The Workbook Project offers a slideshow and corresponding PDF about “how one can use to social media to extend a story and generate a conversation around [one’s] work.”
Although The Workbook Project (“for those who want to be creative in the digital age”) focuses on such media as film, games, music, design, software, the resource — and the project itself — can be useful for many types of story practitioners.
The Chain of Confidence Challenge is a Tupperware-sponsored contest seeking “your unique story about a special person who has made a significant difference in your life; perhaps a mentor, a teacher, your sister or your best friend. What did you learn from them and how were you encouraged and inspired to become an even stronger person? You can nominate a friend, family member or someone from the Tupperware community — a consultant/director.” Entry deadline is Aug. 14.
The winner’s nominee gets $5,000 that will be donated to a charitable organization of her choice, dedicated to empowering women.
Chain of Confidence stories can be found here
Tupperware’s Chain of Confidence honors women around the world and the profound, life altering impact that they can have on one another.
Earlier this week, I blogged about visual storytelling, including a bullet point about unusual media used to tell stories — Lego-like blocks and Viewmaster-like reels.
After I posted that entry, I came across a piece on NewYorkTimes.com entitled “Our Scars Tell the Stories of Our Lives” by Dana Jennings, who wrote:
Our scars tell stories. Sometimes they’re stark tales of life-threatening catastrophes, but more often they’re just footnotes to the ordinary but bloody detours that befall us on the roadways of life.
I realized that was true. My most storied scar is on the index finger of my left hand. It’s not very visible, but I can feel it.
I garnered this scar by placing my hand on a glass pane on our back door of the home of my teenage years (I was about 16) and slamming the door too hard — in anger because my mother refused to take me to see an R-rated movie. The movie, I recall, was Diary of a Mad Housewife, which I still have not seen to this day.
The pane broke, and my left hand went through it, slicing up my left thumb and index finger. The scar on my thumb is interesting, too, because the doctors grafted a piece of skin from my hip onto the wound. Thus I have occasionally told people I was touching my hip when my hands were nowhere near my hip.
But the one on my index finger had a more lasting legacy because from the time my finger healed, I have always used the scar to discern my left hand from my right hand. Yes, I’m one of those people who has trouble with left and right. Whenever my brain has to make a decision involving left or right, I engage in a split-second cheat — using my left thumb to feel for the scar on my index finger.
My husband has a legendary scar on his chin attained when, as a boy, he and his brother were racing home on bikes, and Randall hit a new, unexpected patch of gravel. His bike skidded, and Randall flipped over his bike, landing on his chin. Ouch.
People in my generation also often have large vaccination scars from smallpox vaccinations, as well as scars from chicken pox. Younger generations probably don’t have those.
Jennings concludes: “I relish the stories [scars] tell. Then again, I’ve always believed in the power of stories, and I certainly believe in the power of scars.”
What are your scar stories?
See a photo of Annie, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.
Q&A with Annie Hart, Questions 8 and 9:
Q: What’s your favorite story about a transformation that came about through a story or storytelling act?
A: I have so many, but one of my favorites is when I was doing a stage show with seven women and we were performing for 200 nuns. I was really nervous because my piece was very personal and provocative. I had gone to catholic school as a kid and I had this idea that either the nuns or God were going to judge me! I was really scared. But after the performance, the nuns came rushing up to me. They sat me down and fed me lunch while they asked me a million questions about my work including how they could do what I did. That was a very sweet and touching moment in my life in which I found that I could inspire some of the people that used to scare me.
Q: If you could share just one piece of advice or wisdom about story/storytelling/narrative with readers, what would it be?
A: Everyone has a story to tell and the world needs to hear it.
See a photo of Annie, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, Part 2, and Part 3.
Q&A with Annie Hart, Questions 6 and 7:
Q: The culture is abuzz about Web 2.0 and social media. To what extent do you participate in social media (such as through LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Second Life, blogs, etc.)? To what extent and in what ways do you feel these venues are storytelling media?
A: Well this question gives me the biggest laugh of all. I am a former technophobe and I thought Twitter was the most ridiculous thing I’d ever heard of. But then through a personal transformation, in which I forced myself to get up to speed on technology, I’ve become a social media queen! One of my mentors recently said to me, “You’re on fire as a web presence!” He couldn’t believe how I have been using blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and LinkedIn to make my work known in the world.
Now I’m having so much fun using blogging and social media that I’m even teaching it to others! What a riot. A lot of people of my generation have a fear and a distaste of social media. I try to hold their hands while they learn and I make it fun for them. I use a lot of social media now. It’s one of the mainstays of my business. By the way, blogging is the most fantastic medium for storytelling!
Q: What future trends or directions do you foresee for story/storytelling/narrative? What’s next for the discipline? 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: I foresee an explosion of the use of story for marketing purposes. It has already begun. Years ago you couldn’t find much written on the use of story in business, just a few books. But a few weeks ago I was at the bookstore and I found at least four popular books on marketing that mentioned storytelling. Storytelling is finally becoming known for the force that it is and I am thrilled about that.
What do I aspire to personally? Well like my website says, I want to change the world through story. I want to continue using the power of story to inspire collaboration, innovation and change in business and training. I want to inspire leaders to be more articulate and more able to grab people’s attention through storytelling skills. I like to add to their personal pizzazz.
There are too many boring presenters out there!
I have created a body of work called, “Stories From the Heart of the Cosmos.” It is story, performance, workshop experience with a cast of inspirational and wacky characters who really wake people up and show us how to love and live right on this planet. So I want to continue to expand that and take it out to bigger audiences. My story performances generate a lot of connection and community amongst audience members and that is the most fun of all. So I am intent on enlarging that as well, getting large groups of people to work well together.
And I’d like to go back to Europe and take some of my work there! I have a few stories in Italian that need to be told.
“MFK” describes herself as a “thirtysomething gal with a good old-fashioned writing degree and a bloated, shiny, sexy MBA.” She works for a Fortune 50 Company and blogs at Open-Source Career
Back in the spring, she wrote a guest blog entry for Blog@Work, a blog that unfortunately seems to be “suspended,” so I can’t provide the link to it.
The thrust of the entry was MFK’s formula for success: “The key to taking things to the next level … is to look back after a time. Do a post-mortem, a personal performance review, a personal brand assessment, storytelling — whatever you want to call it.
MFK suggests looking for patterns and consistent behaviors in your success story. Look for things you hated and things you failed at. Seek out consistent patterns of what people said about your work. Consider what got you excited and eager to go to work each day.
MFK particularly had to engage the storytelling method when she sought her first job after grad school because she had no traditional business experience before her MBA:
I took an objective look at the prior six years and started storytelling to myself, looking for patterns of behavior and experiences that were harmonious with the type of corporate work I was trying to do. … At each job, increasing leeway to act independently and be put in charge of work and of people — because I had demonstrated I could drive results.
She notes that “healthy … self-reflection will show you the hidden patterns … Can you repeat the patterns again? Can you use those patterns to help you take it to the next level?”
Yes. Use the successful, fulfilling parts of your past story to build your future story.
See a photo of Annie, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, and Part 2.
Q&A with Annie Hart, Questions 4 and 5:
Q: You are neuro-linguistic programming trainer. I’ve always felt NLP had some relationship to storytelling. How do the two areas overlap, in your view?
A: NLP has a lot of relationship to story. One of the most important connections is through Milton Erickson, MD. He is one of the main people from whom they modeled NLP. Milton Erickson was a Master
Hypnotherapist. He spoke in story to create change in the unconscious mind because the unconscious has a metaphorical orientation already. The stories made it easy for the solution to go right in and endure over time. There are many famous stories about Erickson; he was quite a character. One of my own NLP mentors studied with him directly. He said that when they would go to see Milton he would just sit there and tell stories the whole time and they would think that absolutely nothing was happening. Then three weeks later their lives would change!
Milton Erickson truly knew the therapeutic use of story and since I am trained specifically in his work as well, I tend to use a similar structure for most of my stories. That way the message goes in really easily and people have a lot of fun while listening to my stories. One example of this is of an older woman was attended one of my storytellings. She called me the next day to tell me excitedly that she’d had a dream about love. This might not sound unusual but she was in her 80s, and apparently she hadn’t thought about this in a long time. But through the story something wonderful woke up in her unconscious. I love using story in all my work with clients.
Q: How important is it to you and your work to function within the framework of a particular definition of “story?” (I.e., What is a story?) What definition do you espouse?
A: I am dedicated to spreading a new definition of storytelling that includes its deeper powers. My personal mission is to create a context in which story can be known and experienced as the force of change that it is. Stories change us individually, collectively and globally. Storytelling is no longer just a medium of entertainment but a context in which to live our lives and a tool for personal and global change. I want everyone to realize that our lives are built on story and that we can use stories to create a better world.
Periodically, I like to present a collection of visual materials with significant storytelling content.
This collection is especially rich.
made the rounds of the Internet is that of Jill and Matt. The invitation tells the story of the relationship up to the time of the planned wedding. What’s visually interesting is that the invitation uses type almost exclusively rather than any other images, but the graphic treatment is what lends the visual element. In another romantic visual story, photographer Adam Barker captures his sister being proposed to on waterskis
Foregoing narrative entirely, Shapton tells the story of a couple’s relationship in the form of a staggeringly precise ersatz auction catalog that annotates the common detritus of a love affair — notes, CD mixes, e-mails, photos, books– and places the objects up for sale. … In choosing the conceit of an auction catalog, Shapton reminds us that the story of love can be told through the things we leave behind, but also by the condition in which we leave them.
The idea behind The Significant Objects Project is that “a talented, creative writer invents a story about an object. Invested with new significance by this fiction, the object should — according to our hypothesis — acquire not merely subjective but objective value. How to test our theory? Via eBay!” How do they test the theory? “The project’s curators (Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn) purchase objects — for no more than a few dollars — from thrift stores and garage sales. Participating writers are paired with object about which they write a fictional story. “An unremarkable, castoff thingamajig has suddenly becomes a ‘significant’ object’ that is then listed for sale on eBay. The significant object is pictured, but instead of a factual description the significant object’s newly written fictional story is used. The project is not out to hoax eBay buyers. The curators catalog what happens with the objects and may write a book.
“the world’s largest, most comprehensive illustrated Bible is “The Brick Testament,” with more than 3,600 illustrations that retell more than 400 stories from the Bible — made with “bricks,” LEGO-like construction pieces. I’d love to show a sample here, but the site has very strict rules about not reproducing its material.
Catherine Walsh, a doctoral candidate at the University of Delaware, is digging through 150-year-old works, diaries, and letters looking for examples of storytelling in art, specifically between 1830 and 1870 — a period, she says, when a flood of storytelling images appeared in popular works. … Walsh also believes that museum visitors create narratives when they view a painting.” (Pictured work is “The Story of Golden Locks.”)
See a photo of Annie, her bio, and Part 1 of this Q&A.
Q&A with Annie Hart, Questions 2 and 3:
Q: How did you initially become involved with story/storytelling/narrative? What attracted you to this field? What do you love about it?
A: My mother tells the story of how would take me out to the woods as a little girl and she would put me on a fallen tree stump and listen while I told her stories! This was my first form of theater. I had no idea that I was a storyteller; it was just a natural way of being for me.
Then years ago when I was applying for an apprenticeship in the expressive arts, my mentor told me that I was a storyteller. I had no idea what she was talking about. Later I realized that I thought and spoke in story, very much as indigenous people do. I chose storytelling as the focus for that training and I studied storytellers for a few years to learn about it. I had no idea that I was destined to be a storyteller or that I would end up using story in my career. For me storytelling is more of a worldview and a way of being than a form of speaking. It’s in the being and the bones, not just in the telling.
What do I LOVE about story? Everything! I live for stories. I love story’s power to express that, which is inexpressible. I love its ability to create deep and lasting change. I love seeing how people come alive through story and how it connects us and creates bridges across our human divide. But most of all I love the magic that story creates. When I tell stories I can almost see the magic happening in the room. Stories take us into other beautiful worlds and for a time we can forget about all our cares. I know of no other form of expression that moves us and hits our human bedrock as deeply as story does.
Storytelling is the greatest and oldest power in the world for transmitting wisdom and oral teachings. I am most fortunate that story is my medium for change.
Q: 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?
A: The indigenous peoples from every tradition, had a prophecy that this would be a time of great change. They literally had that recorded in their stories and their calendars of this time. They are in agreement that this time has finally come and that it is up to us to create a new future. And how else do you create a new future but by using story? Stories create our cultural paradigms, the norms by which we live. If you think about it the world is built on stories. That is why I believe the time is now and that we need stories more than ever. We need a new story to live by.
It’s intriguing to me that storytelling is spreading like wildfire in the area of business, particularly for use in marketing. Storytellers have always known its power, but finally the rest of the world is catching on. Savvy media gurus have come to realize that storytelling is the quickest and most relevant way to share information. Its ability to cross cultures and to spread ideas and information is unparalleled. The time for story has truly come.
The last reason for storytelling being so relevant in today’s world is because everything is speeding up. Everything is quicker, especially communication. Just look at Twitter for example. It’s basically a medium for a 140-character story. In today’s faster paced time, storytelling is essential because captures the listener. It is the deepest and most lasting form of communication known to humankind.
I believe it was through Twitter that I learned of Annie Hart, and I was immediately intrigued by her “stories change the world” philosophy. She is likely one of the very last Q&A practitioners who will make it into my upcoming free e-book, Storied Careers: 40+ Story Practitioners Talk About Applied Storytelling. I’m also excited about her upcoming radio show. This Q&A will appear over the next five days.
Bio: [from her Web site, where she tells about herself with more storytelling
verve than is presented here] Annie has brought her work to the fields of business, education, healthcare, non-profit, youth at risk, and community organizations.
Her training and certification includes NLP Trainer, Eriksonian Hypnotherapy Trainer, Expressive Arts Training, non-violent communication, ISVOR Dilts Leadership Training, where she was personally selected as one of the first 32 trainers from around the world and is one of only 50 Book Yourself Solid Certified Marketing Coaches.
Annie has developed several bodies of original work including a Heart-Centered Communication model; DreamBuilders, a group coaching model; Stories From the Heart of the Cosmos, a story performance workshop; and her current work Skills of Excellence, a compilation of skills of the masters.
She has also created several large-scale community events, including a world peace council of 90 indigenous elders from around the world and Artists for the World in which she organized a team to create and display the collective artwork of Philadelphia school children.
Annie’s personal ethic is to embody the principles of human kindness, generosity and collaboration as a basic business model. She believes that relationships are the most important factor of all.
Annie loves knitting, is passionate about yoga, enjoys drinking good tea and reading and studying from the mystics. She lives in beautiful Chestnut Hill, PA, with her little dog Miss Sweetie. Her goal is to live an ordinary life in an extraordinary way and to be a kind, happy and loving person.
Annie is launching a radio show, “Inspiring Change Through Story,” the first week in September 2009, on Fridays at 12:30 PM. Check her Web site for how to find the show.
Q&A with Annie Hart:
Q: You have a section of your Web site called story performance and tell a fascinating story about how you got involved in story performance. In what kinds of contexts are you a story performer, and how does this work relate to the training/consulting work you do with story?
A: My main interest for using story is in the context of training and consulting. I love its power for effecting change quickly. I also enjoy performing for fun, and I use my storytelling around town to help promote local businesses and events. You can inspire people much more easily through carefully chosen stories and what is so much fun is that most of the time people don’t even realize that they are changing. The stories are so entertaining that people are enjoying themselves. They think they’re just having fun but something deeper is happening. It isn’t until later that all of this change surfaces. I receive a lot of great feedback from individuals, groups and businesses describing the many amazing changes that have come about.
