XCUS-139 - Collaborative Storytelling for Social Impact - IBM

Course Description

The Certificate in Collaborative Storytelling for Social Impact empowers participants to be changemakers at IBM by developing a story-centric approach to social impact. Storytelling is uniquely part of what it means to be human and to drive social impact. Stories have many purposes, among them to relate to intractable societal issues, to find commonalities between people, to grow trust with colleagues as well as customers, to transfer knowledge, and much more. Participants will learn to use this ancient form of human communication in a strategically modern way. Throughout the program, participants will employ a strategic story plan framework, developed by Georgetown University’s Center for Social Impact Communication, to create a portfolio of social impact stories. In addition, they will be challenged to use a design mindset for activating social impact collaborations. By the end of the program, participants will have evolved their knowledge and skills as both storytellers and story-listeners, grown relationships with colleagues, and, most importantly, strengthened their roles in community collaborations as Re-Ignite Program volunteers.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of the program, participants should be able to:

• create personal action steps to impact change as sustainable social impact storytellers on behalf of community partners and internally within themselves;
• develop a purposeful portfolio of stories for immediate usage to bring their Re-Ignite Program experience to life; and
• engage in authentic and impactful collaborations with community partners, colleagues and customers by using research-proven building blocks of effective storytelling and story-listening.