If you’re a newbie in the world of organizational or applied storytelling, you will likely appreciate Robert Star’s slideshow, Release the Stories in Your Organization. The concepts and arguments in favor of storytelling in organizations will be familiar to veterans of organizational storytelling, but they are nicely organized and presented. Of course, my usual critique of presentations about storytelling applies — like most, this one seems to have no stories. Here’s how he responds to that critique:
The only criticism is about the lack of stories – something done deliberately to give a freedom to improvise when I present it orally. The slides are the foundation from which I improvise for a specific audience, time and place.
For me, there’s a big difference between the digital / visual and the verbal storytelling. Here it was important to try to involve the reader, bring the problem solver to life and convey a message through emotional images. If, on the other hand, I want to present it orally, it’s more important who I am, what stories are relevant for that situation – although the message about storytelling would be the same.
There’s also a transcript of the presentation. Enjoy his fine work: