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The Art of Powerful Storytelling through Theatre Improvisation

Anyone who wants to influence, whether it’s to push forward a social cause, to sell products, or simply to change the way people think, has no choice but to share their messages in the most compelling way. One of the most effective and powerful tools of influence is storytelling. Storytelling may be an age-old tradition, but in today’s corporate world, it’s also been embraced as a uniquely powerful business practice. Top organizations utilize it as a means to communicate vision. Forward thinking business schools now include storytelling courses in their management curriculum. As a leader or a manager, if you’re not using storytelling as a method to rally your troops and convince others of your ideas, you’re missing out on one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal.

Many people have misunderstanding about corporate storytelling. They think that it means you have to be theatrical and dramatic in their delivery. That’s not true. Corporate storytelling is not about entertaining people with dramatic impressions, animated delivery. That’s for the theatre.

Having said that, there are many things that we can learn from theatre. Coen Tan will call upon his experiences in Improv Theatre to help you craft compelling stories that engage our audience and get them to think, feel, act and do. Together, you will explore key lessons from theatre (how to make characters, plots and conflicts clear in our delivery) as well as learn tricks that the best scriptwriters use to write compelling storylines behind box-office hits.

Objective

In this program, you will learn how to:

• Be a master storyteller so that you can energize, excite and engage your audience every time you speak.
• Understand the basic structures and elements of compelling stories - characters, plots, conflicts, settings.
• Be able to tap on key moments in your stories to evoke emotions, insights and realizations in your audience.
• Weed out the parts of your stories that may not add to the audience’s experience, or may distract people from the main messages you are trying to send.
• Use improvisation techniques to be able to create stories on the spot through audience interactions.
• Influence with stories - how telling the best stories will make all the difference in business, work and relationships
• Bring the audience through a roller-coaster ride in emotions so that they experience the learning for themselves, are inspired and moved to take action

Outline

Introduction to Storytelling

• Appreciate the various effects of storytelling in everyday life
• Why storytelling works

Master the Elements of a Good Story

• How to craft themes, plots and storylines that are interesting and engaging
• How to identify the plot, the conflict and the dilemma in the story
• How to paint a compelling picture of the characters, their traits and the challenges that they face
• How to unpack the key parts in a story and deliver it to make the story impactful
• Understanding the vital elements of a story that without which stories don’t exist (Challenges, Change, Conflict)

Learn the Basics of Improvisation

• Bust the common myths of improvisation and overcome your fears and barriers to improvisation
• Be able to use improvisation techniques to create stories on the fly, especially without preparation
• Use improvisation games as warm-ups to smooth and powerful presentations delivery

Impactful Storytelling Delivery

• Keep your audience at the edge of their seats through your story
• Apply powerful delivery techniques, such as voice quality, enunciation, accents, pitch, vocal variety, body language, eye contact and energy, to bring the story to life

Particular of Coen Tan

Workshop Facilitator, Natural Empath, Improv Enthusiast

As a facilitator, Coen envisions a world in which people break out of their self-imposed limitations and express themselves courageously to serve others. He believes that every person deserves to be seen, be heard, and be appreciated.

This conviction comes from difficult personal experiences.

Personal Experiences

Growing up as an emotionally sensitive child, Coen often “felt” emotions that people were not aware of feeling themselves, so he was often labelled as “overly sensitive.” For a long time, he has accepted these labels and therefore learn to keep his emotions to himself. This led him to isolate himself, got bullied in school, and fell into depression.

After a long journey of personal healing, working through his experiences, Coen is now able to understand that his perceived weaknesses are actually his strengths when applied with empathy.

Today, he brings his gifts of compassion, curiosity and creativity to create safe places where individuals can challenge themselves and achieve personal and team transformations. Combining his understanding of human psychology with improvisation theatre techniques, Coen’s workshops are engaging, fun and deep learning experiences.

Work Experiences and Professional Training

Over the past 12 years, Coen has spoken to, and trained over 50,000 individuals. Before embarking on this journey, he worked for 5 years as a leadership training curriculum designer, which gave him an in-depth understanding of the psychology of learning.

Having been certified in multiple personality profiling instruments like the MBTI and Enneagram, he has an appreciation for the myriad of worldviews and motivation drivers of people he works with. Being a certified Cultural Transformation and Values Assessment Consultant, and Appreciative Inquiry Practitioner, Coen is inspired to work with people to tap into their values and innate gifts to flourish.

- holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Resource Consulting,
- Advanced Certificate in Training and Assessment
- a certified NLP Practitioner
- a certified Enneagram Practitioner
- an accredited MBTI Personality Profiling Practitioner
- a Certified Organization Culture Transformation Practitioner
- achieved the Gold-Distinction Award (Speaking in Public) by the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA).

Coen’s wide range of clients include Citibank, AXA Insurance; Prudential, AIA, Zurich Insurance, PayPal, Twitter, Siemens Healthineers, Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck, Novartis, Roche, AstraZeneca, Allergan, Watsons, Wacker, Lubrizol, CGG, Fullerton Capital, Sime Darby, Cognizant, A*STAR, MINDEF, MHA, Nanyang Technological University and dozens of other reputable organizations.