Swinburne University and an associate diploma in education and training from the University of Melbourne.
Gabrielle is also the best-selling author of Ignite: Real Leadership, Real Talk, Real Results, which was published in 2015 and reached the top five of Australia’s bestselling business books. Her other published books include Storytelling for Job Interviews, published in 2016, and Hooked: How Leaders Connect, Engage and Inspire with Storytelling, published in 2013.
She is passionate about changing the way we communicate in business and is the founder of the Jargon Free Fridays global revolution #jargonfreefridays (jargonfreefridays.com).
When she is not writing or working, she can be found wandering in her vegetable garden at her 25-acre rural property on the southern coast of New South Wales. She believes the world would be a better place if there were more manure in gardens and less in business.
Acknowledgements
This book was written in a short time frame but I feel like it is bringing together my work and passion from the last decade. Without the support of many people this book would never have been possible.
I would firstly like to thank Lucy Raymond from Wiley who approached me with the initial idea for the book. Lucy, thank you so much for your ongoing support and guidance. You are a legend as is your little boy, Frankie. Plus a huge thanks also to the wider team at Wiley, including Ingrid Bond, Theo Vassili, Peter Walmsley, Charlotte Duff, Clare Dowdell, Dylan Senthilan and Genevieve Kanowski.
A very special thumbs up to Kelly Irving, who is an extraordinary editor. Not only did she edit this book on the tightest deadline possible but, as always, helped with the overall structure and flow of the book.
One of the best aspects of my job, besides doing what I love, is working with people who I really like and admire. I want to specially thank Heather Polglase, Lizzy Geremia and Lauren Trethowan, who have all trusted me to partner with them on some major organisational work at Spark New Zealand, Bupa and Australia Post respectively. Together, I know we are making a difference.
Other clients I get to work with and am also proud to now call my friends deserve a special mention because they have supported not only this book but also me for a long time. These people include Jac Phillips, Monika Lancucki and Natalie Mina. I love working with you all and truly appreciate the ongoing support and mentoring you have provided.
I particularly need to thank all the people who contributed their stories for this book. It goes without saying that the book would not be a reality without you being so willing to share your stories. Thank you!
Doing the work I do, I get to hang out with some great mates such as Matt Church and Pete Cook, who run the coolest tribe you would ever want to be a part of. Thank you both for your inspiration, love and care, and for creating the commercially successful and creative space that is Thought Leaders Business School.
Another cool mate I get to hang with is my ‘chief of stuff’, Elise Turner. Massive love and gratitude to you for everything you do for me, including the support of this book. From doing the initial edits to managing the whole marketing campaign and all the time spent keeping everything else ticking along. I could not have done it without you.
And talking about hanging with people I love, a final huge acknowledgement goes to my husband, Steve, and my very cool daughters, Alex and Jess (who have made me promise to include our dog, Digger, in here). They continue to support me, give me the time to write and also let me write about them. Love you.
Introduction
I once had the pleasure of working with a wonderful woman, Merrin Butler, who confessed to sleeping or reading through the safety instructions on her regular Sunday night flight from Dublin to Glasgow.
She told me that catching the same flight every week for work made her, understandably, very blasé. So she’d either fall asleep or read the paper as the crew pulled on oxygen masks and pointed out the exits.
One night on her regular flight, after giving her usual lack of attention to the pre-flight demonstration, they hit some rough weather and the pilot had to abort the landing as they were coming into Glasgow. The plane circled around and tried again, but the rain and wind were getting worse and so the pilot abandoned the landing for the second time. Before making the third attempt, the captain announced, ‘We’ll make one final attempt to land but before we do, the crew will go through our safety instructions again.’
All the passengers sat bolt upright in their seats, their undivided attention on the crew. People asked questions about the oxygen masks, checked for their life jackets under their seats and physically counted out the rows to their nearest exit.
Thankfully, Merrin lived to tell the frightening tale, as did everyone else on the plane.
When she shared this story with me, long after the incident, I was helping her to implement a major organisational change at National Australia Bank. It was going to be a two-year process that would affect all the Human Resources professionals across the company.
I asked Merrin what was the one message she wanted to get across to her team when we announced the change. She said they’d all be thinking, Here we go again … another change or restructure. But Merrin felt that it was more than that – although the change would be a long, intensive project, everyone would receive lots of information about it and, while at the time they might think it was boring or irrelevant, they needed to pay close attention because it was going to personally affect each and every one of them at some point.
As the Communications and Change Manager for the project, I suggested she share her story about flying into Glasgow. Her initial reaction was, ‘What has that got to do with anything?’ I convinced Merrin to share the story, however, knowing it matched her message – often we think information we’re receiving may not be relevant, but it does have an important purpose. I was confident the story would work … well, maybe not confident but optimistic.
The next day, Merrin shared her flight story with her team of HR professionals. I watched and waited for the response in the room (I’ll admit, by this stage the optimism had turned to hope). I should have been confident, because this became the first time I really noticed the positive impact of a personal story when delivered as a business message. Not only did her team immediately react with smiles and understanding, but they also continued to refer to the story months later.
I wasn’t aware of it at the time but that was a sliding-door moment for me. I realised the power of storytelling and this knowledge completely changed my career – and my life. From that point on, I noticed that all the leaders I found inspiring and engaging used stories to explain their actions and choices in some way.
I left my corporate career on a mission – a mission to change the boring and bland way we communicated in the business world with inspiring and engaging stories that hit the hearts and minds of leaders and their teams.
Over the last decade, this work has taken me all over the world – from Australia to Malaysia, Europe and the US – but no matter where I am, I’m always faced with questions and comments like the following:
▪ ‘Does storytelling really work in business? I mean, really?’
▪ ‘What stories do I need and how many do I use?’
▪ ‘How do you find stories?’
▪ ‘I don’t have any stories. I just lead a pretty average and normal life.’
▪ ‘Where and when do you share stories in business?’
▪ ‘I’ve never thought of using a personal story to communicate a business message. Are we allowed to do that?’
Hearing these kinds of questions and remarks from so many different leaders, managers and executives at all levels, in all industries and corporations, all over the world was the catalyst behind this book.
My aim is to show you the science behind why storytelling really works – because it does work, as the many examples in this book will show. This book also clarifies what types of stories are appropriate to use, how to find them and how to share them.
What