See a photo of Karen, her bio, and Part 1 of this Q&A.

Q&A with Karen Dietz, Question 3 and 4:

Q: How important is it to you and your work to function within the framework of a particular definition of “story?” (i.e., What is a story?) What definition do you espouse?

A: My definition of a story, adapted from my artist friend Peggy VanPelt along with author David Hutchens, is “an act of communication illustrating interconnections between characters, ideas, events, and even abstract concepts that provide people with packets of sensory material allowing them to quickly and easily internalize the material, comprehend it, and create meaning from it.” Notice there’s no mention of story structure (beginning, middle, end) or story arc (current state, transition, problem, resolution, conclusion). That’s because stories come in all shapes and sizes. Stories, particularly in their oral telling, shift and change to fit the context, audience, intent and a whole host of other factors. So stories and storytelling is malleable. I believe oral storytelling is the most impactful. But it really depends on the context/situation as to which story structure to use, which story elements, how to work the story arc, and which media to employ. By media I mean whether it’s written, on a CD or in video format. While oral storytelling is the gold standard, for me, other media are sometimes necessary, although there are always pluses and minuses to each type of media. The questions to ask someone wanting to effectively use stories/storytelling in an organization, is “What am I trying to do? What outcome am I trying to obtain? What kind of story/stories do we need to tell and in what media in order to reach our objectives?”

Q: Are there any current uses of storytelling that repel you or that you feel are inappropriate?

A: Storytelling has immense power to both heal and harm. It bothers me to no end that as a profession, we aren’t actively discussing examples of great organizational story work, and those that are deficient or abysmal. What passes for organizational stories/storytelling in a lot of cases is just pure junk. It’s terrible. Too many people treat stories and storytelling many times as if it is trivial, instead of immensely powerful. People with no or very little training think they can effectively work with stories and storytelling in an organization, which creates only mediocre results, I’m afraid. And we rarely talk about the dark side of story — those times when stories are deliberately used to harm and destroy others.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

A few weeks ago, I noted that SlideShare was holding a tell-a-story slideshow contest.

Entries are now closed and in the judges’ hands, but the folks at SlideShare noted they had some favorite entrants and gave links to three of them.

I hope the judges have a better sense of story than the SlideShare folks do.

The only one of the three that I felt was really a story is the one embedded below, The Short Story of Drunkenomics. I don’t happen to support its message, but it tells its story without narration and with minimal type on the slides.

I don’t really get the message of the second one, The Small & Big of It. It barely tells a story, in my opinion. It has a soundtrack, but it’s music rather than narration.

The third one, Creative Thinking: Your Edge, while a lovely slideshow, comes nowhere close to being a story.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

I first encountered Karen Dietz while working on my dissertation and have eagerly followed her work ever since. It is a true thrill and privilege to present her Q&A here. This Q&A will appear over the next five days.

Bio (from her Polaris Associates Web site): Karen Dietz, PhD., owner of Polaris Associates Consulting, Inc., works with leaders and executive teams who want to assemble and cultivate their most compelling stories, and tell them in ways that produces results. Her background in the diverse fields of folklore, creativity, strategy, organizational development, high performance teams, and interpersonal communication have allowed her to develop targeted approaches to executive storytelling and organizational narratives. As a coach, facilitator and storyteller, her clients have included Walt Disney Imagineering, Chase Manhattan Bank, City of Santa Monica, and Avery Dennison.

Karen draws on her experience in top-flight organizations to provide practical experience, guidance, and tools that can be put to work immediately.

Karen received her doctorate in Folklore from the University of Pennsylvania and is the former Executive Director of the National Storytelling Network. She is a member of the National Communication Association, Organizational Development Network, the National Storytelling Network, an online organizational narrative community of practice Worldwide Story Work, the past president and former program chair of the Storytelling In Organizations Special Interest Group. Karen is also a certified coach in Vocal Awareness techniques, and is one of the few in the field of stories and organizations bringing together story and vocal skills for greater effectiveness. In addition, her personality type reports for work environments are popular and sold worldwide

In her own words: “With a PhD in Folklore, I’ve always been engaged with stories. When I moved from academics into business training and consulting, I was always listening for, working with, analyzing, and retelling stories as a part of my team building, org change, and leadership engagements.

“In working with senior executives and organizational change, I repeatedly saw how if a leader could tell a compelling story about what change needed to happen, and why, the chance of the initiative succeeding was great. If they could not tell a compelling story about it, I could guarantee the initiative would fail. Why waste all that money doing a year’s worth of research, recommendations, plans and action steps when it could all go so easily down the drain in just a few moments?

“In 2000 I decided to shift my business to working with senior executives, organizations, and their stories so they could stop wasting buckets of money. And be more effective!

“Over the decades, as a professional storyteller, I’ve been trained by some of the best performance storytellers in the nation.

“My goals for leaders are to increase their effectiveness, be compelling, capture the hearts and minds of people, and save money.

“My goals for organizations is to crystallize their identity through compelling stories, be more effective in both internal and external communication, produce bottom-line measurable results, and increase their profits.”

Q&A with Karen Dietz, Questions 1 and 2:

Q: You offer a workshop described this way: “For the past 20 years, a complete cycle of stories has been slowly dying while a new cycle of stories is rapidly growing. Understand where our culture is heading and how these changes in story impact your product/service, marketing and sales strategies.” I’m sure you could write volumes about this story cycle, but if you can summarize briefly, please tell readers the cause of this cycling of stories and a few key characteristics of the new cycle of stories.

A: I’ve changed my thoughts on this statement, somewhat. I am now focusing on the mono-myth of the hero and how inadequate it is today to meet our needs as a human race. Of course, the hero story will always be present. But today almost all of what we do has been reduced to the hero’s story or journey. Not everything we do is heroic, and there are plenty of other journeys than the hero’s. In fact, when I work with leaders, I talk about how the hero story that they’ve grown up with in an organization needs to be replaced by the magician’s story and journey. The hero’s journey is a story of an individual. The magician’s journey is the story of a community. It’s based in building community, telling and sharing stories of community in order to reach a goal. At some point, every manager has to put away the hero’s story of an individual making it happen. Instead, they need to become a leader who, as a magician, facilitates organizational change. I could write volumes on this topic, and it’s only in the last few years that I’ve started to share some of my thinking about this.

On the story cycle: Why are we so steeped in the hero’s journey? I wish I knew. Organizational story professional Richard Stone talked many years ago about the “de-storification” of our culture. You can see it all the time in the formulaic movies Hollywood produces. And you can see it when the news media scrambles to identify a lone hero when in fact the story is about several heroes or a community of heroes. Where are the trickster tales? Where are the stories of community? Where are the king or queen stories? Where are the crone stories? I could go on. So as a storyteller, I am always asking myself, “What are the stories that are not being told that people might need to hear?” and “What different kinds of stories do I need to listen for?” I find those to be much more provocative questions that helps shape my work as coach, consultant, trainer, and storyteller.

Q: How did you initially become involved with story/storytelling/narrative? What attracted you to this field? What do you love about it?

A: I initially became involved in storytelling through graduate school where I was receiving my doctorate in Folklore & Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. I was exposed to storytelling as an academic subject, but it really made an impact on me when I got to know storyteller Ron Evans from Canada. As the keeper of the sacred stories for his tribe (Chippewa/Cree), he taught me the power of oral storytelling, and I learned the most about stories and storytelling from him. His lessons about the care and feeding of stories I still carry with me today, and I do my best to pass along what he taught me.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

What struck me the most about President Obama’s recent televised town-hall meeting on healthcare was that when he asked the gathering of some 160 people of all political persuasions if any of them felt the healthcare system is fine the way it is, not a single one raised a hand.

Over the past few weeks, the administration has collected hundreds of thousands of stories about just how messed up the healthcare system is.

I have read many of these stories and find them a mix of poignant, heartbreaking, and enraging. There are also stories of people who have lived in countries where healthcare is accessible and affordable.

Disagreement about how to solve the healthcare problem is rampant, but when you read these stories, you know that America must fix healthcare.

I am convinced that we will get it done this time.

The fact that the administration is using stories to make the case gives me even more hope.

The healthcare story site is still collecting stories. Tell yours today.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Don’t know how I managed to miss this post from Shawn Callahan of Anecdote from January of this year since storytelling in the job search is my “thing.”

Shawn suggests several excellent ways to find stories you can use in your job search, especially in interviews:

• Draw a timeline of your career with significant events and your feelings about them.
• Recount remembered events out loud to yourself, or someone else. (I would advise framing the events as accomplishments.) If you write down the events, avoid recounting them the way you’ve written it because they will sound unnatural, Shawn says.
• Look at random images to see if they jog your memory about other professional experiences.
• Listen to the stories of others. “Make notes about any anecdote that springs to mind about your own experiences at work focusing on the ones that set you apart,” Shawn advises.
• Always carry a story notebook to jot them down because memories may creep up on you by surprise, and, Shawn says, “I will guarantee you will forget it instantly if you don’t either write it down of have the opportunity to tell the story a couple of times.”

Now, for ways to polish your ability to tell these stories in interviews, Shawn advises:

• Practicing stories, which will most likely at first sound “rambling and, quite frankly, boring.” If you tell the stories to others, you’ll learn what to edit out based on their responses — “facial expressions, comments.”
• Be specific and avoid generalizations. … The story has to about a specific individual (you!) “trying to achieve something, ideally with some obstacle that [you] eventually overcame.”
• Help people visualize what’s happening. “The best stories are ones that the listener can picture vividly in their mind’s eye,” Shawn says.

Shawn says to aim for about a dozen stories you can tell in interviews. Although I have found that a stockpile of as few as five stories can be adapted in response to most interview questions, I advise shooting for a goal of about 20.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

I’m excited to announce a new project, a downloadable PDF e-book, Storied Careers: 40+ Story Practitioners Talk About Applied Storytelling, which will compile all the Q&As with story gurus that have appeared in A Storied Career since the series began last September.

Rather than simply repeat all the Q&As as they appeared here, I will arrange them by topic; for example, all the responses to my question about defining story will appear together. Bios, photos, and contact information for all Q&A participants will appear in the back of the book.

This free e-book will feature Molly Catron, Jessica Lipnack, Terrence Gargiulo, Jon Hansen, Svend-Erik Engh (pending permission), Loren Niemi, Gabrielle Dolan, John Caddell, Shawn Callahan, Stephanie West Allen, Madelyn Blair, David Vanadia, Tom Clifford, Sharon Lippincott, Ardath Albee, Sharon Benjamin,Carol Mon, Ron Donaldson, Cynthia Kurtz, Annette Simmons, Karen Gilliam, Michael Margolis, Corey Blake, Susan Luke, Mike Wittenstein, Cathie Dodd, Sarah White, Chris Benevich, Karen Johnson, Jon Buscall, Thaler Pekar, Lori Silverman, Casey Hibbard, Katie Snapp, Rob Sullivan, Andree Iffrig, Whitney Quesenbery, Sean Buvala, Stephane Dangel, Karen Dietz, and probably a few others who have promised Q&As that I don’t have in hand yet.

Estimated release: By end of summer, but I hope sooner.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Here are some interesting sites I’ve come across recently that offer story collections. Some solicit stories from the public.

• Fear.less collects stories about people who have overcome heir fears. From the site: “fear.less is a movement borne from our right to live without fear. It’s where human potential meets the courage to act. Every story you read is an example of conquering fear, whether an immediate physical danger, the looming threat of failure, the pressure to compete in a changing world, the incessant quest for identity, or the overwhelming uncertainty of death.”
• The Maine Women’s Fund offers inspiring stories of women making change happen. From the site: “Each month, the Maine Women’s Fund recognizes and celebrates women and girls who are making positive change happen in their lives, their communities and in Maine. Through Making Change Happen: Women Creating a Better Maine profiles, we share the stories of bold women who are building businesses, nurturing families, teaching young people, leading industries and strengthening communities.” The stories download as attractively designed PDF files and serve as an excellent model for any organization seeking to spotlight people’s stories.
• Place + Memory is “recreating places that no longer exist. Places that were important to us. we are creating a series of stories for radio and an online map where you’ll be able to add your own memories through text, photos, sound, whatever.” Categories of places for which stories are sought include Where We Shop & Dine, That’s Entertainment, In The Neighborhood, Where Things Grow, The Natural World, Institutional Life, Byways, Gathering Places, Landmarks, Where We Work, and No Place Like Home. If I were submitting a story, it might be about the Peter Pan Bakery in my hometown, Moorestown, NJ. This best-bakery-ever, which closed last year, made out-of-this-world cream donuts. I learned just yesterday that my sister’s best friend has two of these donuts in her freezer. I would kill for one of those! Of course, given that the series is for radio, it would be hard to capture the most distinctive sensory aspect of Peter Pan — the amazing smell!
• Here’s a great idea for nonprofits: The Michigan Nonprofit Association has a Nonprofit Storybank, a collection of articles “that prove the impact of our sector on the lives of individuals. By submitting your story through the following form, you can easily outreach to a broad audience who is interested in the diverse human interest stories of our members, and help to advance your organization’s mission.”
• Tea Cart Stories require audiences to experience them at a certain place and time, in this case, the Lower East Side in New York City. Reports the blog The Food Section: Tea Cart Stories is “an interactive public art exhibition exploring tea as a locus of tradition, memory, and culture. Artist Michele Brody will set up a tea cart … and invite guests inside to share family stories and experiences dealing with tea. Brody will record and transcribe the stories on paper tea bags steeped in tea leaves which will then be displayed on a structure made of copper pipes installed on an early 20th century pushcart.” Story-gathering takes lace at certain times during the month. Here’s a different incarnation from 2007. (Thanks to Thaler Pekar for telling me about this one.)
• I’ve written here before both about science stories and The Moth. A convergence of the two in which The Moth sponsored an evening of science stories told in Moth style with Moth rules mostly exists as a moment in time, although at least one story exists on video (see below). The site The Scientist had this to say: “Science is a story — a story about ideas, but also a story about the remarkable people who devote their lives to unraveling the wonders of nature. Scientists themselves, however, rarely have a vessel to impart their personal wisdoms since the main outlet for scientific research — peer-reviewed literature — is typically devoid of narrative. … at the World Science Festival in New York City[,] two Nobel Laureates, two neurobiologists, and two writers poured their hearts out to a packed room of showgoers at an event called Matter: Stories of Atoms and Eves, which was sponsored by The Moth, a nonprofit group that hosts storytelling slams. In keeping with The Moth’s traditions, each story of the event had to be true, short, and told without notes.” The stories sound fascinating. The most significant aspect of this event, to me anyway, was the “rapt audience,” as The Scientist described it. Compare this way of reporting about science to the dry papers presented at conferences.

Two final sites deal with fiction. Although I don’t focus on fiction much in A Storied Career, I spotlight these sites because of their interesting approaches.

• Her Side is a “multimedia fiction project conceived by author Mur Lafferty and photographer J.R. Blackwell. Mur Lafferty’s narrative leads the reader through a story of violence, love and self discovery as J.R. Blackwell’s photography illuminates the unspoken elements of the story. Together, they combine two different storytelling methods to tell one story.”
• Sniplits MP3 audio short stories run from under a minute to about an hour. “They are professionally narrated and produced as MP3 files, so you can download them just like you download music,” the site says.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Sometimes when I see art or photography described as great storytelling, I wonder if I’m supposed to see a really obvious story that everyone else sees.

More fruitful, I think, is to imagine one’s own story to go with each image.

There’s plenty of fodder in two sets of photos on the theme “Trouble in Paradise” by Christoph Martin Schmid. One set is labeled “Day,” the other, “Night.”

In fact, one of my favorite storytelling activities is to use an image or set of images as a story prompt. Without considering artistic intent, I like to conjure my own story for each image.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

How about $5,160 in New Zealand dollars, which is $3,296.55 in US dollars?

Much is written about storytelling in marketing and selling. It has been a while since I’ve seen such a profound example of how this kind of storytelling works.

“mikew4” in Auckland was selling a washing machine on a New Zealand eBay-like auction site. The bid reserve amount was a mere $1. He wrote an absolutely hilarious ad for the washer. His listing provoked 89 pages of comments when printed out (and I know because I inadvertently printed all 89 pages).

Since the washer sold, and the listing may be removed (and thus above link will be no good), I’ve pasted the text of the ad below. Although only one little piece could be considered a beginning-middle-end story, “mikew4” certainly knew how to make his product so legendary that the machine sold for far more than it would have been worth even new and without all its flaws.

The ad:

Old mid 80’s Fisher and Paykel top loader.

Goes like a rocket!

By ‘goes like a rocket’ I actually mean that literally.

It actually shakes the house.

It’s the loudest most violent sounding washing machine I have ever encountered.

It makes guests scared and children cry. I’ve lived with it like that for almost a year and it still scares me.

Once while washing a load of towells it got a bit out of balance and it got so out of control for a minute that I swear I actually saw a porthole to another dimension open above it just for a second, there were dinosaurs on the otherside and they looked scared too, it almost sucked me in but I held onto for my life to the deepfreeze. It sucked my shoes and pants off though and it got the iron as well which pissed me off because it was quite a good one. Luckily it sucked it’s own power cord out of the wall and stopped before the whole house went in.

I drew a picture of the dinosaurs i saw incase people didn’t believe me, they are partly red because my green felt ran out half way through.

I think it would be good to paint it matt black and put steel spikes all over it and draw demons on the front, however I have added an image of another possible customization option for people who like horses.

On heavy duty spin cycle it sort of sounds a bit like the tortured howls of 1000 undead writhing in the sulphury pits of hell mixed with a train with carriages full of scrap iron sliding down the road with no wheels, on fire, into a bell factory.

Thankfully it’s bite is not as bad as it’s bark. It washes fine, completes cycles, does everything it’s supposed to.

It leaks a bit when it’s running, always has.

Its a bit grubby, could do with a wipe down, I refuse to touch it because I’m still getting over the whole dinosaur scare thing.

If your in a fix and need a cheap washing machine and are either completely deaf or hate your neighbours this baby is for you.

$1 reserve, pick up only, Waterview Auckland.

Selling to pay for my counseling.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

One of the special delights of this Q&A series is its international flavor. We’ve had Q&As from the UK, Canada, Denmark, Australia, Sweden (by way of UK) — have I missed any? — and now France. Stephane Dangel almost single-handedly upholds organizational storytelling in France and builds bridges from there to the worldwide storytelling community. Here is my Q&A with him.

Bio: Stephane Dangel has a background in political science, journalism, and communications. His interest in storytelling has derived from these activities, and he defines now himself as a “storytelling activist,” since organizational storytelling is still an emergent discipline in his country, France.

He has created the blog Storytelling which includes posts both in French and in English. Stephane teaches storytelling in business schools, is involved in projects dealing with the co-creation of stories within various environments, and is a keynote speaker in storytelling.

He’s also a writer; his forthcoming (fall 2009) book (in French) is Rires Post-mortem. It’s about stories — a collection of real-life events throughout the world and related to burials, coffins also. The pattern is that they are all funny stories.

Q: The storytelling movement seems to be growing explosively. Why now? What is it about this moment in human history and culture that makes storytelling so resonant with so many people right now?

A: We hear a lot about “narrative turn.” I don’t see storytelling as a turn, but as a story “to be continued.” Organizational storytelling is a modern form of the very ancient art of storytelling, adapted to contemporary needs. Storytelling is not a revolution, it has accompanied evolutions. As Robert McKee says, “stories are the currency of human relationships,” basically.

Marketing, management, and other disciplines integrate some structured narrative dimension because the focus is now on these disciplines as the focus was in bartering (with a strong narrative dimension) yesterday when bartering was the way things were going on in the world. So it’s somewhat natural.

Another dimension is related to “the quest for sense.” We hear a lot about the lack of sense. I think it’s more a lack of sense quest, because sense quest is complex and time spending. As storytelling is already deeply anchored into each of us, it’s a relatively low-cost solution to engage on sense quest. So it’s a solution for lazy people, but lazy, that’s what we are all, and it’s not negative. A problem occurs when corporations are extremely lazy, so they only grab and arrange stories in a database, instead of pursuing the quest till the patterns-finding stage.

Q: Are there any current uses of storytelling that repel you or that you feel are inappropriate?

A: Not everything is storytelling, but storytelling is able to be integrated in almost everything.

What I see, especially in France , is that some users in the political area have written the screenplay of a soap, and they even have already shot season 1, 2, 3, and more in advance. How could such a practice operate within an ever-changing world? It doesn’t fit the very basics of storytelling requirements. It’s like displaying, say today, an episode of a soap featuring Saddam Hussein, head of Iraq, as if he was still there. Irrelevant and ridiculous.

A: Here is the full (and long) story:

In the winter of 1954 in Paris, there was a man named Abbot Peter (Abbé Pierre) [pictured]. He was willing to launch some initiatives to help poor people, but nobody cared about that unknown guy. At this time, you got very low, minus temperatures in Paris. Abbot Peter managed to convince the biggest radio network to let him address a message to the population. So 20 millions French (half of the population) heard the message while being around the table for dinner.

Here are some excerpts from the message:

A woman has just died tonight, frozen, on the sidewalk of Boulevard Sebastopol in Paris. She was keeping in hand the paper by which she was expelled from her home two days ago. Each night, there are 2,000 persons who have no home, no bread to eat, some almost naked.

They need your help. In each Parisian borough, in each French town, boards have to be put under a light in the night, in front of houses where you can read. You, who suffer, whoever you are, come and sleep, eat, regain hope, here we love you. Weather channels announce terrible freezes for the next weeks. Thank you.

The most interesting fact is not that barely he had finished to address the message people began to act and help those poor people with great success, but the wave of collective innovation that followed after that emergency need for help.

While some weeks before, the government refused to take money to build homes for poor, this single story was sufficient to trigger what will be called “the revolution of Good,” whose actors were an anonymous team constituted by people from the whole country, who didn’t know each other but were united by the same spirit. The days following the radio message, money could be collected, people joined Abbot Peter, acting as a team. As a result, several organizations were created — an association called Emmaüs, a sub-division dedicated to the building of low-wages houses, the first non-profit organization dedicated to the defense of tenants, the creation of communities for homeless people where they could find a roof and a job (collecting old objects and reselling them)…

The Emmaüs organization still exists (Abbot Peter is now dead) and has an international scope, spreading in a lot of countries wolrdwide.

A: The “storytelling community in France” is for the moment… a fiction. We are only two bloggers running a blog dedicated to storytelling! There is only one and major book dedicated to storytelling in French, and it has been written by a man who hates storytelling (Christian Salmon: Storytelling)! His message is very raw: “storytelling = fiction = manipulation.”

So, building the storytelling community is a big task, trying to educate people who don’t have the patience to read all the wonderful available resources in English, and reinsuring those who are tempted by storytelling but express doubts since they are hearing such “negative mess.”

I also see French focusing on marketing uses, knowing few about the analytical potentiality. This is also a real issue.

But we cannot let a guy like Christian Salmon establish himself as The Voice about storytelling in France, seeing the ideas he tries to infuse.

A: What I wanted to do is to prove that even an under-developed country (in the storytelling field), could contribute to the worldwide storytelling community. I’ve also launched the first Digg-like [site] dedicated to storytelling. I need to take care of it because after some good start, it has somewhat faded; I didn’t give enough time to it.

I’m working on a method to elicit stories within conflictual situations and contexts which I’ve called “The I forgive…” method. I’ve already released a paper about it. I’m currently refining it, getting some advice especially from Cynthia Kurtz. I will release a completely new, expanded version as a chapter of a collective book to be released by mid-2010.

What I expect from these initiatives is a reverse, boomerang-like effect in France, in addition to the somewhat “frontal attack” I’m implementing.

In addition, I’m working on some projects to organize training sessions in France, with trainers coming from the “expert countries,” hat is to say the anglo-saxon ones — sessions conducted by renowned storytelling consultants are good tools to expand storytelling in the country.

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Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

 

Down at the bottom of my sidebar, I have a large widget under the heading “Storytelling Books.” A few notes about these books… They fall basically into these three categories:

1. Books about storytelling, primarily applied forms of storytelling, such as storytelling for healing, organizational storytelling/business narrative, and storytelling in career and job search.
2. Storytelling how-tos, such as how to journal, how to craft your life story, how to do digital storytelling, how to use stories in presentations, and how to use stories in training and communication
3. Books that are told primarily in stories, including entire books that are a story or fable, such as Peter Weddle’s Recognizing Richard Rabbit and the business novel Edge by Corey Blake et al, as well as collections of true stories on similar themes: how people got their jobs, interesting careers people have, how people escaped from corporate America, stories of marriages, workplace stories, stories of the Great Depression, stories of science, and stories about values.

The other thing I need to say about these books is that most of them are not exactly recommendations because … I confess that I haven’t read most of them. Yes, I’ve read some and can heartily recommend them. The books are on the sidebar because I have come across them while researching entries for A Storied Career. I own many of them.

But I am a slow reader to the point where my deficiency in reading speed is almost a learning disability. I once took a speed-reading class in which I discovered that I didn’t really want to read faster. I will confess, however, that my slow reading has been problematic — in graduate school for example. I have also developed a pattern of reading myself to sleep, so anytime I read, my body starts to think it’s sleepytime.

This summer, I’ve made a commitment to read a good chunk of the books on my sidebar. I just finished the book I was writing (I think I write books faster than I read them), so I have a bit more time.

My first selection was The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning, which I had come across multiple times in research for this blog. I had seen it mentioned in both storytelling circles and addiction-recovery circles. Both are directly relevant to me because I am a 26-years-sober recovering alcoholic.

The Spirituality of Imperfection by Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham essentially embodies the spirituality of 12-step groups, particularly Alcoholics Anonymous. I did not use AA in my recovery; I quit drinking cold-turkey. But this book made me realize how important storytelling is for recovery and made me long for a 12-step group even after being sober for more than twice as long as the 10-year period during which I was drinking.

It’s a beautiful, gentle, inspiring book. At first I was puzzled about where the storytelling element was even though the book is full of illustrative stories.

At this point, it occurs to me that this entry is getting kind of long. I want to share with you some of the storytelling wisdom of The Spirituality of Imperfection and thus, the sharing continues in the next entry.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Continuing my post about the wonderful book, The Spirituality of Imperfection …

It was on page 63 that I finally began to understand the book’s subtitle: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning. I want to share with you some of what the book says about storytelling and how important stories are for sharing our common humanity and imperfections. Here are some passages from The Spirituality of Imperfection:

Listen! Listen to stories. For what stories do, above all else, is hold up a mirror so that we can see ourselves. Stories are mirrors of human be-ing, reflecting back our very essence. In a story, we come to know precisely the both/and, mixed-up-ed-ness of our very being. In the mirror of another’s story, we can discover our tragedy and our comedy — and therefore our very human-ness.

The stories that sustain a spirituality of imperfection are wisdom stories. They follow a temporal format, describing “what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now.” Such stories, however, can do more: The sequential format makes it possible for other people’s stories to become part of “my” story. Sometimes, for example, hearing another person;’s story can occasion profound change. Telling the story of that change then follows the format of telling a story within my story: “Once upon a time, I did not understand this very well, but then I heard this story, and now I understand it very differently.”

When a [person] comes to you and tell you your own story, you know that your sins are forgiven. And when you are forgiven, you are healed.

Stories help us attend. And “attending” in a setting of storytelling and storylistening, helps us to remember… “Memory” is communal.” Thus, although a spirituality of imperfection insists, “Pay attention to yourself,” such attending is not self-centered self-seeking but an awareness of oneself as related to others, as a member of a community.

Spirituality’s long-standing connection to story and storytelling ensures that we will never be alone in the spiritual way of life. For whenever and wherever there is a storyteller, there will also be a storyhearer. In the communal act of telling and listening, listening and telling, the sense of belonging begins.

If we would listen, we must also tell; and if we would tell our stories, we need places where we can tell and listen.

It is … a human truth that we are able to listen only when we know that in time. we will be able to tell our own story. Perhaps the main benefit of thr storytelling format … is that it invites, enables, and teaches listening. When we are able to tell our storied, when we are urged to stand up and tell them, we learn respect for other people’s stories and for the need to tell them. The practice of telling stories gives birth to good listeners.

… Community is where we can learn and practice storytelling and its virtues.

That [sober alcoholic] way of life, [early AA members] discovered, could be learned and taught only through the process of telling stories — stories that disclose in a general way what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now.

Discovering a new “map” through storytelling:

When newcomers to Alcoholics Anonymous become immersed in storytelling and storylistening, they begin to see the form and outline of a new map, which details where they are, and how they got there, and — most importantly — the way to get where they want to go. … Through the practice of hearing and telling stories, we discover and slowly learn to use a new “map,” a map that is more “right” because it is more useful for our purpose. … what happens in the remapping of storylistening and storytelling is that in telling our own story, we come to own the story that we tell.

At times … adulthood seems to consist of fending off others who try to impose on us their ideas of what our roles should be, their versions of our stories. Our spiritual problems stem, at least in part, from the fact that we continue to allow someone else to tell us our story.

Recovering our own story, our own spirituality:

The spiritual leaders recognized as “great” … invited their followers to question the handed-down maps by making their own maps — their own stories. Rather than trying to tell their listeners’ stories, rather than imposing interpretation, the sages and saints told the kind of stories that invited identification. For they understood what the ancients had discovered: The best way to help me find my story is to tell me your story.

More in the extended entry.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

A couple of Sundays ago, Will Coley created a Twitter hashtag, #StorySunday, and proposed storytelling Sunday. So far his proposal is the only item under that hashtag.

I think it’s a coo idea, though.

What if the storytelling community made Sunday a particular day for sharing stories and material about storytelling, tweeting these items under the #StorySunday tag?

How ‘bout it, folks?

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

This week, well-known career blogger Penelope Trunk bravely told the story of her two abortions on her blog Brazen Careerist.

Even more interestingly, she connected abortion to career. The entry’s title is “What’s the connection between abortion and careers?”

In today’s emotionally charged climate, it takes a lot of guts to tell a story like Trunk’s. Not surprisingly, she’s gleaned 335 comments as of this writing.

Trunk says she had her abortions to preserve her career. But she also admits she is not sure her life would have turned out differently had she not had them.

I have known near and dear ones whose abortions were at least in part prompted by that same desire to preserve their careers. I also know one young woman with a thriving career who made the courageous choice to give up her baby in an open adoption.

This week I also watched Jon Stewart and Mike Huckabee debate the abortion issue. Stewart admitted that of all the “liberal” positions, his pro-choice stance is the one his feelings are the murkiest on (for the record, I don’t think he used the phrase “liberal positions”).

Stewart pointed out early on that it just doesn’t make a lot of sense for men to debate and make policy on the issue. They are not the ones directly affected.

That’s why it is so important for women on both sides of the issue to speak out — to tell their stories.

I applaud Penelope Trunk for having the courage to tell hers.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

See a photo of Sean, his bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

Q&A with Sean Buvala, Question 8:

Q: You coach storytellers, including corporate storytellers, and on your site devoted to that effort, you note that “Corporate storytelling is hard work.” What’s the hardest part about it?

A: The hardest thing is doing the work to master the skills. Corporate folks must take this storytelling skill seriously. To really be an effective corporate storyteller, you need to be devoted to being the best storyteller you can be.

However, many people think of storytelling as an adjunct or soft skill in their repertoire of communication skills. We certainly saw the potentially career-ending and dangerous misuse of storytelling in the televised speech by [Louisiana] Governor Bobby Jindal [after President Obama’s State of the Union address]. I imagined that he probably searched the Internet and found this interesting idea about storytelling and figured that anybody can do it. Well, he found out quickly that storytelling is a powerful tool that requires training in order to be used well at such a high-level. I think that if I had to use a jackhammer for something, that I would want to be taught how to use it rather than relying on my previous experience of watching one be used as a punch line in an episode of “Sesame Street.”

Storytelling is a “hard skill” and must be mastered in business. You cannot “sort of” use storytelling any more than your accountant can “sort of” know about money and taxes. I have been teaching for years that storytelling is an Intentional process by using my “Interpret, Express, Integrate” method. There has to be a balance of theory and technique for corporate storytelling. Unfortunately, we have many of the business storytelling gurus wandering the countryside able to teach theory very well but not so good on technique. There is a danger in corporate America in that we take ourselves too seriously, hoping our statistics, buzzwords, and projected pie charts are a replacement for actual skills. You cannot fake authenticity and still be a good storyteller. In my experience, the most receptive audience these days to learning corporate storytelling are the entrepreneurs and small business owners. These leaders understand that they must master their Story; most often the only thing that separates them from their competition. They know that their image and theory will not help them pay the rent. Our story and knowing how to tell it is about the only thing that really sets us apart from one another. When a company loses touch with its story and how it is presented, we get the disasters we have seen recently in the auto and finance industries.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Last week, Michael VanDervort blogged on RecruitingBlogs.com that resumes must die. He asked the question: Are resumes obsolete?

To illustrate the flaws of resumes, he took up a large chunk of his entry with his own fairly lame resume from 2007, which he had built using a Careerbuilder template.

He then condemns “Careerbuilder for creating a template that takes 23 years of professional work experience and turns it into a jumbled, difficult to read mess.” He also says the resume doesn’t represent who he is in 2009.

I don’t disagree that VanDervort’s 2007 resume is a mess, but just to play devil’s advocate:

• Don’t use marginally effective job boards like Careerbuilder.
• Update your resume if you want it to represent your current professional self.

VanDervort goes on to say, “I would much rather have my current body of social media work representing me in the market place than even a cleaned and pretty copy of this resume.” He says an ideal resume would contain things like his LinkedIn profile, his tweets on Twitter, and results about him from search engines.

OK, good argument for a Social Media resume like mine. Personal-branding guru Dan Schawbel’s quintessential article on how to create a social-media resume is here.

VanDervort also cites the argument “your blog is your resume.” This line, which I’ve discussed on this blog and here, is starting to feel a bit shopworn and really applies to a very small subset of job-seekers (techies and social-media strategists, perhaps). Not that I’m the world’s most brilliant blogger, for example, but I’ve never had a flicker of interest from an employer based on this blog or any of my other extensive social-media efforts.

Louise Fletcher, who runs the excellent Career Hub blog, reacted to VanDervort’s post over on CollegeRecruiter.com, (especially his contention that his resume “does nothing to communicate anything at all about me that I would want to put out if I were job searching”) writing:

People say to me all the time “I can’t capture who I am in a resume” and I always ask them the same question: Why not? Is it because words are just not adequate to describe the wonder that is you? Unlikely!

More likely it’s because you are being limited by what you imagine a resume should be. If you step outside the box (sorry for the cliche!) a little, you might see lots of ways to convey who you are and what you have to offer a company.

Yes. What the world needs is an outside-the-box incarnation of the resume.

Fletcher and virtually any professional resume writer can do a far better job than VanDervort in crafting a compelling resume.

But the drum I’ve been beating for a long time is that a new form needs to emerge. The key is in these words, “a resume that captures who I really am.”

In other words, tells your story.

To support his “death to resumes” argument, VanDervort cites a blog entry from marketing author Seth Godin in which he asks the question, “Why bother having a resume?”

I would cite Seth Godin, too, for my argument for the Storytelling Resume. In fact, I have cited him in my book, Tell Me About Yourself, but in a different way:

Godin … does not believe marketing without story is possible: “Either you’re going to tell stories that move people, or you will become irrelevant,” he writes.

If marketing products and services without storytelling is not possible, then neither is it possible to market oneself without storytelling.

The Storytelling Resume must and will emerge.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

See a photo of Sean, his bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, Part 2, and Part 3.

Q&A with Sean Buvala, Questions 6 and 7:

Q: What’s your favorite story about a transformation that came about through a story or storytelling act?

A: I am not so sure that transformation comes from story. I think stories of transformation are powerful, but not sure story alone causes transformation. I have many stories about how the use of “community service” has transformed teens, for example. If in some way the sharing of these stories creates an open door to other opportunities for service, then that is a good use of the story.

In most cases, I think story is there to “frame” the facts, ideals and purposes of groups, actions or information. I know recently a woman, who was in one of my youth programs two decades ago, found me to tell me about her life now. She shared with me how one of my stories in particular led her to her public service. Did the story cause that transformation? I do not know. More likely, it gave and gives her a framework from which she moved forward into community service. Stories carry the message but I am not sure they are the message.

I also have experiences of storytelling in corporate training that caused people to both recommit to their jobs and also caused at least one person to quit. Story, in those cases, was an amplifier of values and decisions already in existence in the listener, the catalyst to have them take transforming actions.

Q: If you could share just one piece of advice or wisdom about story/storytelling/narrative with readers, what would it be?

A: You must tell stories to get better at stories. You can no more be a storyteller by thinking about stories than an artist can create beautiful water-color paintings by thinking about paint. One must pick up the brush or open one’s mouth as the case may be.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

See a photo of Sean, his bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, and Part 2.

Q&A with Sean Buvala, Questions 4 and 5:

Q: Your Web site, Storyteller.net is a major resource for performance storytellers and others interested in storytelling. The site is almost 12 years old, and even at age 10, you noted, “Ten years is forever in Internet terms.” What inspired you to start the site, and what has motivated you to keep it going?

A: Thanks. It is always interesting to see how people perceive Storyteller.net. It is not as much of a performance storytelling site as it is a clearinghouse for the many ways story can be expressed. When we began Storyteller.net a dozen years ago, there was nothing like it on the Internet. Actually, there was barely an Internet. We are older than Google. Our goal, back in 1995, was to expose people to storytelling in ways they might not have thought of before going to the site. It was unheard of that you could listen to stories online. We hoped that people might turn off their computers once they experienced recorded stories and book one of the storytellers in the directory to help them create storytelling in their schools, workplaces and other places in their communities.

We also wanted to create community online via such offerings as the articles, written and audio stories, events calendar and even, at one point, a “playground.” Back in our earliest days, the playground and the “storytelling coloring pictures” were the most used sections of the site. I still get hits for “coloring pictures” several times a month. We pulled the playground from the site as we thought we were just promoting the idea that storytelling was just for children.

We really were on the cutting edge of blogging, article marketing, directory listings, and podcasting before any of those words existed. The technology barely existed. Now, all the things we built and systems we set in place are ubiquitous for everyone on the Internet. Back then, storytellers trembled in fear about putting their faces, stories and contact information on the Web and we had a huge job in front of us trying to help folks see the future. I am tired just remembering all that work.

We are in need of a face-lift and few new “cool” features, with our last major revision back in 2002. That may take place later this year. I have plans! We are privately funded, that is, my wife and I pay for the site, so we have to work out a new budget. However, even with our need to update, storytellers in the directory are always telling me that they get many bookings from Storyteller.net. The articles and stories, which we are always adding, get plenty of traffic. We have very high Google search-result rankings. So, we are very much alive and well at Storyteller.net. It is our gift to the community.

Q: If you could identify a person (such as a celebrity) or organization who desperately needs to tell a better story, who or what would it be?

A: Just quickly, non-profit organizations must make better use of their stories. People give their money to organizations that have stories (results) that resonate with the donor. For all the years that I worked in non-profit groups, I can tell you the money followed the value of the story, not the spreadsheet.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

See a photo of Sean, his bio, and Part 1 of this Q&A.

Q&A with Sean Buvala, Questions 2 and 3:

Q: How important is it to you and your work to function within the framework of a particular definition of “story?” (i.e., What is a story?) What definition do you espouse?

A: I think that definition of storytelling is critical for it is within the lines of definition we get the most freedoms. I have worked for some time with the following definition. “Storytelling is the intentional sharing of a narrative in words and actions for the benefit of both the listener and the teller.”

Just quickly, “intentional” means that not everything we do is storytelling. Storytelling is a planned activity and process. “Narrative” means what is being talked about has a beginning, middle, and end. “Sharing” means that there is an audience in front of the teller which can be one person or thousands. “Benefit” means both the listener and the teller leave the sharing of story as a changed person. Even after telling some stories for decades, I still hear new ideas from even my oldest stories. Usually, what comes as new to me is when the listener tells me what they hear. I am not a fan of giving the morals to stories. I would rather the audience work that out with me instead of being told what to think.

That is a rather quick take on my definition of storytelling. We usually go rather in depth in our workshops on this definition so the audience can add to or take away as they need.

Q: The culture is abuzz about Web 2.0 and social media. To what extent do you participate in social media (such as through LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Second Life, blogs, etc.)? To what extent and in what ways do you feel these venues are storytelling media?

A: I like Twitter (and I have the fun ID of @storyteller) for the immediacy of having some very smart people sending bits and pieces of wisdom and fun my way. I enjoy podcasting as a way to let people think about ideas. Although audio stories in podcasts in themselves are not storytelling, recorded pieces do open the door to live interaction. I have had some fun with YouTube, most recently making a video-podcast of our “gestures” training. Storyteller.net embraced technology and storytelling very early on. I love seeing what’s next in the tech world since I am one of the “early adopters” we keep hearing about.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

I am so excited to bring you a Q&A from Sean Buvala, a frequent commenter to A Storied Career. A storytelling “purist,” Sean keeps me on my toes, makes me think, and keeps me from descending too far into appreciating the sillier interpretations of storytelling and uses of applied storytelling. He is extremely active in many corners of the storytelling world and is a prolific Twitterer. His Storyteller.net is about the same age as Quintessential Careers, the parent site of A Storied Career, and his description later in this Q&A of the pioneering aspect of his site sounds much like the journey of QuintCareers. This Q&A will appear over the next five days.

Bio: (From one of Sean’s Web sites): Sean describes the collection of stories in his head as “life and legend” representing the mix of stories from his experiences, myth and legend from many cultures, sacred stories and observations of shared life events. As a storyteller, Sean primarily works with teens and adults in business and corporate settings. However, schools and libraries use him all the time for younger children. He describes his style as somewhere between “in your life and in your face” depending on the needs of the group he’s telling to/with at any given gathering.

Sean has been presenting and storytelling “on the road” since 1985. He’s traveled to perform and present workshops in dozens of states and to hundreds of organizations in those states. His audiences have ranged from just a few people gathered in a living room to several thousand teens and adults. He is the founder of Storyteller.net, the largest online resource for storytelling and storytellers.

Sean’s experience also involves training and design for the telecommunication and hospitality industry. He’s done customer service instruction/team development for companies ranging from government to faith based organizations to major corporations. He’s taught and told for companies such as Wells Fargo, AT&T, Unilever, the Arizona Courts and more.

Most important of all, Sean is the father of four daughters and husband of one wife. He lives in the Phoenix, Arizona, area. His wife says that when he is home from the road, he is a great cook.

His current projects include Storyteller.net and “Outside In Storytelling.”.

Q&A with Sean Buvala, Question 1:

Q: The storytelling movement seems to be growing explosively. Why now?’ What is it about this moment in human history and culture that makes storytelling so resonant with so many people right now?

A: Storytelling has been bedrock to all cultures through history. In that, I mean the process of telling a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end to convey a particular thought, a societal idea or to entertain. With the advent of so many electronic communications, people are just growing more aware of their need for deeper communication and connectedness. Our neighbors are no longer the people who live next door. Now, neighbors are the communities and people we self select. Since so many people are now engaged in long distance communities, families and friends spread out, people are feeling a lack of something in their day-to-day existence. That longing is being met in sharing of story in its many forms.

There are many folktales that talk about wholeness or one person separated into two beings. It is only by coming to terms with one’s story and wrestling with oneself that these two parts can be made whole. Our stories are native and entwined in each of us.

For me, I do not think that I see the question as you see it. I am not so sure “storytelling” is growing explosively. I know that the use of the word “storytelling” is growing at a rapid clip, and it is being applied to all forms of communication. Therefore, now, everyone who shares any idea at all is a “storyteller.” I think this does a disservice to other art forms. For me, storytelling is the “mother” of all other communications. A person who excels at writing a story is an author, not a storyteller. A person who creates great videos is not a “digital storyteller” but rather a gifted filmmaker. There has been a dilution of the word storytelling. If everything we do is storytelling, then nothing is storytelling. I am neither a gifted author nor a filmmaker and do not wish to be. I am a storyteller and my work needs the presence of an audience right in front of me. Without an audience and immediate interaction, then whatever the artist is doing is not storytelling. It may be any of many other gifted and needed art forms.

I am critiqued for expressing my understanding of what is and is not story. Essentially, I am accused of keeping people “out of the tent.” That is not my intention at all. “Story” has many ways to be expressed and there are tents all over the field. In my tent, story is presented in an oral expression (or ASL manual communication) called storytelling that requires a live audience of at least one person. Over there, there’s another tent filled with talented filmmakers expressing story. In a third tent, maybe there are talented dancers, scrapbookers, or authors. I do not want to dilute any of the art forms by having to cram us all into the same metaphorical tent. I want the freedom to go enjoy the filmmakers in their tent and maybe even join them in a few attempts of my own. I also know that all the artists in those other tents will benefit by coming and learning foundational things in the storytelling tent.

I think I know that we in the storytelling communities have lost grip on the word “storytelling” and I am banging a drum that no one will really hear. Nevertheless, my place in life is to call the crowd to many different ways of thinking and says, “Look over here.” I would be untrue to my art and myself if I did anything less.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

I tweeted last week about this blog entry from Michael Long (The Red Recruiter), but I haven’t blogged about it till now.

Long writes about five skills recruiters will need in 2025, including storytelling, which he frames as “vision.” Sorry, Red, but 2025 is 16 years from now. Why do recruiters not need storytelling skills before then. Why don’t they need them …. now?

Read his description of vision/storytelling skills below and see if you agree there’s no need for recruiters to wait to develop these skills.

There’s also no need for job-seekers to wait to use these skills. Everything Long envisions in the passage below can be turned around to apply to job-seekers.

Long’s words:

Vision — This could also be called “Storytelling Skills” but, “Vision” seems easier. The bottom line is this… can you paint a picture in a person’s mind? Can you show them through words what their future looks like? In exploring someone’s career path, it becomes vital that you share a vision of the future. What are their next career steps, strategic moves, compensation angles, etc…

You don’t wake up one morning with the ability to convey vision. Well, perhaps some people do… but, that was not my fortunate tale. I had to work on it.

Read stories, listen to stories, write stories… explore, travel, meet new people. Get exposed to things that are completely foreign. Take so much in to your mind that you can’t take anymore. Then, do it again. Experience and exposure are the parents to good storytelling. The life narratives that you are exposed to in recruiting, coupled with the life experiences that you should be pursuing, will result in a much richer experience for your candidates. Let’s face it… given the option… wouldn’t you want your recruiter to have some perspective on the world? So, go get it!

Here’s how the first paragraph might look from the job-seeker perspective:

Can you paint a picture in a hiring decision-maker’s mind? Can you show him or her through words what the future looks like with you in the job you seek? Can you describe the story of your career path so that it’s clear you share a vision of the future with the hiring organization? What’s your future story of next career steps, strategic moves, compensation angles, etc.?

All the advice Long applies to learning storytelling skills applies to job-seekers — plus many more techniques that I’m sure readers of this blog could share.

Just remember, 2025 is way too late.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Last Sunday’s entry sparked a very interesting idea from Shawn Callahan. It’s in the comments to the Sunday entry, but I wanted to bring it to the forefront in hops of getting the thoughts of others. Here’s what he said:

Here’s an that I would love to hear your thoughts on. As a job candidate, in addition to telling your story and eliciting the story of the company and its people from the interviewer, should they also be trying to trigger stories about themselves by doing something remarkable (in that the interviewer tells that story) in the interview? I was chatting to Terrence Gargiulo a few weeks ago and we were referring to this triumvirate as a leader’s narrative triple threat (sounds a bit threatening however) much like an actors triple threat is to dance, sing and act (al la fellow countryman Hugh Jackman).

Is this something a candidate would want to do or is it too dangerous?

And here’s how I responded:

Shawn [actually I misspelled his name in the comment … oops], I think you are onto something. I think that — within reason — you’ve suggested an excellent idea. The question is: What is the appropriate “doing something remarkable?” It could be giving an unexpected presentation in the interview. Or doing such comprehensive research on the employer that the candidate demonstrates extraordinary insight into meeting the employer’s challenges. Or telling the interviewer a story that makes a profound emotional connection.

I would love to hear other ideas for remarkable things candidates could do so the interviewer tells stories about them.

Shawn and I then exchanged a few e-mails privately in which he suggested trying to solicit examples of remarkable acts that have so impressed interviewers that they have told the story to others. I told him I would post the question on LinkedIn Answers, which I finally did yesterday (here).

But let me throw the question open here as well: Have you ever observed something a candidate did in an interview that was so remarkable that you told others the story? Or have you perhaps heard such a story told by an interviewer?

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

See a photo of Whitney, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

Q&A with Whitney Quesenbery, Question 5:

Q: What’s your favorite story about a transformation that came about through a story or storytelling act?

A: My favorite moments in UX stories are when a story can make a point and help a team see a problem or opportunity clearly. Without going too deeply into the specifics, perhaps this example will work.”

“On our web site, some people seemed to get lost on the opening page of some great information. They missed all the navigation and links to get started, and would just… wander off. We’d seen this behavior, but never really understood it, until we looked closely. They were reading the page, and clicked on the first link, ready to dive in when.. WHAM. They were thrown into a page to order bulk copies of printed literature. Someone else skipped that link and took the next one. WHOOPS. She was back at the same page she’d started from. So she tried again. And it happened again. She went around that merry-go-round at least three times. Now we understood. We’d dangled “garbage” links in front of someone, and distracted — or frustrated them. Now we knew how to fix it. Happy reader.”

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Starfishpeople.com, an employment website for the consulting industry, is sponsoring a new blog for job seekers to share their stories, advice, and successes. Starting June 15, a new story from readers will be posted every day.

More from the blog’s Karen Vogel:

Each of these stories will be unique, inspirational, and informative.

Sharing your story might inspire others who are in the same situation. If someone reading this hasn’t personally lost their job, they may have a spouse, friend, or family member that has.

I talk to people every day who share their personal stories. Many of the stories are reflections of how they got caught in a corporate downsizing or mass layoff. What continues to amaze me is how almost everyone I talk to stays positive, upbeat, and optimistic. Some people have even taken this opportunity to motivate and help others. For some job seekers, the entrepreneurial juices took over and they have reinvented themselves.

Maybe you took your situation and turned it into a life-changing opportunity or maybe you are still searching for what’s next.

Either way, we want to hear from you!

This blog project will give you the forum to share your story and advice with others.

Folks who want to share their stories can submit them by e-mail here:

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

See a photo of Whitney, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, Part 2, and Part 3.

Q&A with Whitney Quesenbery, Question 4:

Q: How did you initially become involved with story/storytelling narrative? What attracted you to this field? What do you love about it?

A: User experience is my second career. My first was in theatre, where I worked for many years as a lighting designer. When I started working on an early hypertext project, the connection between theatre and UX seemed very obvious. I used to talk about the computer screen as a very small stage proscenium.

We always had activities in UX that were “story-like:” creating scenarios to describe how a site is used, describing what we learned in user research, and creating the stories for usability testing tasks. But, none of this was formally connected to “storytelling” in my mind. That came when I first heard Stephen Denning speak, and read The Springboard.

What I love about using stories in user experience design is that it allows me to add some of the complexity and serendipity of life to the logic and analysis that dominates work in technology.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

See a photo of Whitney, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, and Part 2.

Q&A with Whitney Quesenbery, Question 3:

Q: The storytelling movement seems to be growing explosively. Why now? What is it about this moment in human history and culture that makes storytelling so resonant with so many people right now?

A: In my world of user experience — which usually means technology-mediated experiences — I think it’s about finding ways to connect. We are craftspeople, in the sense that we make things for other people to use. But we often have a very tenuous relationship with those people.

Think about how strange it is to have a group of people working on software or a web application who have no real, practical understanding of the daily lives of the people who will use what they create. This is very different from the lives of traditional crafts people. When you built a house, or made a tool, you could see and touch the world and lives it would be part of.

Technology is such a paradox: it allows us to connect in so many new ways, but it also allows us to be apart.

Stories are a way of rebuilding that connection. There are many ways to tell user experience stories: personas, scenarios, comics, storyboards. They are all ways of letting us see more than just the technology we work with, and give us a window into the context of the user experience.

This is increasingly important now because of how pervasive technologies are in our lives. We need to understand all the possibilities and variations. Stories help us do that.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

See a photo of Whitney, her bio, and Part 1 of this Q&A.

Q&A with Whitney Quesenbery, Question 2:

Q: The first chapter in your upcoming book, Storytelling for User Experience Design, addresses why “stories are important as part of user experience work.” Without re-creating the chapter, can you offer a bit of insight as to why storytelling is especially important in user experience design — and do it in a way that gives an overview of UX for readers unfamiliar with the field?

A: Every UX project involves managing a lot of information. Even a small site involves balancing the business goals, user needs, and technical possibilities. When you are working on a large project it’s hard to stay focused on the goal of creating an excellent user experience, because you are managing so many details and (sometimes) conflicting needs. The other difficulty is keeping the “user” in sight. Perhaps that sounds strange for work on the user experience, but typically the users are not part of the design and development team, so it’s easy to ignore them.

With their ability to communicate so effectively, and on such a deep level, stories are one way to manage both challenges. They are a natural way to describe events, brainstorm ideas, engage the imagination, and build community around the new design.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

The Huffington Post is soliciting the stories of women who have made the difficult decision to have an abortion, especially a late-term abortion.

Noting that women’s stories are missing from the current rhetoric about abortion following the murder of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller, the media outlet seeks these stories here.

It’s worth noting that heated ethical debates often omit the stories of those most affected by the issues.

Stories are powerful, eye-opening, and generators of social change.

What other current debates are omitting the stories of those most affected?

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

User Experience Design is one of those exotic (to me) areas that I know almost nothing about. Yet, it makes sense that “user experience” would suggest storytelling. Whitney Quesenbery is a practitioner who uses storytelling in User Experience Design. I’m excited about her upcoming book. She is currently working with Kevin Brooks on a book on “Storytelling in User Experience Design” for Rosenfeld Media. I’m so tickled to bring you her thoughts on yet another fascinating application of storytelling.

Bio: (From the Web site Whitney Interactive Design) Whitney Quesenbery is a user researcher, user experience practitioner, and usability expert with a passion for clear communication. She has been in the field since 1989, helping companies from The Open University to Sage Software to the National Cancer Institute develop usable web sites and applications.

She is the director of the UPA Usability in Civic Life project and has been appointed to the US Elections Assistance Commission’s guidelines development committee, where she works to ensure the usability of voting systems. She represented UPA on an Advisory Committee for the Access Board (TEITAC), working to update US accessibility regulations.

She has served as the President of UPA (Usability Professionals’ Association), Manager of the STC Usability and User Experience (UUX), and a member of the Executive Committee for UXNet, as well as an active participant in local usability groups. In 2005 she was given the STC President’s Award for her work on communities in membership organizations, and in 2007, she was honored with a UPA President’s Award and as a Fellow of the STC.

Her most recent publication is a chapter on “Storytelling and Narrative” in The Personas Lifecycle, by Pruitt and Adlin. She’s also proud that one of her articles won an award as a Society for Technical Communication (STC) Outstanding Journal Article, and that her chapter “Dimensions of Usability” in Content and Complexity turns up on so many course reading lists. She is currently working with Kevin Brooks on a book on Storytelling in User Experience Design for Rosenfeld Media.

Q&A with Whitney Quesenbery, Question 1:

Q: You note in your blog that “the real value of stories in user experience design is that they can move us into the future.” Can you elaborate a bit on how stories do that and perhaps given an example of how you have used story in user experience design to move people into the future?

A: I meant something very simple. Although user experience stories are built on insights from research, their purpose is to help create something new. Often, they explore how a new or updated product can change an unsatisfactory experience into a good one. They describe a possible future condition, and in doing so help it become a reality.

This is not all user experience stories, of course. Sometimes, we use stories to present a current or past situation. But the reason we spend time thinking about current experience is to be able to create new experiences — and move us into the future.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

I am heartened by how often I come across career experts these days who share my support for using storytelling in the job search. The headline is almost not far-fetched — that I come across one almost every week.

This week it’s Ford Myers, who was kind enough to send me a copy of his new book, Get the Job You Want Even When No One’s Hiring.

Myers describes interviewing as “two-way storytelling,” noting that the job-seeker must tell the interviewer “accurate, relevant stories about career achievements and job performance,” while the interviewer must tell the story of the company, the position, and the fit he or she sees for the job-seeker there. Like many storytelling advocates, Myers points to the beginning-middle-end aspect of stories.

He also contends that accomplishment stories are the job-seeker’s most powerful selling tool. His twist on the well-known Situation-Action-Result story is a series of questions that help the job-seeker develop an accomplishment story:

1. What was the problem, challenge, or need [in a past job or other environment]?
2. What did you do about it?
3. How did you do it, specifically?
4. What positive, tangible results did you produce? (quantify if possible)
5. What skills did you demonstrate? (list 3-4 skills for each story)

He then provides a checklist of accomplishment-based items to help job-seekers brainstorm their achievements — not dissimilar to the Accomplishments Worksheet on A Storied Career’s parent site, Quintessential Careers.

Myers provides a nice value-added feature for buyers of the book and others who complete a quick, free registration on his site, lots of downloadable worksheets and other goodies. One of the downloads is a worksheet for accomplishment stories.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

… I broke my streak of blogging 7 days a week that I have kept up since Feb. 1, 2008.

Technically you’ll see an entry for yesterday, but it’s the daily literary quote that has run for a long time in this space; I freshen the date periodically so it appears on this main page.

Time to start a new 7/365 blogging streak …

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

See a photo of Andree, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 .

Q&A with Andrée Iffrig, Question 6:

Q: In the workbook for Find Your Voice at Work: The Power of Storytelling in the Workplace, you caution against “Victim Narratives.” Can you talk a bit about why Victim Narratives are not helpful?

A: By now, you have read the section in my book on victim narratives, where I clearly state that everyone has a victim narrative, and you need to tell it and know you’ve been heard before you can move on to becoming a survivor or hero.

Victim narratives are not helpful if you never move on from narrating them; if you remain permanently stuck in the victim’s role. In the book there is a story about a dean of a large faculty at a university who concludes his 10 year tenure as dean feeling like a victim. Can you imagine what it would be like to work for this man, even assuming he tried to be nice to his employees? It would be punishing.

People who have read the section on victim narratives in my book report that as they read Jake, Melanie, and Alistair’s stories, they experience an “aha” moment, recognizing themselves in these stories. Everyone has been a victim at some time, often unwittingly; we just didn’t recognize it. I have learned that victims need to be heard before they move on to being accountable. A story is a way to go from being a victim to becoming a survivor.

For more on this aspect, I recommend two books (both featured in my book):

Cloke and Goldsmith, Resolving Personal and Organizational Conflict.

Kurtz and Ketcham, The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

I’ve posted a new question to the 1-question survey on my sidebar (right under the Google ads).

The question:

To what extent and in what ways do you feel Web 2.0/social-media venues (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) are storytelling media?

Would love to have your responses.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

This will be a pretty quick-and-dirty compilation of some of the most talked-about storytelling topics on Twitter in the last three weeks. Yes, I know I have not given A Storied Career my best effort recently — the perils of writing another book — but that should all end on June 15, my deadline. I could feature more videos here, but Randall doesn’t want me to use too much bandwidth till we get our DSL line later this month.

• Much re-tweeting of an article on CIO.com, ROI’s Secret Ingredient: Story-telling and a followup, The Power of Storytelling.
• An article for the nonprofit world, Nonprofit storytelling—beware of impact stories that don’t link to public policy, enjoyed buzz.

• An oldie, but goodie, The Story of Stuff, one of the first things I blogged about when I made my blog-7-days-a-week commitment last year, caught some attention.
• In concept at least, Dan Pink on right-brainers taking center stage this century, has been around for several years but was revived because Oprah gave out his A Whole New Mind book at a commencement in 2008 and spoke at another commencement this year. The renewed attention inspired this piece on Huffington Post about how the whole right brain-left brain thing is a vast oversimplification.
• Much buzz about the storytelling in JJ Abrams’ new take on Star Trek, as well as the new Disney/Pixar UP (extremely lavish praise, especially for the first 20 minutes), and the season finale of “Grey’s Anatomy.”
• Multi-retweeted quote from Heidi Sinclair on social-media strategy for Habitat for Humanity: “Social Media: It comes down to storytelling,” also seen as “the key for success in social media is storytelling.”
• This article, “SMB [Small Business] Marketing Is About Telling Your Story” had some traction.
• I liked these words from @jenciTN: “Storytelling is a great way to communicate that illustrates concept, is memorable and has low risk of pushing listeners away.”
• Twitterers were talking about this radio/podcast, Thomas Clifford: Video Storytelling for Business Success
• Shawn Callahan’s slideshow — with audio! — Storytelling for Community Engagement drew attention
• Because storytelling-for-nonprofits evangelist Andy Goodman does a lot of speaking, he is frequently the subject of Twitter buzz.
• This video, Storytelling Is the game, by Gary Vaynerchuk, got huge buzz — disclaimer — I didn’t watch it because of aforementioned bandwidth issues.

• Much retweeted review of Brian Boyd’s new book, On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, cognition and fiction
• The Roll Play is apparently a collaborative storytelling site looking for beta helpers (I hate sites that have about no “About” page. This site has an explanatory video, but see above problem.) OK, maybe “hate” is too strong a word. Here’s an article that tells a bit more about the site.
• And other stuff getting Twitter attention:

The Path of TOTALITY: A Storytelling Activity

Brand Storytelling and Google Analytics

The great story and the cat fight

Russ Meyer’s “What’s Your Story?”

Dan Baum’s My Short Career at The New Yorker, which ran as a series of tweets on May 8, 11, and 12, 2009

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

See a photo of Andree, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, Part 2, and Part 3.

Q&A with Andrée Iffrig, Question 5:

Q: In several places, you describe an activity called Storytelling Dice, which “generates a rich compilation of stories in a short time.” What other benefits are there to this activity? What are some situations especially well suited to Storytelling Dice?

A: I have just returned from a conference where participants played Storytelling Dice. Participants came from the disability services sector; they have heavy caseloads, low rates of pay, and few opportunities for connecting. They told me that the game is one they can take back into their workplaces to play with employees who report to them, or who are peers. They foresee using the game on a periodic basis to improve working relationships.

They also reported that they were affirmed by the storytelling process. Our society does not value the professionals who care for people with developmental disabilities. Playing Storytelling Dice reminded them of their value and also contributed to reviving the dream of service each of them originally brought into their work.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

See a photo of Andree, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, and Part 2.

Q&A with Andrée Iffrig, Question 4:

Q: In your article, Narrating Stories in Organizations, you assert that such digital activities as email, texting, and social networking sites have contributed to an “impoverished social environment.” Do you feel there is any possibility that some of these non-face-to-face communications can be harnessed for the kinds of storytelling activities you espouse — or are you convinced that the benefits you describe can accrue only from face-to-face storytelling?

A: This is a tricky question! Advocates of social networking will insist that it enhances relationship building. As someone concerned with employee wellbeing, I beg to differ. Human beings need Real Connections in addition to digital ones, and if you create a problem or misunderstanding with an email or other digital technology, you cannot solve it with more of the same; you absolutely have to phone the other party or meet.

I sit on the program committee for Canada’s annual conference on Health, Work and Wellness. The statistics from the conference are worrisome: many professionals feel isolated; they are incredibly stressed at work; their lives are filled with busyness but there are few opportunities to de-stress.

At the stage they become cynical or depressed, creating connections with others who may be struggling becomes paramount. To revive the heart of work requires subtle techniques that help people rise above their current perspective. Storytelling conducted in peer settings can help people.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

See a photo of Andree, her bio, and Part 1 of this Q&A.

Q&A with Andrée Iffrig, Question 3:

Q: The objective, reportorial way you describe these peer-learning groups in “Finding Meaning in HR” (an article published in HRIA Journal in Winter 2008) reminds me of the “visiting anthropologist” role you describe in your book, Find Your Voice at Work: The Power of Storytelling in the Workplace — “like a bird in the sky who can see the big picture.” Do you play any other roles in these peer-learning groups? Did you create the concept of this storytelling peer-learning group? If so, can you briefly discuss how the concept evolved?

A: My preference as a facilitator is to provide participants with tools they can use in a peer-centred setting. Some of those tools, such as the self-directed learning groups or storytelling circles, do not require professional facilitation (in other words, they don’t need me). It is my hope that by making these tools readily available on the web, and through my book, that employees will find ways to work together productively and create friendlier workplace communities.

Other tools require, or benefit from, more formal facilitation. Storytelling Dice, which I developed, can be conducted without a professional facilitator; the success of the game is improved, however, with professional guidance in drafting topics and clarifying ground rules for generous listening. Not many people have experience of practicing generous listening.

I have studied with Rachel Naomi Remen, of the Institute for the Study of Health and Illness in California, and have adapted storytelling tools she originally developed for workshops in the American medical community. Participants use stories in the course of my workshops, but the goal is not storytelling per se; rather, I help professionals revive a dream of serve. The vehicle for doing this is storytelling.

The other influence on my work has been participatory development. Working alongside the Ford Foundation in the 1980s in Indonesia, we were using story as a way to structure case studies of effective and ineffective management practices in non-government organizations. “Development from the Ground Up,” one of the final chapters in my book, describes our use of storytelling for improving the delivery of programs in the NGO sector.

More recently, I have been working with peer groups as a result of co-authoring a book with colleague Keith Seel. Seel is the director of the Institute of Nonprofit Studies at Mount Royal College in Calgary, Alberta. He uses a discovery learning process that mirrors what we used in Indonesia. Remen and other practitioners are also deploying a discovery learning process: a process of reflection, discussion and discovery.

Interestingly, I am not involved in the actual peer group as it does its storytelling; I facilitate the process but I don’t participate. This is intimate sharing; only participants in the peer group hear each other’s stories and own the learning. I can tell you from long experience that this is powerful learning, transcending conventional adult learning techniques; it is non-didactic and creates a level playing field; and the process is bullet-proof—it works every time, producing amazing results.

My job is to embrace the energy in the room, create a safe place for sharing stories, and be compassionate. Chris Corrigan describes this as “The Tao of Open Space.”

About the genesis of peer learning groups:

Peer learning circles were in use more than a century ago in Sweden; you can learn a little more about their use by reading the introduction to a guide I co-write with Keith Seel, available online (p.10). Here is an excerpt from that page:

Peer Learning Circles (PLCs) are a vehicle for enhancing participatory learning

They promote a culture of learning and discovery

PLCs have been shown to overcome the inertia that many people experience when confronted by the need for change in organizations.

Field testing with this learning methodology has shown that PLCs result in the kind of higher level learning that positions participants to develop new perspectives and to jointly work out solutions to thorny problems.

Unlike more process-oriented approaches or conventional training techniques, PLCs emphasize a combination of reflection, discussion and shared learning or discovery. This is experiential rather than didactic or practical learning, and is retained by participants long after the learning

Most of us recognize the difference between a lecture, classroom-based training, and exploring ideas in a small group. PLCs fall into the latter category. The participatory approach of PLCs means that group participants have greater control over what they need and want to learn. This in turn increases their capacity individually and collectively for critical thinking, problem solving and decision making. The benefit to the organization is the creation of new learning and action plans for furthering its mandate.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

When I came across Andrée Iffrig this spring, I could not believe I had not previously heard of her and her work. I would characterize her approach to storytelling as possessing a certain gentleness and quietude. It is sane. humane, and gives me such a good feeling about the positive uses for storytelling in the workplace. She very kindly sent me a copy of her book, Find Your Voice at Work: The Power of Storytelling in the Workplace. And in the generous tradition of the storytelling community, the workbook that accompanies her book, workbook is a free download. I am also fascinated that her background is in architecture and design; in fact, a significant amount of her writing is about urban design. I am so happy to bring Andrée Iffrig to you in the Q&A series. This Q&A will run over the next five days.

Bio: (from the site, Suite101) Andrée Iffrig is a writer and award-winning graduate architect. She uses her broad background in environmental design and community development to investigate trends in architecture and urban design.

Andrée is the author of Find Your Voice at Work: The Power of Storytelling in the Workplace (Limegrass 2007) and co-author with Keith Seel of BEING A Governor: A Process for Board Development (Mt. Royal College 2006). Storytelling is a life-long love that finds its way into her professional speaking as well.

Writing for elemente design magazine, Andrée has interviewed some of the stars of the sustainable design movement, most recently Cameron Sinclair, TED winner and humanitarian; Paul Goldberger, Pulitzer-prise winning architectural critic for The New Yorker magazine; Bill Valentine, Chair of HOK, one of the world’s largest architectural and urban planning firms; and Alejandro Zaera-Polo, founder of Foreign Office Architects.

Never content with the status quo, Andrée is currently exploring what organizations can learn from the field of sustainable design. Her articles at Suite 101 celebrate outstanding examples of sustainability, critique corporate greenwashing and educate readers about sustainability principles that have stood the test of time. Listen to one of her presentations on innovation through sustainable design at Banff Park Radio. In addition to her writing for Suite 101 and elemente, Andrée has contributed recently to Canadian Manager, Training Matters, Network and E-Source (publications of the Human Resources Institute of Alberta), Charity Village NewsWeek and Gift Planning in Canada. Over the years, Andrée has received several awards, including a Medal from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada for her thesis project, a Ganesha award from the Faculty of Environmental Design at the Institute of Technology in Bandung, Indonesia, for her community development work, and recognition for her winning teams in corporate challenges at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

Q&A with Andrée Iffrig, Questions 1 and 2:

Q: Are there any current uses of storytelling that repel you or that you feel are inappropriate?

A: I have been listening to stories in professional and personal settings for more than 20 years. That experience has led me to some firm convictions about the kind of stories that are productive and life-changing. It is with dismay that I read some of the commonly-accepted literature in the business community. Some of these corporate experts in storytelling are condescending to employees; reading their books, I have the impression that storytelling for them is about spin and marketing.

While storytelling can definitely be used for these purposes, I believe the future of organizations lies with employees who become accountable for creating workplaces where people like to work. Find Your Voice at Work is a call to arms: an invitation to employees to find their voices, be genuine and support each other.

The fall of the old economic order and Obama’s election are two signs that all of us who care about employee and community wellbeing need to find our voices and stand up for what we believe in. It’s time to create new paradigms for development. Storytelling in peer or community settings can help us find common ground for repairing and healing a broken world.

Q: If you could share just one piece of advice or wisdom about story/storytelling/narrative with readers, what would it be?

A: Be genuine. And be brave: your story, no matter how ordinary it may seem to you, could be life-changing for someone else. We need to hear your stories.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.