The Astonishing Power of Storytelling

Leading, Teaching, and Transforming in a New Way

From this point forward, this book will be one of those cherished friends I keep on my nightstand and pack during long travel journeys.  I encourage every educator to give yourself the gift of The Astonishing Power of Storytelling – it will have a profound impact on your personal and professional journey.

You will never find a more insightful book on the nature and power of storytelling as leadership. This book will stir your emotions, inform you, and inspire you to rethink how you lead. It will then guide you to become a better storyteller by helping you ‘shift perceptions, invite learning, inspire action, and seek a new desired state' in your local context. A unique and inspiring leadership book.

Bob Garmston captures the science and the magic of stories as essential tools for leading, collaborating, communicating, and connecting, showing how and why leading through story is vital in our complex world. This book is a must read for education leaders of all kinds—principals, central office leaders, facilitators, and all who want to support the growth of others in powerful ways.

This book has comprehensiveness, careful structure, and graceful writing. Garmston didn't just pick a topic and write a book. This wisdom piece has been a lifetime in the making. It is really quite something.

We hear stories every day.  But we don’t necessarily tell—or retell—stories well.  Every leader needs to reach people, their hearts and minds, and Garmston’s new book speaks to the power of storytelling for just this purpose. A surprising read, I now see stories differently, as sparks for human transformation.

In this book, Bob Garmston—a mesmerizing storyteller himself—brings an age-old tradition to life with useful guides for crafting good stories and using them in our work and daily lives. 

It has been said if you want to change the culture, change the story. Bob Garmston has been a premier professional development trainer and practitioner for over thirty years. This book will provide background knowledge and great practical tips on the use of stories as a teaching strategy.

For eons, storytelling has linked one generation of humanity to another and Robert J. Garmston does us all a great favor by reminding us that story is the conduit of human experience. Those who lead, present, and consult will find this book an enduring friend for influencing and communicating to a variety of audiences, especially in one’s own voice.

With rare insights, Bob Garmston offers many pathways into the practice of storytelling, most powerfully by showing how metaphors are basic structures for making stories meaningful, heartfelt, and enlightening across diverse cultures. 

Guided by his rich life experience in helping educators embrace meaningful learning and development in schools, Bob Garmston has brought us another gem! He offers the why, what, and how for using this most effective means of inspiring change in individuals and organizations.