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Stories for the “Casual Reader?”

Posted on March 5, 2009 by KatHansen

So, I was listening to the audiobook of Wikinomics today. My best friend raved about it more than a year ago, but I hadn’t listened to it before now because I generally save audiobooks for road trips, and even then, only road trips when I’m driving and obviously can’t read.

I had kind of a mini-epiphany as I listened to the book: It’s really hard to listen to nonfiction. In fact, I’ve listened to other nonfiction books, and I could not tell you a thing about most of them.

But one part of the early chapters was riveting — a story about Canadian gold-mining company Goldcorp and how the company was struggling mightily until it opened up all the company files to the world in a contest to find additional veins (is that the right word?) of gold on the company’s property. The contest was a huge success that turned the company around. You can read about it here.

But I found it very hard to focus on the parts of the book — most of it — that were not told in story form. Now, this revelation should not have surprised me as a student of storytelling, but it did drive home the power of stories in a big way. The human brain is just not wired for ordinary exposition. Somehow, we can cope with expository writing (at least I can) a little better when we read it rather than listen to it. But the human brain is wired for story, which is why I was utterly absorbed in the Goldcorp story but not soaking in much of the exposition.

This phenomenon, I believe, is why Malcolm Gladwell’s books are so popular. He writes nonfiction, and yes, of course it contains exposition. But a huge part of it is in story form.

So here I am in the middle of this epiphany when I hear the audiobook narrator — as surrogate for the Wikinomics authors — say that the rest of the book will contain “stories for the casual reader.” I took this statement as rather pejorative both about stories and casual readers. I was so incensed that I don’t even remember how he characterized the other material or the apparently superior beings that the non-story material was directed at.

So, if I’m drawn to the stories in the book, I’m not really serious? I’m not a real reader, just a casual one? Maybe I’m reading too much in. But I think Malcolm Gladwell understands that serious readers read his books — and get a great deal out of them — because they are so rich with stories.

Fabulous Resource for Using Stories in the Classroom

Posted on March 4, 2009 by KatHansen

I was excited when Phil Venditti of Clover Park Technical College in Lakewood, WA, commented here on A Storied Career, not only because Washington is my newly adopted home (for half the year), but also because storytelling in the classroom is a huge interest for me. I’ve written before about the obstacles I’ve encountered in using storytelling with my former business students.

Venditti and Sally Gove founded the Good Stories for Good Learning Project after pondering whether their stories in class regularly caught people’s attention. “Sure enough, they seemed to,” they note on the project’s Web site.

It all started one day in 2004:

[Venditti] was telling a class at Clover Park Technical College about a communication concept. When he brought in a story from his own life which illustrated it, he noticed something: everyone in the classroom was paying attention. “What’s going on here?” he asked himself. “Is my story really that wonderful?” Probably it wasn’t, but this question led to more and more:

Do I use stories a lot in my teaching?”
Could I connect specific stories with specific ideas I want students to grasp?
Does it matter if I tell a story about myself or about somebody else?

Vendetti and Gove found that not every story they told produced the outcome they wanted, the Web site notes. “A story had to be good, and it had to be relevant. So they began selecting stories carefully to introduce and reinforce ideas in their classes.”

The project collected more than 350 stories that teachers may eventually use to impart valuable concepts, skills, habits, and motivation to students. While the project’s site “currently houses only a tiny fraction of all these stories,” the intention is to grow the collection. Stories can be searched on the site by Educational Message, Speaker, Academic Discipline, Topic, Sub Topic, or Keyword. There’s also a place to submit stories.

I had a few moments of skepticism wondering how effective it is to tell stories not your own — until I remembered that I’ve told other peoples’ stories in the classroom — my husband’s, my son’s, a former boss’s.

Q&A with a Story Guru: Michael Margolis, Part 3

Posted on March 4, 2009 by KatHansen

See a photo of Michael, a link to his bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, and Part 2.

Q&A with Michael Margolis (Question 3):

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: The future of storytelling resides in Generation Y, otherwise known as Millennials. This important demographic, aged 18-29 and numbering over 60 million in the United States and 120 million in Europe, represent what I call the “Story Generation.” (Keep in mind, the numbers and age boundaries are still being debated, but these are simply conservative estimates). In our youth-obsessed culture, this generation has assumed the role of trend-setter and taste-maker, far eclipsing the reach of Generation X and even challenging the uber-dominance of Baby Boomers on our collective culture.

For these children of the Internet Age, storytelling is a multi-layered, choose-your-own adventure, narrative cornucopia, where one’s identity is ever morphing and adaptable to the presiding context. Not to mention, almost everyone in this generation is a budding designer, artist, writer, technologist, and entrepreneur. In my opinion, you’ve got the makings of a cultural and creative renaissance, assuming we don’t get lost down the rabbit hole of the storytelling metaverse.

I’m not sure you can appropriately call storytelling/narrative a “discipline” because it knows no boundaries. You can apply storytelling to just about any pursuit or activity – from marketing to social media, from coaching to management training to movie-making and videogaming.

Personally, my goal and aspiration with storytelling is to see it embedded at the heart of change leadership and management training. Every organization can find greater relevance through a story-driven approach. There’s a greater need to integrate the creative worlds of branding/advertising (always a story-driven medium) with the more strategy and people-driven disciplines of organizational change and innovation. Playing at this exciting intersection is my greatest passion, and we are always looking for new partners to play with in this sandlot.

Religious Storytelling Not Always Steeped in Spirituality

Posted on March 3, 2009 by KatHansen

Came across two articles recently about storytelling based on religious traditions. The religions involved are very different — Judaism and Hinduism — as are the purposes in telling these stories.

“Rabbi” notes that he (or she) has been asked: “With so many stories why do you mainly tell religious ones?” The rabbi’s response:

I have told ancient, medieval, American folktales and Jewish stories in the past, but it seemed that the religious stories were being lost. So many other storytellers tell the vast gamut of secular stories, and every Jewish storyteller tells the Chasidic tales. I chose to tell the biblical, midrashic and medieval Jewish stories so that they will inspire and touch the heart and soul of the listener…. Too many people stop with Bible stories and have forgotten the art and skill of spiritual storytelling. … Spiritual storytelling always has an underlying purpose, which is to inspire people with faith and communicate wisdom and values.

Meanwhile, in New Delhi, India, Devdutt Pattanaik uses ancient Hindu myths with a different purpose and intention — to help “create a set of management principles that are steeped in Indian culture” because “Not all the Western management models of standard operating procedure fit us. How do we create management practices that are grounded in our rich repository of stories and rituals?”

(As a side note, I was particularly intrigued by the way Pattanaik contrasts the Western fervor for metrics and quantitative views of business with India’s anti-metrics culture: “The standard Western management principle is ‘If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. In our ethos, ‘if you measure it, you destroy it,” Pattanaik notes.)

Further, Pattanaik says:

I am a pattern-finder. The mythologies are stars — I point out the constellation,” he said. “The world of business and the world of our mythological tales are not too different. The characters and the situations are similar. I apply their meanings to modern corporate management. Business is run on a pattern of behavior. I help create the belief that governs behavior. “

Unlike “Rabbi,” Pattanaik doesn’t tell these stories out of deeply rooted spiritual convictions. Says the Washington Post article about him: “Avid readers of his books on Hindu mythology often express disappointment, he said, when he affirms that he is not ‘overtly religious.'”

Q&A with a Story Guru: Michael Margolis, Part 2

Posted on March 3, 2009 by KatHansen

See a photo of Michael, a link to his bio, and Part 1 of this Q&A.

Q&A with Michael Margolis (Question 2):

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 approach storytelling as a management philosophy – a lens through which to examine business challenges and discover breakthrough insights. If you want to learn about a culture, listen to the stories. If you want to change the culture, change the stories. Every business today is in the culture-creation business. I call it the study of Pop Anthropology (which also happens to be the name of my blog) and it deeply informs my consulting business which works with companies in the midst of strategic shifts. Our focus is Brand Storytelling, Constituent Relations, and Change Leadership.

There is the official message your company puts out, and then there are the stories that people tell about you. This complex web of perceptions is what informs your brand’s equity and your standing in the marketplace. Brand Storytelling is king – even in enterprises that are not consumer-centric such as nonprofits or community-initiatives.

The most ubiquitous innovators like Google or Apple ultimately transform the everyday habits of our society. The most creative marketers use stories and cultural happenings to embed their brands as a cherished part of our lives. If you are interested in this growing phenomenon, check out Rob Walker, the New York Times Magazine contributor who writes the weekly column Consumed, and recently published the ground-breaking book, Buyin-In:

This cultural perspective is vital as organizations find themselves in perpetual cycles of change. Change Leadership is ultimately about telling the right stories that people can relate to – whether that is your customers, employees, members, or donors.

Q&A with a Story Guru: Michael Margolis, Part 1

Posted on March 2, 2009 by KatHansen

Michael Margolis was one of the facilitators (along with Madelyn Blair and Steve Denning) of the first Smithsonian Storytelling Conference I attended in 2005. I’ve followed his work and his firm THIRSTY-FISH since.

The Q&A with Michael will appear over the next five days.

Bio: Michael Margolis is a pioneer in the fields of brand storytelling and constituent relations. As the president and founder of THIRSTY-FISH, Michael provides strategic story solutions to clients including AARP, Coty, Ernst & Young, Marriott, NASA, The Nature Conservancy, and YWCA. He offers more than a decade of experience across the realms of story-based marketing, organizational change, and cultural innovation. Prior to launching THIRSTY-FISH in 2002, Michael was a social entrepreneur and co-founded two successful nonprofits in the areas of public service, workforce development, and business technology.

Michael is a contributing author to the leading compendium on strategic storytelling, Wake Me Up When the Data is Over: How Organizations Use Stories to Drive Results (Jossey-Bass, 2006), author of the blog PopAnthropology.com, and a traveling keynote speaker.

An outspoken proponent of the Talent Economy, Michael has had his work recognized by Fast Company Magazine, Silicon Alley Reporter, Los Angeles Business Journal, and Hawaii Community Television. In 2001, the American Society for Training & Development’s T&D Magazine, profiled Michael as one of “Training’s New Guard” for the new millennium. Michael’s formal studies include a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology from Tufts University, a business certificate from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Management, and a certificate in organizational storytelling from the Center for Narrative Studies. Michael was raised in Switzerland as a child, before moving to Los Angeles, Boston, and Washington, DC. Currently living in New York City, Michael is an advisor to local organizations including NYU Stern Business Plan Competition and Eco-Africa Social Ventures (a Zimbabwe Artisan Collective).

Q&A with Michael Margolis (Question 1):

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: Humans have always been hard-wired for storytelling. In my opinion, storytelling is the evolutionary leap that led to the growth of culture, commerce, and civilizations. It just so happens we have reached a new inflection point in our collective evolution.

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”. Consider that just 10 years ago – email, cell phones, websites, blogs, digital cameras, Facebook, video cameras, etc – either didn’t exist or certainly weren’t ubiquitous part of our everyday lives. Now, anybody who has a story to tell can choose from countless affordable, sophisticated, and easy-to-use platforms to get their story out to the world. Now getting people to listen to your stories, that’s another matter.

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. We are swimming in a sea of stories, trying to find our way in a universe and commercial marketplace of infinite choices. Have you counted lately how many types of toothpaste you can choose from on the supermarket shelf? That’s a lot of competing storylines from the most mundane to the sacred.

Story Fragmentation: Does it Inhibit Storytelling or Merely Change It?

Posted on March 1, 2009 by KatHansen

In his Digital Storytelling Cookbook, Joe Lambert talks about today’s “story fragments:”

…we are bombarded with millions of indigestible, literally unmemorable, story fragments every time we pick up a phone, bump into a friend, watch TV, listen to the radio, read a book or a newspaper, or browse the Web. We cannot process these into epigrams, recite and retain them, and so they become a jumble of fragments that actually inhibit our ability to construct a coherent story.

That passage was cited by Matthew Stringer. In his Nerd Acumen blog, Stringer agrees that “this saturation [of fragments] has stunted our storytelling capabilities.”

Kelli Lawless also worries, though in a very different context. Lawless blogs about dating and mating in America and notes that she recently asked her network:

Has anyone else noticed a change in the nature of storytelling (and communication) since our culture has adopted texting, IM and short media?

Lawless reported that her respondents cited “Sesame Street attention-span shrinkage” and “our inability to just sit and ‘Be’ — un-distracted by all the stimuli surrounding us,” among other comments she received.

She ends her blog entry by asking: “Are you a frustrated and mute storyteller, or do you just collect drinking friends and wait till the liquor is flowing before launching into your tale?”

I come down on the optimistic side of this conversation. Yes, the information overload is distracting. Yes, attention spans have shortened dramatically. But the same technological and cultural forces that have spawned this fragmentation have also given us new and unprecedented tools for telling, sharing, and enjoying stories.

Yes, storytelling in changing. The good news is that many more people are now telling their stories. A huge number of those stories may be tiny fragments (say, 140 characters long). But I do not believe humans will ever lose the ability to engage with a story of any length that is well-told. And the tiny fragments make the audience hunger for more. Witness what has happened since Facebook enabled commenting on peoples’ status updates. Commenters ask to learn more of the story. Sometimes the teller obliges in satisfying fashion; sometimes not. But how many of these people would have been storytellers at all if not for tools like Facebook and Twitter?

Personal Mythology in the Stars: Jonathan Harris’ Universe

Posted on February 28, 2009 by KatHansen

I’ve highlighted Jonathan Harris’ technologically mind-blowing storytelling projects and platforms in this space before.

Just learned of one I hadn’t checked out before, Universe. Here, you type in a word or phrase and see it depicted using the “metaphor of an interactive night sky.”

Your word or phrase is depicted in terms of nine “Stages,” titled: Stars, Shapes, Secrets, Stories, Statements, Snapshots, Superstars, Settings, and Time. In Harris’ words: “Stars presents a cryptic star field; Shapes causes constellation outlines to emerge; Secrets extracts the most salient single words and presents them to scale; Stories extracts the sagas and events; Statements extracts the things people said; Snapshots extracts images; Superstars extracts the people, places, companies, teams, and organizations; Time shows how the universe has evolved over hours, days, months, and years.”

In the illustration shown below right, I used the term “American Idol.” This piece is from the “Shapes stage,” though the shapes are pretty difficult to see here.

Harris explains the concept behind the project in his artist’s statement:

If we were to make new constellations today, what would they be? If we were to paint new pictures in the sky, what would they depict? … Universe is a system that supports the exploration of personal mythology, allowing each of us to find our own constellations, based on our own interests and curiosities. Everyone’s path through Universe is different, just as everyone’s path through life is different. Using the metaphor of an interactive night sky, Universe presents an immersive environment for navigating the world’s contemporary mythology, as found online in global news and information from Daylife [the Daylife Platform, an, “intelligent content services platform” that “collects content from thousands of high-quality online sources, deeply analyzes and parses it, and creates a trove of data.”]

Whereas news is often presented as a series of unrelated static events, Universe strives to show the broader narrative that contains those events. The only way to begin to see the mythic nature of today’s world is to surface its connections, patterns, and themes. When this happens, we begin to see common threads — myths, really — twisting through the stream of information.

Q&As-Return-Monday Wordle

Posted on February 27, 2009 by KatHansen

Along with publishing this week’s word cloud/tag cloud from Wordle based on A STORIED CAREER, I offer a reminder that Phase II of my Q&A series will commence Monday with a Q&A with Michael Margolis of Thirsty-Fish.