The Power of Narrative in the Workplace

 I love the airport. It’s a dynamic environment that reverberates with thousands of lives moving in solitary tandem—each operating in relation but also independently of one another. Whenever I catch a flight, I like to arrive a couple hours early with my laptop and write. Many of my most innovative pieces—poetic, journalistic, or creative—have come together while seated with a coffee or cocktail on the fringes of an airport gate. I love being surrounded but alone in the sea of circulating people. It was like my first time visiting New York City when I looked out from my loft patio in Queens at the Manhattan skyline and marveled at the countless lives being played out all at once, represented by each glowing apartment window. I think of my own life: full of complex plotlines, interesting characters, victories, losses, and goals. Sitting in the airport or gazing toward Manhattan, I wonder what the stories of all those people might be. I tend to think this way because I’m a storyteller—professionally as a journalist and also as a traditional storyteller in the practice of Jungian archetypal psychology. Whether it’s breaking a news story, writing a B2B feature, orating mythos at a workshop, or penning a poem in the airport lounge, my worldview is shaped by storytelling. I tend to view everything as a big story and everyone as characters in the plot—which sometimes fluctuates between a sitcom, comedy, romance, drama, and, let’s be honest, sometimes it can also feel like a horror flick at moments.

This is also how I perceive my role as a leader—which is one role I play as a character in my own story and the stories of other people. This truly simple mindset orientation creates a myriad of useful insights for becoming a stronger, more encompassing leader.

Read the full article on the Taylor Ducklow blog.