Jim Pirrie BSc MBA
THE STORY SO FAR...
I've always been fascinated by stories and the world of the performing artist.
I teach people how to tell stories.
I teach people how to choose and use stories, how to stand up, be confident and speak (in business or otherwise), how to find a true voice, and how to make their speaking come alive.
I'm into storytelling in business and organisations, storytelling as a performing art, and the idea that traditional stories can offer us a transformative and provocative inquiry into life, relationships and communities of all kinds - work, home, and life at large.
I use storymaking and storytelling to open up creativity, confidence, freedom to speak and new possibilities for people and groups.
As a consultant I use story as the vehicle for researching, designing and delivering programmes to transfer complex ideas, changes and knowledge faster and more effectively than any other method I've seen.
I also run workshops exploring the world of story and the skills of the storyteller for people of all kinds - in business and for a fun and thought-provoking few days away from the humdrum.
My career, however, to begin with, took me in a very different direction: engineering degree, business school and a creative twenty years working in technology businesses in R&D, Product Development and Marketing.
By 2001, though, I had had enough of the Corporate Cube, and decided to set up my own consulting, training and coaching business. As a career innovator, inventor, marketer and manager it was important for me to seek out approaches that address root causes rather than symptoms: practical tools that I now use to design and deliver unconventional, inspiring and effective courses and workshops - experiences that make a genuine difference to people when they go back out into the 'real world'.
And it's been a ball!
I've studied NLP in the UK and California (I'm a Certified NLP Trainer, Coach and Master Practitioner); I spent a year at a London theatre school learning about voice coaching, stage presence and performance; I sat at the feet of Keith Johnstone (the Founding Father of comedy improvisation) in the Canadian Rockies for ten days; I studied the art and craft of Storytelling with some of the leading teachers of the Art (including a period of about six months when I was immersed more or less completely in that magical, transformational world); I became fascinated by the potential for personal change uncovered by Al Pesso and Dianne Boyden (especially in the hands of the extraordinary Juliet Grayson); I wrote poetry and creative prose under the gentle guidance of Paul Matthews in Sussex; and I continued to explore voice and performance work with many teachers along the way.
And in amongst that, I was running open courses and working with clients including Inmarsat, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ofcom, KPMG, Linklaters, Clifford Chance, DLA Piper, Carphone Warehouse and Mouchel. I was designing and delivering courses and workshops ranging from organisational change programmes through communication and presentation skills and explaining the workings of the Telecomms Industry to Lawyers, Accountants and Regulators. I've delivered training courses as far North as Oslo, South as Johannesburg, East as Moscow and West as Lagos.
Now the shape of my work has changed. Building on my experience since 2001, I work with stories, storytelling and performance skills to help people develop their own authentic voice as speakers and presenters. And, building on my experience inside organisations, I also use stories to explore how people can be better engaged in their organisations, and how change programmes can be designed and delivered in such a way that the change is relevant and effective - and lasting.
And I run storytelling courses - because the world really does need more storytellers and better stories.
Oh yes, and I tell stories in public, too.
Check out my Blog to see what my take is on all this...!
