> Business True Storytelling
Introduction (extract)
Jens Larsen (Vol. Editor)
Copenhagen, Denmark, Februar 2023
(...) Why True Storytelling? Because we live in complex and challenging times. We face climate changes, inequality, conflict between cultures, stress, and anxiety. We must ask ourselves how we can live in these times without getting depressed and burnt out, and how we can be better to create understanding across different points of view and help to emerge a truer story in a world with so much manipulation and spin.
We believe that the power of True Storytelling can help us because sharing stories about what is true and ethical can create a community that can change lives and, in the end, the world. For example, in creating an equal society where people can live together although they are from different cultures or creating more sustainable businesses that are aware of climate changes and organizations that support well-being and creativity.
The goal of this collection of chapters is to provide some new perspectives and tools that can help you overcome some of the challenges mentioned above. It is a combo of different texts written by researchers, some by consultants working in the pharma and diversity fields, some by businesspeople, some by public leaders, and some by people from the US Army. There are writers from the US, Spain, Denmark, South Africa and Germany. I myself would like to compare the collection with the essay genre. In French, the word “essay” means “to try” or “to test.” Furthermore, what the writers try to explore in all of the chapters is how to work with and define what we call “true storytelling” from different perspectives.
The book will consist of chapters which describe the change-management method and philosophy of true storytelling developed by the American storytelling professor David Boje, business adviser Lena Bruun from Denmark, and the Danish founder of Old Friends Industries Jens Larsen in the book True Storytelling — Seven Principles for Ethical and Sustainable Change-management Strategy (Routledge, 2021). And how the book is taught at the True Storytelling Institute and how the True Storytelling Institute trainers use it:Working with start-ups (Anne-Marie Hall) and traders (Ken Long), fundraising, team in the military; tackling issues relating to diversity (Oscar Edwards), racism (James Sibel) and changing universities to more creative places (Kenneth M. Jørgensen, David Boje, Marita Svane, Ann Starbæk Bager, Jens Larsen); getting in contact with nature in the Arctic (Eva Ritter); connecting people (Graham Williams); being more aware of the stories we hear (Mogens Sparre); and dealing with our own true stories connecting body and mind (Jonas Holst).
