Just Story It

As they draft a new Comprehensive General Plan, East Palo Alto officials are collecting oral histories of residents — a process praised as a novel approach to…

What we discovered was that neither the Yale nor the Harvard study actually exists. There is no evidence that the studies took place and no papers were ever published. Yet the "goal-setting to-money" study is a particularly imperishable business myth that has circulated for several decades. It persists despite sound debunking efforts on the part of entities such as Fast Company, which conducted an in-depth investigation of the myth in 1996.

Here's an interesting piece about phantom research, business mythology, and evaluating the research stories we hear.

It's a good and interesting read -- not so much about being skeptical, but questioning and thinking carefully about research that is presented to us, particularly when it is imbedded within a story.

No question -- it's a tricky dance. The best way to convey data is through a story -- doing so builds trust credibility, believability, and emotional connection. The easiest way to manipulate and skew research is through the stories you tell about it. 

What to do? Obviously for the teller it is to represent the research accurately.  In presentations when I talk about story research, I always offer the original research up for review for any listener who wants it.

For the listener, it's to check the research you hear about. Don't accept it unquestioningly. Ask for the original document.

Now go read the article to discover what popular biz myth was busted!

This study investigates the use of narrative in organizations by (1) examining current organizational storytelling practices in a variety of industries and (2) identifying key features that characterize stories with powerful impact. Sixty survey respondents reported narrative is used by leaders to transfer knowledge, shape culture, and motivate or curtail employee behavior, as well as by employees to manage stress. Interviews with eight experts on narrative revealed, perhaps surprisingly, that skimping on details is what makes stories powerful.

Consider this post more a long-read but rich with great material. I love the bar charts about the findings, and the articulation of exactly what makes stories 'stick.'

The insights are all replicatable for your business.

Yes, this article is in academic-speak. But don't let that stop you. It's solid research that we can all use to help us get smarter about biz storytelling, and/or to storify to share with clients.

Good job!

Using digital technology to tell stories can help charities with impact assessment, says Kieron Kirkland...

Using stories to evaluate results? Quantitatively??!! You bet!!

Here is a fabulous article after my quantitative heart.

The author Kieron Kirkland talks about how the organization, Nominet Trust, worked with the org story company Cognitive Edge to capture stories and then have the story authors rank what their stories are about on a scale.

Once the story was captured, there were several types of scales the storytellers ranked their stories on -- generating big data!

See -- storytelling and evaluation can be done effectively if constructed properly.

This article goes hand-in-hand with newer qualitative evaluation processes for arts-based techniques (like storytelling) talked about in one of my favorite books, Method Meets Art; Arts-Based Research Practice by Patricia Leavy (2009).

If you struggle to connect stories about your projects to quantifiable results, then run to read this article. 

Having helped organizations articulate measures so they can see progress, the first critical area to tackle are which measures are going to be used that are the most meaningful, given the project's objectives. 

This article will give you several ideas for how to get started.

Enjoy!

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it 

I have finally added a list of my favorite biz story books to my website that you can now access and explore yourself. There are 26 all total!

These books are the best I've found that will help you build practical storytelling skills, and make us all smarter about business narratives. I've added little reviews for each book explaining why I like it.

The books include everything from conducting narrative research within organizations, how leaders can use storytelling, stories in marketing/branding, how to use stories for change and transformation, and using stories for break-through communication.

The books include many business examples, processes, and how-to steps. I hope they prove useful for you. Enjoy!

PS -- and let me know if you have recommendations!