Topic: The Power of Storytelling, and the Neuroscience of Conveying Business Data to Stakeholders

Speaker: Dr. Karen Dietz, Principal Consultant at the Van Tyne Group, and Founder/Consultant/Coach/Facilitator

Presentation:
Financial executives have to communicate a variety of types of information, for a variety of purposes, to a variety of audiences. Some of that information is financial; some of it is non-financial. The purpose of the communication may be to convey critical financial information giving the status or progress of the company... or it may be to convey organizational changes or regulatory compliance requirements... or it may be to pitch a proposed investment of funds or a strategic shift in direction. And the audience can range from the executive's own staff or the non-financial staff of operations management, to the company's senior leadership team or the company's board of directors, or the company's outside private or public investors.

Many different situations. But in all of these situations, we are always seeking the ideal way to present the information so that, by the end of the presentation and the Q&A, our objectives have been met. Those objectives vary with the presentation, and our communication style may have to vary with the objectives.

Understanding how to find the ideal method of presenting, and how to use the power of storytelling at the appropriate points in the presentation, are the subjects of what we will be learning from Karen Dietz on Tuesday.

Karen will get into the neuroscience of the human brain, and how that acts with incoming information to either positively or negatively impact the ability of the presenter to build trust and alignment. She will teach us about the power of storytelling -- telling the right story in the right way at the right time -- to build rapport, empathy and trust, and to facilitate and accelerate decisionmaking. She will teach us how to better communicate, in ways to facilitate our own success.

Karen with share experiences from her work with CFOs, and you will walk away with practical steps you can put to work immediately. We will learn the following:

- Using neuroscience to activate your listener's analytical brain -- and how to go beyond that, to their limbic brain
- Specific ways to build trust and shorten decision-making cycles using story principles and elements
- How to tell stories that model the culture and organizational values you want to foster
- How to tell stories to illustrate a point
- How to tell stories that challenge people to dream bigger and to persevere through adversity
- Using stories that are consistent with your own speaking style
- Next steps you can take.

Karen will bring all her knowledge and years of experience to the discussion. What should you bring? Come armed with your curiosity, and if you've got any great war stories to tell about how telling a story at the right time helped clinch the deal or save the day... please plan to jump in and share it with us!

Speaker's bio:
Dr. Karen Dietz is a pioneer in transformational business storytelling and is one of the veterans in the field.

Karen has 20 plus years working with Fortune 500 companies, startups, and nonprofits with her unique combination of organizational development, leadership, high performing teams, communication and storytelling expertise. Coaching, consulting, and workshop clients have gone on to raise money, change laws, grow companies, and make a bigger difference in the world. Karen draws on her vast know-how to provide practical experience, guidance, and tools to the get the job done.

Clients include Walt Disney Imagineering, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, LG Electronics, California Bank & Trust, Avery Dennison, Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, Citrix, Just in Time for Foster Youth, Princess Cruises, SDSU Research Foundation and ViaSat.

In 2013 John Wiley publishers recruited Karen for their Dummies series. Being no dummy, Karen immediately signed on, and her book, "Business Storytelling for Dummies", became a bestseller within a year. Karen is also featured in eight other books on business storytelling, has been a Vistage speaker, and opened the San Diego 2013 TEDx conference with her talk on the power of story listening to change lives and companies. In addition, Karen has built the world’s largest library of the best business storytelling articles, with thousands of followers, at https://www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it.

After getting her bachelors degree in communications from Marietta College in Ohio, Karen went on to earn her Master’s and PhD in Folklore from the University of Pennsylvania. Karen is a past VP of Communications for the San Diego Professional Coaches Alliance, and in her spare time has volunteered for years as a transformational storytelling coach with Just in Time for Foster Youth.

KarenDietz.com

CPE Credits: 1.0 Hours
Reminder for those members maintaining their professional certifications - we offer the documentation for Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits for our speaker presentations. For those members interested in this, you may complete the appropriate forms, which we'll have available at the meeting, for 1.0 hours of CPE credit

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