potential and make our “dent in the universe” (as Steve Jobs put it), “work” has for many become a life sentence, a necessary evil to be endured.
It’s against this backdrop that Shawn Callahan’s book, Putting Stories To Work not only delineates a beacon of hope, but also outlines a systematic and accessible process of reaching it. Story by story (or should I say anecdote by anecdote) in industries as diverse as banking, IT and mining, Shawn shows us how to flick the humanity switch. Putting Stories To Work not only makes a compelling business case for the “why” of storytelling and its power for leaders passionate about engaging people and unleashing potential; it makes storytelling as a skill accessible to each and every one of us. Shawn’s profound yet simple process of Discover, Remember, Share, Refresh, is a potent catalyst which reminds us that, as humans - regardless of race, culture or vernacular language - we all “speak” story.
Being a little bit “over” theory-heavy business tomes, I love how this book, in contrast, feels like a long conversation with Shawn (a conversation, nonetheless solidly underpinned by valid and relevant research). The conversational style makes for “binge-reading” – with retention. Because Shawn practices what he preaches (shares stories rather than attempting to convince with facts) most readers will be able to remember and consequently apply the principles and see immediate results.
There are hundreds of thousands of business books out there: and I am ashamed to admit many of them languish half-read on my bookshelf. Putting Stories To Work is NOT one of them! My copy is already a scribbled-in, dog-eared manual, helping me to do what I do, much, much better! Thanks Shawn!
Putting Stories to work is available for pre-order at http://bit.ly/1SuCOpu and will be available on Amazon (paperback and digital) on the 20 March.
