Bioneers has a radio series in which one 30-minute, well-produced, free episode features Rachel Remen, teacher and master storyteller, who packs several stories into her discussion about how the power of story can deepen lives and enrich work. From Remen’s Web site: Most health professionals do not take the time … Continue reading
Author Archives: KatHansen
The DVD of Your Life
Lifefilm_Intro from lifefilm on Vimeo. After I read an article in the Christian Science Monitor about a company that makes DVDs of people’s life stories, I wanted to find out more about the company, LifeFilm Productions. Not one’s whole life story — the sample films on the company’s site are … Continue reading
Anecdote Offers White Paper on Narrative and Organizational Change
Anecdote, the Australian consulting firm that specializes in organizational storytelling, is offering a new white paper entitled, Three journeys: A narrative approach to successful organisational change. Here’s an excerpt provided by Anecdote: This paper describes the approach we take with clients to successfully foster change in their organisations. It is … Continue reading
False Memory and Jackie Kennedy Onassis Stories
Stephanie West Allen turned me on to this entertaining video from Ira Glass’s This American Life Showtime series. It tells the tale of a guy whose wife experienced an embarrassing incident while waving to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis on the streets of New York City. In the story, the man is … Continue reading
Example of How a Company Tells Its Story
Those of us in storytelling circles constantly read about how organizations need to tell their stories and brand themselves with stories, but examples can be hard to come by. Here’s just one company Etsy, that has done it well, describing its first five years of tremendous growth. Etsy says the … Continue reading
Telling Stories at Difficult Times
Wendy Bigham wonders about people who tell important stories at difficult times in their lives. Her exemplar is Randy Pausch who has a best-selling book and highly viewed video, The Last Lecture, life lessons (Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams) delivered like the college professor he was before being diagnosed with … Continue reading
A Test of the Teaching Power of Stories
Here’s a way to test the ability of stories to teach — at least compared to PowerPoint presentations. Writing in Newsday, Patricia Kitchen told of the technique of Manhattan-based organizational consultant Ben Dattner that “vividly illustrate[s] how stories are memorable and PowerPoint is forgettable.” Writes Kitchen: Dattner asks his master’s-level … Continue reading
Using Storytelling to Attract Girls to Computer Programming
In a terrific testament to how storytelling aids learning and makes students want to learn, creator Caitlin Kelleher describes Storytelling Alice: As my thesis work, I created and evaluated a programming system for middle school girls called Storytelling Alice that presents programming as a means to the end of storytelling. … Continue reading
It’s International Day for Sharing Life Stories Today
See this earlier entry.
Washington, DC, Storytelling Weekend Recaps
Storytelling Weekend 2008 in Washington, DC, is in the history books. I didn’t attend; I seem to go in odd-numbered years. But some bloggers have posted some nice recaps of the Smithsonian portion of the weekend, as well as the subsequent Golden Fleece Day: Lynn Tveskov’s Storytelling, a Path to … Continue reading