Bob Galen: An Agile Coaches’ Guide to Storytelling — Hands-on-Agile #53

Badass Agile Coaching Practicum
Module Xtra: An Agile Coaches Guide to Storytelling
Bob Galen
Agile Coach

An Agile Coaches Guide to
Storytelling
Bob Galen
Agile Coach

Storytellers
Copyright © 2023 RGCG 3

Billy Joel –
Piano Man
Cats in the
Cradle
Jim Croce – You
Don’t Mess
Around with Jim
Tracy
Chapman –
Fast Car
Bob Dylan –
Tangled up in
Blue
Harry Chapin –
Taxi
Storytellers

Storytellers

StoryTelling Model
Stephen Denning
■ The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling
published in 2005. Author of Squirrel Inc.
■ Similarities to The Story Factor, but with a
leadership and more in-depth focus.
■ Denning has gone on to become immersed in
innovation, leadership reinvention, and agile
methods.

8 Narrative Patterns
Stephen Denning
1. Motivate Others to Action
❑ Using narrative to ignite action
and implement new ideas
2. Build Trust in You
❑ Using narrative to communicate
who you are
3. Build Trust in your Company
❑ Using narrative to build your
brand
4. Transmit your Values
❑ Using narrative to instill
organizational values

8 Narrative Patterns
Stephen Denning
5. Getting Others Working Together
❑ Using narrative to get things done
collaboratively
6. Share Knowledge
❑ Using narrative to transmit
knowledge and understanding
7. Tame the Grapevine
❑ Using narrative to neutralize gossip
and rumor
8. Create and Share Your Vision
❑ Using narrative to lead people into
the future

Please watch this Steve Jobs video. It’s a Master Class on storytelling –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

StoryTelling
Basics
■ Oreo Cookie:
❑ Tell them what you’ll tell them, tell them, tell them what you told them
■ Pareto Principle – Crossing the Chasm
■ Connect to your audience
■ Share goals and objectives
■ Clarify and listen (body language)
■ Humor
■ Add situational context
■ Visualization
■ Let your points emerge
■ Be yourself; share yourself; admiration
■ Power of Transparency

StoryTelling
Types and Flows
■ Vision stories
■ Principal stories
■ Values in Action stories
■ Genesis stories
■ “Who am I” stories
■ “Why am I here” stories
■ “Why should you care” stories
■ “I know what you’re thinking” stories
■ Success & Failure stories
■ Phoenix rising stories
■ Major turning points, crossroad stories
■ Teaching stories

StoryTelling
Adjusting for your Audience
■ Sensing and targeting your audience
❑ What’s working, what’s not?
❑ Asking questions – show of hands
■ Embellishing, exaggerating, taking
dramatic license
■ Pausing, then canvasing
■ Making your points; repeating them
■ Having your core stories; but re-targeting
them based on audience demographics

Arc of a Story
Opening Moves
• TTWYGTTT, Set the space/stage, Tell a Joke, Show vulnerability, Seek immediate
connection,
• Layout a challenge/threat to meet or a problem to solve, Relatively quickly
Middle Game
• Tell Them, Stories, Deeper connection, Pace/Tempo, Passion, Read your audience,
Gain momentum,
• Diverge then Converge, Sequencing, Let YOU Shine through, This is the HEART of the
story
Endgame
• TTWYTT, Review, Closing story, Eye contact/look around, Don’t try to fit too much / Less is
More,
• Let the point emerge, Leverage a pause/silence, Land it! / Drop the Mic!

Becoming a Well-rounded StoryTeller
https://agilecoachinggrowthwheel.org/

Story-telling in a Coaching Context
Self-Mastery
Let me tell you a story…
■ Stories of your mentoring (mentor &
mentee) learning journey and how
this competency has grown.
■ Stories of how you’ve learned to
effectively receive and take action on
feedback.
■ Counter stories when you failed to
receive feedback.
■ Stories of how you’ve become more
empathetic over time and mistakes
you’ve made in that journey.
■ Stories of why you do what you do.
What is your Ikigai?

Guide Learning - Teaching
■ Stories behind the genesis of the
Agile Manifesto.
■ The tactics of Sprint and Release
planning; from one team’s
experience.
■ About how a team misused story
points and what they’re doing now.
■ Who taught me to be an agile coach;
what were the early days like.
■ A story about a team who was
incredibly teachable and the impact it
had on them.

Guide Learning – Mentoring
■ Stories of your mentoring (mentor &
mentee) learning journey and how
this competency has grown.
■ Stories of what worked for you and
what hasn’t.
■ Stories of/from your own specific
mentors and the impact they had on
you.
■ Stories that map to your mentees
challenges and growth opportunities.

Facilitation
■ Stories of your facilitation learning
journey and how this competency
has grown.
■ Stories of your favorite facilitation
tactics, tools, and approaches; and
why they’re your favorites.
■ Stories about how you plan for a
specific facilitation challenge.
■ Stories of your facilitation fails and
what you learned from them.
■ Share your “introductory story” for
when you’re kicking off an event.

Advising
■ Stories that are similar to the your
client’s current situation.
■ Stories that explain & explore various
options.
■ Failure, don’t do it, I learned this the
hard way…stories that map to your
client’s context.
■ Any of your direct experience stories.
■ Any of your indirect experience
(hearsay) stories.

Coaching
■ A story describing what Professional
Coaching is…and isn’t.
■ A story about creating a well-crafted
coaching agenda and how it helps
with outcomes.
■ A struggle story about how I learned
to be more coachable.
■ A story that explains the power of a
metaphor and some examples.
■ A story of my struggle to stay present
with my client and why that’s so
important to me.

Leading
■ A story about who I am and my agile
why.
■ A story of when it was challenging to
walk my talk (ethics, principles)
■ A story about my toughest agile
leadership challenge and how it
relates to yours.
■ A story of leading by example for
(this example).
■ A story where I failed to consider the
wider system context and what
happened.
■ A story where I failed as a leader and
how I recovered.

Breakout
Storytelling practice, Part-1
We’re going to breakout into Storytelling practice groups of 3 in this 2-part
exercise.
I’d like you to spend 10-minutes developing your personal story ideas that are
tied to one or two of your favorite coaching competencies.
This is the beginning of creating your story snippet repository.
You don’t need to write out a script, just capture—
❑ The central idea/theme for your story
❑ The message you’re trying to convey
❑ The opening and the close
For each snippet.

Breakout
Storytelling practice, Part-2
Now we’ll take some time for simulated practice. There will be three roles in
the Triad—
❑ Coach, sharing the story as part of a coaching conversation (arc)
❑ Coachee, listening/receiving the story and engaging the coach
❑ Scribe, observing the story telling and taking notes for the retrospective
■ Take 5-minutes to practice telling each story, then rotate across the roles
as you try out different stories
■ Try different flows, different openings, different closes
■ Move out of your comfort zone
■ Take some risks

Breakout
Storytelling practice, Debrief
■ How did it go?
■ What did you try?
■ What worked? What didn’t?
■ Favorite lessons learned?
❑ Openings
❑ Closings
❑ Story Arcs
■ How might you use this in your coaching conversations?
❑ Past, present, and future?

Finally—
Practice & Reflection
■ It takes practice to become a good
storytelling coach
❑ Dojo / Triad practice, role plays,
Toastmasters
❑ Ask for client feedback
❑ Continuous reflection
■ Relentlessly find those story ideas
❑ Create your repository of
stories
❑ Prepare & polish
■ Remember to…Stick the Landing!

StoryTelling References
Books
1. Pixar Storytelling, Dean Movshovitz
2. The Leaders Guide to Storytelling, Steve Denning
3. The Right Story, Bernadette Jiwa
4. Unleash the Power of Storytelling, Rob Biesenbach
5. The Story Factor, Annette Simmons
6. Everyday Business Storytelling, Janine Kurnoff & Lee Lazarus
Articles
1. Pixar’s 22 Rules
a. https://gizmodo.com/the-22-rules-of-storytelling-according-to-pixar-5916970
2. https://power-of-storytelling.com/storytelling-elements/

StoryTelling References
Videos
■ Example Storytelling by Jacqueline Movogratz
❑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB9vw51p-64
■ Andrew Stanton, filmmaker
❑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxDwieKpawg
■ David JP Phillips, TEDx talk
❑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj-hdQMa3uA
■ Josh Campbell, TEDx talk
❑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV0M5l5KhnE
■ Ashley Fell, TEDx talk
❑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSi0kmqOBu4
■ Matthew Luhn, Pixar storytelling
❑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYQOW34b-0g
■ More Pixar
❑ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLY6PCL9ylnRSaO608L0ocvzxusr_35XfC

The Hero's Journey
Monomyth as a story model
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhk4N9A0oCA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey

Bob Galen: An Agile Coaches’ Guide to Storytelling — Hands-on-Agile #53

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