Storytelling/Study Skills Convergence

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My partner and I wrote a book on study skills that’s just come out, so I was really tickled to see a study method centering on storytelling at Study Hacks.
Cal Newport writes:

  • After each class, tell a “story” about the material covered — a five minute summary of the concepts that drove the lecture.
  • Don’t bother writing it down. Instead, just say it to yourself while walking to your next class. Treat it like you’re a literary agent or movie producer pitching the lecture at an important meeting.
  • Cover the big picture flow of ideas, not the small details. Answer the question “why was this lecture important?”, not all the information it contained. Play up the flashy or unexpected.

For example, after an Art History lecture, you might tell the story of early renaissance artists clashing in Italy, and how and why Cimabue and Gitto — the superstars of their era — were able to break out. You can do the same for technical material. After a calculus course, for example, you could talk about what problem a derivative solves and how integration extends the idea to do something even cooler. You don’t need to review the chain rule, instead explain why the hell someone would want to know the slope at a point on a curve.

Cal points out that the method is”a small thing that you can easily integrate into your existing schedule.” Awesome! I see that the technique was also well received by Cal’s readers. Wish I’d known about The Story Telling Method in time to talk about it in the book!

Do the World’s Greatest Slide Presentations Tell Stories?

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The terrific slideshow sharing site, Slideshare, has just named top winners in its World’s Best Presentation Contest, as judged by “four industry luminaries: Guy Kawasaki, Nancy Duarte, Garr Reynolds, and Bert Decker.”

In my book, a presentation would have to tell a story to be considered the world’s best. Here’s how the top 3 shake out, in my opinion, in terms of story:

  1. THIRST by Jeff Brenman: Beautifully done, but to me, this one looks like the usual facts and stats. Maybe it’s more of a story with narration.
  2. Foot Notes by Melanie Kahl: Again, beautifully done and looks even more like it would be a story or contain stories if it were narrated.
  3. Zimbabwe in Crisis by Daniel Hrstich: Now, this one is a story. I would have put this one on top.

Do you think these are the World’s Best Presentations? If a slideshow doesn’t stand on its on and tell a story without narration, is it the World’s Best? (I will also admit that my own attempt at a slideshow this year didn’t work as a story without narration).

Discuss.

I should add that the category winner in business was by ethos 3, the folks whose entire thrust is storytelling in presentations. Their presentation, a fast-moving, narrated collection of mini-stories is a tutorial on telling stories in presentations:

Q&A with a Story Guru: Terrence Gargiulo, Part 1

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I’m delighted to present the third installment in this series of interviews with some of the gurus of both performance and applied storytelling. This interview is with prolific author Terrence Gargiulo. I’ve read several of his books and “attended” some excellent Webinars he’s presented. Read more about him in his bio below. I have broken his interview down into five parts, with one to appear each of the next five days.

Bio: Terrence L. Gargiulo, MMHS, is an eight-time author, international speaker, organizational development consultant, and group-process facilitator specializing in the use of stories. He holds a master of management in human services from the Florence Heller School, at Brandeis University, and is a recipient of Inc. Magazine‘s Marketing Master Award and the 2008 HR Leadership Award from the Asia Pacific HRM Congress.

Highlights of some of his past and present clients include, GM, HP, DTE Energy, MicroStrategy, Fidelity, Federal Reserve Bank, Ceridian, Countrywide Financial, Washington Mutual, Dreyers Ice Cream, UNUM, US Coast Guard, Boston University, Raytheon, City of Lowell, Arthur D. Little, KANA Communications, Merck-Medco, Coca-Cola, Harvard Business School, and Cambridge Savings Bank.

Terrence’s books include, Making Stories: A Practical Guide for Organizational Leaders and Human Resource Specialists (translated into Chinese), The Strategic Use of Stories in Organizational Communication and Learning, On Cloud Nine: Weathering Many Generations in the Workplace (translated into Korean and Spanish), Stories at Work: Using Stories to Improve Communications and Build Relationships, Building Business Acumen for Trainers: Skills to Empower the Training Function, Once Upon a Time: Using Story-based Activities to Develop Breakthrough Communication Skills, In the Land of Difficult People: 24 Timeless Tales Reveal How to Tame Beasts at Work, The Trainer’s Portable Mentor.

Terrence is a frequent speaker at international and national conferences including the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), Academy of Management, Conference Board, Linkage Inc, Association of Business Communications, and he is a field editor for ASTD. His articles have appeared in American Executive Magazine, Journal of Quality and Participation, Communication World, ISPI Journal, and ASTD Links.

Terrence’s and his father’s opera Tryillias was accepted for a nomination for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in music.

Terrence can be reached by phone: 415-948-8087, email: Terrence@MAKINGTORIES.net

Q&A with Terrence Gargiulo (1st question):

Q: How important is it to you and your work to function within the framework of a particular definition of ”story?” (i.e., What is a story?) What definition do you espouse?

A: It isn’t important at all. In fact I’m afraid to say that I believe we miss the nuances of what stories really offer. I’m more comfortable letting go of story labels and definitions and getting down to just working and living with them. Isn’t that all we really can do? Definitions fly in the face of the very power of consciousness and awareness that stories offer us. When I work with groups I beg forgiveness for not giving a definition of stories; usually to the frustration of more literal and left-brain dominant types. Then through my interaction with the group I model story-based communication behaviors. I will collage strings of stories, elicit people’s stories, connect stories with one another, use lots of analogies and references to other stories to trigger rich associations in the minds and conversations of people present. All of this is meant to encourage proactive reflection. I want people to remember their experiences and appreciate/respect/take an interest in the experiences of others, look for connections between their experiences, and imagine new possibilities. This is the fluid and emergent quality of stories. And this is the framework I follow in all of my consulting work whether I am designing a large scale change management, developing a communications strategy, or architecting a learning event.

I have a passion for inciting insights in others. I am a conduit for opening story spaces. These are polyphonic dialogues orchestrated with reflective opportunities for insights to emerge. Recollecting our experiences and the experiences of others are precious gifts of attention that never stop gracing us with sense giving and sense making moments. I am committed to living these questions…Can we be authentic? Can we remember who we are? Can we create connections within ourselves, and between ourselves and others? Can we soar with our imaginations beyond the boundaries we erect in the name of stability? Can we let go of our habits and still feel alive?

I see the world through a lens of stories. The world unfolds as translucent, crisscrossing patterns of possibilities and meanings. It is my intuitive eye, fueled by my commitment to listen deeply, which sorts through this overwhelming array of perceptions. Here there is a mingling of vulnerabilities, differences, tensions, and myriad of intersecting points of connections. It is this self-sustaining structure-less structure that potentiates powerful dialogues that lead to solutions. I want to write and perform the dynamic melodies and harmonies that resonate for others and calls them to the dance of life.

When working with a group that want to delve into stories I will throw up some images on a screen like a rotating diamond with light streaming through it, a strand of DNA, raindrops hitting a pond of water, holograms, or a visualization of zooming in and out on a madlebrot set. I will invite the group to work with the images and suggest how they provide insights into the nature of stories beyond the obvious ways people are accustomed to thinking about them. Instead of offering definitions I will talk about some of the functions of stories and the effects of these functions:

Let me close by offering the following:

Stories fold in and out of themselves to reveal subtle worlds of meanings, purpose, and connections.

They are gentle transporters bound by time but that travel beyond the boundaries of what we have experienced at any given point in time.

Stories free us to move through a landscape of change. We leave the dusty road of the familiar and embrace a void where we can find the freedom to chose and perceive new realities and project worlds of our own making.

Stories can either crush illusions we have become enslaved to due to habit or they can lift our veils of fear and familiarity and give us a glimpse of new ways of being. Here we will find a place where we can be our unique selves while in communion with others.

– Terrence L. Gargiulo

Back in the Fray

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I first learned about Fray through a colleague at my university, Andy Dehnart (of Reality Blurred fame), who organized Fray events at the school. One year, my son participated in Fray Day, telling a largely fictionalized story of growing up as a gang member on the streets of Newark, NJ (OK, he was born in Newark, but that’s about as much truth as the story had in it.) Fray Day no longer happens, but as the Fray site explains, the Fray concept keeps morphing:

FRAY BEGAN as a website. We presented individually designed, true first-person stories. Each one ended with a question that prompted the audience to tell their stories, too. You can see an archive here.

THEN IT EVOLVED into a series of live storytelling events, Fray Days and Fray Cafes, that took place all over the world, attended by thousands of people. You can see some photos and listen to audio of those events, too.

AND NOW Fray is evolving again – this time into a quarterly series of independently produced books. Each one will be on a central storytelling theme, and include personal stories, articles, and original art. They will come out quarterly. They will be awesome.

But the core of Fray remains unchanged: It’s about true stories. It’s about proving that extraordinary things happen to ordinary people. It’s about finding that common thread that connects us all together. And it’s an invitation and a dare to get involved: What’s your story?

Fray also offers a blog.

Q&A with a Story Guru: Jessica Lipnack, Part 4

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

Q&A with Jessica Lipnack (continued):

Q: You write about Web 2.0 in your blog: “Virtual teams have always been in the 2.0 world, adding content to their shared online spaces, carrying on conversations after the lights have gone out, trying out new media. But the explosion of 2.0 technologies — and the advent of a generation that knows more about how to work online than their bosses — has altered (and will continue) to alter the virtual team landscape.”

Also, in the article, “The Strange Beauty of Virtual Teams,” you describe the study you did for Harvard Business Review,in which you found “four out of five teams used the very simple ‘killer-app’ combo available to nearly everyone these days: conference calls with screen sharing (via the Web) coupled with shared online workspaces.” You also found that most virtual teams use their meetings to resolve conflict and make decisions.

All of this is a long-winded lead-in to the two-part question: Given that these Web 2.0 technologies can be seen as storytelling vehicles and the generation that most uses them is accustomed to telling stories using these technologies, to what extent do you think storytelling will play a role in the way Web 2.0 continues to “alter the virtual team landscape?”

A: If we compare the work setting today with what was available even ten years ago, we see a world rich in storytelling possibilities. Every medium allows us to tell stories in different ways. As new technologies come online and the people who grew up using the new technologies move into leadership positions, we’ll see them encouraging the use of more diverse media — whether in virtual worlds or via micro-bursts, like Twitter. I think the “story” will spread across more media, which means people’s ability to use these media and acquire the behaviors necessary to collaborate productively will face some pretty steep challenges. The risk we run is that everything will become so fragmented that we need to become detectives to piece our stories together. Every project is its own story and it’s important that we capture it in process so that we can learn and apply our learning very quickly.

Q: Given that meetings of virtual teams, according to your HBR study, cut right to the chase, is there a role for storytelling in a typical VT meeting?

A: I don’t think we said that in the HBR article, “Can Absence Make a Team Grow Stronger?” In fact, we implied the opposite. Several of our findings revolved around conversation — allowing conversations to wander, pairing strangers and those with conflicting points-of-view, using multiple media for communication. All of this contributes to shared understanding, which only comes about through people telling one another their stories.

“Family Wealth Legacy” Stories

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I so wish I had captured more of my family’s stories, especially those of my dad and his five brothers and sisters who are now all gone but one. In her article in the Christian Science Monitor, Marilyn Gardner writes about senior citizens who are ensuring their stories will live on.

Gardner cites Hedrick Ellis, who hired a personal historian to interview his parents.

“You hear these stories over the years, but nobody ever really gets around to writing them down,” says Mr. Ellis of Arling­ton, Mass. “This seemed like an easy and practical way of capturing them.”

Gardner quotes Paula Stahel, president of the Association of Personal Historians, who niotes “an increase in the number of elders who want to be sure their stories are handed down.” Another personal historian, David O’Neil, is quoted as observing that “it’s always a baby boomer who has children and aging parents. They look at their parents and their children and wonder, ‘What are my children going to remember about my own parents, and how do I capture and preserve their life stories?’ As the World War II generation is passing away, there are a lot of efforts to record their stories.”

Gardner writes that “many people don’t think they have stories to tell,” but most find they have much more to relate than they imagined.

Gardner cites Project Storykeeper, the mission of which “is to preserve our families’ heritage. We believe that by capturing the life stories of our oldest and wisest citizens future generations can benefit from a wealth of experience and wisdom.” The project provides certified audio-biography training, support and audio tools to StoryKeepers “to preserve the past, enrich the present and strengthen the future — one story at a time.” StoryKeepers are people who record life stories and connect the family to hear them.

Dennis Stack, founder of Project Storykeeper, offers tips in the extended portion iof this entry for interviewing folks about their stories.

The “Family Wealth Legacy” of this entry’s title comes from a blog entry in Family Wealth Secrets Online Magazine.

“It’s about capturing the assets that are most often lost when someone dies … the intellectual, spiritual and human assets that make up a great majority of our family’s wealth and passing them on as well,” writes blogger and attorney Alexis Neely. She urges a “Family Wealth Legacy Interview process” at the end of planning an estate with a loved near the end of his or her life to “help you capture the most valuable family wealth you have and pass that on for successive generations by building a legacy library that will be far more valuable than any dollars you could ever leave behind.”

**Dennis Stack’s Tips for Interviewing people about Their Stories**:

– Keep the process simple. The best stories come out when people are comfortable.
– Know your equipment. Regardless of the type of device you use, know how it works. If you aren’t fumbling with the equipment, storytellers will forget they are being recorded and just be themselves.
– Not everyone wants to be on camera. Many storytellers feel uncomfortable in front of a camera.
– Really good stories cannot be told to a wall. Storytellers need to see, hear, and feel the reaction to their stories.
– When recording stories, keep it one on one. Too many people in the room can cramp the storyteller’s style and can make recording difficult because of “cross-talk” and “overtalk,” which end up as garble on the recording.
– Keep interview segments to 30 to 45 minutes. It’s much better to have several short sessions than a couple marathons. The time between the interviews (one or two days at most) is important to the process, allowing the storyteller to reminisce more deeply. Each successive session becomes more engaging.
– Don’t ask the deep-meaning questions too soon. If you let the stories develop and unfold, the storyteller’s ability to explain nuanced values and wisdom will come naturally.
– Keep the stories short. It’s easier to manage smaller audio files, so be ready to stop and start the recorder to mark each segment. Stories can even have chapters, which reduces the time of each recording. Try to keep stories under five minutes each.

Q&A with a Story Guru: Jessica Lipnack, Part 3

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

Q&A with Jessica Lipnack (continued):

Q: If you could share just one piece of advice or wisdom about story/storytelling/narrative with readers, what would it be?

A: Learn the craft of storytelling from the geniuses who write and who perform.

Q: Do you see a role for storytelling/sharing to build cohesiveness in virtual teams?

A: Very much so. When you’re bringing together people from diverse organizations, disciplines, cultures, countries, and time-zones, i.e., virtual teams, it usually means they don’t know one another. They come to know one another by sharing their stories, so this is a critical part of their work. Even the lowly conference call is a venue for telling stories. As a matter of fact, every conference call is a storytelling opportunity. To get “the voices in the room,” the opening to any good conference call, good facilitators/team leaders in essence ask people to tell a little story: What did you have for breakfast? What’s your favorite movie of all time? What music were you listening to before this call (or, if you’re one of the old breed that still travels to work ☺, what were you listening to on the commute)? These answers are mini-stories that build trust and cohesion.

The Story of the Accident of Existence

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Do you ever think of the “what-ifs” that led to your existence? The accidents and coincidences that resulted in your birth? Or how close you came to not existing if X, Y, or Z hadn’t happened?

Both my maternal and paternal ancestors came to America — Southern New Jersey to be precise — on the same ship, the Good Ship Kent, from England in 1677. Was that piece of history responsible for my existence? Perhaps just a little. More responsible probably was the fact that two teenagers at Moorestown High School in South Jersey — both descendants of the travelers on the Kent — had a passion for horses. Also responsible was the fact that first child of this couple — who had married — was tragically hit by a car and killed. I might have been born to the couple at some point anyway, but because they wanted to fill the empty space created my sister’s death, I was born almost a year to the day after she died.

The Danish Poet is a charming animated story of the chain of events that led to the narrator’s birth? The video asks: Is our existence just coincidence? Do little things matter?

I thoroughly enjoyed this funny, poignant, thought-provoking story. What chain of events led to your existence?

“Celebs Stuck in an Elevator” Story Prompt

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Collective Storytelling is a blog that serves as a repository class assignments for an unnamed class at NYU (maybe the class is titled, Collective Storytelling?).

The blog tantalizes with brief descriptions of the assignments, and the assignments themselves — but without very detailed explanations of the assignments. One posted idea for a final project sounds like fun:

I think it would be fun to harness the characters everyone in the world knows about — celebrities, as themselves. What I’d love to do (although I don’t have the programming chops) would be to call it “Five Celebs Stuck in an Elevator.” You pick 5 celebs from a list, and then you write a story about what happens when they get stuck in an enclosed space, and how they eventually get out (or perhaps don’t). In my imagination, their lines come out of their lil celebrity heads like speech bubbles [as shown above].