ABSTRACT
Chapter 14 discusses personal manifestos, which are public declarations of a leader’s intent, and examines how leaders attract people to them through powerful stories. A good narrative not only articulates pathways from the world as it is to the world as it should be, but also sparks the motivation to act on it. A good story, well told, can slip past the defences of the rational mind, pluck at our hearts and stir our emotions. Human societies have flourished without the wheel, but none has existed without stories. We are storytelling animals and to be human is to tell stories. The ability to learn from vicarious experience through storytelling is thought to have provided an evolutionary advantage to our ancestors, ensuring the spread of innovative ideas and technology and the development of culture.
