This is the title of a new book coming out next month by Steve Denning – KM guru, author, frequent speaker. He’ll be speaking at KMWorld & Intranets on November 8th in San Jose. And here’s a clip about the new book from a recent review in the Financial Times:Book review: Let me tell you a story about Al GoreBy Stefan Stern, Financial Times, Published: August 29 2007 17:14 If business leaders do not immediately grasp the vital insights offered by this book, both they and their organisations are doomed. But the good news is that there are examples of executives out there who have taken this book’s messages to heart, and have acted successfully on them.

Got your attention? That opening paragraph was a ham-fisted attempt to put some of Stephen Denning’s theories into practice. Leaders who want their businesses to embrace change, he says, must first get the attention of the people who matter. Negative messages (or bad news) tend to attract people’s attention more effectively than good news.

But bad news alone might just be depressing. Hence the need for the second sentence of this review. The desire for change must be stimulated, Denning argues, by holding out the prospect that a better world can be and indeed already is being created.

This new book is Denning’s latest attempt to explain why storytelling – or “narrative” – has such an important role in leadership. In the past few years he has written of the need for “springboard”

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