Archives for posts with tag: Organizational storytelling
« Older Entries

No Story, No Fans – a review

November 8, 2011 //
0

No Story, No Fans is available on Amazon as an e-book

If I don’t have a story, I won’t have fans. I believe Raf Stevens when he delivers this message in dozens of ways, through dozens of captivating stories and through concrete steps to find and deliver that story. I believe him because I know what he says is true. I know it in the only way one can truly know anything, through direct experience.

I wish I had had a copy of No Story, No Fans when I was floundering to reinvent myself as an organizational narrative consultant (aka community developer, though that’s not how I thought of myself). Annette Simmons held my hand, with her Story Factor. David Armstrong led me too, with his Managing By Storying Around.

Mostly I felt like a lonely charlatan, waving the flag of storytelling without really knowing how to make the leap from performing storyteller to organizational narrative consultant. I managed, and even succeeded, but it was a scary journey.

Earning trust by demonstrating it

Things are different now. A lot of books and Web sites explore what storytelling means within the context of defining a vision, conveying it, and trying to turn it into sales. And sales are obviously important. A company with fabulous stories that operates in the red is going to sink.

Raf talks a lot about trust. That’s what his subtitle refers to: “Build Your Business through Stories that Resonate. Using the power of corporate storytelling to create loyal customers, fans, and friends.”

He earned my trust right off the bat. In an era of smartphones, I don’t even carry a cell phone. When I’m away from my right arm, er, computer, I don’t want a leash. So when I clicked on the PDF of Raf’s book and saw all the QR codes, I bristled. “Oh, yeah. He’s going to make me feel like an outsider.”

I was wrong. If I’d had a smartphone, I could have pointed it at those squiggly squares and called up fascinating Web sites. Instead, I accidentally moved the cursor over the first one and was startled by a dialog box asking me if I trusted the link or wanted to block it.

That Raf Stevens! So smart. He wanted even semi-Luddites like me to enter the realm of wonder. I ended up clicking on every link. Darn you, Raf Stevens! I’m busy. I don’t have time for all this Web wandering, but your links were so good I was afraid I’d regret not clicking on any one of them.

So here I am, weeks after accepting Raf’s invitation to download his book in exchange for a review, just starting to formulate a response to a book that makes me want to rewind the clock and re-start my consulting career with No Story, No Fans in hand.

A generous book

One thing that leaps out for me, in reading the book, is generosity. Raf gives a lot away. Stories, links, ideas, tips, resources. He just keeps dishing them out, some within the text itself and others a click away. By the time I start Part I: Trading Stories, I’m already feeling as if I’ve stumbled onto a gift exchange. He has already demonstrated his advice to first give something away, to engage emotionally, and to promote trust by promoting other people’s stories.

Partway through Chapter 2, “Flipping Your Script!”, two sentences stop me in my tracks:

Most communication nowadays fails to connect and is not trustworthy because it is too descriptive of situations and facts instead of sharing actual stories about what occurred. That is the script that needs flipping.

I think maybe Raf got hold of the first reports I did for clients when I started my community development career. I was so afraid they would find out I was really a storyteller in consultant’s clothing they wouldn’t trust my work. I overwhelmed them with numbers and facts and insider language so they could see I knew what I was doing.

Only thing was, it was never the heavyweight data that worked. It was always the stories. I could have spared a lot of trees if I’d had Raf’s book to hold my hand while I was learning the ropes.

So I feel like cheering when he writes:

It is tempting to continue to use terms like internal branding, positioning, brand voice, brand identity and so on, while explaining the power of story and storytelling in relation to brand and organizations. Many business leaders are more familiar with these terms than they are with storytelling. Storytelling is for wimps, right? But I am not giving in. We need to flip the script!

Make room for this book

Raf doesn’t try to impose one good model of storytelling. Instead, through dozens of examples, some solid advice, and some well-formulated tips, he encourages readers to find their own storytelling voices. That makes the book useful to a wide range of audiences in both the corporate and non-profit worlds. The book will hold an important place alongside books by Annette Simmons, Stephen Denning, Peter Guber, and Lori Silverman, but it will occupy its own niche.

The field of storytelling books has a lot of entries these days, but No Story, No Fans proves not only was there room for one more. There was a need for this book.

[Note: You can read the first part free on the Web site.]

Share
Tags , , , , ,
Categories Business narrative, Organizational storytelling, The importance of storytelling

Telling a new story

August 14, 2011 //
1

Lips on face stone sculpture

Lips on face stone sculpture, photo by Photos8.com


David Korten’s writings often move me. They always make me think. He is board chair of YES! Magazine, a publication that always poses solutions instead of just pointing out problems.

In the August 8, 2011, online edition, he throws out a challenge to culture workers. He calls on those in media, education, religion and the arts to use their influence to tell a new story. He writes, “For better or worse, you are engaged in crafting and propagating the cultural stories that serve either to legitimate the devastation the old economy causes or shine a light on the possibilities of the new economy.”

Whether we stand in front of an audience or work in the broad field of organizational narrative, storytellers bear a responsibility that is, at the same time, an exciting opportunity. Our stories can shore up a status quo that keeps the world teetering on the brink of global disaster. Or they can engender a sense of possibility that will lead us to something sane and life-affirming.

I’m reminded of the four levels folklorist Barre Toelken once told me characterized Navajo storytelling. That was many years ago, and my memory has likely shifted the explanations to fit my own sense of the impact of storytelling. But roughly, these are the four levels:

  • Entertainment: The first task of the storyteller is to capture the audience’s imagination.
  • Education: Once imagination is focused, learning can begin.
  • Spirituality: Here the possibility of transformation begins.
  • Witchcraft: Only a shaman can safely tell stories at this level because they unleash forces that cannot be contained in less skilled hands.

From many directions we hear stories that seem to have skipped right over the third level and are wreaking havoc on our environment, economies, and family lives. They are told by culture workers who have sold their talents for pieces of silver, skilled liars whose arguments play out in election campaigns and corporate marketing.

Korten’s charge to artists is one storytellers can answer:

“Talented artists can help us see beauty, meaning, and possibility where it may otherwise escape our attention. They can take us on an imaginary journey to a future no one has yet visited to experience possibilities we may not have imagined. Our movement needs the contribution of millions of artists devoted to liberating human consciousness.”

The YES! essay is based on the 2nd edition of David Korten’s important and encouraging book, Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth.

Share
Tags , ,
Categories Business narrative, Healing power of stories, Health, Journalism, Meaning of stories, Organizational storytelling, The importance of storytelling

Not your usual banking story

April 13, 2011 //
2

Ads for Canadian banks focus on things they figure their customers care about – credit cards, investments, loans, banking services, consumer goods. The stories they tell are bland, cautious, predictable. They want us to see them as responsible and fiscally conservative.

Those are good qualities for banks. Given the economic chaos of the last few years, we want to believe our money is safe. So a marketing story that makes us feel safe is probably a good business decision. Somehow I can’t imagine a Canadian bank making a social justice statement with its advertising.

That’s what Argentina’s Banco Provincia does with this ad, and it’s a fascinating cultural reflection. We see a vehicle stop. An older man gets out and walks up to an attractive hairdresser, who is standing outside her shop. He apologizes for mistreating her and tells her he asked the bank for a car loan because that same bank granted her—a transgendered woman—a loan to start her hairdressing business.

Argentina is ahead of tolerant Canada in creating an atmosphere of acceptance for transgendered people. It’s encouraging to know that in 2009 Marcela Romero, an activist who fought successfully for the right to have a sex change, was chosen Argentina’s Woman of the Year.

I don’t think we’ll see an ad like this one on Canadian television this year, but the time is coming nearer when we will.

[Keep reading below the video to see one of the reasons I think such ads in Canada are a long way off.]

A postscript to this story, from a Canadian perspective:

No one will be surprised to note that Royal Bank’s ads don’t mention the compensation it gives its CEO. In 2010 Gordon Nixon received $11 million in direct compensation and a pension top-up of $810,000. Another four RBC officers divided up a pie worth $28.08 million.

That same year Toronto Dominion CEO Ed Clark scooped $11.3 million. Scotia Bank’s Richard Waugh came in third, at $10.7 million. Bank of Montreal’s Bill Downe earned $9.5 million. Scotia Bank’s CEO, Gerry McCaughey made a mere $9.34 million.

The heads of Canada’s Big Five banks earned a total of $51.84 million. Statistics Canada figures always lag behind the current year so the closest I can report is that in 2008 the average income after tax of all families of two or more was $74,600. Singles averaged $31,000.

To put that in context, let’s assume those CEO’s didn’t hire smart accountants, lawyers and financial advisors to shelter most of their income. Instead, let’s assume they paid the full 29% owed by anyone making over $128,800. Ludicrous, I know, but it’s a starting point.

Discounting additional income from those CEO’s wives and any investment income they might have, they had an average after-tax pay of $8.4 million. Divide that by the average family income, and each of them made about 113 times as much as the average Canadian family and more than 270 times the average single.

They can afford to buy the things their marketing tells us are important – houses, cars, vacations. Do they really deserve to make that much more than ordinary folk?

Time for a new story.

Share
Tags
Categories Business narrative, Organizational storytelling, Social myths

The distance between success and failure: a story

February 15, 2011 //
3

Peter GuberWith Tell to Win, Peter Guber throws his hat into the growing ring of people who understand that sometimes the distance between success and failure is a story. From the first page, Guber demonstrates both his mastery and his awareness of what makes a story work.

Tell to Win focuses on “purposeful” stories. These are stories with a mission, not just entertaining anecdotes. Guber writes, “They cleverly contain information, ideas, emotional prompts, and value propositions that the teller wants to sneak inside the listener’s heart and mind.”

Having stumbled into the field of organizational narrative many years ago, I jumped at the chance to review the book. Developing my own practice, I’ve learned from a string of intelligent, articulate practitioners. So I’m happy to report this new entry in the cannon lives up to expectations.

For one thing, it’s fun. That’s high praise. A book that doesn’t capture my interest quickly joins the pile of books I sample and pass on. This one kept me reading to the last page. I laughed, shuddered, and nodded my head as Guber spun tales of Michael Jackson’s mouse-devouring snake, Michael Milken’s “Keep dad in the game” campaign, and the New Guinean tribesmen’s plan to protect their tourists from the 9/11 terrorists.

Anyone with Peter Guber’s breadth of life experience has fascinating stories to tell, but not everyone knows how to relay them. Guber does. If the book were only a collection of his memories, it would win a place on my shelf. But Tell to Win is more than that because the author has stopped to analyze why the stories he tells, and the best he hears, are so powerfully effective.

He did not just rely on his own considerable powers of observation. He questioned people whose training and experience he could trust, people like Robert Rosen, Dan Siegel, Steven Denning, and many more. He hosted conversations at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, where he is a full professor. And then he reflected, synthesized, and wrote.

Tell to WinThe result of this thorough examination will lead even the most tentative storyteller to become more adept at engaging an audience. Tell to Win starts with the “why” and leads readers through the “how”, illustrating every point and every technique with compelling stories—the kind of purposeful stories Guber believes are game changers.

These stories are game changers because they have a purpose. They are not just entertaining stories, though that is a pre-requisite. They are stories that climb into the hearts and minds of listeners, planting a seed that can grow into action.

When asked if people who aren’t natural storytellers can learn the skill, Guber replied: “Every single person who has watched television, gone to a movie, read a book, listened to a speech, read a newspaper, talked to their family is a story listener. You just turn it on its head and recognize that the same tools for listening done the other way are for telling.”

Tell to Win demonstrates this premise from the first story to the last. Along the way Guber reveals what goes into a good story, how to tell it compellingly, how to connect with an audience, and how to motivate action. Whatever sector you work in, the book will help you learn how to do what the subtitle promises: “Connect, persuade, and triumph with the hidden power of story.”

Peter Guber, Chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment Group, has been a force in the entertainment industry for over thirty years. He has told memorable stories in the films he personally produced or executive produced, including Rain Man, Batman, The Color Purple, Gorillas In The Mist, and Flashdance which have resonated with audiences all over the world, earning over three billion dollars worldwide and garnering more than 50 Academy Award nominations. Guber oversees one of the largest combinations of professional baseball teams and venues nationwide and is the owner and co-executive chairman of the Golden State Warriors.

Peter Guber and Dalai Lama

Share
Tags , , , , , , ,
Categories Business narrative, Organizational storytelling, The art of storytelling, The importance of storytelling

Don’t whisper your story, shout it

February 9, 2011 //
3

No way I could resist checking out a company that calls itself Storytellers for Good. I first learned about them through a short video that had me crying from the start. The story of the founding of Mama Hope caught me from the first shots of Kenyan women and children, dancing and singing, but I was hopelessly engrossed when a young sponsored student began talking about the woman who gave him hope.

A link from there led to the stories4good YouTube channel. Curious about the video makers, I followed a link to Storytellers for Good. Their slogan rolls easily off the tongue: “Promoting goodness…inspiring greatness”.

In the best spirit of “show, don’t tell”, they promote their work—which is helping organizations tell their stories—by highlighting the stories they have created for clients. Links to their videos are the first thing that appears when you click on their home page.

Those wanting to dig behind the videos, to understand the company and how they approach clients’ stories can click on the News/Blog link.

This is a site that will inspire anyone wanting to tell a better story of a project or initiative, but it’s also a full-meal deal for anyone with an open heart and a love of a good story.

Share
Tags , , , ,
Categories Organizational storytelling, The importance of storytelling

Rehabilitating the rat’s reputation

December 8, 2010 //
5

My friend was adamant. “There are no rats in my neighborhood!”

I’d stopped by for a visit to a lovely home in a decidedly upper-middle-class area of Seattle. On my way up to the door, I spied a big, grey rat scurrying among the garden plants. Since rats are ubiquitous, I didn’t find anything unusual about it.

The friend I was visiting was offended when I mentioned the rat. Not her fault really. Rats have a bad reputation. When we think of rats in western cultures, we think of stories such as

  • rats spreading plague in the dark days of the Black Plague
  • the Pied Piper ridding Hamelin of rats by piping an enchanting tune
  • scenes in horror films where hundreds of rats attack a bound victim
  • rats stowing on board ships
  • expressions such as “rat-faced”, “I smell a rat”, “rat on someone”, “dirty rat”

Rats are intelligent, social creatures. They don’t deserve their bad reputation. They need a new story that will rehabilitate their image. Maybe something that will make labs think twice about inflicting pain. A story that will bring respect to these much-maligned rodents.

And here it is. Bart Weetjens admires rats. He knows there are some things they do better than humans, like recognize odors. So he trained them and put them to work sniffing out land mines and tuberculosis. Turns out they trump humans and our machines many times over on both those tasks. And they ask little in return.

This TED video is twelve minutes long. Watch this, and you’ll have a new story about rats, a story that will make you look at them with respect.

This is important because so many of the stereotypes and misconceptions that divide us as people, that rip apart organizations and shatter families and plunge us into wars, are really a function of unhealthy, inaccurate, or incomplete stories. I’m not saying that telling a new story about rats would convince the fleas who feed on them not to spread diseases from rats to humans. I’m not naive enough to claim that if we all knew the stories of Osama bin Laden, Margaret Thatcher, Gandhi, and our next door neighbour, we’d usher in peace on earth.

But I do believe we’d be more careful with each other, our fellow creatures, and our planet if we acknowledged that our stories are always like the ones the blind men told about the elephant—predicated on our partial knowledge of any topic we broach.

Share
Tags , , , , , ,
Categories Meaning of stories, Organizational storytelling, Personal narratives, Social myths, The importance of storytelling

Reinventing our leadership stories

November 3, 2010 //
0

Events in the U.S. and Canada are making me think about the upcoming Reinvention Summit Michael Margolis is masterminding. From November 11 to 22 over thirty storytelling visionaries will be gathering around the electronic fire, to share their insights and spark discussion.

The summit seems particularly timely to me since two major streams of reinvention stories have been kicked off in the last twenty-four hours. How these stories are crafted and played out will have significant impact in the coming months.

Before I went to bed on November 2nd, the U.S. Democrats and President Obama were already starting to create a new story. Having retained control of the Senate but lost the House, they were beginning to shape a story that could move beyond the heady optimism of the 2008 election without losing sight of the promised changes that swept them into office.

The Tea Party was already spinning stories that made their relatively poor showing sound like a major coup. And, of course, the Republicans were crowing about their takeover of the House and conveniently ignoring the Tea Party dissidents as they carved out a story about how they were going to put the brakes on every forward-thinking program that has managed to get past their heel-dragging in the past two years.

In Canada November 3rd started with another reinvention story in the making. The Premier of British Columbia, Gordon Campbell, suddenly announced he was resigning. He’s now in his third term, with an approval rating that has sunk to 9%. He dropped hints in his speech about how he’s going to edit the story of his years in the top spot in our province.

What was particularly interesting to me was listening to both his supporters and his opposition. The stories from his supporters were predictably laudatory but showed carefully crafted and shared briefing notes. By the third or fourth supporter, I knew almost word for word what they were going to say, thanks to the story editors in the Liberal Party inner sanctum.

Believe Me

Download this storytelling manifesto to learn more about 15 storytelling axioms

On the other hand, some of his opponents, taken by surprise at the Premier’s resignation, were telling stories that were polar opposites of the ones they’d been telling during the years of Campbell’s tight control and the months of anti-HST campaigning. (For those not in BC or Canada, we’ve recently been slapped with a Harmonized Sales Tax of 12%. Depending on which stories you believe, it’s either a heinous attack on our pocketbooks or a smart approach that will bring business to the province.) I was relieved when one opponent refused to gloss over the gutting of the civil service or the privatization of so many things that were delivered into corporate hands.

In both the U.S. and Canada, there’ll be a lot of story rewrites in the coming weeks. So this is a particularly good time to jump into the Reinvention Summit and engage in some vigorous discussion about the role of stories, why they are so powerful, and what it all means for us, as story-making creatures.

Registration starts as low as $11.11. You can tune in during the scheduled times or download the broadcasts for later listening. With so many thoughtful speakers lined up, the summit will have no trouble supporting the statement, “If you want to change the world, change your story.”

Share
Tags , , , , ,
Categories Organizational storytelling, The importance of storytelling

Video conversations tap storytelling techniques

August 28, 2010 //
2

Friends of the Earth have created a very powerful short plea for the “men in suits” to act on what they already know to avert disaster due to climate change. Using a child as narrator and some clever visual storytelling, the video is a graphic summary of the problem and the need for urgency.

I found this through a new Twitter friend, Nick Kellet. He’s CMO and Product Strategist for HuStream, a company that “mixes human psychology video wizardry and web-based technology to redefine viewer engagement.” Browsing around their site gave me all kinds of ideas for using storytelling for promoting, informing and inspiring.

One very exciting example is a “video conversation” that features children from a school that raised $16,000 for a project called “Free the Children“. A second example is a promo video for Isagenix’s Beyond Courage personal development retreat.

There are lots more good examples on the Friends of the Earth YouTube Channel and on HuStream. Have to say I’m proud to know the latter is a company right here in my own home town of Kelowna, British Columbia.

Share
Tags , , , , ,
Categories Business narrative, Health, Organizational storytelling, Storytelling in schools

Writing a new story

June 7, 2010 //
6

Greg Morris is another of the story practitioners whose work I follow. So it isn’t just because he posted an excerpt from Soaring on the wings of a story that I’m writing about him here. (Anyway, that post was on another of my blogs, Catching Courage.)

The reason I want to make sure you visit Greg’s site, What’s Your Story?, is that he regularly publishes brief excerpts from an astonishing array of storytelling resources. For example, the June 7, 2010, posting links to articles on “Why Story Trumps Craft”, why those who decry the end of storytelling are misguided, the phenomenon of creative nonfiction, and a lot more.

Office tools

What's Your Story finds stories everywhere (Office Tools photo courtesy of Photos8.com)

In addition to the regular storytelling updates, Greg offers listings of some excellent resources. Those wanting to learn how storytelling can benefit their businesses and their lives can sign up for consulting sessions or workshops and classes.

The ranks of story practitioners have expanded since the days when I reinvented myself as one. I didn’t even know there was a name for it back then. All I knew was that I was a performing storyteller living too far from audiences, with livestock and a farm to look after—and the accompanying bills to pay.

Annette Simmons was the first bonafide story practitioner whose work I discovered. Now there are a lot more, and we all benefit from the high quality work so many of them do.

Share
Tags ,
Categories Organizational storytelling

The storytelling labyrinth

May 17, 2010 //
0

Regular readers of Story Route and those of you who are Facebook friends will likely recognize A Storied Career. It’s Kathy Hansen’s “Blog to explore traditional and postmodern forms/uses of storytelling”. Even in the middle of a cross-country move, Kathy continues to post provocative and fascinating entries on a dizzyingly wide array of storytelling topics.

So when she asked if I would participate in her Q&A series, I was honored. She sent a list of questions to choose from, all of them well crafted and designed to set my mind racing.

I’ve excerpted a few excerpts below. The whole Q&A is available on A Storied Career. While you’re there download the e-book she created with her first forty online interviews: Storied Careers: 40+ Story Practitioners Talk about Applied Storytelling

Here are the excerpts:

Can you elaborate on how you applied your experience as a performance storyteller to your new career [as a community developer]?

The realization was not instantaneous. For the first while, I had the usual worries: Someone would find out I was actually a storyteller masquerading as a community developer. Then it would be game up.

What happened instead was that I began to insert stories into presentations and to use storytelling techniques to prepare reports. It wasn’t long before I was seen as a storytelling community developer. Or was it a community organizing storyteller?

How did you initially become involved with story/storytelling/narrative?

Storytelling became the underpinning of everything I did. When I look back on the unexpected twists and turns of my professional life, I feel extraordinarily lucky. Storytelling allowed me to be happily employed, doing what I loved. Initially, I thought that meant performing and workshops. When that morphed into the world of community development, I realized I’d found my niche and have been happy in that ever since.

To what extent and in what ways do you feel these venues [Web 2.0 and social media] are storytelling media?

The various social media are a means of entering the world of story from different points. We can assume an avatar and jump into Second Life. We can try out a new story and test it on Twitter or Facebook. We can blog a different perspective and see who responds, and how. We can invent our professional persona on LinkedIn.

To me, it’s all part of the larger arena of storytelling. If we don’t fall into the trap of becoming an observer, if we actually engage and become creative contributors, we can experiment with creating new stories.

What’s your favorite story about a transformation that came about through a story or storytelling act?

Although I know many instances of transformation through a story or storytelling act, I keep coming back to two I had the honour of witnessing. Both were published in The Healing Heart~Communities and are on my Catching Courage blog.

As a transplant from the US, what similarities and differences do you observe in the storytelling environment between the two neighbor nations?

John Ralston Saul may have the answer in his extraordinary book, A Fair Country. He points out that one of the major differences between the US and Canada is the latter’s Métis roots (which he also says we ignore at our peril). Saul writes that the first European arrivals had an egalitarian relationship with the First Nations people who were already here, a relationship destroyed by latter settlers, who brought cultural genocide.

Read the whole interview on A Storied Career.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Share
Tags , , ,
Categories Healing power of stories, Health, Memoir, Organizational storytelling, The importance of storytelling
« Older Entries