When I came across Susan Luke while researching material for A Storied Career, I was struck and intrigued by her job title, corporate mythologist. I had to learn more about this work.
The Q&A with Susan will appear over the next five days.
Bio: Susan Luke, CSP, is a corporate mythologist and leadership consultant. Her client list runs from Coca Cola to BHP Billiton Corporation, from Hyatt Hotels to the US Department of Defense, from Avantel (Mexico) to Hawaiian Tel (Honolulu), and spans more than a dozen countries on 5 continents. She brings to her clients hands-on CEO experience, proven consulting skills, and superb presentation/training abilities. Her compelling information, practical ideas, positive approach, and irreverent sense of humor have garnered rave reviews around the world.
As CEO of a technical services support company in the financial services industry, Susan oversaw the execution of an original 5-year plan in 3 years, exceeded growth targets by 300 percent, paid dividends ahead of schedule, and completed a successful merger into a larger entity.
She took her own personal experience, combined it with extensive research, and began consulting to senior executives in the financial services industry on one of the key ingredients of her success: the power of myths, legends and storytelling to accelerate the execution of corporate transitions. Susan understands how those in leadership positions can harness the power of stories to shape corporate culture and provide an accelerated decision-making process at every level of an organization. She continues to help individuals and organizations use stories to help others accept change while working through challenging times.
The effectiveness of her insights, and universal truths of her models and experience, broadened her client list to a wide variety of sectors and organizations. She is recognized, both domestically and internationally, as an inspirational speaker and trainer, providing information, practical strategies and techniques, through highly interactive learning sessions for her clients.
Susan began her professional career as an educator. She indulged a passion to make a difference, teaching school in remote villages throughout Alaska.
She was also one of the first certified International Credit Union Development Educators under the Biden-Pell Amendment, working in conjunction with the World Council of Credit Unions, and the first to hold both North American and Australasian certification.
Susan is a Certified Strategic Planner, and one of less than 10 percent of the 7,500-member International Federation of Professional Speakers to hold the Certified Speaking Professional Designation.
She authored Log Cabin Logic and is a contributing author to the anthology Grand Stories. See Ya Later ‘Gator (Achieving Bottom Line Results through Narrative) is the working title of a book-in-progress expected to be published later this year. Susan also publishes an ezine, “Myths R Us.”
Q&A with Susan Luke (Question 1):
Q: You are a corporate mythologist. Can you trace your development in realizing the importance of corporate mythology and becoming a corporate mythologist?
A: To my knowledge, I am the only “corporate mythologist” using that title. I coined the descriptor in trying to put some definition around who I am and what I do. Corporate mythology has two aspects — the stories of/about the organization (history, philosophy, values, vision) and the stories of the individuals who make up the organization. How they are being used and how much in alignment they are determines the everyday corporate culture.
Intuitively I have always known that stories are important. As my
career evolved, I realized that what I believed and took for granted about stories and storytelling (based on my growing-up years) was not universally shared nor understood by many. As I began to work with businesses around the world I realized that stories were an ideal communication tool because their universality crosses cultural lines.
As our world grows smaller and more interdependent than ever before, sharing our stories is not only a basic way to develop alliances, but it provides a vehicle for understanding that is the power behind every bullet point in every report, proposal, etc. It was an epiphany of sorts to realize that what I loved about working and talking with people were the stories they shared. If I can continue to help them do that, both internally and externally, both corporately and individually, then perhaps being a corporate mythologist is not only my profession and business, it is my calling.