Today Ayla is the Director of Platform at F-Prime Capital (a leading US life science VC) where she provides post-investment support to their early-stage technology companies.

We are thrilled that Ayla Schlosser will be hosting this session. Ayla has worked as a coach for dozens of social impact organizations and entrepreneurs across 5 continents.

Ayla was her first introduction to the Marshall Ganz Storytelling for Leadership frameworks as a community organiser in Washington DC. In 2013, Ayla founded Resonate, a non-profit organization in East Africa designed to empower women by building self-confidence and leadership skills.  Together with her co-founder, Ayla adapted Marshall Ganz's tool from a political campaigns and issue organizing framework to empower women as leaders. To date, a centerpiece of Resonate’s training is storytelling. They have worked with 120+ partners across East Africa and trained 16.000 women. 

Storytelling Is A ‘Foundational’ Leadership Skill, According To McKinsey

Why?

Stories have the power to move people.

How?

One of the most hailed courses at the Harvard Kennedy School is called Public Narrative: Leadership, Storytelling, and Action. 

It is based on the groundbreaking techniques used in the US farmworkers and civil rights movements, and codified by Harvard Professor Marshall Ganz - the brain behind the ‘Yes, we can!’ campaign from 2008. The underdog in the race to lead the Democrats (Barack Obama) showed impressive oratory panache – he embraced Public Narrative.

“Practicing leadership – enabling others to achieve purpose in the face of uncertainty – requires engaging the heart, the head, and the hands: motivation, strategy, and action. Through narrative we can articulate the experience of choice in the face of urgent challenge and we can learn how to draw on our values to manage the anxiety of agency, as well as its exhilaration…Because we use narrative to engage the “head” and the “heart,” it both instructs and inspires – teaching us not only how we ought to act, but motivating us to act – and thus engaging the “hands” as well.”

Public Narrative has proven an invaluable tool for leaders across a range of organizations. Jeff Bezos used the technique in his opening statement of his antitrust case. Elon Musk used the Public Narrative technique in his famous cold phone call to Jim Cantrell when he wanted to start a rocket company. 

We will learn how to make use of Public Narrative as a leadership tool in this two-part workshop.

Part 1: Who am I, and why am I called to lead? (Story of Self)

You may think that your personal story does not matter or that people are not interested. 

If you are leading an organization and you want to connect with your team, you need to offer an account of who you are, why you do what you do, and where you hope to lead.

Please note that this will be an interactive workshop.