CHANGE THE STORIES THAT SHAPE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
IN ORGANISATIONS. IN LEADERSHIP. IN LIFE.
The stories we believe shape what we notice, what we expect and what we do.
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I help organisations and leaders uncover the hidden narratives shaping strategy, culture and change — and individuals change the stories keeping them exhausted, stuck or unable to move forward.
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Story Leadership™ for organisations
Close the gap between the story you tell and the story your people actually live.
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​​The Story Solution™ for individuals
Change the stories shaping your relationship with work, achievement and yourself.​
Two ways to work together.
FOR ORGANISATIONS
Story Leadership™
Strategy doesn't fail because people don't understand the plan. It fails when they don’t believe the story.
Strategy may begin in the boardroom, but it has to travel through an organisation. People interpret it through their experience of leadership, culture and previous change. They create stories about what it really means — and behave accordingly.
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Story Leadership™ helps organisations close the gap between the story they tell and the story their people actually live.​
FOR INDIVIDUALS
The Story Solution™
Private coaching for high-achieving people who are exhausted, stuck or at a crossroads.
​I work privately with thoughtful, high-achieving people experiencing burnout, exhaustion, self-doubt, overthinking, loss of direction or major personal and professional transition.
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The Story Solution™ helps you identify the deeper narratives keeping you stuck and develop a wiser and more useful relationship with yourself and the life you want to build.
The hidden gap between strategy and performance.
CULTURE ISN’T A “PEOPLE” ISSUE. IT’S A PERFORMANCE ISSUE.
Most organisations do not lack strategies, values or transformation plans. The problem is what happens to them after they are communicated.
People interpret what leaders say through what they see and experience every day. When leadership behaviour, organisational systems and lived experience contradict the official message, another story emerges.
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The Official Story
What the organisation says it values, believes and intends.
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The Lived Story
What people actually experience — and come to believe about how things really work around here.
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The gap between the two is the Story Gap™.
That gap matters because the stories people believe shape the behaviours that ultimately determine whether strategy succeeds.
Gallup's major Q12 meta-analysis, covering 3.35 million employees across 90 countries, found that highly engaged teams achieve:
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23% higher profitability
18% higher sales productivity
10% higher customer loyalty
21–51% lower employee turnover
78% lower absenteeism
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Deloitte similarly found that organisations successfully creating the conditions for human performance were 1.8× more likely to achieve desired business outcomes.
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Culture is not a soft investment around the edges of the business.
It is part of its performance infrastructure.
STRATEGY → INTERPRETATION → STORY → BEHAVIOUR → CULTURE → PERFORMANCE
STORY INTELLIGENCE™
A key capability for an age of accelerating change.
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Story Intelligence™ is the capacity to recognise, interpret, challenge and consciously shape the stories that drive human behaviour.
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We use stories to understand who we are, who other people are, what is happening around us and what the future might hold.
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That makes Story Intelligence increasingly important for leaders navigating complexity, uncertainty and AI-driven change.
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Data can tell us what is happening.
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Stories shape what we believe it means — and what we do next.
Former Professor of Cultural History • Executive Coach
Creator of Story Leadership™ and Story Intelligence™
Bestselling author of books translated into 5 languages
Order my new book and learn to change the stories that hold you back
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ABOUT ANNA
I am a story-leadership™ coach & consultant, keynote speaker, bestselling writer and INSIGHTS discovery practitioner exploring the stories human beings tell in order to thrive and make meaning of their lives.
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I used to be a Professor of Cultural History, but I am feeling much better now. I combine narrative psychology, solution-oriented coaching, leadership development and cultural insight to help individuals and organisations transform the stories shaping how they live and lead.
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My work sits at the intersection of psychology, organisational development, cultural history and philosophy. I am the author of several books which have been translated into five languages, and my work has been featured in the BBC, the Guardian, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Psychology Today, TLS, National Geographic and many other national and international media.
APPLIED BY LEADERS AT INSIGHTS
Story Leadership™ is being used by INSIGHTS
Beginning with their Global Leadership Meeting and extending into leadership labs, workshops, executive and team coaching.
"Storytelling is not a nice to have -- it's a core leadership skill. It is how we connect strategy to what it really means day-to-day, consistently and simply, in a way that people can see themselves in. And it is how we turn direction into momentum."
Angela Brennan -- Global Head of Learning & Talent, Insights
Global Leadership Meeting, Edinburgh
Find out more about the pioneering collaboration of the Story Leadership™ and INSIGHTS. Management Issues and Customer Experience Magazine (CXM) have published articles about it.
