January 24, 2025 / Leadership Story Lab

As a kid did you have a big imagination? When did you lose it? Did school or work stamp it out of you? Reginald Polk is a Certified Story Facilitator, a U.S. Navy veteran, former technical support engineer, and now corporate trainer at ServiceNow, a software company that helps organizations employ AI to increase efficiency and innovation. And Reggie wants to give people — even techies and engineers — the chance to tap into their imaginations.

He does this by infusing authentic storytelling and story facilitation into his everyday interactions at work. As a trainer he onboards sales and service team members and equips them with communication skills they need to do their jobs. He helps people unlock their own stories and discover stories about the people they are working with.

We got to catch up with Reggie to learn more about his role and how he uses storytelling at work — and outside of work — to help people connect. Here is our conversation, edited and annotated for clarity. Thank you, Reggie, for sharing your insight with us!

Leadership Story Lab: Tell us about the training programs you lead at ServiceNow? 

Reggie: My role is to onboard and familiarize people with the company. A lot of sales and technical people. We also deliver another course called Advisory Skills, which is one of the higher rated programs because it departs from the normal corporate conversations. It has nothing to do with our products. It has to do with pitching and talking to executives. A lot of technical people are “very hands on the keyboard,” so we take them through exercises to learn how to communicate and discover information to get things done.

LSL: Do you incorporate storytelling into those training sessions? 

Reggie:  Absolutely. I can’t sell you something that’s not relatable. I have to be able to build a story around what your needs are so you understand what I’m talking about.

So we have software. Everyone uses software. Everyone uses technology. How do you convince an enterprise that they need to spend money on this application versus all the other applications that are out there? Why are we better? We have a story for that. But our salespeople have to be able to paint that vision to get a CEO or a CIO to buy it. So that’s step one.

Then we have to go implement it. To meet the people that actually work on it. So how do you learn about what they do? What are their pain points? And then show them why our software provides a better way to go about things. Again, you have to create a vision, a story. Every step down the line, you need a story.

We need to extract information from people, understand what they need,  their pain points , their characteristics  and then collate all that information and say, “Okay, this is how I can help you based on what you have told me.”

Outside of work, Reggie has always been obsessed with authentic storytelling in the form of movies and books. When he came on board with ServiceNow, he had mentors who helped him relate his love of storytelling to his role at the company. 

But I wondered if I could do this better. I started looking around for storytelling courses outside of the company. That’s how I found Leadership Story Lab. What was intriguing to me is Esther, being the face of it, is also involved in that process. Because I feel like anytime you’re (the founder) removed from the origin story, there’s a little bit of dilution that happens. I looked at Leadership Story Lab for over a year. I talked to Reena, at some point and said, “Well, let me just dive in and do it,”

It was beyond what I expected.

Using tuition reimbursement from his company, he took the Certified Story Facilitator (CSF) course with Leadership Story Lab. The training available to him through the company always felt too clinical, but Leadership Story Lab allowed him to use his imagination and creativity. 

LSL: So it sounds you were seeking out CSF because you saw the need for it in your company, and you were personally interested in it. 

Reggie: Obsessed with it.

LSL:  So you said CSF went beyond your expectations. Tell me more.

Reggie:  At corporate events, we’ve had large luminaries, the former President Obama, for example, Mary J. Blige. Some of the people that come through are already the best storytellers, and it keeps you glued to the screen. So I was thinking about storytelling in that regard.

Whereas most leadership storytelling courses focus on the ‘sage on stage’, CSF also helps participants learn how to be a ‘guide on the side,’ by teaching participants how to get other people to tell brief, powerful stories in common business interactions — such as introducing yourself at a conference or during job interview. 

We’re kind of at a micro level. How do we tell a story about an individual that most people would probably think is a dry subject, when, in fact, some of the shyest and quietest people — they have stories, information and experiences that are incredible. So how do you pull that out of them, right?

And that’s what I wasn’t expecting to learn – CSF taught me how to help just about anyone share their stories. This is a different approach to storytelling. It infuses authentic storytelling at these micro levels. It’s always there.

You know when little kids talk to you—everything is so much bigger than it really is. How do we maintain their enthusiasm instead of being an adult and kind of squashing it?

In CSF, Reggie learned different ways of talking to people during brief interactions to help them tell their story quickly and authentically. 

And Esther’s big white chair always surprises me, too.

LSL: Yes. The signature white chair! You also said it stood apart from the other more clinical storytelling courses available to you. How so?

Reggie: I don’t know if clinical is the right word. It just lacks color. It lacks impact because people can’t consume it. If you put up a PowerPoint, you’re already two steps in the ground. Some people need that statistical data. But I need to see what it means.

If you want to move people, then you have to figure out what makes them move.

Most courses are very regimented with no room for flavor or imagination. Understandably the goal is to get a point across or reach a destination, but how do you keep an audience engaged, let alone a student?

CSF engaged Reggie’s imagination and helped him tap into his own stories. Even more importantly, it showed him how he could help others do the same. The timing of the training couldn’t have been better. Soon after Reggie completed CSF, his company hired outside CIOs, CXOs and CEOs to help the sales leaders work on their strategy. They had to pitch these business leaders and then they received grades and feedback. Reggie’s company did poorly, but through the feedback they learned how to improve. Reggie’s enablement team then needed to disseminate that learning to the whole sales team. 

Reggie: If you think about it, every company has the top salespeople. What are they doing differently than everybody else? Is it their ability to paint a vision, storytelling? What is that? The soft skill that makes them able to double their goals. So how can we infect the rest of the sales force to have that as well. I suspect it is storytelling hands down.

A banner describing Story Lab, a complimentary service to workshop stories with a facilitator.

LSL: Do you have any specific examples on how you use something you learned at CSF?

Reggie: Absolutely. Here are three:

First, I did the Paired Introduction exercise. I did it for CSF, but I did it again just with a group of team members to see how they would react to it. I selected a variety of individuals who had little to no contact with each other. I chose them based on my interactions with them ranging from early in career to end of career, introverted versus extroverted. They all enjoyed the experience and took something away from it.

Paired Introduction is the signature storytelling exercise of CSF focuses on active listening and the power of asking Crazy Good Questions to help write an intriguing introduction that can be used in conferences, meetings, bios and other professional and personal introduction opportunities.

Two, I infuse my story facilitation training into programs I run as well. I make room for connection. Here’s an example: We drop two people into an impromptu scenario where one takes on the role of a company employee and the other a customer. The scenario could be conflict, objection handling, or a complex problem. No matter the scenario some form of discovery is required to get the root of the need or issue.

This happens within a breakout room where other participants get to watch . Afterwards, feedback is given by all. The benefit of watching is that everyone gets to see the different styles and methods that their peers use. There is a lot of discussion and debate resulting in even deeper conversations around human behavior. Doing these types of breakouts over two- or three-days results in the participants that often just met having a closer bond which if you are new to the company is invaluable.

For me, it’s about how to get people to open up and actually tell their story.

Always looking for opportunities to spark authentic storytelling, outside of work Reggie is always developing new ideas to help people share stories and find points of connection. One idea that is getting attention is a customized bottle-opener that helps you celebrate and share life stories. 

And a third example from outside of work. I always have a few side businesses in development. One of them is a bottle opener. My desire is to build a brand that allows my customers to celebrate people that are in their lives or that have moved on. These openers might feature a grandfather, best friend, or an image of a moment in time. But I also want the story behind the image or person. Every time you open up a beer or soda you give a nod or a “cheers” to the person or the memory of them. That bottle opener becomes a tribute to him.

Do you want to be able to find stories in everyday interactions?  Or do you want to learn how to weave them into corporate training sessions to build team dynamics? Do you want to help people communicate effectively and share their stories? Sign up for CSF to get the tools you need to help people unlock their creativity, find stories, and connect with others authentically.

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