"Once Upon A Time offers fresh insights and a workable model into the dynamics of organizational stories. Leaders and managers from all industries will benefit from Gargiulo's work."

—Karen Dietz, Ph.D., Polaris Associates, Inc., former executive director, National Storytelling Network

"Gargiulo has shared a wealth of unique facilitation techniques, approaches, tools, and activities that cannot be found anywhere else. Our large-scale customized learning and communication architectures for our clients will be guided by this new and essential resource."

—David Carey, president, ROI Training, Inc.

"Once Upon A Time immerses us in the world of sense making through stories. Collaborative leaders create communities where people discover how to hear each other and themselves and build understanding. Terrence shows us how to bring this magic alive in our organizations through narrative to drive results and inspire commitment."

—Linda Dunkel, CEO, Interaction Associates

"Terrence Gargiulo's 'breakthrough' communications, and are amply demonstrated with dozens of corporate examples. And the best part? Gargiulo shows us, step by step, how to create this storytelling communication magic in our own organizations. Bravo!"

—Grace Ann Rosile, Ph.D., founding board member, Storytelling Organization Institute and assistant professor of management, New Mexico State University

"This book is a valuable tool for anyone who takes on the awesome responsibility of persuading others to action through a speech or training session. Storytelling is as much science and it is art and Once Upon a Time details that delicate balance."

—Robert Wendover, director, The Center for Generational Studies and author, Menu Driven Thinking: Solving the Critical Thinking Crisis Among Today's Youth

"This book isn't about using our stories, though there is certainly merit in that, but about using the learners' experiences to solidify the learning. It includes a facilitator's diagnostic story-listener's assessment to pinpoint weaknesses and a toolkit of methods to assist with growth in the classroom. Gargiulo's documented erudition allows us all to benefit."

—Jean Marrapodi, PhD, CPLP, senior education specialist, MultiPlan

Product Description

Terence Gargiulo's 'breakthrough' communications and storytelling are amply demonstrated with dozens of corporate examples. And the best part? Gargiulo shows us, step by step, how to create this storytelling communication magic in our own organizations. The competencies assessed by the instrument represent the nine essential communication behaviors that need to be developed and cultivated in all of today’s leaders and managers: Modeling, Telling, Selecting, Indexing, Synthesizing, Reflecting, Eliciting, Listening and Observing.

Once Upon a Time will show you how to develop exceptional communication skills, and it will serve as an invaluable resource for helping others do the same. Stories are a natural part of how we communicate. Yet many of us are unaware of the different ways we use stories. This book will take the intuitive aspects of communicating through stories and break it down into repeatable practices and essential competencies. The story-based activities in the second half of the book will give you powerful, easy to lead, structured, experiential exercises that can be used in a variety of settings and for lots of different purposes that go beyond training.

TERRENCE L. GARGIULO is an international speaker, author, organizational development consultant, and group process facilitator, based in the San Francisco area. A recipient of Inc. magazine's Marketing Master Award, his clients include General Motors, Merck, Raytheon, Coca-Cola, and the U.S. Coast Guard. A regularly featured speaker at conferences of the International Society for Performance Improvement, the American Society for Training and Development, and the Academy of Management, he is the author of Making Stories (Quorum, 2002) and The Strategic Use of Stories in Organizational Communication and Learning, and co-author of On Cloud Nine: Weathering the Challenge of Many Generations in the Workplace.