Nick Isbister and Jude Elliman

‘The Universe is made of stories not of atoms.’ So says American poet Muriel Rukeyser.

Our belief is that people’s lives are made of stories - some forced on them, some chosen, some ever-present for them, some half-forgotten, some bringing life and some closing people down and boxing them in. Stories define. Stories confine. Stories affirm. Stories constrain. Narratives and the connections they make, and the conversations they engender are the basis of all relationships, all groups, all tribes, all organisations. The health of the groups we belong to, and are part of is critically dependent on the quality of the conversations between people.

The Story so Far is a guide for executive coaches about the function of narrative in their client’s lives. Everyone constructs their identity through the stories they tell. This book is about Transformational Narrative Coaching, a process that supports and challenges clients as they re-story their lives and shape different, more generative futures. This is the resource you will need as an experienced executive coach to add a narrative dimension to your repertoire of coaching approaches. The book lays the foundations for narrative coaching and outlines the practicalities of becoming a Transformational Narrative Coaching Practitioner.

The book is the distilled wisdom of two highly experienced executive coaches - Nick Isbister and Jude Elliman. Each of them have thirty years of working with a diverse range of clients from a variety of sectors, using their stories and a narrative methodology. The draws coaches into the world of narrative identity and of how to work with it. Businesses are dependent on engaging their constituencies in better conversations and this approach equips you to work with these narratives too. Insightful, relevant, practical The Story so Far is a must for any experienced executive coach, or L&OD practitioners who want to work more effectively with the complexity and power of narrative expression.