Sometimes commenters to this blog share information that readers probably would like to know about but might miss because comments are a bit obscure on this blog. Others e-mail me with share-worthy information. Here are a few morsels about recent entries:

• Barbara Ann Kipfer, author of 4,000 Questions For Getting To Know Anyone and Everyone, mentioned in yesterday’s entry about prompts and questions for life-story writing notes that she also offers story-prompt questions on her Web site.
• Also in response to that life-story-prompt entry, reader Lisa Rosetti shared with me a few of her favorite story-prompt questions: What’s always been important? What do you bring to the world? What’s next? And this question she credits to Michael Margolis: What’s the one story you have the power to change?
• Bernadette Martin, about whom I wrote back in October reports that her book, I Need to Brand My Story Online and Offline — Now What??? is off to the publisher and should be released soon. She also shared her take on holiday newsletters: “Since my daughter’s birth 12 years ago, [I have] written a newsy letter at Xmas but in my daughter’s voice. As she got older we would together identify what to highlight but I would pen it (obviously not written by a child). However, as she is becoming quite the writer and voracious reader in French and English, this year we made 2 major changes……we ‘canned’ the list of highlights and went for a story that in fact she penned for the most part (I did some fine-tuning).” The resulting story was about the mother’s and daughter’s Christmas Day spent in Paris.
• Another Barbara — Barbara Burke — expanded on Saturday’s entry about her business novel/fable, The Napkin, the Melon, and the Monkey:

Stories are used in two important ways within The Napkin, The Melon & the Monkey

Isabel (the wise woman) offered Olivia (main character) advice in the form of stories that had been passed down in her family from generation to generation. In truth, The 11th Problem, SODA (a metaphor for mindfulness), The Fighting Melons, The Monkey Story have their roots in the Buddhist tradition and are 2,500 years old.

Olivia used a story circle as a team building exercise to help her dysfunctional team work together. Using the story of the Fighting Melons as an example, she asked the team members to sit quietly in a circle and listen as each person told their story of the person in their life who had the most influence on who they are today. It worked. Once her team stopped bickering and started being more compassionate and supportive of each other, they rose to first place in a matter of weeks.

If any of your readers would like to use the book within their organizations for team building or as a tool for leaders to create better employee engagement, I’d be happy to share what I know. I also do speaking about using mindfulness in the workplace.