After I published the first installment of my Q&A with David Willows, a reader e-mailed me to ask about this passage:

In my current work as the director of external relations of a large international school, it is true that I often say that my role is all about telling the story of my school and helping others find their place in that story.

The reader wanted to know what David meant by “helping others find their place in that story,” so I asked him. Here’s his response:

That’s a great question. To answer it, let’s think first about what happens when we read or listen to stories. Great stories don’t leave us for very long as passive “observers.” Instead, they engage us, challenge us, and invite us to join in; and we find ourselves literally playing a role in the story — imagining ourselves as the would-be hero, the victim in need of rescuing or even the rogue!

Turning to our role as storytellers in the context of an international school, I think that there are a number of parallels. First, it falls to some of us to narrate a story of education that is powerful and engaging. That’s key to effective marketing. Then, whether we are talking about prospective families, possible major donors or sponsors, future teachers or the students themselves — we then need to find ways of helping these would-be actors feel that they are part of the unfolding story; ways to make them literally imagine themselves as featuring in the next chapter; envision precisely how their gift will have a transformative effect; or simply imagine themselves as included, challenged and successful students.

By telling stories, we invite these various stakeholders to move from the stands into the centre of the stage. We give them lines to read and offer them the chance of playing a starring role.

See a photo of David, his bio, Part 1 of the Q&A, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

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

Q&A with David Willows, Question 5:

Q: What is your greatest challenge in the telling the story of International School of Brussels (pictured)?

A: One of the biggest challenges that we face in the context of an international school is this: with 1,500 students from 70 nationalities, whose history do we teach? This is a critical issue facing anyone involved in education right now and, sadly, there are no short answers. I am lucky enough to be in a learning environment where we are at least wrestling with this question every day and providing a curricular framework that begins to address this issue.

One thing I would say, however, is that storytelling insists that we take up a position, stand for something and give lie to the myth of neutrality.

You can’t ever stand outside the story!

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

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

Q&A with David Willows, Question 4:

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: That’s a great question. It has certainly been fascinating to watch the growth of the “story industry” across all fields of professional life. It is ironic, perhaps, that all we are doing is going back to an ancient form of communication. But why now? I think the answer lies somewhere in the words of T.S. Eliot, “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” These days, none of us lack information. But we need a way of connecting and bringing meaning to these otherwise random, disconnected moments in time. That’s what stories enable us to do — literally “make sense” out of our lives.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

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

Q&A with David Willows, Question 3:

Q: How has your work with story evolved?

A: I have written a lot about the power of storytelling in my career — as a priest in the Church of England, as a counselor in a psychiatric hospital, as a teacher, as a marketing and communications professional. Over the past six years, however, I have also spent time writing stories about my experience of modern family life. After some success as a blogger, I am just about to publish this work as a book [Fragments]. A series of short stories, the book reflects on a whole range of complex issues, from IVF and having twins, to divorce, coping with teenagers and losing someone you love. My experience tells me that these kinds of stories connect with others in all sorts of interesting and unexpected ways.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

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

Q&A with David Willows, Question 2:

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

A: Funnily enough, I wasn’t one of those kids who read all the time growing up. So I can’t say that my childhood nurtured this interest in narrative and the power of stories. It all began later, when I was studying theology and philosophy at University. Looking back, I guess that I was somewhat frustrated with the notion that Truth could be reduced to statements of fact. So when I stumbled across a group of thinkers called “narrative theologians,” I became hooked by the idea that stories are key to making sense of the complexity of human existence.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Although my next Q&A series doesn’t officially start till May, I’m delighted to whet my appetite and yours with this interview with David Willows, who uses storytelling in his job as director of external relations for The International School of Brussels in Brussels, Belgium. This Q&A will appear over the next several days.

David Willows is Director of External Relations at the International School of Brussels (ISB), Belgium. He has experience of working and writing in education, philosophy, marketing and brand development, pastoral care and counselling. He serves on the Board of the European Association of Communication Directors (EACD) and as a member of the Commission on Marketing and Communications for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). He maintains the blog “Fragments,” which is also the title of his collection of stories and reflections that attempts to make sense of modern family life. You can read more about him here.

Q: You write on your blog, Fragments, “I often tell people that my job as director of external relations at the International School of Brussels is about ‘telling the story of my school and helping other people find their place in that story.’” What are some of the ways you tell the school’s story?

A: In my current work as the director of external relations of a large international school, it is true that I often say that my role is all about ‘telling the story of my school and helping others find their place in that story.’ That’s what marketing is all about as far as I am concerned! How we tell that story, though, is critical — and let’s not forget that storytelling is as much about listening as it is speaking to those around us.

So right now, we are busy telling the story of our school by producing brochures without words (allowing people to get closer to the experience, rather than bogged down by the world of fact); we are exploring the huge opportunities of that social media is providing — and it’s perhaps no surprise to find that our YouTube channel is fast becoming our most popular online gateway to the school; we are also intrigued by the ways in which data (that’s right, all the numbers and graphs) can tell stories in a particular way … so we’ve developed a data dashboard for key stakeholders across the school.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Do you know about the ancient, culturally embedded tradition of the story gourd? The gourd with a story etched around the surface … with the carved grid on the back … with the hinged door that opens to reveal a picture related to the story?

You’ve never heard of the hallowed tradition of the story gourd?

Maybe that’s because it doesn’t exist, at least not as an ancient tradition. My sister, Robin Souers, invented and crafted the story gourd, quite recently as a matter of fact. I visited her in the early part of this week, and she gave me as a gift the story gourd she created.

Knowing my passion for storytelling, she crafted this delightful object that tells a story about the two of us. The little door opens to display a photo of Robin and me as children.

The story gourd may not be an ancient tradition, but I can truly see it becoming a modern one. What a cool idea to have a story meaningful to a family, couple, group, or organization preserved on a gourd. I can see groups sitting around in a circle, passing the gourd around, and reading parts of the story. I can see story gourds sitting in places of honor in family homes.

I’m fantasizing that story gourds will really catch on, and my sister will have a little cottage business.

Want one?

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Ongoing chronicling of how folks are using social media, especially Twitter, for forms of storytelling …

“Choose Your Own Adventure” has long seemed to me to fall somewhere between storytelling and gaming. Jonah Peretti is using Twitter for a “Choose Your Own Adventure” activity.

As Mashable describes the activity

… it’s basically a written work which allows the reader to make choices that affect the storyline, creating a tree-shaped narrative structure. You enter a dark cave: do you want to a) explore the cave or b) turn away? Depending on which one you choose, you’ll be sent to a different page in the book, and the story continues.

The first opportunity for choices was posted last Friday: You’re assigned a dangerous mission to save the world! Do you
1) http://bit.ly/Accept-Mission or
2) http://bit.ly/Go-On-Vacation

I’ve got to admire the intricacies of setting something like this up on Twitter.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Well, I managed to miss World Storytelling Day yesterday, and I’m not going to make humanists any happier today by talking about storytelling by an inanimate object today.

Of course, there really is a person (Damon Stea) behind the storytelling in this digital story, “Memoirs of a Scanner,” but the tale is set up as though it’s coming from an image scanner. (I got a bit confused by the video’s use of “copier” and “scanner” interchangeably and even more confused when I saw the video was shot entirely on a Canon Flatbed Computer Scanner). Love the fast-pace, aided by music by Coconut Monkey Rocket and Martinibomb.

How well does a story from the point of view of an image scanner come off?

(Many thanks to Stephanie West Allen for alerting me to this one.)

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Kelsey Ruger has been running a series on business storytelling on his blog The Moleskin. It’s a particularly helpful series for newbies to business narrative/organizational storytelling, as veterans may find it a bit too basic.

But what even longtime organizational-storytelling followers will enjoy are Ruger’s charming hand-drawn charts and pictures illustrating the concepts he writes about. See one of them at right.

Here’s what the series has covered so far:

• Mar 8, 2010: Storytelling In Business: Tension Makes Your Story Interesting
• Mar 7, 2010: Storytelling In Business: Elements of Story Structure
• Mar 3, 2010: Storytelling In Business: How Can It Benefit You?
• Mar 1, 2010 The Art of Business Storytelling

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Kathryn Antyr, a.k.a. “Collage Diva” is into telling stories with collage. “[I]t was during my first year of blogging when I found my voice and discovered that I’m the hero of my own story and creative journey,” she writes.

Antyr offers a workshop on storytelling with collage.

She also shows several story collages she uses in the workshop in a slideshow.

Finally, she offers a link to a chat she had with Leah Piken Kolidas about using art to re-tell our stories and using the Hero’s Journey as a framework in Antyr’s online workshop.

One of the things I find most intriguing about Antyr’s story work with collage is that she uses a awesome application called Smilebox that I first wrote about here. Smilebox is kind of an digital scrapbooking tool that enables folks to make slideshows, scrapbooks, photo albums and more. I believe you could even build Web sites with it.

Sadly, I downloaded Smilebox almost a year ago and still haven’t had a chance to do anything with it.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

The folks at SlideShare aren’t declaring the resume dead but are dubbing it “old school.”

In a newsletter I received this morning, SlideShare tells the story of how Laura Gainor (pictured) told her story in a slideshow targeted to a prospective employer:

Laura Gainor wasn’t always the PR & Social Media Strategist at Comet Branding and this is the story of how that came to be.

When Laura found out she and her husband were moving from Charlotte to Milwaukee, she reached out to companies in the area, including Comet Branding who tweeted about a job opening.

Laura set out to get herself hired by launching a #LauraGainorToMilwaukee campaign that mixed in Twitter, FourSquare and SlideShare.

Laura and her husband had already planned a trip to Milwaukee. She made a poster out of the Comet Brand logo and posted pictures of the poster in various venues at Milwaukee with a Foursquare check-in and a tweet. The campaign was fun, spontaneous and creative and showcased Laura’s personality and creativity.

But Laura also wanted to showcase her experience as well as creative and strategic talents. So she uploaded a presentation to SlideShare and periodically tweeted links to that presentation.

… Laura pulled together photos to create a virtual resume as well as screenshots of her Foursquare check-ins from Milwaukee.

“My goal for my SlideShare presentation was to create a story about who I was, my professional experience, showcase my talents that would make me a good fit for Comet Branding, as well as pull together my #LauraGainorToMilwaukee story into one place,” Laura explained.

The very day Laura’s presentation was uploaded, it made it to SlideShare’s ‘Most Popular’ and was passed around on SlideShare and the Twittersphere. She got tweets and direct messages from all over.

… Comet Branding also noticed Laura. They contacted her to setup a first interview. On March 1st she went in for a second interview and was immediately offered the position!

Laura’s presentation, embedded below, has “old-school” resume elements, but it also tells aspects of her personal story, such as her marriage and acquisition of a dog. She also makes her slideshow quite specific to the targeted employer. Her mashup of social-media tools to tell the story of coming to Milwaukee is novel. A slideshow, of course, presents the same problems that a video resume does — it’s time-consuming to view and can open the candidate up to discrimination. But for pursuing a social-media job, Laura’s slideshow makes a dandy storytelling resume.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

At the risk of seeming like Michael Margolis’s publicist, I’m announcing another one of his terrific initiatives: The New Storytellers.

Michael announces that the New Storytellers will be a bi-weekly show on storytelling and the new language of business.

The first show will be on Tuesday, March 30 at 1pm EST/10am PST and last 60 minutes. “Each session will be an interactive interview with a high-profile guest spanning many diverse worlds, ideas, and domains,” Michael says. “There will always be live questions taken from the audience. Each broadcast will also be available as a iTunes podcast so you can listen in at your leisure.

He says his goal “is to show how storytelling is the foundation of every business and social domain, curated through the voices of leading experts, creatives, and visionaries.”

The lineup so far:

• March 30 — Michael will kick off the first show by himself “to frame the larger conversation, with a guest interview format in following weeks.”
• April 13 – Grant McCracken – Business anthropologist, author of Chief Culture Officer
• April 27 – Lance Weiler – Writer, film director, culture hacker, Workbook Project, DIYDays

Go here to sign up to get dial-in information for the shows.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

I’ve reported on quite a few Twitter storytelling projects. Fourth Story Media has launched another, this one in conjunction with the SXSW Music + Film + Interactive Festival. This one has a twist I’m not sure I’ve seen in other Twitter storytelling efforts — participants vote on the best sentences to advance the story forward.

The project, which started last Friday, the 12th and plays out on The Future of Story, works like this:

Follow us on Twitter to receive the kickoff sentence for each story (contributed by some of your favorite web storytellers)

@ reply to @itwasadarkand with what you think happens next; your sentence will show up here

Vote up the best sentence

Every round, the winning sentence becomes part of the story and it’s time to write the next!

Two to three stories a day are expected to be produced.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

I’ve sent out 23 invitations to practitioners who work in some way with story to participate in a new Q&A series, which will probably launch in early May (a few may sneak in before that).

Happily, I’ve already had 13 favorable responses.

With the caveat that stuff happens and sometimes folks who commit to these Q&As aren’t able to fulfill the commitment, I’m announcing some folks from whom we might expect to see Q&As later this spring:

David Kennedy, who blogs about the intersection of storytelling and technology; George Dutch, who uses story to help people figure out the right career; storyteller Noa Baum (who is also a performance artist, educator, and diversity specialist); blogger and consultant Gregg Morris; storyteller and ghostwriter Kim Pearson; Digital Survival™/Digital Success™ consultant Jo Golden; Barry Poltermann, CEO of About Face Media; presentation gurus Scott Schwertly and Travis Robertson of Ethos3; storyteller and consultant Cathryn Wellner; Steve Krizman, who writes about storytelling in organizational communications and in branding; storyteller, writer, and communicator David Willows; story coach Lisa Bloom; and Steven Spalding, chief storyteller at Crossing Gaps, a digital-storytelling firm.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

One of my occasional forays into my own story.

It hit me yesterday that I have less than three weeks before I move from the only house we’ve ever owned and the only timezone in which I’ve ever lived. Our Florida-born and based daughter is here saying her goodbyes before we move.

I am struck most of all by how little sentimental attachment I feel to this house and the vast majority of our possessions, so many of which we’ve purged. We’ve lived in this house for the better part of 18 years. Not only is it the only house we’ve ever owned, but this is the longest either of us has ever lived in any one house, or indeed, in any one town.

When we moved in, the house was steeped in 70s decor. Lots of linoleum, wood paneling, and parquet floors. We remodeled every room, making them our own with bright, bold colors. We built a detached addition. We had our pool dug out after the 2004 hurricanes destroyed our screen enclosure, and we couldn’t get anyone to fix it. In short, the house became a palette for our own story as a young family and now as empty-nesters.

As a child, I felt so sentimental about moving from the farmhouse where I had spent seven formative years that I slipped a note to the new owners behind a radiator in my room. We sold our current house just a week after listing it with realtors — to someone who had admired it at our yard sale. (We’ll learn after tomorrow’s appraisal whether the sale will definitely go through.) As I prepare to leave this house, I feel no such sentimentality despite all we’ve put into this house. I only hope the house will bring pleasure to the new owners.

I am also looking very much forward to the next chapter of my story — a new life in a very different place, Kettle Falls, WA — and I look forward to taking all of you along with me.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Count A. Harrison Barnes among career gurus who support storytelling in the job search. Harrison, founder and CEO of CareerMission.com, the parent company of more than 100 job search websites, employment services, recruiting firms, online employment news magazines and student loan companies, characterizes the stories of those who get hired in his article, Use Personal Stories to Connect with an Employer and Get a Job:

There are some common characteristics of stories that get people hired, which I want to share with you so you can understand the entire process. The best stories typically revolve around the employee being very motivated to do a good job and continually wanting to improve in his or her employment. The person is generally portrayed as someone who works hard, has a positive attitude, is loyal, and, due to forces entirely outside his or her control, can no longer grow in his or her position or company. When the story is developed correctly, each job move is shown as part of this quest for continual self-improvement. A well-written story will also detail the candidate’s daily life. It will mention his or her family and friends, so that the prospective employer can come to identify with the candidate as a person.

Barnes handily summarizes his full article:

• When an employer hires you, he or she is making a purchase of sorts.
• The more information the employer has about you, the more (positive) stories that they can associate with you after your interview.
• Stories create a connection.
• You should portray yourself as someone who works hard, has a positive attitude, is loyal, and, due to forces entirely outside your control, can no longer grow in your current position or company.

[Thanks to Wendy Terwelp for alerting me to Barnes’s article.]

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Right on the heels of my latest gnashing of teeth over personal branding are two developments on the subject.

The first is a highly retweeted blog post on Web Worker Daily by Georgina Laidlaw on using storytelling techniques in personal branding. In what is expected to be a three-part series on this topic, Laidlaw begins with characterization. Agreeing at least in part with Gareth Jones who says that brands are static but people are not, Laidlaw diverges from Jones’s assertion that people, therefore, cannot be branded.

“You’re the key character in your story,” Laidlaw notes, and as such, you select “crucial defining information about their characters and focuses on communicating that clearly, in a way that suits the character” and hence, build your brand. Among the choices for information you might select about your character, Laidlaw says, are:

• the channels you use
• the language you use
• your profile data
• the photos you publish of yourself and others
• your interests, pastimes, and the topics you focus on, including links and other content you promote
• your frequency and depth of public engagement with others
• the places you like to visit or meet others

In answer to the question, “How do you know what will best illustrate your character to your contacts?”, Laidlaw states that “the answer will depend on your character! I usually only communicate about things that I feel very strongly about — topics I’m passionate about — which in itself reflects my character to some degree.”

The second development is a new (free) product from Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist network, the “social resume.” This product strikes me as a cross between a LinkedIn Profile and a social-media resume. Intended for Gen Y workers, Brazen Careerist resumes do not focus on the “story” metaphor; “story” is never mentioned. Instead, “ideas” is the top buzzword, followed by “conversation.” (John Zappe quotes Trunk: “The recruiting industry is shifting from search ninjas to those who understand conversations.”)

Still, the Brazen Careerist social resume provides opportunities for storytelling in its “About Me” section, and some of the social resumes I looked at by community members offer stories in that space, such as the one for Brazen Community Manager Ryan Paugh (thumbnail of resume pictured here).

But, ugh, the way Brazen Careerist solicits information for the Experience portion of users’ social resumes is anathema to storytelling; the form asks for a “job description.” I can guarantee that no storytelling will be forthcoming from job descriptions. Brazen should be asking for accomplishments, achievements, initiatives, results, and the like.

Here’s where I see a terrific mashup: Brazen Careerist social-resume users could use Georgina Laidlaw’s personal-branding storytelling techniques for their social resumes.

I keep bringing up new twists on resumes not because they are explicitly storytelling resume but because each new “resume replacement” or “resume reinvention” (as Zappe calls them) suggests that hiring decision-makers are not getting what they need from traditional resumes. With Zappe using phrases like “better portrait” and “living, breathing profile,” I know there is a place for storytelling in these new incarnations.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

A couple of recent pieces have examined the role of relationships and connections in storytelling.

In a scholarly piece called Different Ways of Remembering: the Example of Storytelling, Mark Oppenneer writes:

The telling of a story not only suggests the physical presence of a storyteller and an audience, but the relationship that exists between the two, the relationships between members of the audience, the relationship between humans and the land on which they live and in which the action of the story transpires, etc.

Oppeneer notes that the tendency to see “story” as text is a “Western information bias,” and Westerners tend to find audio and video recordings “sufficient to capture the telling of a story.” But such manifestations of story strip away “essential components of relationship,” Oppenneer asserts.

Laura S. Packer views storytelling and relationships from a different angle in Storytelling as connective tissue:

…[T]he shared experience of listening to a story makes the entire audience into one being. The story is the ligament that binds us. … Regardless of the length of the story, the setting in which it’s told, the experience of the teller or the teller’s background, when we tell authentically tell a story it binds audience members to each other and to the teller. Stories are connective tissue in culture and families as well. They are how we identify ourselves, how we know that I am of this group, so this is my story.

Both authors stress this connective role of storytelling in the act of re-telling. For Packer, listeners “know who they are by the stories they were told and in turn retell.” Oppenneer notes:

..[T]he telling of a story interacts with prior tellings remembered by the audience and is infused with embellishments and improvisations that are in tune with the relationships established during the performance.

and he quotes Rebecca Green: “Repetitive storytelling of the past re-creates, solidifies, and even creates the veracity of events and individuals.”

The underlying message for both authors is that storytelling creates cultural identity, cultural memory, cultural meaning, and knowledge that is passed on from person to person, generation to generation.

As technology provides us with more and more ways to tell stories, we would be wise to ask ourselves the extent to which any given storytelling medium enables us to preserve relationships

I love the words Packer closes with:

Stories reach across time, space and distance to give us the same narrative connection. We are human. We tell stories. Listen to me and I will listen to you: We will recognize ourselves in each others words.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Had to get this out there as soon as I learned of it: The agenda for this year’s Golden Fleece Conference has been posted — now with its own Web site.

And it looks as fabulous as ever.

You can link to registration, speaker bios, and an overview, too.

If you are into applied storytelling, I cannot recommend this conference highly enough.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

I was reading a blog entry by Corey Harlock directed at recruiters when this sentence stopped me dead in my tracks:

A resume in no way, shape or form is an indication of the person who created it.

The point of the article (I think) is that recruiters should not be so quick to dismiss applicant resumes.

But seriously? A resume in no way, shape or form is an indication of the person who created it?

With all the buzz about personal branding and authenticity, it’s disheartening to think such a disconnect could exist between resume and job-seeker. It’s true that some people hire professional resume writers to craft their resumes, but a good resume-writing practitioner should be able to authentically capture the job-seeker in print.

What’s the best way to ensure your resume really an indicator of the person — you — who created it? In my opinion, storytelling. A storied resume opens a window into your personality, conveys the authentic you, creates an emotional connection with the reader, and makes you memorable. As I’ve written many, many times in this space, the perfect incarnation of the storied resume is yet to emerge. But I’ve developed some ways to add storytelling to your resume. You can read about them beginning here or here.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

I wish I had been writing little hash marks each time “story” or “storytelling” was mentioned at last night’s Oscars. So many who spoke cited the importance of storytelling in the movies.

The very first honoree, best supporting actor Christoph Waltz, cleverly crafted his acceptance speech in story form, describing his journey to playing his role in Inglorious Basterds, and weaving in the names of the “characters” in his journey that he wanted to thank.

As the blog Crystal Street (which I think is the name of the blogger) notes, one winner declared that “short films are ‘the jewel box of storytelling.’”

Actors told the stories of working with the best actor and actress nominees.

Many were surprised that The Hurt Locker won for both best picture and director over the wildly successful Avatar; yet I’ve also heard many say that, as groundbreaking as Avatar was in its look and feel, its storytelling was deficient.

As Crystal Street also reports, the same short-film producer said: “The tools never make a great film, the story makes a great film.”

I agree with her words, that “it is refreshing to see that the art of the story is still celebrated in the entertainment industry.”

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

One of my newest discoveries, Gregg Morris (pictured, from his Twitter profile), produces a weekly feature in his What’s Your Story? blog called The Week in Storytelling.

I freely admit that I am seduced by the fact that Gregg cites a number of entries from A Storied Career and calls me his hero. But he lists plenty of other sites and blogs in his review, so this feature is a great way to get a snapshot of what’s been written about storytelling in the past week. Gregg also runs a near-daily feature of curated stories, “a daily post that shares and curates links to the content that I consume over the course of each day … items [that] all deal with change, stories, writing, business issues, marketing and pr, social media and networking. ”

The Week in Storytelling appears to be a new feature. Hope it continues.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

I’m still feeling curmudgeonly about the concept of personal branding, and when I read skeptical views about personal branding like one called “I am Not a Brand. I am Me,” by Gareth Jones, my curmudgeonliness is reinforced.

One of Jones’s arguments against the personal-branding concept contrasts typical brands with humans:

Brands are largely static. Brands don’t rationalise their actions. Brands don’t change their behaviour or opinion after life changing events or after reflecting on some new piece of evidence. Brands don’t offer humility in the face of arrogance. Brands don’t eat humble pie when they got it wrong and then share that experience over social media.

Even though part of me wants to agree with Jones’s conclusion that “the whole notion of a personal brand is a bit of a nonsense and serves only to create another bit of jargon around which some ‘instant guru’ … can build a consulting proposition that preys on the insecurities of others,” I started to wonder if brands really are static.

Given my belief that brands must have stories and the best brands are the best because they have great stories (like the Moleskin notebook for example), can brands really be static? Stories suggest an ongoing plot.

I find it amusing and ironic that personal-branding gurus assert that one’s personal brand must be authentic, but the very thing that personal-branding naysayers rail against is a lack of authenticity, or as Jones writes, a watered-down authenticity:

And then there is the question of authenticity. Brands are strong, stand for something and carve out their definitive position in their relevant consumer space. They don’t try and water down their personality or message on the basis someone might not buy them if they don’t.

Jones’s final argument is that his online identity does not comprise a brand:

I am the sum of a number of profiles, opinions and conversation online, nothing more. These do not constitute a brand. Yes, I should definitely keep out any potentially offensive content. But water down my online and offline personality or manipulate it to present myself as something other than who I really am? Most definitely not.

Well, of course, Jones’s “profiles, opinions and conversation online” do constitute a brand because, in part, they help tell his story; it’s just not a brand or story that he has consciously crafted and manipulated. He has not concerned himself with whether or not anyone will buy his brand.

And there’s the issue — whether we want to put our brands and stories out there as they are or whether we feel we must watch what we say and massage our stories so as to make them more palatable to the rest of the world. Much depends on whether we have something to sell — ourselves as employees or purveyors of products or services.

And the other question is whether we can truly be authentic — be ourselves — if we seek to present our storied-branded-selves to the world.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Reader Stephanie Jones asked me a question I couldn’t answer but readers who are oral-performance storytellers perhaps can:

Do you know of any web tools that would enable a storyteller to keep a log of the stories they tell, along with notes about the stories, sources, places they’ve told, etc.? I know I could use a blog or a wiki, but I would like something more like LibraryThing or Shelfari? I am going to be teaching a storytelling class online this summer for my school library candidates and would like them to keep a record of stories they are learning.

If you have suggestions, please e-mail Stephanie.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Recently, some of my favorite story practitioners have been registering protests over manifestations of “story” that they consider to be too loosely characterized or defined.

I’ve written a number of times (most recently here) about the six-word stories that are the stock in trade at SMITH Magazine and have caught on in other venues. When an executive coach, part of a team at a school for professional speakers, announced a six-word story contest, Terrence Gargiuolo snarkily responded with this six-word “story:”

Clever marketing imitating engagement misrepresents stories…

Sean Buvala recently reacted to the concept of digital-only groups running “storytelling” contests: “Nope,” Sean said, “yer running some good video contests. There’s a difference.” I know from previous communications with Sean that he believes storytelling involves a live teller and a live audience. His exact definition is: “Storytelling is the intentional sharing of a narrative in words and actions for the benefit of both the listener and the teller.”

Most recently Thaler Pekar wrote in a blog entry on PhilanTopic:

I fear the term “story” is being used so broadly as to render it meaningless. Messages are not stories. Statements of belief and opinions are not stories. And, most of the time, answers to direct questions are not stories.

Thaler offers this definition of story: “‘Story’ implies a series of unfolding events. Something happens to someone or something. A story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.”

She goes on in her excellent entry to tell why recognizing what a “story” really comprises is important. She then tweaks a set of story-eliciting questions from a Nonprofit Quarterly article, "Unraveling Development: Collecting Stories From Your Donors”, suggesting that instead of asking the direct questions suggested in the article …

• What interests you most about this organization? What is less interesting to you?
• Why does this cause matter to you?
• How does your philanthropy reflect your values?

— that story eliciters consider inquiring about the audience’s actual experiences:

• If you look back over your years of knowing and being a part of this organization, what experiences come to mind? What incident stands out as the most delightful?
• Can you tell me about an experience that was less interesting to you?
• When was the first time you heard of our organization? With whom were you speaking? What was happening?
• Tell me about a time when you felt really connected with the mission of our organization.
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I know from my Q&A series with story practitioners that, while the majority define “story” loosely and broadly, some are quite vehement about what a story is and is not. I compiled practitioners’ thoughts on defining story in this downloadable PDF: DefiningStory.pdf

But sometimes it’s easier to get at what a story is by recognizing, as these three practitioners have, what a story isn’t.

By the way, I’m planning to start a new series of story-practitioner Q&As soon. Please feel free to suggest yourself or someone else for a Q&A. I also welcome suggestions of questions to pose to story gurus. I’d like to mix up my roster of questions a bit. What would you like to ask story practitioners? E-mail me with your thoughts.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Because so many great storytelling sites and blogs exist out there, with new ones emerging all the time, I don’t usually write full blog entries about any single site or blog but rather group them together and/or list them on one of my inside pages.

But I’m singling out the brand-new blog Transformative Narratives by Yvette Hyater-Adams (pictured) because her story practice really resonates with me, and I’d like to encourage and support her new venture (and hey, it doesn’t hurt that she shares a birthday with my son and lives a few miles from where I grew up in New Jersey).

I especially love her story of how she came to develop her storytelling approach:

In the early 1980s, I took a Franklin Planner class where part of the course entailed writing down goals and integrating them in my daily, weekly, and monthly calendars. This was a logical and mechanical process. Because my artist brain didn’t work so linear, I did more than write a goal sentence. My goal became a little story. In order for me to experience the goal, I stepped into my imagination and created a fictionalized story about me living and breathing that goal. It was so real, I could smell, taste, and touch it. Writing that visual image made such a difference. Having written the story, I could release it and be it.

And here’s how she characterizes transformative narratives:

[T]ransformative narratives 1) emerge from real and imagined visual, written, and spoken stories, that 2) become material to use for self-awareness, insight, and visioning, and 3) crystallize into deliberate actions for change

I’m really looking forward to more from Yvette and her new blog.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

One of a whole list of possibilities I’ve considered over the years in my quest for what the perfect storytelling resume would look like has been video resumes, which I wrote about as recently as the Ink Foundry internship series that started here. I’ve long been aware of issues with video resumes, but my colleague Barbara Safani does a great job of laying out why they’re probably a bad idea in her article No One Wants to See Your Video Resume … Really!.

Barb presents the opinions of hiring decision-makers as well as some pretty laughable video resumes.

As I stated in the headline of this entry, video resumes lend themselves to storytelling.

Here’s a summary from Barb’s entry of hiring-decision-maker issues with video resumes:

• They are too time-consuming to view given that text-based resumes are eyeballed for just a few seconds.
• It’s impossible to quickly discern the job-seeker’s accomplishments on a video resume.
• It takes a great deal of space to store them on a computer, and employers must save them for legal purposes.
• Job-seekers probably aren’t going to create a video tailored to each specific job opening, so the video resume they use is likely to be too generic and not targeted to the job applied for.
• Video resumes expose the job-seeker to discrimination based on age, ethnicity, and other factors communicated in a visual medium. Hiring decision-makers are at the same time exposed to litigation if the job-seeker should claim discrimination after being rejected based on the video resume.

As Barb points out, video does have its place in job search, such as using a short clip of yourself as a feature in a Web portfolio or blog, which you can link to from your various social-media profiles.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Michael Margolis recently published a list of “20 questions that can support you in your story positioning.” Although a few of the questions are best suited for entrepreneurs seeking clients, the list as a whole is great for job-seekers, too. Michael writes: If you go about answering these questions for yourself, you’ll begin to stake out a bigger story really worth telling.”

PERSONAL MOTIVATIONS

• What motivates you?
• What has shaped and defined you?
• What is your point of view?
• What do you care about?
• Why trust and believe you?

AUDIENCE EMPATHY

• Who defines your market?
• What do they care about?
• How do people perceive your issue?
• What needs do you serve?

DIFFERENTIATING VALUE

• What value do you provide?
• What’s memorable about you?
• What’s ignored, overlooked, or not said?
• What’s your bigger truth?
• What’s your thought leadership?

MARKETING YOUR TRUTH

• How do you reach people?
• Why do people want what you offer?
• What do you gift and give away?
• How prove what you care about?
• What do you want to be known for?
• How do you make yourself approachable?

Michael has used these questions as the basis for the curriculum in the four-week telecourse that’s currently under way. If you missed the course this time around, I’ll bet he’ll do another as he had significant demand. If not, he’ll have plenty of other story topics as part of his new initiative, Story University.

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Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.