… and is our current Storyteller-in-Chief even telling stories? Political and communications analysts have written recently about President Obama’s storytelling — or lack thereof — both in his State of the Union speech and in the first year of his presidency. Some, like Jason Snyder, said that the State of … Continue reading
Monthly Archives: January 2010
It’s National Storytelling Week in England
This is the first year I learned of England’s National Storytelling Week (this year, Jan. 30 to Feb. 6), although the event is now in its 10th year. The material about the week at the Society for Storytelling site suggests the week mostly focuses on oral storytelling to and for … Continue reading
Generosity, Thy Name is Terrence Gargiulo
I’m not sure how I managed NOT to attend Terrence Gargiulo’s latest free webinar this week, but I missed it. As usual, he is offering the recorded webinar, Facilitation Techniques with Stories, free to people like me who missed it (also embedded below). He also offers a downloadable Facilitator Guide: … Continue reading
If Resumes Are Where Personalities Go to Die, Stories Are Where They Go to Thrive
Declaring that “we think resumes are where great experience and personality go to die,” the marketing agency Ink Foundry goes on to say: “In the 10 years that we’ve been in business, we’ve read hundreds of insanely boring resumes from some really talented marketing people.” The agency’s stance on resumes … Continue reading
“60 Minutes” Creator’s Story Prompt Can Inspire Job-seekers
Joining the growing chorus of career practitioners who are encouraging job-seekers to tell stories in their job-search communications, my colleague Billie Sucher has just written a blog post inspired by the recent edition of “60 Minutes” dedicated to its creator Don Hewitt. Storytelling was Hewitt’s trademark, and he wanted his … Continue reading
Two Nice Storytelling Slideshows
Came across two good slideshows recently that illustrate two applications for storytelling. Organizational storytelling: I don’t know how Tell Us Your Story: Cultivating an Organizational Storytelling Culture by Teresa Bailey ended up on my desktop, but there it was after I researched storytelling at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for … Continue reading
Visual (Video) Storytelling: Complete Narrative with Just Music and Images?
Can you tell a story with just a visual — without words? Of course. I’ve written about visual storytelling in art frequently in this space. I’m not sure, though, if I’ve written about visual storytelling on video that attempts to tell a story without narration or dialogue. Two bloggers have … Continue reading
How About a Storied Press Release?
By way of an online discussion group, my friend Stephanie West Allen alerted me to an unusual press release written as a story. It’s the story of an attorney who is taking down her shingle to become a life and executive coach. There’s more to it; as the press release … Continue reading
Getting Closer to Discovering What Makes a Good Story
When reader Raf Stevens challenged me last fall to clarify what makes a good story and to present examples of good storytelling, I began a mental journey to explore these questions and find answers. The challenge began with a discussion of winners of a slide-presentation contest — which were not … Continue reading
Stories of Haiti Keep World’s Eye’s Focused on Troubled Nation
The world’s eyes have been opened over the last two weeks, not only to a tragedy of unspeakable proportions, but to a nation that has been suffering long before this natural disaster befell it. Tonight, eyes will continue to focus on helping the Haitian people as major television networks broadcast … Continue reading