Finalist in Business Book of the Year 2025.
You're leading a change that people need but don't yet want.
The plan is sound. The numbers stack up. People nod.
But when the meeting ends, nothing moves. Somewhere between your head and theirs, your great idea is dying. And it's dying for one reason. It has no story to live in.
The DNA of Engagement® gives it one.
Created by David Pullan and Sarah Jane McKechnie of The Story Spotters and tried and tested with leadership teams inside the FTSE100, this is a practical guide to leadership communication for anyone who has to take people somewhere new.
A transformation programme, a new strategy, a team that has stopped listening, a board that needs convincing. If part of your job is leading change, this book was written for you.
What you'll be able to do.
- Build trust before you build your case. Learn what makes people willing to hear you, so your idea gets a fair hearing instead of a polite one.
- Hold attention in a noisy room. Use the DNA framework to shape messages that people listen to, remember and repeat when you're not there.
- Win minds and hearts together. Combine logic and emotion so your idea travels further than the meeting it was born in.
- Tell stories that work at work. A simple, jargon-free guide to business storytelling, with real examples from real boardrooms.
- Get buy-in that lasts. Co-create stories with your team so the change becomes theirs and they carry it for you.
All of it packed into 166 pages of examples, exercises and serious fun. Short enough to read on a flight. Useful enough to keep on your desk.
Bonus. Every copy comes with free access to the 53-page Rehearsal Notes workbook, with space to apply each idea to your own challenge, video guidance and extra tips for using the tools in the wild.
Trust is in short supply and attention is shorter. The leaders who get heard are the ones who give their ideas a story worth following. Get your copy and give your next big idea the structure to survive the room, and a story that lives long after you've left it.
