LORI SILVERMAN

“Stories are a natural stimulant. They are the antidote to boredom and indifference.”

This philosophy has guided Lori’s consulting work in strategy, enterprise-wide change, and performance improvement for almost twenty years.

However, it was not until 1999 that she came to truly grasp the need to make story work conscious and purposeful rather than happenstance. The turning point was the night before a keynote talk to eleven hundred people in Seattle, Washington, which she planned to give without relying on visual aids.

Through feedback from a friend who heard her practice she suddenly realized that something needed to replace the props—stories that brought concepts and ideas from her book Critical Shift:The Future of Quality in Organizational Performance to life. Soon after, she simplified her talks and queried colleagues for tales to tell. No more brain overload for those sitting in the audience.

In her consulting, varied kinds of future stories entered her strategy work, and storytelling to facilitate organizational change and performance improvement became a thoughtful occurrence. Yet something was still missing. But Lori chose to go with the flow and let life take its course. It soon brought the opportunity to coauthor Stories Trainers Tell: 55 Ready-to-Use Stories to Make Training Stick. While interviewing trainers, storytellers, speakers, consultants, and business leaders for the book she stumbled onto more answers—and more questions that stimulated the current book, Wake Me Up When the Data Is Over: How Organizations Use Stories to Drive Results.

Lori’s consulting clients in more than fifteen different industries—from financial services to petroleum, high technology, retail, paper, insurance, health care, airline, higher education, manufacturing, professional and trade associations in addition to government agencies and military units—have benefited from her deliberate work with stories.

Today, she is highly sought as a keynote speaker having enhanced the lives of thousands of conference and meeting participants with her highly energized and enthusiastic approach and magical stories, inspiring her audiences to take action. Along the way, Lori also created the web site www.sayitwithastory.com to bring a variety of story applications into workplaces around the world.

Stories are the mainstay of her teaching as an adjunct instructor for the Fluno Center for Executive Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the School of Continuing Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. And they are integral to her myriad writings. Having earned two master’s degrees, in business administration and counseling, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology, Lori brings a wealth of experience, knowledge, and stories to the work she engages in today.

Lori L. Silverman, owner,
Partners for Progress
Phone: 800.253.6398
E-mail Lorii
Web:
Consulting: www.partnersforprogress.com
Speaking: www.lorisilverman.com