Decisions Come from the Stories We Tell

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Kevin Hoffberg of Group Partners offers a fascinating look at the role of stories in decision-making:

Decisions come from the stories we tell ourselves and others. Listen to the stories you tell yourselves. Listen to the stories other people tell themselves. A “justification” or a “rationalization” is the story we tell ourselves so we can feel good about what we did. Every decision has a story going in, every decision has a story coming out. What’s yours?

Hoffberg’s statement is the first point in a Decision Manifesto

Group Partners brings “its unique visual, structured thinking processes to solve complex problems for large multi-national clients.” The Decision Manifesto is part of a growing “wiki of nearly 2,500 pages.”

The illustration below is part of the Decision Manifesto and is captioned “The Framework for Decisions is always based on a full context.”

Q&A with a Story Guru: Melissa Wells: Stagnation Is Bad for Your Mind and Story

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

Q&A with Melissa Wells, Questions 5 and 6:

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

A: A gripping story has changes and growth. You must realize this, and not be afraid to change, even when others see you as a success. Stagnation is not good, not for your mind and not for your story.

Q: On your blog, you say you draw inspiration from “explor[ing] remote areas to find unexpected stories about cool creatures.” In what ways do these unexpected stories inspire you, and how do you pass on that inspiration to your clients?

A: I spend a considerable amount of time in nature looking at things that most people never have the chance to observe or simply ignore. There are illuminating parallels between human behaviors and the actions of glaciers, leafcutter ants, howler monkeys, elephants. I am inspired when I stop and experience these creatures and environments, which can be powerful inspirations for people-totems, if you like. My job in the field, too, is to capture stories. I have video camera in hand and work with scientists to understand the unique behaviors of creatures. Then I craft a story on film.

Ultimately the stories that inspire me are unexpected. Did you know that a glacier is not, in fact, slow, but noisy and constantly in flux? How similar is that to the human experience of identity shift? Often I find humor in creatures. All of it serves to entertain, inspire and make clients know they are not alone.

The most important aspect of my transition from consultant to career coach and videographer is credibility. I spent over 12 years as a management consultant. I experienced much of what my clients go through each day — long hours, lots of airports, managing difficult projects, politically complex situations, struggling for balance. Because I changed my life so dramatically, my clients look at me and gain confidence and hope. They see that the leap they want to make is less dramatic and that I have the experience to guide them in creating something new in their life, to pursue their own definition of success.

O Storytelling … How Many Ways Can You Heal?

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At the same time as I am slogging my way through a very cerebral and academic book on narrative psychology, I am noticing more and more about uses of story for various types of healing.

Here are some examples I’ve come across recently:

    • First, some background on narrative therapy: Not that every example here uses a technique that would necessarily be labeled “narrative therapy” (or narrative psychology), but many of the tenets are the same across the board. An article on Ezine Articles, Narrative Therapy — Concepts and Applications by Pedro Gondim, describes narrative therapy this way:

      Narrative Therapy is an approach to counselling that centres people as the experts in their own lives. This therapy intends to view problems as separate entities to people, assuming that the individual’s set of skills, experience and mindset will assist him/her reduce the influence of problems throughout life. This therapeutic approach intends to place the individual in both the protagonist and author roles: switching the view from a narrow perspective to a systemic and more flexible stance.

    • Refugee healing: For Vietnamese refugee Lucie Trinephi, telling her personal story of fleeing Vietnam and being subjected to racist abuse in Paris is a way “to find peace. Katie Nguyen details Trinephi’s quest in Overcoming Trauma of Displacement through Storytelling, Illustration, in which Trinephi is “channeling these vivid memories into an illustrated book of her personal story.”
    • Storytelling in healthcare: I’ve read lots about the increased emphasis on gathering patients’ stories in the medical profession, most recently in an article by Sarah Kearns in HealthLeaders Media, Storytelling in Healthcare Enhances Experience for Patients and Providers, in which Kearns quotes Anna Tee, patient stories coordinator at the 1,000 Lives Campaign in Wales:

      “‘Patient stories’ is a term that describes a powerful tool that is extremely effective in gathering, listening to, and making changes based on the patient’s voice,” says Tee. The process must allow for a patient or patient caregiver to present his or her experience with an illness or condition in his or her own words “to gain an understanding of what it is like as a patient.”

    • Storytelling in Family Therapy: An unbylined article on the site Combat Alcoholism, Why Go to Family Therapy notes that a number of therapists in the Scottsdale, AZ, area are using storytelling in their therapy, offering these advantages:

      Storytelling when used for family therapy relays ideas and messages holistically. This effect enables the listeners to receive the message in a simple, logical manner and through one session. …This technique opens up the family to therapist in a way that allows him to sort out the elements in logical sequence out from a chaotic setting. This approach connects the individual to time and space, and the direction of the sequence of events becomes clearer which allows the therapist to deliver a more sensible idea or message.

    • Storytelling as indicator of mental and physical health: Perhaps more along the lines of diagnosis than healing is a blog entry Senia Maymin on Positive Psychology News, How You Tell the Story of Your Life, which discusses Martin Seligman’s book, Learned Optimism, in which Seligman asserts that “how a person tells a story can be an indicator of physical health and mental health.” Seligman cites several studies to support the assertion, including the Grant Study that I wrote about here, in which (based on the later analysis of Seligman and a colleague), the degree of optimism of the men studied at age 25 predicted health at age 60. The flip side of this type of study is perhaps the research reported by Patricia Donovan on the site Anxiety Insight, Personal post-trauma stories predict narrator’s emotional outcome, showing that ” the aftermath of national trauma, the ability to make sense out of what happened has implications for individual well-being and that the kinds of stories people tell about the incident predict very different psychological outcomes for them.” The national trauma in question was, of course, 9/11, and the researchers gathered “personal accounts about experiences of the terrorist attacks of 9/11 written by 395 adults from across the country, some of whom were more intimately connected to the events … than were others.” One of the researchers summed up the findings:

… we found that psychological well-being was associated with post-trauma stories that were high in closure, high in redemptive imagery and high in themes of national redemption. Psychological distress, on the other hand, was significantly related to accounts that were low in closure, high in contaminative imagery and high in themes of personal contamination.

The full academic journal reference is: Adler JM, Poulin MJ. The Political Is Personal: Narrating 9/11 and Psychological Well-Being. J Personality 2009 Jul; 77(4):903-932

Maymin also points to a New York Times article reporting on a study about how people describe their problems in therapy. One of the researchers sees “the relevance of stories in all parts of a person’s life” and that People “draw on these stories implicitly, whether they know they are working from them or not.” (The other researcher, interestingly, was Jonathan Adler, one of the researchers on the above 9-11 study). Next, Maymin reports on a study that showed that “using the third-person is a good technique to see the positive changes you’ve made in your life, and that is likely to lead to greater satisfaction with your efforts.” Finally, Maymin details an exercise created by Claude Steiner to identify “the stories people make up for themselves.” Specific questions in this exercise are these:

  • What is your favorite fairy tale?
  • Who is your favorite cartoon character?
  • What movie most represents your life?
  • Who is your favorite person?
  • Whom would you be like if you could be like anyone?
  • Journaling for healing: Because I consider journaling to be a close sibling to storytelling, I was interested in Kathleen Adams, who runs Center for Journal Therapy, which looks at the many applications journal therapy for holistic mental health.
  • Storytelling for healing prisoners: Finally, Vandy Duffy in Storytelling and words that heal tells the secondhand story of Kathryn Windham, who told stories at a men’s prison: “When she finished the men stood and rushed her. The guards were unable to react as she was surrounded, this petite, elderly woman surrounded by a room full of prison inmates. One lifted her from the ground in a hug, others hugged her too. Over and over they hugged her. One inmate, tears streaming from his eyes said, ‘No one ever told me a story before.'” Duffy also cites Healing Story Alliance, a special interest group of the National Storytelling Network.

Q&A with a Story Guru: Melissa Wells: Working Tigers and Lemurs into Life’s Narrative

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

Q&A with Melissa Wells, Question 4:

Q: What future aspirations do you personally have for your own story work? What would you like to do in the story world that you haven’t yet done?

A: Currently I am organizing groups of creative people in business and other fields to meet at remotes spots way out in the bush where no one else is going, to help them break from entrenched habits and to create space for imagination and new ideas. I define “creative people” broadly; entrepreneurs, scientists, CEOs, artists, writers, actors are all creatives to me. Maybe an encounter with a tiger or lemurs can work its way into their life narrative! And not to worry — stories need not feature pain; we eat and travel well.

Tell Sean Moffitt That Stories Aren’t Dead in Marketing

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Yesterday in his Buzz Canuck blog, Sean Moffitt made the jaw-dropping (to me) statement, “Unfortunately, stories are mainly dead in marketing.”

Seriously?

Perhaps he needs to have a little conversation with Melinda Partin, who wrote in a recent Fast Company column, “At its very core, marketing is storytelling.”

Subsequently on Twitter, Moffitt said he was “canvassing for great stories as a sequel to [his] post.

I have a whole stack of examples I could share with him, but I thought maybe the folks out there on the cutting edge of storytelling in marketing and branding could give him even better examples than I could.

Please tell him that stories are not “mainly dead in marketing.”

Q&A with a Story Guru: Melissa Wells: Inspired by Storytellers with Passion

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

Q&A with Melissa Wells, Question 3:

Q: What people or entities have been most influential to you in your story work and why?

A: As a career coach, my purpose with story work is to teach people how to imagine, communicate and allow a different story about themselves into their lives. I’m most influenced by those who are not only good storytellers, but also passionate about another subject in life. One without the other is useless. Too often a speaker has something brilliant to say, but cannot express it (lack of storytelling skills). Or someone is an engaging storyteller, but doesn’t know enough about the subject matter to create a lasting impact or establish credibility.

I’m influenced by variety. The scientist Gary Strobel tells stories about his discoveries, such as a microbe whose byproduct is the equivalent to diesel fuel. Al Gore took on a mammoth story-telling project to communicate his knowledge and passion. JetBlue and VirginAmerica created new stories about domestic air travel (for a frequent flier like me, this is no small feat, where US air travel is often less pleasant than the Madison Avenue bus at 6 o’clock). Conferences such as the EG and Adventures of the Mind feed me. I believe some of the most powerful storytellers are talented psychotherapists who get mentally ill clients to disengage from beliefs (stories) that cause debilitating pain. The truth is that my partner and husband, Mark Moffett, is my favorite storyteller. He uses the stories of his experiences in the wild to get people to fall in love with the little known in nature.

Q&A with a Story Guru: Melissa Wells: Create a Life That Represents Your Best Story

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

Q&A with Melissa Wells, 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: Life is about stories, whether you choose to express your stories through the arts, the sciences, or helping people. Whatever it is, your talent in turning your experiences into a narrative is what is important to me. That includes your whole life, in an important way. As a career coach, I guide talented people to create lives that represent their best stories. Life itself is can be a splendid story, if done with flair.

As for my own story, another part of my life is that I work in rainforests and deserts, documenting new species and behavior of animals around the world. I am just back from Botswana where an elephant charged me from only a few yards away — now that, at least for my life, is a wonder­ful story. I ask people, “What experiences make you proud or do you love to remember?” The key to creating a self-determined work-life lies in the stories of our past and the experiences we hope for. I extrude those stories from clients. The magic is in the real-world planning and execution. I was a management consultant for more than 12 years. Clients love to be escorted over that threshold from idea to reality. That’s what I love, clients realizing the most powerful stories of their careers.

Gargiulo and Callahan Team Up for Free Storytelling/Leadership Webinar

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Get ready for a powerhouse free webinar.

Two of the most interesting and well-spoken figures in business storytelling, Terrence Gargiulo and Shawn Callahan are teaming up to present a webinar, Three Questions We Usually Get from Leaders About Storytelling: Reflections, Discussion & Tools, that they will deliver twice — once geared to Australian and surrounding timezones on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 12:30 PM – 1:15 PM Australian EST (which is Aug. 11th, 3:30 US Pacific Time), and the second time geared to the US and surrounding timezones on Aug. 19th at 12:30 US Pacific Time.

I’ve attended several of Terrence’s webinars and find him to be an exceptional presenter. I haven’t heard Shawn present, but I’ve read his writing, so I’m really looking forward to the webinar.

Here’s the skinny from these gents:

Are your leaders great storytellers? And, why should you care anyway?

With more then 40 years of combined experience, two of the world’s leading narrative consultants divulge some of what they have learned. Join Shawn Callahan of Anecdote and Terrence Gargiulo of MAKINGSTORIES.net for a 45-minute rousing interactive discussion rich with examples and practical tools.

Will you be as surprised as we were when we discovered the “Triple Threat,” of storytelling for leaders?

Find out the answers to the three questions we get asked the most. Prior to the event we’ll share a white paper on leadership and storytelling. Following the webinar we’ll send you a job aid that we use in our work. So give us the pleasure of your company and interact with your peers to take a nuanced but deep dive into the art and science of leadership through narrative.

To register for August 12, go here.

To register for August 19, go here.

Q&A with a Story Guru: Melissa Wells: Narrative Can Persuade, Influence, Soothe

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Melissa Wells, who is, I believe, another one of my discoveries through Twitter, is one of those rare breeds kind of like me who combines fascinations with career development/management with storytelling. In addition, she’s a nature videographer who has adventures in Africa and other places. I’m delighted to bring you this Q&A with her.

Bio: Melissa Wells is a career consultant who works with individual and corporate clients at the cutting edge of their fields whether business, science, or the arts. Blending inspired travel with experience as a consultant, she guides clients through the process of precisely defining and creating success, defined their way. A world-traveler and videographer, her video work is currently featured at Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, DC, as part of the “Farmers, Warriors, Builders” exhibit. Prior to career coaching, Melissa was a director at Huron Consulting Group and also consulted with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Accenture, in the US and overseas. Melissa hold a B.A. from Smith College in psychology. She can be found at mwells@amazoncoaching.com or through her take on career through an explorer’s lens, Amazon Coaching.

Q&A with Melissa Wells:

Q: When you say “Your Career, Your Story,”” as your tagline, or more specifically, “It’s your career, write your own story,” and “creating a narrative that makes you distinctive,” can you explain a little about what you mean by that and how that process works?

A: The heart of my work is helping people clearly articulate what they want and why. I chose “Your Career, Your Story” as a way to inspire and encourage clients to choose their work. In short, if you cannot articulate what you want, why, and how you are different from others in your field, then finding a satisfying job or anything else in life, becomes less likely.

Clients find I make the process fun by letting them express what brings them happiness and what experiences make their skin crawl, and building from there. When someone is enthusiastic, or shares their worst experiences, I get a vivid picture of who they are and the role of work in their life. Once I’ve established trust, I’m able to guide them to craft a narrative they can use to persuade, influence, or soothe.

When All Is Said and Done on [Personal] Branding: Try Storytelling

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Jim Knutsen claims “there is literally nothing left to say on branding.

With all those words, you’d think the discipline would be clearly defined and understood. And yet there is still massive confusion. I’ve had a hundred conversations that center around client questions like, “What’s the difference between positioning and branding? Is this my business strategy or my brand strategy? Is my brand promise the same thing as my elevator pitch?”

“Nearly every brand consultancy answers those questions with their own ‘proprietary’ version of a branding model,” Knutsen notes.

The same is true about personal branding. Though one of the hottest trend in career management in the past few years, personal branding is confusing because every expert has a different model and approach for identifying one’s personal brand.


Knutsen thinks perhaps consultants have overcomplicated branding and that all organizations need to do is tell their stories. He poses these three questions, which I’ve adapted for the careerist individual rather than the organization:

  1. What is your [individual career] story? Your differentiating DNA… clear, focused and compelling.
  2. How can you use that story to align your team, resources and strategies to create a consistent … experience [for prospective employers] and achieve common business goals?
  3. What are the words and symbols that point back to the substance of your story, and how will you present them consistently?

The words are the tools for presenting your brand to prospective employers in such media as resumes, cover letters, interviews, portfolios, and networking situations.

The symbols are things like fonts, colors, design, and images that tie your written career-management documents (resumes, cover letters, and more) together and present as consistent, branded image, as well as the way you brand your own appearance/attire — your distinctive look when you network and interview.