"Future Shoes" by Michael Finley

Asked to make a list of desirable managerial skills, you might suggest persistence, analytical ability, and financial acumen.

But storytelling?

Yes, storytelling, says Bran Ferren, a designer who worked for years for Disney and other creative entertainment giants, and now a sought-after speaker on what is missing in today's corps of business leader.

"Storytellers know what other people don't, that our brains more easily comprehend information when it is part of a meaningful narrative -- a story whose outcome matters to us."

Every business has a story, Ferren recently told members of The Masters Forum, an executive learning group that meets once a month, usually at the University of Minnesota. Our current projects are stories. Our careers and our lives acquire meaning not through lines on our resume but through the intertwining themes of ambition and struggle.

"I never have met a good leader who was not also a good storyteller," Ferren said. And leaders seeking to explain an organizational vision, and have it hang in workers' minds for more than a moment, need to masters the storyteller's art.

Some people think that because we live in an age of technology, the ancient art of narrative is no longer relevant. Untrue, said Ferren. In fact, he said, "The Internet is making possible the greatest storytelling platform in the history of the species. It allows everyone not just to have a story -- we already had that -- but a box to stand on and a moment to lay it out for the whole world to hear."

At Disney, Ferren's job was predicting the future for his mentor, Michael Eisner. It was always a challenge to know what to invest in, he said, as companies with wild products beat a path to his door to demand bet-the-farm involvement.

There was only one moment, however, when Ferren championed an idea to Eisner with no reservation at all. That idea was the Internet itself. "I told him it would be incredibly expensive, that we must invest a heck of a lot and do it very, very quickly, and there is no sensible, existing business model for a company making money off this thing."

If Disney did not make the jump, Ferren promised, Disney would be consigned to the ranks of rust belt entertainment companies.

Eisner agreed then to put a foot in the door of e- entertainment, and is widely seen now as a major e-player. (Disney was not always so shrewd. Three times they passed up chances to buy America Online outright!)

We are only now coming to grips with how radical an innovation the Internet is, Ferren said. He likened the development of the Net, in importance, to the development of language itself.

A while ago the Army asked Ferren to help learn what traits led to strong leadership. They selected energy and intelligence, then studied their huge database of experiences.

They learned that Energetic, Smart officers, far from being great leaders, tended to drive people crazy. They were like overly zealous beavers shouting out orders and never resting. Whereas, Lazy (well, less energetic) but still Smart officers took care to improve processes and teamwork, so that happy, efficient soldiers replaced the crazed beavers.

What's it mean? It means that in our rush to be professional or conventional we're overlooking some very interesting explanations for things. New explanations means new stories. And stories, deep down, are what businesses are about.

[Michael Finley is head writer for The Masters Forum in Minneapolis.]