Visitors can probably tell that I'm a total blogging newbie. I think of myself as somewhat tech savvy for someone of my age, but there's a lot to learn about publishing a blog -- a whole new vocabulary. RSS, pinging, trackback, CSS, XML.

I have been keeping a quasi-blog for my PhD program, but it's really just a Web page that I update every month or so. It also has been focused on the process of my program, which is valuable to record, but I evolved into wanting something more content oriented.

Keeping this blog is actually a part of my coursework, and I truly didn't imagine when I conceived it that I would be getting a whole technical education on top of creating a venue for synthesizing what I'm learning about storytelling. I'm very grateful for the help I've enlisted with the blog. And I hope any veteran bloggers who visit will be patient with my ignorance as I learn the ropes.

And how come Movable Type doesn't have a spell-checker?

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Recently I received an e-mail from Marcia Duffy, who is a personal historian. I find that a fascinating way to make a living, and it's related to my interest in story and career. Here's her story of telling the stories of others:

By Marcia Passos Duffy

So many people keep meaning to interview their parents or grandparents -- and capture all those entertaining and enlightening family stories. But most people never get around to it, and put it off until it is too late and the storyteller has died or is too sick to tell stories anymore.

This was the case with me. My grandmother died two years ago at the age of 94. She was born in Portugal and immigrated twice -- to Brazil then to the United States where she lived with my parents for 30 years -- and many stories to tell of her adventures. I was very close with my grandmother, who came to live with us when I was 12. She was a skilled, animated storyteller -- as are many people of her generation.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Here are a some articles/blog entries that embody some of what my work is about -- connecting story to career:

A one-minute story may be key to a storied career by Penelope Trunk, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 7, 2003

Multi-Story Resume, Higher Profile, author unknown

Is your resume telling a compelling story?, FINCAREER, The insiders' blog on jobs, careers and leadership in the global financial markets, April 12, 2005

The above from FINCAREER is interesting because it's inspired by a Harvard Business Review article by Herminia Ibarra and Kent Lineback that asserts a resume can tell a story better than a CV can. But the resume they describe is really no different from today's standard resume. It may tell a story more than a CV does, but in my view, a resume could do a lot more to tell the job-seeker's story. That's a big part of what my work is about and the kind of answers I'm looking for.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

My preliminary literature review for my dissertation touches on using story/narrative in career counseling, but while working on an assignment (from which this entry is adapted) for a class I'm taking through Capella University (Strategies for Career and Life Planning), I was quite surprised to discover several articles on that topic that I hadn't seen before. "How could I have missed these?" I asked myself -- and then I realized that it was because this area of career counseling is so emergent that these articles hadn't even been published when I was first conducting my bibliographic searches.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

The second day of the April 2005 weekend of storytelling was sponsored by the Golden Fleece group.

Keynote speaker Molly Catron, speaking on "Difficult Stories to Simulate Dialogue and Change Organizations' Culture," was a hoot. Though she didn't get to talk about many of them because she told so many great stories, you can download her PowerPoint slides and a related Word doc paper

Other sessions I attended included Ashraf Ramzy from the Netherlands, speaking on "Narrativity and Spirit of Enterprise -- The Quest for Identity, Purpose and Value," Kelly Cresap on "Sovereign, Warrior, Magician, Lover: An Archetypal Journey," and Geoffrey Wilfong-Pritchard on "It's a Great Idea (It will never work!)." All were interesting and Wilfong-Pritchard in particular painted a picture of how an organizational story really works in a real-life situation.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

The highlight of the Smithsonian portion of the conference for me was Annette Simmons, author of The Story Factor. Annette offers all kinds of great downloadable stuff on storytelling and her other areas of expertise at her Web site. These storytelling folks are all about giving away their knowledge -- knowing that it makes us listeners even more likely to buy their books and such. Shades of Oprah, at the end of her presentation, Annette gave the whole audience a partially completed version of a CD she plans to sell in the fall. Her hope was that audience members would review it and give her suggestions.

I had communicated with Annette about my dissertation and quoted her in my proposal, and she was nothing like I imagined she would be based on "talking" by e-mail, reading her book, and checking out her Web site. She's a fabulous speaker -- funny, genuine, and just a pleasure to listen to.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

The first, sponsored by Smithsonian Associates and titled Storytelling for Organizational Success, was kicked off by Steve Denning, the prolific organizational storytelling guru and author, whose newest book is The Leader's Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative. Here also is Steve's blog.

The theme for the day's conference was Narrative in Marketing, Branding, Public Relations and Partnerships, relevant to me because a major part of my PhD program focuses on using storytelling for personal branding for organizational entry and career success. A quick summary of Denning's presentation follows, but he says it best himself in his slide presentation

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

A Storied Career is Kathy Hansen's Blog that explores intersections among various forms and uses of storytelling, including journaling, organizational storytelling, storytelling for organizational entry, Writing to Learn, and keeping a Weblog (Blogging). A Storied Career has its roots in my PhD program, and my hope is that its scope will expand well beyond my program and be of interest to folks fascinated by all sorts of traditional and postmodern uses of storytelling.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.