Storytelling for Influence
Storytelling for Influence
Go Deeper with Certificate Programs
Storytelling for Influence is part of three certificate programs, including:
What You'll Get
Week 1: Introduction
Week 1: Introduction
Watch a sneak peek
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The Power of Storytelling
4 Video Lessons
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How this Course Works—Your learning road map
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The Power of Storytelling—Motivate people toward change
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The Science of Storytelling—What makes stories stick
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Meet Your Instructor—Jenn Maer
1 Assignment
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Identify the Story You Want to Tell: Choose a theme and a related story you want to tell. These will provide you with the basic building blocks for your work throughout the course.
2 Discussions
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Think about the challenges in your work today. What's one way storytelling can help you address them?
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Think back to a time when a story really moved you. What made the story powerful?
Week 2: Develop Your Blueprint
Week 2: Develop Your Blueprint
3 Video Lessons
- The Brief—Know thy audience
- The Big Idea—Focus is key
- The Medium—Ways to convey your story
1 Assignment
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Develop Your Blueprint: Now that you've chosen your story topic, think about your audience, their needs, and the best way to tell them your story.
2 Discussions
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Think of a time you empathized with another person or group of people. How did empathizing impact you? What insights did you gather once you stepped into someone else's shoes?
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As you crystallized what you wanted to say into a brief and big idea, what challenges did you face? What felt uncomfortable? What felt right?
Week 3: Build Storytelling Prototypes
Week 3: Build Storytelling Prototypes
3 Video Lessons
- Build Storytelling Prototypes—Creative ways to battle the blank page
- Ways to Prototype & Build your Story—Low-risk ways to share your story
- Invite Feedback to Strengthen Your Story—Iterate, iterate, iterate
1 Assignment
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Prototype Your Story: Now it's time to prototype your story. This helps us get our ideas out of our heads and into the world. Follow our three steps: build, share, and reflect.
3 Discussions
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Tell us about a time you learned from an early failure. How did that failure help you move forward?
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Who's your hero or heroine? What made you look up to that person? How did his or her values shape who you are today?
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In a few sentences, tell us about prototyping your story. What challenges did you face? How did you overcome them?
Week 4: Design for Impact
Week 4: Design for Impact
4 Video Lessons
- Setting the Right Tone—Why tone is everything
- Learn from a Presentation that Falls Flat—What not to do
- Learn from a Presentation that Moves You—An invitation to imagine
- 6 Tips for Story Impact—From good to great
1 Assignment
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Iterate Your Story: Choose two of our 6 tips for story impact to enhance your story and make it more compelling.
5 Discussions
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Share a video or article where you think tone strongly influenced how the story was told. What qualities or attitude did the tone convey? How did tone impact the way you received the story?
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Share one of your letters with the community. What are your talking points? What feeling did you want to inspire in the recipient?
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What did you notice about the presentation that fell flat? What tone-related adjustments would have made it better?
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What was different about the second presentation? Did it motivate you? Compare and contrast the two presentations.
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Think back to where you started—is there anything that surprised you regarding how your story has changed over time? Did you have any "a-ha!" moments?
Week 5: Conclusion
Week 5: Conclusion
1 Video Lesson
- Course Conclusion—Go create impact
1 Assignment
- Final Project: Bring your story to life in your chosen medium and share with the community for feedback.
2 Discussions
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Submit an artifact or video, using your own tone and style, declaring yourself a storyteller.
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What was the most revealing moment for you in the course? How will you apply what you've learned to a current challenge in your life or work?
Meet Your Instructor
Jenn Maer
Former Design Director, IDEO
Jenn led brand strategy and storytelling work with clients including Marriott, Mattel, Snapple, and Microsoft. She’s taught classes on brand and storytelling and spoken at SXSW and other events. Jenn is an award-winning writer, with recognition from The One Show, Core 77, SPARK, ADDY, and IDSA. Jenn holds a B.A. in Women’s Studies from Smith College.
Jenn Maer
Former Design Director, IDEO
Jenn’s career as a storyteller began at age seven when she penned (well, actually, penciled) her first novel—a 75-page, double-spaced, spiral notebook tour de force entitled “Shark!”
Since then, she’s worked as an agency Account Planner, Copywriter and Associate Creative Director. She’s helped tell the stories of clients like HP, Oregon Chai, Microsoft, Red Envelope, and Snapple. Her writing has been recognized by The One Show, Clios, and others.
Jenn holds a B.A. in Women’s Studies from Smith College. She led brand strategy and storytelling work with an equally diverse group of IDEO clients, including Marriott, Mattel, ConAgra, and The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
FAQs
IDEO U courses are online and self-paced, with the exception of select cohort-based courses. In each course, you'll move through a series of lessons—watching videos, completing activities, and submitting work to get feedback. The coursework is designed to be immediately applicable to your real-world projects and challenges.
Storytelling for Influence is for leaders, communicators, and anyone who wants to use storytelling to inspire action and drive change. It's ideal for those who want to develop their ability to communicate complex ideas in clear, compelling, and memorable ways.
You'll learn how to craft and tell stories that inspire action. You'll develop skills in narrative structure, character development, and using story to communicate strategy, change, and innovation.
Storytelling for Influence teaches the foundational skills of storytelling: audience analysis, the story brief, testing your story, developing tone. Creative Storytelling with AI assumes you have that foundation and extends it into how to direct AI to shape, materialize, and translate your story to capture attention. If you're new to storytelling as a deliberate practice, take Storytelling for Influence first. If you're already comfortable with the craft and want to push it further, you can start with Creative Storytelling with AI.
Impactful Presentations is a natural complement to either course. Where Storytelling for Influence and Creative Storytelling with AI focus on building and shaping the story, Impactful Presentations focuses on delivering it — how to present with clarity and command in the room.
Upon successful completion of this course, you'll earn an IDEO U certificate and a Credly badge to share with your professional network. To earn your IDEO U certificate, submit all assignments in the course. You can download your certificate from your profile on the IDEO U website.
IDEO U offers team pricing for groups of 5 or more. Contact us for details.
We want you to be fully satisfied. If for any reason you are not satisfied with a course, let us know within 7 days and we'll refund you in full. After 7 days, we aren't able to offer a refund.
Collaborate with a Global Community
Work with Expert Coaches
Our teaching team has extensive applied industry knowledge. They'll help deepen your understanding and application of the course content by facilitating written discussions, live video moments, and assignment feedback.
Expand Your Network
Join virtual live discussion groups for deeper conversation, reflection, and connection led by teaching team members and available multiple times a week across time zones.
Receive Feedback
Gain tips, techniques, and a downloadable feedback guide; and share and receive feedback on assignments from peers.
Loved by Learners Across the Globe
Storytelling for Influence
“I am absolutely thrilled with the result that I obtained with my work. The process helped me to truly hone in on the important elements of the story so that I could produce a result that is full of impact and completely aligned to the work I am doing.”
Storytelling for Influence
“I found the design and content so useful. As someone who spends her days in an office, I sometimes need refreshing outside influences to help think in different ways. This course was engaging and tactical. I walked away with real steps I can take to continue to get better.”
Storytelling for Influence
“It's an easy and engaging format to learn and practice new skills. To build, share, and get feedback makes it tangible and gives you a sense of what works and what doesn't.”
Storytelling for Influence
“This course is more effective than other professional development courses I've taken because the coursework is fun and digestible. The lessons also take a reasonable amount of time to complete, which is perfect for any busy professional.”
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Enroll As a Team
The practice and application of design thinking, innovation, and creativity is highly collaborative and team based—which is why we believe that learning is better together. Take a course as a team and develop new skills and mindsets, have deeper discussion during course kickoff and debrief sessions, and build a shared understanding.
