Meet the team: Riccardo
Riccardo Ginevri has been a key associate of 13 Times for some time. Like Hari, being based in London, he sat down with her over a pot of coffee to discuss his passions, superpower and background in storytelling.
How did you become a storytelling trainer?
I have been a Toastmasters International (TMI) member since 2016. At the end of my second Toastmasters certification path, using the former learning system (Competent Communicator and Advanced Communicator Bronze), I delivered a storytelling workshop for several clubs in London. The success of this workshop encouraged me to bring the same approach into my corporate role.
At the time, I was working as a Project Management Office (PMO) Lead, supporting project teams with communication and engagement. In parallel, Accenture’s Leadership, Learning and Development organisation launched a global programme to deliver structured storytelling courses (ranging from 2 to 8 hours) across the company. I became one of the certified Master Storytellers in this programme.
From that point on, I delivered storytelling and public speaking training both in person and online (during COVID) to more than 1,000 employees across the UK, Ireland, and Italy.
After leaving Accenture, I founded my own company, which now provides storytelling training for teams, with a particular focus on technical professionals, sales teams, and startup founders.
Why does storytelling matter to you?
I have always enjoyed teaching and supporting colleagues, friends, and teams on technical and project management topics. However, when I joined Toastmasters and discovered storytelling, I found something different: a genuine passion and an almost effortless dedication to teaching and coaching storytelling and public speaking.
This may partly come from my Italian roots and my natural inclination toward human connection and conversation. What I know for sure is that, over time, I received consistent and meaningful recognition for my work as a storyteller, both inside and outside organisations.
Share more about your superpower!
My superpower is the ability to connect genuinely and spontaneously with people from very different backgrounds: cultural, geographical, hierarchical, and technical.
I sit at the intersection of three worlds:
being an expat (born in Rome, having lived and worked across Europe, and now based in the UK)
having a strong technical and project management background (M.Eng, PMP, and several IT certifications, including AI)
and deeply enjoying human connection through storytelling, facilitation, and teaching.
This combination allows me to translate complexity into clarity and help people feel confident when communicating their ideas.
What’s the best client transformation you’ve been a part of?
During the kick-off of a multi-year, multi-million-pound transformation programme, I was responsible, as PMO Lead, for designing a team-building activity between Accenture and the client organisation. I proposed an experience combining LEGO® Serious Play® with the fundamentals of storytelling.
Participants were invited to build ducks using LEGO bricks and then, in mixed teams, create and share stories about their ducks.
The Transformation Director was initially sceptical and allocated only the last 20 minutes of a long day filled with presentations. Yet the energy in the room changed immediately. People became fully engaged, collaboration emerged naturally, and the session extended to almost 40 minutes! For the first time that day, the client and delivery teams truly connected.
The feedback was unanimous: everyone wished the activity had taken place at the beginning of the day, not at the end. Lesson learned!
Tell us something you believe everyone should know or try…
Rediscover your inner child. Play with something creative: drawing, photography, LEGO building, music, or writing. Then tell the story of what you created.
Dare to invent epics, adventures, dramas, or poetry. Through play and imagination, we rediscover that communication and storytelling are not “soft skills,” but essential human capabilities.
As Yuval Noah Harari says, “Storytelling is the unique human superpower.”
If there ever was a reason to get the LEGO out… Talking of which, what do you get if you cross 10,000 LEGO® bricks with two LEGO® Serious Play® facilitators and one kitchen floor… many, many thoughts.
