Description:
In January, Edelman released its 2026 Trust Barometer, revealing a continued decline in trust toward institutions, leaders, and media. Yet trust in something else has grown: my CEO, my coworkers, my neighbors. The trust that survived did not disappear. It moved closer to home.
For leaders, this raises an important question: If trust is retreating to the inner circle, what story are you telling when your team turns around to look at you?
In this 60 minute webinar, Dr. Rod Berger, CultureCon’s Storyteller in Residence and author of The Narrative Edge, explores how leaders can build trust through authentic storytelling in an increasingly divided and uncertain environment. Drawing on more than 4,000 interviews across boardrooms, refugee camps, and basketball courts, Rod introduces the concept of the Trust(ed) Co-Author, a leadership posture designed to help leaders communicate with greater authenticity, proximity, and intention.
Through practical frameworks and reflection, participants will explore why some leadership messages resonate while others fall flat, how organizations communicate under pressure, and what stories teams are truly waiting to hear.
Participants will leave ready to:
1. Assess how their leadership communication is landing and adapt their storytelling to build trust in today’s changing environment
2. Distinguish between “Police Report” and “Kitchen Table” storytelling and recognize which approach their organization defaults to under pressure
3. Apply the Four Quadrants framework to identify and source stories that strengthen trust and connection
4. Use the Quick Leadership Assessment to better understand their storytelling style and leadership presence
5. Explore opportunities to strengthen trust within their teams through authentic, intentional communication
Presenter Bio
Conducting over 4,000 interviews for Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, global podcasts, corporate leaders, agencies, and world-renowned universities, Dr. Rod Berger is a globally recognized expert in the art of strategic storytelling through dynamic interview techniques. Berger's storytelling travels have brought him an audience with the Pope and UN officials, taken him to a refugee camp in eastern Uganda, to the garage of a Formula 1 team, and to the TEDx stage. Berger served as a guest lecturer at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management for nearly two decades, focusing on the power of storytelling in business.
Berger's first book, The Narrative Edge: Authentic Storytelling That Meets The Moment (Wiley), introduced a generation of leaders to narrative discernment, the skill of understanding what is happening beneath the surface of a story. Its companion Field Guide extends that work into the room where the work actually happens, equipping executives, founders, and teams with a structured way to examine the stories shaping their decisions, cultures, and next chapter.
That same body of work powers Berger's suite of assessments for individuals and organizations, including the Personal Narrative Assessment, the Next Gen Assessment for emerging leaders, and the Organizational Leadership Assessment. Each one moves a leader or a team from an inherited story to an authored story, surfacing the patterns that drive how they show up, communicate value, and meet the moment.
With a doctorate in clinical psychology and a career spent in conversation with people at every kind of inflection point, Berger asks the questions most leaders have never been asked. Then he sits with them as they answer.
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