Should a Career Changer Use a “Cover Story?”

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When we hear the phrase “cover story,” we think of a story that’s not true.

Recently on CollegeRecruiter.com, Sital Ruparelia suggested that career changers should have a cover story for those between-jobs situations when someone asks what the career-changer is up to these days.

Ruperelia describes his personal experience with this process: “I came up with a “cover story’ — a vague (yet plausible) answer to that awkward question: “so what are you doing these days?” or the “what are you planning to do next?” question.”

Ruperlia admits to the lack of truth in such a story: “You could say it’s a little white lie or half truth you tell others (and yourself!) because it speeds up your career transition.”

The situation the blogger seems to be referring to occurs when an individual voluntarily leaves a job and is not sure of his or her next move.

Ruperelia lists five reasons this cover story is desirable but does not tell what cover story he used when he voluntarily left his job as a recruitment consultant and had not decided what to do next. It’s hard to evaluate his premise about the cover story without knowing what he considers to be an appropriate story. (And quite honestly, it’s hard to imagine — certainly in the current economy — voluntarily leaving a job without clearly knowing what one is doing next. Ruperelia’s exit was in 2003, so that may have been a more reasonable time for such a choice).

Granted, it’s awkward in networking situations to describe this limbo or indecisiveness about one’s current situation and future ambitions.

But is a white lie or half-truth really what’s called for?

Instead, I think we’re all looking for authenticity. It’s totally possible to confidently tell an authentic story — one that aligns with your personal brand — of what you’re doing when you’re not employed.

Would you tell a white lie or half-truth story to explain what you’re doing between jobs? Have you?

Further Exploring What Makes Good Presentation Storytelling: Seeking Definitions and Examples

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Had a couple of good comments to yesterday’s entry about Slideshare’s World’s Best Presentation Contest 2009.

Raf Stevens challenged me to share more examples of good storytelling, particularly from among Slideshare presentations. I accept the challenge, although I find it difficult to identify good slideshow storytelling because the slides are only half the equation; the presenter’s spoken words provide the other half. As I accept Raf’s challenge and try to find good storytelling on Slideshare, it’s possible I will divide my discoveries into good storytelling slideshows with no narration and good storytelling slideshows with narration.

In the meantime, can you nominate any Slideshare presentations that you would consider to demonstrate good storytelling?

One thing is certain: The best examples will be the antithesis of this amusing specimen shared by reader Chris Collison (his friend Rowan Manahan created it to mock PowerPoint on its 20th anniversary), in which a familiar story degenerates into slideshow bullet points:

Cathryn Wellner asked I’d ever explored the definition of “story” on A Storied Career — because I suggested in yesterday’s entry that presentations may require a narrower definition of “story” than I usually subscribe to. On further reflection, I think presentations with slideshows may require a subset of the presentation definition.

I told Cathryn that I had primarily communicated the opinions of others (notably my Q&A participants) about defining “story.”

As a jumping-off point for discussion, I’ve compiled a little handout (DefiningStory.pdf) that juxtaposes the opinions of story practitioners who don’t feel it’s important to define “story” with those who feel it is important and offer a definition.

With these thoughts in mind, assuming it’s desirable to include stories in presentations:
Do you feel presentations require a different definition of “story” than do other ways of using story?
What criteria for “story” would you set for slideshow presentations?

Story Doesn’t Fare Well in World’s Best Presentation Contest 09

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I’ve gotten into the habit of evaluating the storytelling in the presentation contests that Slideshare holds. The first one I looked at a little more than a year ago was dubbed The World’s Greatest Presentation Contest. No special emphasis on storytelling was implied or included in the contest, but because I happen to believe storied presentations are the most effective, I looked at the storytelling in the winning presentations, concluding that only the third-place winner offered good storytelling. One of the judges later told me privately that the judges hadn’t been allowed to set some judging criteria as to what makes a good story.

Storytelling was a major expectation of Slideshare’s Tell-a-Story Contest earlier this year, and I felt that the winning entries did a reasonable job of telling stories, but I was left a bit disappointed considering that storytelling was the contest’s focus.

So what makes for good storytelling in a presentation?

  • For one thing, it’s hard to answer that question based on a slideshow alone. When accompanied by a presenter, a slideshow may become much more storied than it appears in the slides because the presenter may embellish the slides with stories or elaborate on what the audience sees on the slides or give storied examples.
  • Since none of the slideshows in Slideshare’s contests have had narration, their storytelling must be judged by the slides alone. So, one criteria for good storytelling could be that if the slideshow stands on it own merits and communicates its message effectively, it might be good storytelling, but not necessarily. The contest is, after all, for the World’s Best Presentation, not for the World’s Best Set of Slides.
  • I generally adhere to fairly loose definitions of “story;” yet, stories told in presentations seem to require a tighter definition. Perhaps the oral delivery of stories cries out for narratives with a beginning, middle, and end.
  • And in a presentation, a recitation of facts, statistics, figures, and lists is probably not storytelling.

Others more expert in using stories in presentations can probably come up with a better set of criteria than the foregoing, but it’s the rubric I’ve applied in evaluating winners of the Slideshare contests, including The World’s Best Presentation Contest 2009 just announced.

All of the presentations are clever, graphically interesting, and well done. Few of them represent good storytelling, though. I felt the most storied entry was the second-place winner, Sheltering Wings by Sarah Cullem (shown below), about the Sheltering Wings Orphanage in the incredibly poor nation Burkina Faso. I also admire the presentation’s conciseness; it’s the shortest entry among the winners. It’s true that this presentation doesn’t tell a story until Slide 21 (of 33). It’s also apparent that the story could be enhanced with narration (it uses a timeline instead). Toward the end of the presentation we see brief stories of three young people in the orphanage who benefited or could benefit from some assistance. These are effective stories, though too much type appears on the slides that tell the stories (they would be more effectively presented in just the narrator’s words.)

The other winners and my perception of their “storied-ness:”

Perhaps it’s unfair to judge these presentations by story standards since the judges did not. These presentations show it’s quite possible to produce excellent and interesting presentations without stories.

I just happen to believe presentations are much better with them.


Survey with Monday Deadline Asks for Reactions to Organizational Scenarios/Stories

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On behalf of researcher Nicole Cundiff, I pass along this invitation to take a survey that
closes on Monday, October 5:

The purpose is to assess different types of organizations and their leaders. Cundiff is especially interested in survey-takers who are part- or full-time workers from public, private, non-profit, or entrepreneurial types of organizations that either live in the United States and its territories OR work for a U.S. based company.

The survey will take no longer than 10-15 minutes of your time, and simply asks you to give your opinion about some short scenarios.

You’ll need to copy and paste the password cba112 to take the survey, which is here.

Waiting in Line? Try Cultivating Stories

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I’m belatedly reading one of the classics of the storytelling world (especially personal storytelling), Storycatcher by fellow Washington resident Christina Baldwin.

Early in the book, she tells this tale:

Attending a conference in California not long ago, I found myself standing in a line waiting to buy fancy coffee. One by one people reached the counter and placed their orders: “skinny latte double-shot tall.” I could see I would in in this a while, so I took a risk. Turning to the person next to me, I asked, “So what’s your earliest memory of coffee?” The man’s face lit up …

Baldwin goes on relate the coffee stories she elicited.

In my other home, Central Florida, I’m about an hour away from Walt Disney World, where waiting in long lines consumes at least half of the theme-park experience. What a great idea it would be to turn to folks in line and ask things like: “What’s your best memory of Disney World?” or “What do you remember about your first visit here?”

On Rabbit, Rabbit Day: Twitterings about Storytelling from the Last Month

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Do you know the story of rabbit, rabbit day? Neither does anyone else according to Wikipedia, yet millions say some variation of “rabbit, rabbit” on the first day of every month. I never knew about this tradition until I married my husband, in whose family of origin the habit is well-entrenched. Here’s what Wikipedia says about “rabbit, rabbit day:”

“Rabbit rabbit white rabbit” is a common superstition. The most common modern version states that a person should say “rabbit, rabbit, white rabbit” or simply “rabbit, rabbit” upon waking on the first day of each new month, and on doing so will receive good luck for the duration of that month. … The exact origin of the superstition is unknown, though it has appeared in print at least as early as 1954 in Bromley, Kent, where it is most commonly said to have originated, though some reports place its origins even earlier, into the 1800s. Today it has spread to most of the English-speaking countries of the world, although like all folklore, determining its exact area of distribution is difficult. This superstition is related to the broader belief in the rabbit or hare being a “lucky” animal, as exhibited in the practice of carrying a rabbit’s foot for luck. Some have also believed it is representing a jumping into the future and moving ahead with life and happiness.

A friend of one of my Facebook friends told this story today:

I had a 4th grade teacher that would march us into her teacher friend’s classroom on the first day of every month to jump up and down and shout “rabbit day!” three times, and then turn and march out.

Anyhoo … it’s a good day to report on which items related to storytelling have attained the most buzz on Twitter since my last report about six weeks ago:

    • I wrote about Waterlife before in connection with “database storytelling” (which is still a mystery); this presentation got lots of buzz on Twitter.
    • A video that previews a Nov. 19 conference in London called Creativity and Technology is titled CaT Video: The Storytelling Throwdown: Is technology changing brand storytelling? and was much-retweeted. [Disclaimer: Because it’s more than 20 minutes long, I haven’t yet had the chance to watch it.]
    • Much buzz focused on Adam Westbrook’s blog post on 6×6 storytelling for freelance journalists, the third in a series of six blog posts, each with six tips for the next generation of freelance multimedia journalists, in which Westbrook wrote:

      A lot of the focus for multimedia journalists and digital journalists has been on new technology: using Twitter, learning Flash. But there’s a danger that in the rush to learn new skills, we forgot (or never learn) the oldest ones. And there is no skill older, or more important, than storytelling.

    • Every month in the Twitterverse, it seems at least one movie is cited for excellent storytelling. Since my last compilation, three films have enjoyed storytelling accolades — two with “9” in the title, 9 and District 9, along with Inglorious Basterds. One movie, Extract, was cited for weak storytelling.

  • A new collaborative storytelling tool, Storybird, got lots of buzz. The tool targets narrative artists, families, writers, and educators. “Storybirds are short, visual stories that you make with family and friends to share.”
  • I helped promote Cathie Dodds’ Labor Day Twitterthon, designed to “see if it was possible to tell your story with Twitter,” and the results were significantly retweeted.
  • I’ve been thinking and writing a lot about transmedia storytelling recently, in part because this story form has garnered so much attention, such as in the article, The revolutionary power of transmedia storytelling.
  • And finally, my friend Tom Clifford enjoyed well-deserved retweets of his Three Keys to Good Storytelling, a guest post from Bluedot Productions, the filmmakers behind the documentary, The Quantum Activist.

Make it a good Rabbit Rabbit day!

Transmedia Storytelling for the Individual/Job-seeker: What It Might Look Like: Part 2

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In yesterday’s entry, I proposed deploying transmedia storytelling on an individual basis for the purpose of, say, getting a job or attracting clients.

I used a framework suggested by Jeff Gomez, president and CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment, for looking at individual transmedia storytelling.

Gomez (who very kindly stopped by and commented on yesterday’s entry) also figures prominently in today’s installment, via a blog entry from almost two years ago by transmedia-storytelling expert extraordinaire Christy Dena, Jeff Gomez’s “8 Defining Characteristics of Transmedia Production“.

So let’s look at the 8 characteristics (have these changed at all in two years?). At the same time, let’s take a sample individual/job-seeker. Allison Cody, who commented on yesterday’s entry, briefly noted that individual transmedia storytelling is already in practice. I have no doubt of that, but I have not yet taken the time to research examples. Therefore, the most convenient example to use is myself, although I am an imperfect example.

Let’s say I would like a job teaching at the college level, which coincidentally I would (my current geographic situation makes that notion difficult, but I’d make a kick-butt online teacher).

Here are Gomez’s 8 defining characteristics of a transmedia production, as reported by Dena. I’ve looked at each one in relation to individual/job-seeker/my transmedia storytelling and tried to provide some examples:

  1. Content is originated by one or a very few visionaries: Obviously this one works for the individual, who could originate his or her content, perhaps with the assistance of a career coach, branding strategist, or technical guru.
  2. Cross-media rollout is planned early in the life of the franchise: Sure. That works. The individual could plan early in, for example, a job search how to roll out the transmedia story.
  3. Content is distributed to three or more media platforms: No problem here. I discuss personal example below.
  4. Content is unique, adheres to platform-specific strengths, and is not repurposed from one platform to the next: This characteristic should also not be a problem for the individual but requires a new kind of thinking. For example, even if a job-seeker has a presence on several platforms, it’s likely to a very similar presence with a lot of repetition. The job-seeker needs to think outside the box not to simply repurpose the same content from one platform to the next.
  5. Content is based on a single vision for the story world: This piece is perhaps the most difficult piece for the individual, who must work at communicating a storied vision of himself or herself. This piece can also be thought of as the individual’s personal brand, or rather his or her storied personal brand. Examples abound of individuals and job-seekers who have promoted themselves across multiple media, but have they done so in a cohesive, storied way?
  6. Concerted effort is made to avoid fractures and schisms: I am not 100 percent sure of what this one means, but I think it refers to story discontinuity, illogical leaps that result in cognitive dissonance. The individual would need to ensure that the story flows logically and makes sense.
  7. Effort is vertical across company, third parties and licensees: This one is really the only one that doesn’t apply to the individual
  8. Rollout features audience participatory elements, including:
  • Web portal
  • Social networking
  • Story-guided user-generated content

The individual can absolutely make these participatory features available. Whether the desired audience would use them is another question.

Now, let’s look more closely at characteristics 3 and 8 — media on which the individual can tell the story and audience participatory elements.

Three or more media platforms are required. What might they be in my case?

    1. Slideshow/video on YouTube describing my teaching story — how I got into teaching, what my strengths are, and where I want to go next.

    1. Photos showing students working in teams, having meaningful learning experiences. The photos could be on a photo-sharing site like Flickr, or on Facebook, where I really do have a collection of great photos of one of my classes. However, the photos need a storyline. I need better captions and a better overall way of presenting the story of teaching this class.

  1. I can think of a number of possibilities for the third (and perhaps subsequent) media, but again I must keep in mind the storytelling aspect. I could make a video of teaching a class on storytelling, or a class in which I tell part of my story, or interweave the stories of my students with mine. I could set up a mini-online teaching platform in which I demonstrate my skills in online teaching but, again must consider how to tell another part of my story in this demo. I could show sample syllabi (again, story, story, story) on the Web.

And now let’s look at possible audience participatory elements:

  • Web portal: Check. I could use my personal Web site, my social media resume, my teaching portfolio, or this blog; however only the blog is currently set up for audience participation, and all portals need to do a better, more cohesive job of telling my story.
  • Social networking: Check. Probably the No. 1 venue at which I am integrating both my personal and professional stories is Facebook (and many of my Facebook friends are my former students), but perhaps I would want to set up a “Fan” page on Facebook to focus on the professional side. LinkedIn, of course, is a much more professional venue, but there is little opportunity for audience participation. I’ve split my Twitter accounts into personal and professional, but the professional probably needs to be more storied. And this blog can certainly be considered a social-networking venue, is set up for audience participation, and shows my passion and thought-leadership (I would certainly want storytelling to be a major focus of my teaching).
  • Story-guided user-generated content: This one is the trickiest for the individual. I could set up some sort of forum with my former students so they could help tell my story by commenting on my teaching. I could have some sort of live chat where employers could ask me questions about my teaching, and I could give storied responses. As already mentioned, I could set up an area to provide interactive samples of online teaching but would have to find a way to advance my story).

The biggest flaw I see in transmedia storytelling for the individual job-seeker is the difficulty in building an audience. Transmedia storytelling in the fictional world of movies generally has a built-in audience that is anticipating a movie’s release. Films that lend themselves to transmedia productions often tend to translate well to videogames that tell a different part of the story and don’t merely repurpose the movie’s plot. Perhaps that’s what I need: Kathy Hansen: The Teaching Videogame.

So, I throw this wacky notion open to you, readers:
What examples have you seen of effective transmedia storytelling by individuals/job-seekers? How can an individual attract a reasonably large audience for a transmedia storytelling effort?

My Wackiest Proposal Yet: Transmedia Storytelling for the Individual, Job-seeker: Part 1

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What I’m about to propose here may be wacky, but it’s also timely, given personal-branding guru Dan Schawbel’s blog post yesterday asking readers to predict when traditional resumes will die.

My proposal: Individuals and job-seekers can use transmedia storytelling to tell their personal stories and brand themselves. It’s wacky primarily because transmedia storytelling is usually used for fictional narratives about multiple characters.

I’ve already raised the question of whether individuals can use transmedia storytelling, pointing to the most frequently cited nonfiction example, the Obama presidency.

An interview with Jeff Gomez, producer and Hollywood creative executive, about transmedia storytelling by Vince Thompson on Smartplanet provides a good framework for what I’m talking about.

First, Thompson notes that “Research has shown that when consumers meet their characters in different media contexts their bonds are strengthened.” So what if we plugged a few different but analogous words into that statement: Research has shown that when employers meet candidates in different media contexts their bonds are strengthened. I don’t know if that’s true, but it’s logical.

Next, Gomez’s characterization of how transmedia storytelling works (he’s applying the characterization to movies, typical targets of transmedia storytelling):

“[Transmedia storytelling] would give us different pieces of the narrative on different media platforms, so that we can see the movie and then explore different aspects of the characters and the world in other media. Taken as a whole, it’s a richer, deeper experience that gives us more of what we really want.

OK, so maybe transmedia storytelling, in which an individual or job-seeker gave different pieces of his or her personal/career narrative on different media platforms would give employers (or perhaps customers, clients) a richer, deeper experience that gives us more of what they really want.

I fully admit that not all aspects of fictional transmedia storytelling may work for individuals. For example, Gomez says: “[A]ll you really need as a basis for this form of expression is a story set in a world where the visionary or creators have developed a number of characters and a setting with a past, present and future.” In the individual version, you’d probably just focus on one character, the individual/job-seeker. On the other hand, other characters might be bosses, subordinates, and team members who could be part of a story of how well the protagonist collaborates with others.

Questions Gomez poses about developing the transmedia story could easily apply to an individual/job-seeker:

  • What are the building blocks of this narrative?
  • What makes the characters and the world unique?
  • What is this story trying to tell the world?

In the case of the third question, substitute “employer/client/customer” for “world.”

The next step Gomez details would be a great addition to personal branding/personal story development: “Once we understand [the answers to the three question above], we can set about creating a guidebook to the narrative that we call a Mythology.” This guidebook could provide the individual with direction “for how to best weave the story across multiple media platforms.”

The other critical aspect of transmedia storytelling is participation by audience members. Gomez says:

… transmedia narrative by definition has a number of what we call “invitational” components, where audience members are welcomed to participate by commenting on the narrative, by playing established or original characters, or even by contributing creatively to the world and the storyline.

For the individual, having audience members “play” him or her probably would not be desirable, but participating and commenting on the individual’s story would be, and “contributing creatively to the world and the storyline” might be.

Tomorrow in Part 2: What all this might look like for the individual/job-seeker, including how it might align with Christy Dena’s reportage on Gomez’s 8 characteristics of a transmedia production.

Thank YOU, Bernajean, for All You Do for Storytelling

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Bernajean Porter, who is kind enough to frequently retweet my entries here on A Storied Career, made a lovely comment on yesterday’s entry.

Since comments are a bit obscured here, I thought I’d bring it to the forefront as Bernajean deserves much credit for all she does for storytelling:

I have spent the last three years promoting digital storytelling as a means for educators to learn to read/write multimedia AS WELL as discovering the art of storytelling as powerful communication. See my StoryKeepers Gallery for both adult and student digital storytelling @ www.Digitales.us. Many see digital storytelling as an elementary language arts skills — unserious –extra. However as I facilitate their personal journey in finding and sharing a digital storytelling, no one leaves without deeply appreciating the power of storytelling in changing lives, cultures and experiences. YES to the 21st century skill — and much thanks to this site and others who give me a chance to point to the role of storytelling in the professional world beyond school. thank you thank you

Bernajean’s StoryKeepers Gallery is indeed well worth checking out.

Bernajean also conducts fascinating digital-storytelling teaching in Second Life, something I can barely begin to wrap my head around.

I don’t write as much as I could about digital storytelling here because I feel it’s such an explosive growth field that has many other outlets that cover it better than I could. But it’s important to pay respects to some of the pioneers and leaders of the field, like Bernajean.

I love Bernajean’s words about “the power of storytelling in changing lives, cultures and experiences.

Brava, Bernajean!

Should Storytelling Be a Required 21st-Century Skill?

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On her Langwitches Blog recently, Silvia Tolisano wrote, “I am intrigued and fascinated by the resurrection and increase in The Need for Storytelling Skills in the 21st century.” In turn, she cited an earlier entry in which she had invoked the likes of Daniel Pink and Jason Ohler in arguing the case for storytelling skills in our times.

Tolisano cites Jennifer New, who says, “Storytelling is a vital skill with seemingly unlimited applications.”

Tolisano is high on storytelling — especially digital storytelling — in education, and her recent piece suggests that storytelling is both a means and an end.

Her passionate argument for storytelling skills echoes that of Lori Silverman. Speaking in her Q&A here on A Storied Career about whether story work is evolving in organizations, Lori said:

The piece that is still missing for me as a strategist is story as an organizational core competency. I’ve yet to find an organization that has systematically thought about how story could be used in all its work processes, both internal and external to the enterprise. It’s my contention that until we change how we talk about this subject — and move from calling it “storytelling” which is a self-limiting term, to calling it “story work,” this broader context for integrating story throughout an organization will be hard pressed to occur.

Similarly, Lori’s frequent professional partner, Karen Dietz, said in her Q&A here: “Personally, my passion is training leaders to become compelling storytellers as an essential leadership and influence skill.”

As someone committed to educating, I am excited by the idea of storytelling as a 21st century skill (and I’d love to teach it.)

What do you think? Should storytelling be a required 21st century skill and how can it best be taught?