Case Studies

Major Australian University

Ariel Australasia partnered with one of Oceania's oldest universities to implement its 10-year strategy, emphasizing values through leadership. Ariel Group developed a custom 'Storytelling with Presence' workshop for 170 leaders, enhancing their ability to embody and communicate these values effectively.

The Client

One of the oldest universities in Oceania that wanted to effectively execute on its strategic plan. Part of which was the deployment of its values through its leadership.

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The Challenge

A comprehensive review was undertaken by the University as a way to construct and then successfully execute its 10-year strategy.

A key element of successful implementation was a refresh and then deployment of the institution’s values.

An internal survey revealed that the broader University community wanted to see leaders actively demonstrating the values.

The key to this was leaders ‘making it their own’ by communicating their lived experience around the values through using the medium of storytelling.

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The Solution

The university asked Ariel to develop a highly experiential and high energy customised workshop for its top 170 leaders. The ‘Storytelling with Presence’ workshop was created as a way to upskill leaders, so they had the ability to galvanise the hearts and minds of others through stories related to the institution’s values.

Working collaboratively with the University, Ariel developed a customised large group workshop for its 170 leaders that was delivered over four hours. The workshop was designed as follows:

The first part was getting the participants to understand and then practice Presence skills:

How to be present in the moment.
How to build relationships of trust by listening for the subtext in conversations.
How to increase their range of expressiveness in communication – voice & body

The second part of the workshop was on storytelling. Specifically:

Development of personal stories related to the University’s values
Rehearsing, receiving coaching and demonstrating telling their stories using the presence skills learned in the first half of the workshop. Initially done in small and then demonstrated by a few in front of the entire group of 170.
Discussion of six contexts where they could use storytelling back on the campus.

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