Business storytelling is a key communication skill for every leader. Being able to teach these skills makes you indispensable in your workplace. Master storytelling, a key skill for Chief Storytelling Officers, by becoming a certified story facilitator with Leadership Story Lab. We have been at the forefront of business storytelling since 2010.
Once you are certified, you will be able to facilitate storytelling on your own and help your clients and teams tell better stories! Become the trusted person your network turns to when they want an expert in authentic communication.
“I was looking for something to help me help others tell better stories. And Leadership Story Lab is really the only thing. All the other short courses help you tell stories. It's not how you help others tell stories. And so with my quest for turning accountants into storytellers, it made sense to do this. Even though I haven't met anybody from CSF in person, it feels like my own little family.”
-Karma, Chief Financial Officer, University of New England (AU)
Our Certified Story Facilitation training stands apart as a transformative leadership six-week experience. Unlike some conventional leadership courses, this program goes beyond theory, and requires participants to fully immerse themselves with their own stories and those of their peers.
Participants are guided through storytelling exercises and then lead their peers through similar activities. Each iteration is followed up with workshop-style feedback as well as a personalized response from our Founder and Chief Story Facilitator, Esther Choy. Participants learn about facilitation by experiencing it in action on two levels — both as the facilitator and as a storyteller.
Learn more:
- Access tools and frameworks for mining, refining and telling stories.
- Hone your facilitation skills in comfortable, inspiring small group settings.
- Equip yourself with facilitation best practices you can immediately apply to your context.
- Receive customized individual coaching from Chief Story Facilitator Esther Choy.
- Grow and learn in the supportive Story Facilitator Community.
- Have the option to join monthly sessions to continue learning new, structured content, brainstorm, and continue building your leadership skills.
Independent coaches, consultants, professors, nonprofit managers, and other business leaders. A global program, we train Certified Story Facilitators from diverse backgrounds and across industries. We’ve even trained CFOs, engineers, filmmakers, and many others including a facilitator who is on a quest to turn “accountants into storytellers!” What do they have in common? They all share a passion for creating space for storytelling in their organization, on their teams, and with clients.
- Our training is interactive and exercise driven. Throughout the course, you will develop and tell 3-4 full stories. In addition, you will learn a signature team building storytelling exercise. Upon completion, you will have the rights to facilitate this exercise with others.
- Our class size is very small by design. This allows for meaningful discussion, feedback, and exchange between your peers and the lead facilitator. Our individual coaching element is also unique, providing customized feedback and support for you to reach your specific goals.
- Our course is a blend between learning the skills of storytelling and facilitation. This training affords the opportunity to hone both skill sets at once!
- Four 2-hour virtual group sessions and two virtual 45-minute individual coaching sessions per level.
- Prep work before each session.
- A final facilitation project, where you will facilitate the signature exercise with a small group outside of class time.
- Repeatable tools and frameworks for refining and telling stories.
- Rights to facilitate storytelling exercises with peers, colleagues, and clients.
- Meaningful relationships with other professionals.
- New perspectives on storytelling, yourself and your own potential and creativity
- Apply now to join our waitlist.
- Once you join the waitlist, we will create a cohort and pair you with others with similar availability. Cohorts are intentionally small and generally consist of 3 - 6 individuals.
- We will propose dates and times that work for everyone in the cohort. Individual coaching is scheduled separately.
- The Certified Story Facilitator program meets virtually 4x over 6 weeks. Each session is 2 hours. Due to the small class size and interactive nature, attendance is mandatory at each session.
Become a certified story facilitator today!
To learn more or apply for the program, please share your information with us. Thank you!
“Mastering a predictable process that unlocks creativity and passion was so transformational. As a content creator and writer, this process has given me what is necessary to communicate with impact and raise my influence. Working with Esther and the coursemates in a small, safe setting made the learning experience transformative as I pushed the boundaries. I received many insights and as a result, I am now a more confident and effective leadership story facilitator. This is opening up a strong pathway in my business.”
-YEO Chuen Chuen, Managing Director, ACESENCE Agile Leadership and Author of Leaders People Love
Leadership Story Lab’s story facilitator certification training gives you the tools and processes to mine ideas, refine stories, and tell them with purpose. Learn how to support others who are using these tools for the first time.
You will not only master the storytelling process for yourself, but also experience the way Leadership Story Lab’s experts facilitate storytelling. You’ll have the chance to craft and share stories during the training, thus understanding the process first-hand before you teach it.
Once you hone these skills, you’ll earn a Story Facilitator Certification and be ready to facilitate on your own!
Focus on the anatomy of stories and how to structure story ideas into appropriate formats.
In Level 1, we learn how to help others shape their stories using the essential “IRS” structure:
- Intriguing beginning
- Riveting middle
- Satisfying ending
We deeply explore ways to create suspense and surprise, ask good questions and listen aggressively. And of course, through four sessions together, we witness the power of storytelling as a group bonding experience.
The art and science of idea exploration and cultivation.
In Level 2, we embrace the messy, creative process of cultivating stories and learn to uncover Passion DNA. Facilitators—and storytellers—don’t have to wait for the muse to arrive. The best ideas are right under the storytellers’ noses, waiting for the facilitator to discover them. All it takes is the right questions and frameworks.
“I now have a bigger set of golf clubs to work with in helping my clients share their stories. I can now be more nuanced in suggesting the right question at the right time and utilizing different exercises at different times to help my clients get more holes in one.”
- Donna Bauman, Senior MBA Admissions Counselor, Stratus Admissions Counseling
Learn to fuse disparate narratives into one coherent whole.
In Level 3, we look at stories from multiple angles, helping storytellers shift from one point of view to another. We facilitate storytellers’ ability to acknowledge their audience’s perspectives (especially when it diverges from the storytellers’ point of view!). And through the use of StoryPictures, we learn how to invite others to the conversation. We cultivate storytellers’ ability to use acknowledgement and visuals as common ground to inspire collaboration and aspire to a new future.
Each certification level includes:
- Four 2-hour virtual small group coaching sessions that meet once a week over the course of a month.
- Two 45-minute virtual individual coaching sessions with Esther Choy, Chief Story Facilitator.
- Prep work before and in between each session and a final facilitation project.
- Upon successful completion, training includes a content licensing fee as well as title of Leadership Story Lab Certified Story Facilitator.
Annual Membership includes:
- Monthly sessions to continue learning, structured content, and many other perks.
- Access to the supportive Leadership Story Lab Story Facilitator Community.
Start your Story Facilitator Certification today!
“Regardless of whether it’s my story or my client’s story, the IRS model of intriguing beginning, riveting middle, and surprise ending has become a mantra for me. I just got a call from a large contractor who needed help to win a very critical vote. They needed to tell a story that voters could identify with. I’m living all of these things that I’ve learned through the story facilitators’ certification process, and I believe that together we can change the world, one story at a time.”
-Luawanna Hallstrom, Principal, Collaborative Communications,
Level 3 Story Facilitator
Meet Our Story Facilitators
Our supportive community of story facilitators has seen the power of story and are now inspired to help others tell theirs. Congratulations to the recent graduates of Leadership Story Lab's Level 1: Master of Story Construction Certification, Level 2: Master of Story Discovery, and Level 3: Master of Story Synthesis.
Ahmed Alfadhel
Strategy and Corporate Performance, BNET
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Karma Auden
and Chief Financial Officer
University of New England (AU)
Level 3 Story Facilitator
Donna Bauman
Stratus Admissions Counseling
Level 3 Story Facilitator
Yeo Chuen Chuen
ACESENCE Agile Leadership Coaching and Training
Level 2 Story Facilitator
Michelle Dahlenburg
Texas State University and
Independent Audio Producer
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Anthony Do
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Monica Dominguez
USAA Property & Casualty Insurance
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Kelsey Eichhorn-Allen
Collaborate & Eight
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Eileen Elledge
Speaking Excellence
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Rose Fealy
and CFO,
The Society of Actuaries
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Carol Foley
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Gina Fong
Fong Insight
Level 2 Story Facilitator
Elaine Gast Fawcett
Strategy and Communications for Foundations and Giving Families
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Vadivu Govind
Inner Wealth
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Luawanna Hallstrom
Collaborative Communications
Level 3 Story Facilitator
Leigh Janis
Sales and Customer Experience,
Production Solutions
Level 2 Story Facilitator
Reena Kansal
and Story Facilitator,
Leadership Story Lab
Level 3 Story Facilitator
Tricia Kim
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Bernhard Krieg
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Michelle Lopez
Next Gen Latinos, LLC
Level 3 Story Facilitator
Samara Makinsi
P&C Chief of Staff,
USAA,
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Chris McAuley
MCAVOY Inc.,
Level 2 Story Facilitator
Bryce McNabb
Apex Systems
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Arlene Milon
Renew the 'I do’ Foundation
Level 2 Story Facilitator
Amy Moore
and Writer of Teaching Cases
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Kristi Mork
UKG
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Loretta Nyhan
Lake Union and
HarperCollins Publishing
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Reggie Polk
ServiceNow
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Erin Porteous
Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Saif Rahman
Nesma High Training Institute, Nesma and Partners
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Rissa Reddan
West Monroe
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Chuck Rohrig
USAA
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Alessandra Rolffs
Leadership Story Lab
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Matthew Rowley
USAA
Level 1 Story Facilitator
Eugene Toh
Chief Commercial Officer, Energy Market Authority (Singapore)
Level 2 Story Facilitator
Jackie Wei Green
Arup
Level 1 Story Facilitator
"Being a certified story facilitator has brought meaning to my professional relationships, allowing me to support others in their personal journey and find new perspectives in life."
-Eugene Toh, Director, Enterprise Singapore, Chief Commercial Officer
Better Every Story
Leadership Transformation through Storytelling
"This is an amazing and insightful post! I hadn’t thought of that so you broadened my perspective. I always appreciate your insight!" - Dan B.
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