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The Help: A Riveting Novel about Telling Stories — Will It Be Oprah’s Next Selection?

Posted on September 17, 2009 by KatHansen

2020 retrospective reflection on this post: During the 2020 racial protests following the murder by police of George Floyd in Minnesota, I learned that The Help is not seen as a particularly helpful anti-racist novel (could be why Oprah didn’t pick it for her book club). I learned that Viola Davis regretted playing the role of a maid and caregiver and that current opinion is that the book really did not give voice to the oppression of its black domestic-worker characters. And, of course, its author is also white. The premise of this post was that “the book is as much about the cathartic effect of storytelling as it is about race.” The post is still valid from that perspective. But at some point, I will revisit this book I enjoyed so much in 2009 and see how I feel about the 2020 complaints.

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Continue reading →

Can We Both Honor Victims’ Stories and Note Post-9/11 Cultural Shift?

Posted on September 15, 2009 by KatHansen

Today, as promised, I’m responding to Cathryn Wellner’s response to my 9/11 blog entry about how that tragic day contributed to a societal need to connect through stories.

I will first respond to what Cathryn found most disturbing about my post — my failure to acknowledge the terrible price at which the post-9/11 societal transformation has come, in part, “the isolationism and paranoia of leaders who should have taken a moral high road instead of squandering the outpouring of sympathy and good will from around the world.” I cannot disagree with anything Cathryn says here. I completely agree that much of our nation’s post-9/11 response has been inappropriate. It was not, however, my intent, nor did I feel it was my role, to delve into the politics of the years since 9/11. I wanted only to look at the event’s effect on storytelling.

Cathryn writes, “I’m not sure people back home are aware (or care) that America has lost ground in the eyes of the world because of the way the country responded to 9/11.”

We are aware and we do care. If we didn’t, we would not have elected Barack Obama.

Cathryn raises the myth that the 9/11 terrorists entered the US through Canada (hence the requirement now for passports at the US-Canadian border). Yes, we need to expose the myths of 9/11 that have altered this country so dramatically (remember that myth about Saddam Hussein having some connection to 9/11?). I thank Cathryn for exposing the myth about terrorists entering the US through our northern border.

Cathryn concludes her piece, in part, by saying she “hope[s] one day new stories will be told, stories that honor the victims of a terrible tragedy but no longer define either America or the world as pre- and post-9/11.”

Here’s where I have mixed feelings. I think it is inevitable for historians and sociologists to examine pre- and post- eras: pre- and post-World War II, pre- and post-Vietnam, pre- and post-JFK assassination, pre- and post-election of Barack Obama. An event that shifts the cultural landscape and national/international psyche as cataclysmically as any of those changes history.

And I ask: Isn’t possible to both honor the victims’ stories but recognize that we live in a different era than we did on Sept. 10, 2001?

Finally, I respond to Cathryn’s assertion that “The division of story interest into pre- and post-9/11 would come as a surprise to generations of tellers and listeners.”

First, I identify 9/11 as only one influence in what I have referred to as today’s “explosion” of storytelling interest. The practitioners I interviewed over the last year discuss other influences here.

Next, I fully acknowledge that I’m a relative newbie to the world of storytelling. When I first learned about the discipline of organizational storytelling in 2004, I was drawn to it as a field meant to be my passion — but I was wide-eyed and unknowledgeable.

I also believe it is impossible for anyone passionate about storytelling to evaluate the field from a historical perspective because we are so attuned to the idea of storytelling. Cathryn says, “I have been involved in storytelling since the early 1980s. I traveled as a storyteller for a decade, then turned it into a consulting career and have worked primarily with health-related groups ever since.” Just as I have been all-storytelling-all-the-time since 2004, so has Cathryn been since the early 80s. Others would say they have been since, say, the early 70s. The first National Storytelling Festival in 1973 is often cited as the real jumping off point for our era’s interest in storytelling. Still others would say storytelling is an ancient art that has always been huge.

I stand by my belief, however, that 9/11 increased our need for connection with others and inspired us to cherish each others’ stories more than ever.

Guest Entry: Stories Should Honor 9/11 Victims But Not Define Pre- and Post-9/11 Culture

Posted on September 14, 2009 by KatHansen

Cathryn Wellner wrote to me this weekend with a response to my 9/11 blog entry. With her permission, I wanted to post her response as a comment to that entry, but my comment function seems to be malfunctioning, so Cathryn gave me permission to post her words as today’s entry. I will post my response to this piece tomorrow and in the meantime invite your thoughts.

I love the regular infusion of story culture that comes into my inbox through A Storied Career. You bring your readers insight, keen observations, inspirational examples, and more — all of which I appreciate.

So I’m hesitant to make my first response to your good work be a reflection on 9/11, but your column touched a nerve. I have been involved in storytelling since the early 1980s. I traveled as a storyteller for a decade, then turned it into a consulting career and have worked primarily with health-related groups ever since. It’s from that perspective, and as an American who’s lived outside the U.S. since 1990, that I found the essay troubling.

The division of story interest into pre- and post-9/11 would come as a surprise to generations of tellers and listeners. The art is ancient, at the core of humanity. Every great religious leader, from the dawn of time, has understood this. So have politicians, some with the good of their constituents in mind, others for less noble reasons. Advertisers, journalists, film makers, teachers, painters … the list of story makers is endless. The U.S.’s National Storytelling Association predates that horrific event by more than a generation, and it was a latecomer on the storytelling scene. So I would argue that the hunger for stories is universal, its origins lost in time, and not a result of 9/11.

But that’s not really what troubled me about your well written essay. Rather, I shudder each time the country of my birth commemorates 9/11 as a transforming event without acknowledging that the transformation has exacted a terrible price. The security industry has benefited. So has the military-industrial complex. But Americans are not not made safer by a Patriot Act that erodes civil liberties and demands concessions from other countries, nor by the war in Iraq. And the risk of a car crash or diabetes still far outweighs the threat of a terrorist attack.

Those who died or whose lives were shattered by 9/11 deserve a better memorial than the isolationism and paranoia of leaders who should have taken a moral high road instead of squandering the outpouring of sympathy and good will from around the world. And that means telling all the stories of that tragic occasion and its impact on the U.S.

Recently a CBC reporter traveled to Maine to ask Americans how they felt about the U.S.’s imposition of tighter border restrictions, requiring Canadians to show a passport when entering the U.S. Without exception, people favored the move because, after all, the 9/11 terrorists entered the U.S. from Canada.

Now there’s a story for you, though not a true one. The terrorists entered the U.S. through U.S. customs, not Canadian. But the story stands because another story is stronger, the story that America is still under threat, that all other nations — including friendly neighbors to the north — are Other and cannot really be trusted.

I’m not sure people back home are aware (or care) that America has lost ground in the eyes of the world because of the way the country responded to 9/11. Those of us who live without the buffer of being surrounded by other Americans are constantly reminded.

I love my motherland, but I weep for it and hope one day new stories will be told, stories that honor the victims of a terrible tragedy but no longer define either America or the world as pre- and post-9/11, that no longer define America or the countries outside its borders as Us and Them.

Are Stories Just Powerless, Distracting Propaganda with No Ability to Spark Change?

Posted on September 13, 2009 by KatHansen

A couple of weeks ago, Dave Pollard on the blog How to Save the World quoted his own earlier article in which he said:

I am coming to believe that all stories, … [lots of descriptive stuff here trashing various types of stories] … are propaganda.

Why?

Because stories, Pollard says, “distract us from discovering what is really going on in this world.”

Really?

Rationalizing what he calls “Pollard’s Law,” Pollard writes:

Lit Match ca. 1990s

Stories, whether they appeal to the intellect or to the emotions, rarely alter behaviour… Stories just don’t have that much power. They don’t precipitate real change, only (at best) changes in beliefs and attitudes.

How can you precipitate real change without changing beliefs and attitudes?

I’m short-changing Pollard in the following. He gives a bulleted list of his beliefs about stories and offers a paragraph for each one to justify his beliefs. You can read his reasons for yourself:

Stories are addictive.
Stories are manipulative.
Stories give us false hope.
Stories lead us to live inside our heads instead of in the real world.
Stories are excuses for inaction.
Stories are only stories.

Some of these, I actually believe (like “stories are addictive”) — but I don’t see them as negative. “Stories are manipulative” reminds me of Stephane Dangel’s characterization of France’s perception of storytelling: “There is only one and major book dedicated to storytelling in French, and it has been written by a man who hates storytelling (Christian Salmon: Storytelling)! His message is very raw: ‘storytelling = fiction = manipulation.'”

Pollard undermines his thesis with the way he ends it: a bulleted list of all the things that we need to change in the world. Arguably, he tells a story with every one of those bullet points.

Story practitioners, how would you convince Pollard that stories really do have power and can inspire change?

A Positive Stroke Story — And Being Positive Whether or Not You’re Disabled

Posted on September 12, 2009 by KatHansen

My friend, “Jane Bergen” (a pseudonym) has been toying for a while with telling the story of the massive stroke she suffered last year. Even though Jane has had a remarkable recovery, she was afraid of coming off whiney or victim-y.

My gut reaction was that baby boomers need to hear Jane’s story. We are the generation that refuses to get old. The thought of a crippling affliction like a stroke or cancer unhinges us. I am am particularly terrified of anything — like Alzheimer’s — that would impair my cognitive abilities. We need to hear that the ailments and medical traumas we associate with old age can be overcome.

And a week ago Jane sent me a story that is anything but whiney and victim-y. It’s a positive message of hope, recovery, and creating a different — but in some ways, better — life following a health calamity.

Back in May 2008, like the subject herself, I took some heat for blogging about Jill Bolte Taylor, whose TED Talk and book titled A Stroke of Insight, have been criticized for promulgating “bad science.” The controversy came in when Taylor claimed to have experienced an amazing burst of creativity in one side of her brain as a result of her stroke. Putting science aside, Taylor’s message of amazing recovery is very much like Jane’s.

Here’s Jane’s story, one that baby boomers like me need to hear:

Whether Disabled or Not, Keep Your Spirits Up

By Jane Bergen

I am a person to be envied. If you were me, you would be envied too. Why envied? Well:

I always get the best parking space, right by the door.
I lost 30 pounds and shop the lower sizes of the racks, wearing clothes that haven’t fit me for 20 years.
I take nothing for granted and am fueled by gratitude.
I have no stress and sleep like a baby.
I am finally “good enough” and have a great self-concept because it is so easy to outdo people’s low estimation of my capabilities.
I am rich in friends. I have an organized address book that lists 350 people, 30 of whom check in on me regularly.
People show me their “kind” side every day.
I have a great marriage. Indeed, husband and friends say they would love me even if I stayed as I was.
Instead of coming to a funeral, everyone I know has contacted me personally in the last year.
I am constantly challenged, told how to do it, and it works! I see achievement every day.

Surprise! I am Disabled!

I’m a former recruiter and career coach who became permanently disabled with an out-of-the-blue cerebellar stroke last year.

Nothing I did caused this. I had a birth defect, a darn AVM — tangled plumbing in my head [pictured], that got old and leaked, causing the stroke. Being a disabled person was to be part of my life.

So I could be pissy about this or I could see the bright side. What I’ve learned is that life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent what you do with it; that people have busy lives and forget you if you forget them; and that everyone has problems, so why are yours so special? Sincerely being interested in others makes people interested in you. They call and you feel good that you have been of service.

People tend to be nice to you, but some of their behavior may be out of fear. They are afraid of doing the wrong thing or becoming sick like you. Your job is to educate them. It is not your fault you are like this. It is not their fault they don’t know what to do. I explain a deal with my friends. True, I talk funny, I acknowledge. If I talk as well as I can for them and they try as hard as they can to understand, we’ve done our best. No shame! I’ll email or write something down to get my point across. So I don’t stop trying to deal with normal people: they are so affirming when I do the smallest thing because they expect me to be ashamed, blue, and depressed. Well, not! I believe that if you quit trying, you cheat yourself. Be affirmed that your friend cared enough to try to understand, rather than the fact that he or she failed.

Oh yeah, a year ago, they also thought I had cancer, and I might not have the stamina, post-stroke, to endure. I truly thought I was going to die. And I am a baby boomer who turned against the church years ago, having been raised fundamentalist Southern Methodist and having gone to church every week of my life until age 20-something. So I hated the hypocrisy of the church, which talks of God, but was created by Man with all his foibles.

So when I thought I was going to die, well, then I realized that money really doesn’t matter much. I could have won the lottery and it would not have changed a thing. You think about the plight of your fellow human, the suffering that is life, and wonder if you have the stamina to die, and then what? Buddhism promises to provide panaceas for fear of death. But Jesus and all the dogma I was brought up with? What does that have to do with my current world? His message seemed to be “give all your cares to me, and I will suffer for you.” I really wasn’t looking for a scapegoat. My friends, doctors, and husband all wanted me to get better, they expected me to overcome and be happy. Could Jesus help me with that? You think about stuff like this when you think your goose is cooked.

I realized my first life had been all about the usual trials I see my friends going through – seeking food and shelter, suffering through a job to pay for it, not ever having enough money or time to pay for it, struggling to lose weight, stay sexy and young, keep health intact, raise kids, and trying to meet all obligations. The usual rat race. My first life is gone. I had so much, so many gifts, like speech and walking, but I was not happy. I always desired more.

I woke up the morning of the stroke not able to walk. My vision was blurry, and I talked like a drunk, when I could talk. Swallowing was awkward. I was told I had a one in 10 chance of a full recovery (and God willing, I will be that one in 10 yet), that strokes take years to recover from, and I had a 50 percent chance of becoming seriously depressed within one year. One in two people who have strokes become depressed because of changes in lifestyle (no social life and not working), isolation, and financial ruin.

I decided I could beat my body with exercise and doing what therapy told me to do. But fighting my own head — a 50 percent chance? Dear God, my head has such a good imagination about negative things. I was going to have to improve my spirituality to avoid this depression debacle. Truly, in all cases, depression is worse than stroke.

If you have not had a stroke, you are still a candidate for depression. I have learned that these things will help you avoid this all-to-common malady that doctors are so willing to give your pills to cure (don’t do it — it just masks the cause)

Read Jane’s advice on avoiding depression in the extended entry.

To avoid depression:

Develop a network of friends – or revitalize the one you have. The worst thing you can do is sit home and think about yourself and your problems. Your job instead is to ask people how they are; show an interest in them, so they will take an interest in you. Give yourself away to others, to the world around you. Open up a Yahoo email account and Facebook account — use the computer to stay involved. Volunteer. Support a cause. Be a gym buddy for a friend and talk him or her into going to the gym with you — on the same day/night every week — you do both you and the other person a favor. You’ll both establish good workout habits.
Establish an online calendar and address book on Yahoo or Gmail so you can “recruit” people to give you rides, go to events, email/educate them about your condition and activities you can do together. In the early days, I would “ask” -recruit, if you will. I would find a play, a movie or a cooking class I wanted to go and then asked people to go with me. Friends were ecstatic they didn’t have to think of an “appropriate activity” for my disability and by spreading my “recruiting” emails among my 30 best friends, I didn’t wear them out seeing me. I was not a burden because I spread my “asks” around among a large group of people.
Always have something to look forward to.
Listen to your body. If it wants to rest, obey it. Slow living is less stressful living.
Set up a schedule that allows for the extra time is takes to dress, eat, exercise, do your therapy, do computer time, socialize, go to doctor appointments and cook meals, enjoy family time. Replace your work schedule with a daily schedule of things you want to do. It won’t be right the first time. If you don’t get it all done, tweak it and forgive yourself and try again. This advice is particularly appropriate with exercise and therapy and naps. I couldn’t get a balance for the longest time on my need for rest, my need for exercise and a need for socialization and a life. A rough schedule of when you will do what in a day really helps!
Tend to your spirit. Read philosophy, argue with Rush Limbaugh, surf the Huffington Post, read the bible, the Koran, books on Zen Buddhism. And take Tai Chi (Chinese medicine) for meditation and balance and good networking. Look at both sides of the question with an open mind. You may better understand how God, prayer, and spirit buoy you to take on the next moment’s challenges. And if God isn’t your thing, you might find something to make life have more meaning; keep searching.
Pray for others. I received prayers from my neighborhood church and from my family’s church, where my Mom still lives. I may have issues with the church, but prayer works. My remarkable recovery is proof.
Never give yourself the luxury (?) of a negative thought. Remember that two words — “thank you” are the antidote to anger. Your spouse/caretaker/God himself/herself might make you mad, but it is given with a good heart, even if the gift itself made you livid. Say thanks for the good heart. It is amazing how a positive conversation, not steeped in anger, really gets somewhere. Emerson said it well: Now is not the time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.

There is a spirit in all of us that can do good if is allowed to shine. Never stop asking. Never think something that God made, namely yourself, is half as bad as you think you are. You have to be positive to let the light shine.
Attitude is everything.

Jane Bergen is a pseudonym for a real former recruiter and business owner who lives in the Northwest.

We Will Always Tell the Stories of this Tragic Day

Posted on September 11, 2009 by KatHansen

In my teleseminar this week, I talked about 9-11 and the post-9-11 culture as one of the pivotal influences in society’s need to connect through stories.

Back in February, I read a blog entry about the popular storytelling venue The Moth. The blogger, my Twitter friend Will Coley, wrote: “[People] wonder if something is going on in our culture right now; something about sharing heartfelt stories and reconnecting with each other.”

I believe the event that sparked that need happened eight years ago today.

I believe that 9-11 impressed on all of us how precious each life — each story — is, yet how fleeting. You can probably all recall how that terrible event made everyone reach out for connection with both loved ones and strangers. The day itself is something that anyone who lived through it will always have stories about.

In the past few years, my husband and I have established a tradition of watching the movie Love Actually every Christmas Eve. I think of that film as the quintessential post-9/11 movie, and it’s a collection of stories about people who are all connected. The movie also references 9-11.

I continue to be fascinated, perhaps morbidly, by the idea of a post-9/11 culture, a notion first suggested to me by an art historian speculating about what would come after postmodernism.

First came the stories told on that horrific day … the story told by Jeff Jarvis, whom I knew for a couple of years as a child … the story told by a former student of mine, who was in one of the Twin Towers for training for his first job after college graduation. Here’s a small bit of his story:

What you saw on TV does not give you a very good description of what I saw when I looked up. I was so amazed, shocked, and scared, it is hard to describe. As I was walking away with the crowd a girl next to me started to cry uncontrollably, and I looked to my right to see what was wrong. A sight I wish to never see again and that I hope none of you ever have to see was the large pool of deep red blood in the road with ladies’ shoes all over the place.

I truly believe that day triggered a need to tell our stories. To matter. To make a difference. To share the human experience. A year before 9-11, Mark Hansen wrote: “Only by preserving the value of our short-term human perspective will we retain the ability to invest our lives with significance,” but the words take on even more meaning post-9-11.

“Like just about everything else,” noted Mallory Jensen in 2003, “blogging changed forever on September 11, 2001. The destruction of the World Trade Center and the attack on the Pentagon created a huge appetite on the part of the public to be part of The Conversation, to vent and analyze and publicly ponder or mourn. Many, too, were unsatisfied with what they read and saw in the mainstream media.”

Today, I see that many folks on Facebook are sharing their stories about this day. That probably happened in years past, but I don’t remember such a proliferation of stories and reverent remembrances.

And the National September 11 Memorial & Museum site, Make History, is collecting stories, videos, and photos submitted by people who experienced 9/11 with the added dimension of Google Street View.

What is your 9-11 story?

It’s Here! Storied Careers Free E-Book Now Available for Download

Posted on September 10, 2009 by KatHansen

My free 88-page, illustrated e-book, Storied Careers: 40+ Story Practitioners Talk about Applied Storytelling, is now available.

I’ve been gratified by many positive comments from the 43 contributors who reviewed a beta release of the book over the past week.

Please go to this page from which you can directly download your free copy of the book..

To learn more about the book and and also download a free copy, go here. Please feel free to tweet and spread the word.

Here’s the table of contents:

INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1: Defining Story
CHAPTER 2: Origins of Storytelling Passions
CHAPTER 3: Storytelling Influences
CHAPTER 4: An Explosion of Storytelling?
CHAPTER 5: Social-media Storytelling
CHAPTER 6: Troubling Uses of Storytelling
CHAPTER 7: Transformational Storytelling
CHAPTER 8: Storytelling Advice
CHAPTER 9: Change Your Story, Change Your Life
CHAPTER 10: Storytelling in Relationships, Teams, and Community
CHAPTER 11: Story Techniques and Tools
CHAPTER 12: Unexpected Applications of Storytelling
CHAPTER 13: Storytelling in Organizations
CHAPTER 14: Getting Buy-In for Storytelling
CHAPTER 15: Personal Storytelling, Lifewriting, and Memoir
CHAPTER 16: The Practice of Storytelling
CHAPTER 17: Storytelling in Marketing, Sales, and Branding
CHAPTER 18: Storytelling and Career
CHAPTER 19: Storytelling in Writing and Communication
CHAPTER 20: The Future of Storytelling
Directory of Practitioners: Photos and Contact Info

Why Is Storytelling So Resonant Now?

Posted on September 9, 2009 by KatHansen

This is a page to accompany a Worldwide Story Work Teleseminar I’m hosting today, Sept. 9, 4 pm EDST, entitled:

The Golden Age of Storytelling: Why Is Story Exploding?
What Does It Means for Practitioners?

Or simply call this number on Sept. 9, 4 pm EDST: 1-218-936-4700 — Access Code 710691

For the past year interviewees on A Storied Career have shared their theories about why storytelling resonates now. Let’s discuss your speculations. Are we in fact in the Golden Age of Storytelling?

Speculations from Practitioners:

For the past year in the Q&A series on my blog, A Storied Career, I have asked story practitioners: “The storytelling movement seems to be growing explosively. Why now? What is it about this moment in human history and culture that makes storytelling so resonant with so many people right now?” Here’s what they said:

As a planet, we are in a place we never imagined and we yearn for comfort, understanding, reason, and most of all HOPE. Stories give us all of that and more, allowing us to reflect on the past, imagine the future, and accept the changes brought about by the challenges of today. — Susan Luke
Families are spread across the country; we communicate via email, text messaging, and quick hellos as we pass in halls, shops, or even the home because of busy schedules. All very impersonal, yet as humans we crave and, according to some studies, thrive on contact and interaction with others. Stories connect us and ground us. — Carol Mon
The implications of Web 2.0 and technological innovation on humankind are staggering. As I like to describe it, “the means of story production have become democratized”. … In a complex, interdependent world where worldviews and value systems collide, we naturally turn to storytelling as our most basic coping mechanism for making sense and meaning of everything around us. — Michael Margolis
I think that our feelings of alienation from core human experiences arise from too much “virtual” reality and not enough real reality … Story reintroduces intimacy and emotions to communications between people. … The business interest in storytelling is riding this “crave wave” as well as a parallel realization that designing messages that create emotions like desire, craving, and/or trust toward a product requires that the message tells a story. — Annette Simmons
Connections between people [have been] breaking down, and their souls [have been] suffering. I think people are hungry to rebuild this sense of connection, and we are doing this through the medium of stories, whether oral or written. — Sharon Lippincott
The development of technologies like PowerPoint has inadvertently pushed the effort to bring back more stories. What seemed like a great communication tool has been overused and abused. — Carol Mon
Savvy media gurus have come to realize that storytelling is the quickest and most relevant way to share information… everything is speeding up… In today’s faster paced time, storytelling is essential because captures the listener. — Annie Hart
As storytelling is already deeply anchored into each of us, it’s a relatively low-cost solution to engage [in the] sense[-making] quest. — Stephane Dangel
With the advent of so many electronic communications, people are just growing more aware of their need for deeper communication and connectedness. — Sean Buvala
Now that we have such powerful communications tools, [storytelling] is still as important, but more massive that we can digest. So, we find those areas that we can relate to. — Katie Snapp
It’s about finding ways to connect. — Whitney Quesenbery
In our world of 24/7 news feeds, social media, etc., we are trying to drink from a firehose of information, and we’re finding ourselves bowled over yet still thirsty. … The storytelling movement is about restoring — “re-story-ing” if you will — a more authentic means of learning from each other and drawing meaning from our own experiences. — Sarah White
The one thing that everyone can do regardless of where or how they work is create and tell stories. — David Vanadia
•We’ve taken process improvement about as far as it can go. … it is time to seek new tools. And narrative is a perfect tool to help shed light on complex questions. — John Caddell
People are inundated with information. … The very good leaders will help people make sense of the information, and story can help them do that. … [Gen Y] … really wants to be inspired, challenged, and motivated and again it is through story you can achieve this … — Gabrielle Dolan
•Mostly I think the reason is the control people are exercising over selecting what information they spend their time with. There are more choices than ever before, people are busier with limited time, so why would they choose to spend that time on things that don’t meet their needs? The more personalized and relevant information is to the person presented with it, the more engagement is possible. Storytelling is in our genes. — Ardath Albee
Story has the wonderful ability to capture [the] great complexity [of 21st century life] into a simple form, allowing listeners to take in the concepts, ideas, challenges, without feeling overwhelmed. … One could also say that story resonates because there has been a confluence of authors (Annette Simmons, Steve Denning, Rick Stone) and others (Karen Dietz, Seth Kahan, Victoria Ward) who have begun to articulate the power of story, offering ways and means of using story. — Madelyn Blair
Leaders are looking for new ways to understand what’s really happening in their organization. They are looking for better ways to engage and better ways motivate people. Stories are integral to the new ways of working in complex environments. — Shawn Callahan
Given the unfathomable sea of information afforded us through the Internet, storytelling is an invaluable resource as it provides the means for delivering substance and meaning in a form that can be readily grasped by the masses. — Jon Hansen
I remember sitting in a class and hearing Dr. Joseph Sobol say, “Anthropologists say storytellers arise when the society has lost its way.” Wow, that resonated in every part of my body. — Molly Catron

Guiding Questions/Food for Thought for Teleseminar

Please think about these questions. We probably won’t have time to discuss all of them. Which ones interest you most, and what other questions do you have?

Are we, in fact, in a Golden Age of Storytelling?
Or are we, as story practitioners and “fans” just much more attuned to storytelling than others are?
For those who’ve been involved in storytelling for a significant period — do you feel that you are hearing more now about storytelling then you were a few years ago?
Can you identify any single event, publication, person, etc., that seemed to trigger greater interest in storytelling?
Do you hear more about people who are starting story-related businesses/practices?
Could the perceived explosion in storytelling be because people are more broadly (too broadly?) defining “storytelling?”
In April, I asked the question referenced above in a different way: “Are we in the Golden Age of Storytelling? Why or why not?” The respondents answered that we are not (yet) in a golden age — or we don’t yet know if we are (see http://astoriedcareer.com/2009/04/survey-says-were-not-in-the-go.html). The comment that most struck me was from Michael Margolis: “To debate when we might enter a so-called ‘golden age,’ is just another attempt to separate and fragment ourselves from the wholeness that already exists, if we just open our eyes to it. Instead of waiting for some moment to arrive, why not step into that larger story right now?” Your thoughts?
To what extent do you think social media contributes to an explosion in storytelling?

Teleseminar Wednesday; Free E-Book Release Thursday

Posted on September 8, 2009 by KatHansen

Big doings this week:

I will host a Worldwide Story Work Teleseminar tomorrow, Wed., Sept. 9, 4 pm EDST, entitled: The Golden Age of Storytelling: Why Is Story Exploding? What Does It Means for Practitioners?

If you’re thinking of attending, please access the handout I prepared for the teleseminar — to grease the wheels, get the thoughts flowing. You can download and read this PDF handout: Sept9TelesemWWSWGoldenAgeHansen.pdf.

Another option is to read this page (same content as handout) before the teleseminar or have it in front of you during the event.

You can register for the teleseminar here (you may need to become a member of Worldwide Story Work to register); however, I don’t believe registration is required, and you can simply call this number on Sept. 9, 4 pm EDST: 1-218-936-4700 — Access Code 710691

My free e-book, Storied Careers: 40+ Story Practitioners Talk about Applied Storytelling, will be released Thursday, Sept. 10 (barring unforeseen circumstances).

Thanks for your patience.

Click here to e-mail me to be notified when the book is ready for free download.