My New Year’s Eve Movie Marathon Story

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One of my departures into stories of my own life …

I don’t drink (in fact today is the 27th anniversary of my sobriety) and don’t much enjoy raucous parties of the New Year’s Eve ilk. But a number of years ago, I sought a way to not feel like a loser who doesn’t get invited to anything on New Year’s Eve.

I hit upon the idea of a New Year’s Eve movie marathon and conducted my first one in 1996. In the early years, the marathon was an opportunity to catch up on movies I hadn’t seen in the past year. As the days of DVDs, and especially Netflix, dawned, it became harder and harder to find movies I hadn’t already seen throughout the year.

So, sometime in this current aught decade, I started focusing the marathon around various themes — documentaries, dance movies, indie films. The year Katharine Hepburn died, her films were the theme. This year is the second I’ve dedicated to a specific actor, and this year’s theme spring from a remark I made to my husband that Robert Downey, Jr., is one of those actors whose films I will almost always want to see.

I’ve had marathons with eight or more films, but this year’s will be a more manageable four.

I like having fun munchie food during the marathon.

It’s a safe, enjoyable, non-loser way to celebrate the new year.

What’s Your New Year’s Resolution Story? Discuss with Michael Margolis at 1 pm Today

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From Michael Margolis, who is holding a telecall today:

I don’t know about you, but I HATE the concept of New Year’s resolutions.

Every year, I say I’m going to lose 20 pounds, but it never happens. And I just feel crappy about it. Maybe this is a familiar story to you too? You set some big “blue sky” resolutions for the New Year, and in a couple months you fall right back to the old habits. The only thing we seem resolved to do is repeat the same punishing pattern year-after-year.

Want to break the cycle? Join me Wednesday for a Free Story Telecall:

*** Wednesday, Dec 30th at 1pm EST/10am PST for 60 Minutes ***
Dial-in info – (218)-844-8230; Participant Code: 290302#

Here’s the thing — last year this time, my life was in major turmoil. It was so upside down, I didn’t have time to really set “blue sky” resolutions. Guess what happened? In 2009, I lost 20 pounds (actually it was closer to 30!). And I didn’t join a gym or go on a watermelon diet. So what was different this time? I resolved to fundamentally change my story. When I set this change in motion, the world around me totally re-organized: the end of my marriage, the transformation of my business, and the publishing of my book Believe Me.

Every story is a lesson in choice and consequence. If you’re looking to tell a bigger story in 2010, I encourage you to join me for Wednesday’s free telecall. We’ll discuss the process of change storytelling, and answer questions since reading my storytelling manifesto. It’s going to be pretty loose and informal, so bring your best and biggest questions. I know its one thing to think about your bigger story, it’s another to put it into action. I want to help you do it.

What’s one story you have the power to change in 2010?

Here are the details again:

Wednesday, Dec 30th at 1pm EST/10am PST for 60 Minutes
Dial In info – (218)-844-8230; Participant Code: 290302#

Rubrics for Viewing Photographic Storytelling

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Matthew Cline and Sudipta Shaw have both recently written blog entries that examine how photographs can tell stories.

“A storyteller strives to have a deeper understanding of the subject and convey that through the camera,” Cline writes. He wonders if the many elements that go into making a story can “be captured in one frame? One single image?” His answer: “Most definitely.”

Shaw’s musings are based on a recent visit to the George Eastman Museum of Photography. “After looking at most of the photos (half way of the tour), I found an intangible element in almost all the photos,” Shaw notes. “It’s the “story” behind what (and how) the photo has been shot.”

Shaw concludes that “as any other properties of storytelling, a photo should comprise of one or more of 5 elements — Mood, Emotion, Narrative, Ideas, or Messages.” He goes on to give at least one example photo for each element, along with technical thoughts on how a photographer can achieve those elements.

Cline’s scrutiny of photographic storytelling led him to develop what he calls“a new form of photographic storytelling,” striving to create a “presentation that would make the story behind the photos more evident to everyone watching.”

It’s interesting to consider Cline’s photographic storytelling success based on Shaw’s 5 elements. Same goes for some other nice photographic storytelling I’ve encountered recently:

  • The Longest Way Home (below) by Christoph Rehage, like Cline’s creation, is more than photography. Rehage, attempted to walk from China to Germany. He walk about a third of the initial way, from November 9, 2007, (his 26th birthday) until October 27, 2008. Then he stopped, got a haircut and shaved off his beard, and took a plane home. The shave and haircut are significant because Rehage documented his walk with daily photos and short videos, compiling them into the video/slideshow referenced above. The video is set to music and has a few printed captions. I love the way this piece is done with Rehage always in the same position in the photos.

The Longest Way 1.0 – walk through China and grow a beard! – TIMELAPSE from Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.

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  • What kind of stories can shoes at a wedding tell? “Emily G” of Emily G Photography explores that question by presenting four photos of shoes at weddings (below). She writes: “All you need is two pairs of shoes, one bride, one groom and one unique picture to begin to tell the story of your wedding. … This photo will tell a lot more about your wedding than you think. Your shoes reflect not only you and your groom’s personalities but also the spirit of the day. … Take a moment to look at each of the four pictures, all different brides with a completely different story. Just by these two pairs of shoes you can see a snapshot of their wedding day. What was the weather like? Was it a formal wedding or did they dance down the aisle? Did they plan the attire together or do opposites truly attract?”

  • Stephen Crowley of the New York Times writes extensively of the storytelling photography of the late photojournalist Grey Villet, citing Villet’s commitment to the “great tradition of storytelling.” You can see the story of that storytelling here and more of Villet’s work in this online exhibition.
  • The Julia Galdo Housewife Series gets storytelling props from TrendHunter Magazine.

Consider 2-5-1 Storytelling for Your Personal Year-End Review

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Robert A. Swanwick recently reported on a storytelling framework that works well for gaining knowledge while evaluating projects. He learned of the framework from a presentation by Nancy Dixon, who in turn, learned of it from Lt Col Karuna Ramanathan.

With 2009 ending in a few days, it occurred to me that individuals could apply this technique to constructing stories about the past year with an eye toward learning from the year’s experiences.

Here’s the framework, called the 2-5-1 framework, along with my adaptations for applying it to it a personal year-end review:

  • 2
    • Who you are
    • Summary of your year’s experience
  • 5 fingers
    • Little finger – what aspects of your life did not get enough attention?
    • Ring finger – What relationships did you form? What did you learn about relationship building?
    • Middle finger – what did you dislike? What/who frustrated you?
    • Pointer finger – what would you do better next time around? What do you want to tell those who influenced your actions in the last year about what they could do better?
    • Thumb (up) – what went well. What was good?
  • 1 – the most important takeaway from the year

Job-seekers: Consider Both Authentic and Difficult Stories

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My colleague Barbara Safani (pictured) posted two terrific blog entries in the last month about storytelling for job-seekers. She and some other career colleagues recently attended a workshop put on by New York City’s Narativ, which apparently, in part, inspired these posts.

The first offers excellent guidelines for telling stories in response to job-interview questions:

  • Personalization equals passion. A great story of success to showcase during an interview is one that proves your passion. To simply state that you are passionate about building strong sales teams or creating technology infrastructures would sound cliche. But communicating a story about a time that you put your blood, sweat, and tears into a project to get it done on time and on budget would be an authentic and more interesting way to tell your story and make hiring managers feel confident that you could create similar experiences in their organization.
  • Everyone has a story. So many job seekers think they have nothing unique to say. “I just did my job; I didn’t do anything special” is one of the statements I hear most frequently from job seekers trying to prove the impact of their work. But like your family history, your work history is unique to you. Try to focus on how you did your job effectively and what you do differently than your colleagues or your predecessors in the position.
  • The specifics of the story are more important than the general facts. I don’t remember all the facts or the time line of every grandparent story I heard this weekend. But for each story I heard, I remember several snippets that best describe that grandparent and even offer clues to their values and way of life. In interviews, most people think they should talk about their skills in general terms, but it is the specific examples of success and the specific metrics behind those stories that prove your impact that the interviewer will remember.
  • A personal story can represent a universal feeling or experience. All the grandparent stories I heard were quite different. Yet there were common themes of family, community, love, and loss that everyone could relate to. When you interview, you are attempting to find common ground with the interviewer. You are trying to develop rapport by proving that the things you have achieved in your past positions will help improve their current work environment.

Barb’s more more recent post addresses the issue of how to tell difficult stories in a resume. She notes that job-seekers are often reluctant to tell these stories that have a negative taint to them. “I disagree,” Barb writes. “Job seekers can show their ability to influence positive outcomes, even when the deck is stacked against them and business conditions are exceptionally challenging.” She offers these examples:

  • Secured sales meetings with 80% of target audience; successfully introduced products and services despite inherent obstacles including saturated and shrinking market.

Providing leadership in environments plagued with infighting…

  • Successfully broke down business silos and improved information sharing across cross- functional teams by creating an open and transparent work environment to foster collaboration.

Salvaging a damaged client relationship…

  • Reversed strained client relationship that was damaged due to a previous producer’s missed deadline by quickly mobilizing team resources to shave close to 75% off the normal project completion time.

Preparing for a failed company’s closing…

  • Developed a liquidation strategy that maximized profit margin from inventory and kept vendors and staff engaged until final closing.

Managing poor performers…

  • Reversed performance issues for a struggling employee who went on to become the division’s #1 account executive and ranked in the top-ten firm-wide.

The only thing I’d add to Barb’s resume stories is that in a resume, it’s often a good idea to tell the ending of your stories first because resumes are read so quickly. Employers like to see results, so it’s helpful to tell resume stories in this order:
Results –> Action that caused those results to occur –> Situation or challenge that necessitated the action.

Q&A with a Story Guru: Evelyn Clark: The Story Behind Storybooks for Corporations

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See a photo of Evelyn, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

Q&A with Evelyn Clark, Question 5:

Q: How did you develop the idea of Storybooks for corporations? What inspired the idea?

A: The idea of Storybooks for corporations was generated by a client, Western Wireless (now part of Alltel). Although the company existed for only 11 years, it was a remarkable success story of becoming a top wireless provider in a chaotic and competitive environment. Before merging with Alltel, Western Wireless’ founders were brainstorming ideas for a meaningful parting gift to give each of their employees. The marketing director suggested that capturing the extraordinary experience through a collection of favorite stories would be a perfect tribute to the people who helped to create a unique culture and made it work. Collecting stories from board members, executives, and a widely representative sampling of employees was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. What an amazing group of brilliant, hard-working, and fun people! A talented graphic-design team created a beautiful book that included photos taken by employees over the years, complete with amusing captions that conveyed the work hard/play hard competitive spirit that drove the company.

The book was a huge hit with employees. Not only were they overwhelmed by the thoughtfulness of a beautiful parting gift, but they were thrilled to have a permanent reminder of an experience that was truly a career highlight for everyone who contributed to the project.

In addition to being a wonderful commemoration of a company’s milestones, a Storybook is an engaging way to tell a corporate history and leave a lasting legacy from one generation of leaders to the next. Stories allow others to share the experiences and get to know the personalities of the people involved. Because stories convey core values and create lasting memorable, a book of collected stories are a natural way to impart the flavor of the culture.

Q&A with a Story Guru: Evelyn Clark: Stories Must Be Grounded in Truth

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See a photo of Evelyn, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, Part 2, and Part 3.

Q&A with Evelyn Clark, Question 4:

Q: If you could share just 1 piece of advice or wisdom about story/storytelling/narrative with readers, what would it be?

A: Be honest be genuine, and be true to your core values. It’s ok to “spin” a story for greater effect by adding insignificant elements for color or exaggerating details, especially when you make it clear that you’re just having fun with the audience, but the lessons conveyed must always be grounded in the truth of who you are.

Note: This Q&A will conclude Saturday after a Christmas posting on Friday.

Q&A with a Story Guru: Evelyn Clark: Executives Dub Applied Storytelling ‘Profound,’ ‘Natural’

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See a photo of Evelyn, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, and Part 2.

Q&A with Evelyn Clark, Question 3:

Q: What’s your favorite story about a transformation that came about through a story or storytelling act?

A: There are so many, it’s difficult to choose. Here are two of my favorites, insights that executives shared with me:

In a management retreat for 200 top executives and managers of a medical center, the president came up to me at the first break and said, “I’ve already learned a valuable lesson: I can tell stories! It’s second nature for our CEO to use stories when he speaks — and he’s so good at it, I had decided to leave that to him. But I’ve realized, as you’ve said, that we all naturally use stories in our conversations, and I’m looking forward to learning more about how to do it deliberately when I deliver more formal presentations.”

At the end of a two-day executive retreat that was part of an 18-month program to develop leadership skills, a highly-respected community leader said, “I wondered how we could possibly spend two days on storytelling, which seemed like a lightweight topic. But as we peeled back the layers over these past two days, I realized how profound the applied skill of storytelling is.”

Q&A with a Story Guru: Evelyn Clark: How She Became The Corporate Storyteller

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See a photo of Evelyn, her bio, and Part 1 of this Q&A.

Q&A with Evelyn Clark, Question 2:

Q: How did you initially become involved with story/storytelling/narrative? What attracted you to this field? What do you love about it?

A: I’ve enjoyed writing stories most of my life, especially since my father read one of my 8th-grade class assignments and suggested that I consider a career as a news writer. I was immediately captivated by images of reporters racing from one event to another and dashing off front-page stories. I gladly followed a straight line from high-school newspaper editor to a communications degree and a stint as broadcast editor for the Associated Press. I later moved to the other side of the desk, pitching corporate stories to the media, preparing clients for interviews and earning accreditation as a public relations counselor. Over the years I loved it all — and then I “hit the wall.”

I felt burned out and wasn’t sure what to do next. A top-flight business consultant friend offered to help me figure out how to reframe my work. After a series of conversations about my desire to help business people gain a deeper understanding of communication strategy, particularly as it related to marketing communications, my consultant friend suggested the title, “The Corporate Storyteller.” Just as my father’s suggestion had resonated immediately, this concept appealed to me instantly, and I developed a trademarked workshop entitled “Corporate Storytelling: Discovering Fire for the Second Time.”

The first session was presented in 1993, and I enjoy delivering it as much today as I did the first time. Each audience is different, the interaction is fun, and the participants always are excited about their discoveries. It’s very energizing and rewarding work when you see people light up and make significant breakthroughs.