There I Was...Veteran storytelling as a communication tool in the civilian world

“There I was…doing something hard to explain. The consequences of failure were too great to imagine. But, in the moment when things looked the worst, we were able to do something you wouldn’t understand. So, did I get the job?” When we leave military service for the civilian world, we can’t abandon the stories that made us. Those events and the people who made them memorable are a part of us until our last breaths. But, service members often struggle to concisely communicate the transformative impact of those events and their role in making us who we are today. This interactive workshop teaches you 5 storytelling tactics to present yourself in a job interview, communicate clearly with investors, or “simply” share the truth about what made you. Storytelling is the cheat code for communicating with humans, and you will leave with secrets you can use immediately to increase your impact.

Dan Manning

Founder and Lead Instructor, #HumanIntelligence

I teach leaders to be better thinkers and communicators. When our usual ways of doing business failed, I led teams to think better to solve tough problems as a fighter pilot and military diplomat. As I transitioned from the military, I combined those experiences with the psychology and neuroscience of how we think and communicate to distill transformative lessons leaders can use to create high-performing teams solving our hardest problems. Over 1000 people have participated in #HumanIntelligence sessions, and the full curriculum has been adopted by James Madison University as a Certificate in Leading Human-Powered Innovation.