Your Life Story … On a Postcard?

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 I have to admit I don’t completely understand what’s going on with Michael Kimball, his art project, Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard), and his blog, also titled Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard). For example, Kimball captions the photo seen here “The Cardboard Sign That Started It All.” How so? I want to know the story behind his project of writing people’s life stories on postcards. In the meantime, here’s his process:

If you want me to write your life story (on a postcard) — and trust me, I want to — then send me an email. There are two ways we can do this. Easy: You send me your telephone number and the best time/s to call; I’ll call you and we can do the interview over the telephone. Harder: You tell me your name, age, where you were born, where you have lived, what you do (jobs and hobbies), what you study (if you’re in school), what you want to do with your life. Tell me about any important events in your life, any life changing decisions, any strange things that have happened to you, anything that makes you particularly you. Depending on what you tell me, I will probably ask follow-up questions. Either way, I will write up your life story and then mail you the postcard so you can put it up on your refrigerator with a magnet.

Story Practitioners Generously Share Knowledge

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Add Cynthia Kurtz (the subject of a Q&A interview to appear here in December) to the long list of generous story practitioners who freely share knowledge and information with the public. Kurtz’s bio says she’s been working as an independent researcher and consultant at/with/for a series of places (IBM Research, IBM’s Global Services consultancy practice, IBM’s Institute of Knowledge Management, IBM’s Cynefin Centre, and Cognitive Edge) in the area variously called “organizational narrative”, “business narrative”, and “narrative knowledge management” (among other names), since 1999.

Her book, Working with Stories, is available both as a Web site and a downloadable PDF — for free. The Web site is beautifully put together, and the book contains (among many other things) story-based exercises for working with communities and organizations.

Q&A with a Story Guru: Terrence Gargiulo, Part 5

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See Terrence’s bio, photo, and Part 1 of this Q&A and see Part 2 of the Q&A, Part 3 of the Q&A and Part 4 of the Q&A.

Q&A with Terrence Gargiulo (Question 5):

Q: I’m sure you can write (and have written) at length about StoryScrap™ Books. Can you briefly summarize this concept for readers?

A: Story Scrap Book Objectives

  1. Create a conversation piece to encourage open communication.
  2. Capture key stories to examine the connections between them and transfer knowledge.

Background

Thank heavens for big sisters; especially mine. I was over at Franca’s house sipping hot chocolate and catching up on life. While we spoke she was immersed in assembling another one of her family scrap book masterpieces. I’m one of those unfortunate types who love trips down family memory lane but lack the discipline and patience to keep scrap books. We started talking about Franca’s work. She is an international marketing and publication relations consultant. As we discussed the internal communication challenges one of her clients was facing I had a flash of brilliance. What if we helped the client put together a story scrap book and then used it to facilitate conversations around the organization? That’s exactly what we did and with fantastic results. Since then it has become one of the standard tools and interventions I use. My clients have anecdotally shared some of the following results with me:

  • Increase the number and quality of communications between management and employees
  • Engender greater willingness among employees to share information
  • Develop a repository of stories to incorporate into other collaterals
  • Create a repeatable communication business process that people look forward to and enthusiastically participate in
  • Facilitate improvements in organizational morale and sense of community

How do story scrap books encourage meaningful conversations? Story scrap books promote reflection. As we create them we remember our experiences and uncover new insights in the process. People respond to scrap books with stories. Our scrap book is a ritualistic object that achieves its highest purpose when we use it to facilitate dialogue with others. Scrap books promote community because they are shared record of identity. Think about how a family photo album functions. Our stories trigger other people’s stories. Through a dynamic exchange of stories our conversations become insightful gold mines full of authentic pieces of ourselves. We see ourselves for how we are and we generate meaning from how we reflect on our stories and how others respond to them.

How do story scrap books help transfer knowledge? The most valuable information in an organization is unstructured data. This is data that lives in the minds and experiences of people. It is not easily captured or stored in central repositories. Furthermore in most organizations there are few if any incentives to share knowledge. As a result knowledge sits untapped. People do not speak with one another in ways that enable knowledge to flow. Stories activate informal peer to peer networks. The scrap books are wonderful tools for recording and transferring knowledge. Every story chronicled in a scrap book has relation to other stories. The collection of stories forms a cluster of knowledge that can be tapped. Patterns of organizational best practices, experiences, and encoded organizational cultural values reside in these clusters of knowledge. Through dialogue these can be clarified, brought to a focus, and cultivated to inform future successful behavior.

Case Study

The CEO of a Fortune 500 manufacturing company pulled me into his office and closed the door. He had just spent a mint on printing 10,000 extra copies of the company’s annual report. He motioned me to take a seat and dropped one of the annual reports on my lap with a beaming grin of satisfaction. “You’re going like this,” he said. “I want every employee to be proud of our accomplishments so I am distributing a copy of this report to every employee. I’m having all my VPs go around the company to hand these out during special town hall meetings. This is just the sort of thing that will get people fired up to exceed next year’s goals.”

I had already seen the annual report and despite its spectacular design, stunning photographs, and stellar numbers it was as drab as drab can be. I was nonplussed. It was the right idea but the wrong tool. I acknowledged the merits of his strategy and then I asked him if he was open to trying an experiment. He asked me what I had in mind. I told him to identify a division or area of the company which was going to be critical to the achievement of next year’s goals. There were some unused days on my monthly retainer that were going to expire so I asked him for a couple of days to do some digging. I held a couple of meetings with groups of people from the division and ran them through a version of the story scrap book activity. I started each meeting by handing out the annual reports and asking people to thumb through them looking at the key objectives that had been achieved during the year. Then I asked them to develop a story scrap book for the year that captured their personal experiences of how they had played a role in the achievement of these key objectives. Next I scheduled a town hall meeting for the entire division and invited the CEO to attend. I asked two people with very compelling story scrap books to share them with the group. Then I gave everyone 10 minutes to speak to the person next to them and share their experiences. I reconvened the group and opened the floor for ten minutes so that people share some of the stories they had heard. Finally I had the CEO briefly share the organization’s new goals and ask people to imagine how their stories next year would be different. We were thrilled by people’s energy. We succeeded in engaging people’s imaginations. I coached some of the CEO’s directors and VPs and we rolled out a similar process across the entire organization.

Wordle on Westward-Ho Day

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This week’s word/tag cloud based on A Storied Career. I am heading west on a month-long cross-country excursion today. Regular postings will continue perhaps sprinkled with some stories from the road.

What Information to Include in an Example Story in a Job Interview

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Here’s another tip from Dick Gaither, the “WIZARD OF WORK:”

Gaither notes that job-seekers are encouraged to give examples — tell stories — when asked behavioral questions in job interviews but that job-seekers need to know more about what kind of information goes into an example, the story, or the picture.

He offers this guide should help job seekers create more powerful interview responses to “example” questions:

Interviewer: “Can you give me an example of when you have _______________?”

Proof by Example

Give an example.

  • Specify one example of when you’ve used the skill or performed the task the interviewer is questioning you about.

Detail the example (Where and Who Details).

  • Where did you work during this example (company name, location, department)?
  • Who was your boss during this example (his or her title and name)?
  • Who did you supervise during this example (number and types of workers)?
  • Who did you collaborate with on this example (names and job titles)?

Detail the example (Why and When Details).

  • Why were you performing this task or using the skill?
  • When did you perform the example?

Detail the example (How and What Details).

  • What did you do? How did you solve the problem or use the skill? How long did this example take to complete? (Did you use any special tools, machines, or equipment? Did you develop any special ideas, methods, or processes? Did you use any special data or information?)

Specify results.

  • What happened during this example? Results should be positive, measurable, and quantifiable.

Think and link your answer to the employer’s needs.

  • Define at least two other ways this example shows you can bring added value to the company.

Thanks to:
Dick Gaither, Job Search Training Systems, Inc.
941 Constellation Way, Franklin, IN 46131
800-361-1613; Cell: 317-697-2142
Web Site

Q&A with a Story Guru: Terrence Gargiulo, Part 4

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See Terrence’s bio, photo, and Part 1 of this Q&A and see Part 2 of the Q&A, Part 3 of the Q&A.

Q&A with Terrence Gargiulo (Question 4):

Q: You are an exceedingly prolific author of books that that relate to storytelling. It seems as though you’ve put out a new books just about every year. How have your book ideas come about, and how have they evolved from your earliest books to your newest book?

A: I am always thankful for readers. Writing for me is a process of reflecting and thinking. It is about taking chunks of intuitive insights and bringing them to life. I feel like a conduit. My mind works in terms of stories I see and feel patterns of swirling threads. I literally cannot turn off stories. My thoughts and ideas continue to evolve. As I encounter more and more people interested in stories my frame of reference deepens. Their insights and stories encourage me and fuel me to dig deeper. I have an insatiable curiosity and I am a relentless learner. It’s an exciting time. So many people are deeply interested, committed and hungry for conversation and connection. We have a lot to learn from each other and I plan on relish every moment – wherever it takes me. Thanks by the way for being a conversation facilitator and providing this opportunity!

Endlessly Discovering Story Repositories

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It never ceases to amaze me that I continue to come across story-related resources that I didn’t know about before. The discoveries multiply exponentially as one site or blog leads to another. As a blogger about the world of storytelling, I am confident that I will never run out of material.

Here are four recent discoveries:

I love this ad for PNN (Personal News Network), which is described by founder Lauren Elliott as “a place for stories.”  Elliott goes on to say:

It’s a place to read stories and a place to add your own. We all have great stories in us. Some funny, some tragic, some sad, some happy, some boring, some just rants. But the thing is, we all have them, and they should be shared, in fact they must be shared.

Mainstream media is pretty much all the same stuff. Important stuff at times, but pretty much all the same. The trouble is you can’t read really good stories. You know, the really important ones about life and love and struggles and such? Stories told by people that you can relate to, normal, struggling every day sort of people you can trust. And in mainstream, you can’t form a relationship with the authors — or chat with other people about the same thing. Well, we hope that PNN becomes a place that you can do all these things.

Major story categories on PNN seem to be A&E (arts and entertainment?), Family, Living, Diversions, Politics, Green, Glitz, World, Sports, Paws, and Education.

I discovered PNN through About-Personal-Growth.com. Major categories here include: Relationships, Communication, Leadership, Success, Life, Self Esteem, Motivation, Emotion, and Mind. There is, of course, also a Stories section, described this way:

Reading stories is one of the ways for you to understand life. On the following pages, you will find personal growth stories to let you see that good and bad things happen to everyone. The aim of telling you the stories is to get you involved when you read them. From reading them, you might get a better understanding about life. Hopefully, the personal growth stories here will help you gain insights and inspiration. You may realize that you have your own collection of stories that have taught you valuable lessons and make you the person you are today.


Next up is The Experience Project, described as “the first Social Experience Website, where you can anonymously share and connect around the ideas and experiences that matter the most to you. This is a place where who you are — what you think and feel — is more important than who you know or what you look like.” While stories are not the only feature of The Experience Project, they are a significant part (the graphic below shows some of the topics) :

Join thousands of members sharing stories about their life experiences. Read another’s perspective on something you’ve experienced, or discover something entirely new. Then, start sharing your own thoughts to connect with people that understand you. Stories and personal experiences are shared within Experience Groups filled with people that understand your situtation and can provide support and meaningful friendship. By sharing, you will grow your network of new friends, help people facing the same situation, and feel better, since writing is therapeutic!

Finally, stories on a singularly serious topic at Telling Our Stories. Here’s the background:

High school students at the Urban School of San Francisco conduct and film interviews with Bay Area Holocaust survivors in their homes. Students then transcribe each 2-plus hour interview, create hundreds of movie files associated with each transcript, and then post the full-text, full-video interviews on this public website as a service to a world-wide audience interested in Holocaust studies. … This is an ongoing, ever-changing, and constantly evolving project involving dozens of students, teachers, and community volunteers.

The site includes more than 30 hours of interviews with eight Jewish survivors and refugees, stories of WWII Camp Liberators/Witnesses — eight U.S. soldiers deployed in Europe who witnessed Nazi concentration camps, and stories of 11 Japanese Americans deported to internment camps during WWII.

Q&A with a Story Guru: Terrence Gargiulo, Part 3

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See Terrence’s bio, photo, and Part 1 of this Q&A and see Part 2 of the Q&A.

Q&A with Terrence Gargiulo (Question 3):

Q: What future trends or directions do you foresee for story/storytelling/narrative? What’s next for the discipline? What future aspirations do you personally have for your own story work? What would you like to do in the story world that you haven’t yet done?

All the incredible research in neuroscience, cognitive science, and learning are unearthing some wonderful possibilities for our nascent field. People are hungry how to be present in the here in a way that simultaneously enables them to feel part of an interconnected fabric and while realizing their boundaries and limitations of self that animate in our lives.

I believe we need to build a strong interdisciplinary bridge between practitioners and researchers. I would like to see a research agenda collaboratively defined and pursued by academics and professionals. I’d love to see a world-class international event with a dynamic format to jump-start these inter-disciplinary conversations and which culminate in the articulation of a research agenda.

I will continue my research on the relationship between stories and thinking. I believe stories are an effective lens for understanding the complexity of the mind and its evolution as we head towards what I believe will be a shift in consciousness.

From my earlier research I have developed a model of nine story-based communication skills. These are skills we all possess. We have the equipment. I have written a validated instrument that measures what percentage of the time we are aware of using these skills and how others perceive our abilities. I use the tool with all of my clients and I have been collecting quite a bit of data. I want to look at how my instrument relates to other popular ones currently used in organizations.

Q&A with a Story Guru: Terrence Gargiulo, Part 2

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See Terrence’s bio, photo, and Part 1 of this Q&A.

Q&A with Terrence Gargiulo (Question 2):

Q: Are there any current uses of storytelling that repel you or that you feel are inappropriate?

A: Stories can be used as weapons. Given their persuasive and emotional qualities they can be used to spin messages and misrepresent things. This sort of behavior eventually bears its ugly head but as in the case of short term forms of self-serving manipulation but it can be hard to detect or fend off. I see some of these types of abuses in the brand, marketing, and corporate communications arenas.

I also lose patience with some of the overly simplistic ways we all get sucked in to when we use stories to encode information in a moralistic fashion. I am just as guilty of this as the next person. Using stories to land a message or sound the trumpet of change and rally the troops around a single campfire reeks of top down command and control applications of didactic forms of communications. I’m not suggesting we never use stories to help illustrate points but such uses only scratch the surface. I see too many of these abuses in the field of leadership development and personal growth.

Here’s one way of discerning the difference between more traditional forms of communications and story-based ones:

Think of story-based communication strategies as cloud chambers in your organization…

Cloud Chamber — apparatus that detects high-energy particles passing through a supersaturated vapor; each particle ionizes molecules along its path and small droplets condense on them to produce a visible track (definition courtesy of www.answer.com)

They create a space of dialogue and sense making. This “story space” is where people interact with each other’s stories in different ways. Some interactions might occur as people reflect and react to organizational collaterals peppered with stories, some interactions might happen when we create formal and informal opportunities for people to respond to the stories we use to incite dialogue, and still other interactions, once we have put the initial stories out there, will happen without us doing anything whatsoever to orchestrate them. As stories elicit more stories by bouncing off of each other, organizational trajectories of meaning and understanding emerge. People’s actions provide a visible albeit subtle and ghostly trace of the impact of story-based communications.

Stories are not another lever in a machine. Machines or systems take known controlled inputs that produce reliable and consistent outputs. Stories are more chaotic. Once you stir up or perturbate the social fabric of individual nodes of sense making (aka the people in an organization) unexpected behaviors emerge. What is lost in control is gained in the propagating strength of the communication signal and the rolling waves of self-directed behaviors it has the potential to create. Communications function less like instructions and more like picture frames waiting to be filled with collages of vibrant photographs.