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
We offer three types of courses: self-paced courses, cohort courses, and certificate programs. Cohort courses run on a set calendar, with fixed start and end dates. Course learning is self-paced within those dates and requires approximately 4-5 hours per week over 5 weeks. Courses consist of videos, activities, assignments, access to course teaching teams, and feedback from a global community of learners. There are also optional 1-hour video Community Conversations, held weekly by the teaching team.
All of our cohort courses are fully online, so you can take them from any time zone, anywhere in the world. With our cohort course experience, while you'll be learning alongside other learners, you'll still have the flexibility to work at the pace that fits your own schedule. There aren't mandatory live components, so you don't have to worry about having to log in at a specific time. At the same time, you'll have access to a teaching team who will answer your questions and give feedback on your assignments throughout the course.
Cohort courses run on a set calendar with fixed start and end dates. You will be learning alongside other learners, but still have the flexibility to work at a pace that fits your own schedule—there aren't mandatory live components. In cohort courses, you'll have access to a teaching team who will answer your questions and give feedback on your assignments throughout the course. Self-paced courses allow you to start, learn, and finish a course completely on your own schedule. Since courses are on-demand, there's no community experience of going through the material with other learners. In on-demand courses, there is no teaching team providing feedback on your submissions.
Upon completing a course, the certificate and digital badge for the course will automatically become available to you on your profile page within 24 hours. There, you can view your certificate, download it, and access your Credly badge. We've partnered with Credly, a leading digital credentialing platform, to provide learners with a digital badge that they can share on social media, email signatures, or add to their LinkedIn profiles or resumes.
IDEO U courses are not currently eligible for university credit.
You'll need a stable internet connection and a device (computer, tablet, or phone) with a modern web browser such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge. Some course activities may work better on a computer than a mobile device. You'll also need to be able to view videos, which requires a browser that supports HTML5 video.
Once you enroll in a course, you can access it by logging into your IDEO U account at ideou.com and clicking on your profile icon in the upper right corner. Then click on "My Courses" to see all of your enrolled courses. Click on the course you want to access to go to the course page. Your courses are always available in your account, even after the course end date.
We offer a 10-day satisfaction guarantee for our cohort courses (starting from the course start date). If you're unhappy with the course for any reason, reach out to us within 10 days of the course start date and we'll give you a full refund. To process a refund, contact us.
Yes, we do! We offer group pricing when you purchase 5 or more seats for the same course. Contact us at learner-success@ideou.com to get a quote.
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.
