Medical student Clinton Pong, who blogs at Not My Second Opinion writes: I love stories. One of the things I feel so lucky about as a student doctor is my opportunity to hear the stories of my patients! They give me with small snippets of their lives, bits and pieces … Continue reading
Category Archives: Storytelling: Other
Micro-Stories: Bigger and Bigger
The banner of the blog Shortfolio describes its purpose as “very short stories,” but compared to the 3-word and 6-word takes covered in my last entry, these “very short stories” of 500 words seem like War and Peace. You can keep current with updates to Shortfolio through its widget on … Continue reading
Micro-Stories: Smaller and Smaller
Not long ago, I wrote about Smith magazine’s collection of 6-word stories. I thought the Facebook application Just Three Words had halved the Smith story length but realized that stories in this game simply start out as three words, but then friends add to the story in three-word increments (I … Continue reading
Storytelling to Transmit Values
I do a storytelling exercise with my students in which they are asked to name the 7 values of the university. Unless they have been trained as resident assistants or orientation leaders or are in student government, they usually have no clue what the values are. Message: Perhaps the university … Continue reading
World Storytelling Day Today
I’d like to think I keep up with the world of storytelling, but this one sneaked up on me. Apparently, the vernal equinox each year (here in the northern hemisphere) is also World Storytelling Day. Who knew? Here’s what Wikipedia says about the day: World Storytelling Day is a global … Continue reading
Story Prompts
Recent discussion on the Working Stories discussion group (Stephanie West Allen points out in her comment that all Working Stories postings can be read in its archives) has focused on how to elicit stories from people who are not accustomed to telling their stories.
Group members have made these suggestions:
Seth Kahan suggests the JumpStart storytelling process he developed.
Alex Linkser of Organizational Democracy says: “My favorite way to get people to express themselves in an interesting way is to ask them, ‘What actions are you great at, and also excite you?'”
Victoria Ward suggests asking people to “imagine a photograph of a moment when and describe the photograph.” She added: “I’ve always liked objects, too. People can tell a story through an object (prop, image, symbol, piece of autobiography, Linus blanket) with more ease and confidence often.”
Carol Mon notes that it’s helpful to give people “a very definite time frame in which to answer … “You must show them that you are timing them. If they respond in 2 minutes or under it gives you as the listener and opportunity to follow up with questions to extract more information and the feelings. This puts people a bit more at ease because it then becomes a conversation not a monologue.”
GoldenFleece Day 2008
Speaking of Working Stories, here’s the annual event of Golden Fleece, the group behind Working Stories. I’ve attended twice, and it is just the best. The Story Moment: Where Narrative Leads to Innovation 7th Golden Fleece International Organizational Storytelling Conference National 4-H Youth Conference Center, Washington DC, May 10 2008, … Continue reading
Wedgie Stories!
“Scrubs” star Sarah Chalke is starring in a new ad campaign for Hanes about conquering the dreaded wedgie with No Ride Up Panties. The campaign was inspired by Chalke’s wedgie mishap on the red carpet at her first Emmys. Visitors to the Wedgie Free web site are invited to read … Continue reading
Storytelling in Procurement
“Cousin” Jon Hansen recently wrote to me to tell me that he frequently tells stories when he speaks about procurement. Stories also appear in his Procurement Insights blog, such as these entries: The Bands of Public Sector Supplier Engagement Cluster Development and the CAC (PWGSC): Facilitator or Competitor? NPM’s guiding … Continue reading
Getting Your Creative Story Juices Flowing
If you want to stretch your storytelling muscles, a great technique is to find interesting visuals and construct your own story about what’s going on in the visual. I had a blast with this type of exercise at a seminar during my PhD program in which we made up stories about images on New Yorker covers, as seen here.
An exhibition at the Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles until March 22 provides superb visuals for crafting stories. The story you craft may be nothing like what the artist, Achim Lippoth, had in mind, but no matter.
The exhibition, Achim Lippoth Storytelling, features a selection of color photographs from his latest publication, Pictures. This dramatic exploration of children’s behavior in a highly orchestrated and designed setting highlights the complex relationship between young minds and the adult expectations to which they both rebel and conform.
See 36 striking images here.
Children are the actors here, while adults are at most the decoration…The pictorial spaces are like stage sets, whether outdoors or in the studio. The photographer never leaves the choreography of his characters or the orchestration of light and colour up to the coincidence of capturing the right moment…After all, Lippoth’s world is a stage, and he is the sole director.
– Thomas Wiegand, Achim Lippoth: Pictures, Kehrer 2007
In the extended entry, see a press release about the exhibition.