Welcome to my curation of the latest thought leadership on organizational storytelling, business narrative, career/job-search storytelling, and other forms of applied storytelling. I curate content worthy of notice that may get further attention in my blog, A Storied Career (http://astoriedcareer.com). All new content here is current -- published within the last month. The Story Exchange is a global video project empowering women to start their own businesses. We know the importance of role models and that’s what The Story Exchange is all about: it’s women inspiring women. By telling the stories of successful entrepreneurs from all walks of life and sectors we encourage others to gain economic freedom, create the lifestyle of their choosing, and uncover their full potential. 
When producing corporate videos there is a lot we can learn from the film and documentary traditions. Think of your corporate video as a short film and imagine that the message you are trying to get across is a story you are trying to tell. (More and more we seeing television adverts that are more like short blockbuster movies). An understanding of storytelling and its link to emotions could help you produce corporate videos that provoke the responses you want from your audience. 
... when it comes to telling the story of game-changing innovation, the “problem/solution” model is broken. 
So how does a media property find that one unique angle on Facebook’s IPO day when thousands of journalists are essentially writing from the same script? By digging out storytelling standards like greed, cheating, sex and sticking it to the Man. 
The team at Story Worldwide has developed a very useful and scientific approach to categorizing and developing brand stories. It’s called the Storytelling Matrix ... 
What’s your story? Finding and telling an organization’s most compelling stories is always my first step in the consulting process. 
I’ve written many times in this space about using story to communicate persuasively to employers to get jobs. But the inner stories we tell ourselves also color the job search. 
As a business trying to sell something or as a marketer, a good story can be invaluable to you. Tell stories. Tell your story as a company, and don’t think you don’t have one. Everybody has a story. Whether it’s overnight success (unlikely) or years of struggle (more likely), you have done things or things have happened to you that don’t happen to everybody. And if you really don’t have any kind of story, make one. Paul Smith ... recently completed Lead with a Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives the Captivate, Convince, and Inspire. Smith is the director of consumer & communications research at The Procter & Gamble Company and a highly rated leadership and communications trainer for P&G's management training colleges. The book, which will be published in the U.S. in August by the American Management Association's AMACOM Books, is largely a collection of short stories to help and inspire business leaders and professionals to navigate some of the most common leadership challenges using the power of storytelling. It contains stories are from a wide variety of companies, countries, industries, and professions, including doctors, lawyers, engineers, marketers, fashion models, basketball players, CEOs, and secretaries. 
More and more career coaches and experts have joined the chorus touting the use of story in job-search communications. What’s more unusual is to hear from hiring decision-makers — employers, recruiters, and the like — who want to hear job-seeker stories. 
How do smart leaders turn their own and their associates’ negative thinking to positive? By communicating messages that set out the way forward and reaffirm the correctness of the direction set and the path traveled. And the really great leaders know that the very best way to connect with anyone, filling up that person’s mind-time with healthful memories to motivate them, is to tell stories–lots of them. 
In the story of this site, you learn about the product of the site, you try it, and like it, so subsequently buy it. After purchase you need support for any reason, a fault, or a query of some description. And then, at the very end, we can contact the company, for business queries, or as a customer. |
Isn’t storytelling an overhyped branding word? Actually, no. Storytelling can be a very important branding tool, if you know how to use it to your advantage. Storytelling is not an overhyped branding word, but a means of focusing your communication around a central theme and creating consistent brand messages. Furthermore, narrative has been argued to be a very natural occurrence in the human brain, as a natural way of making sense of the world and our experiences, and storing and understanding memories. Things are easier to understand in story form, which makes storytelling a useful tool to explain complicated business concepts/ideas, brand values, etc to your stakeholders. 
When I read Michael Margolis’s recommendation to “flip the script” on a certain kind of story, I wondered if that suggestion should apply to accomplishment stories told in the job search. Even before storytelling was recognized as a significant technique for job-search communication, the standard formula for job-search stories was (and remains) Problem (or Situation or Challenge) —> Action —> Result. 
Those who manage people professionally often come across these types of scenarios. Even though you can reach out to close friends and loved ones to talk about issues with the people you manage, none of these friends are truly savvy to the ins and outs of your real work situation, and sometimes the best thing to do is say exactly what you want to say on paper, rather than out loud. This is where creative writing can be a huge help for anyone dealing with people, especially from the top, down. 
At their very core, successful businesses are effective storytellers. The best marketing programs take us on an emotional journey appealing to our wants, needs and passions for something larger, deeper, more personal and connected. Grabbing your attention from the start, they pull us in and take us on an adventure with characters and situations you can believe in and associate with. These experiences contain elements of humor, drama, spectacle, action or mystery as catalysts to spark attention and interest. 
The Pentagram ‘The Forty Story’ is a look into the life of a young man who happened to be born on the day Pentagram opened. The video describes the adventures and life of this young boy as tracked by the designs of Pentagram. The company Pentagram, the world’s largest independent design consultancy, uses this video to celebrate its 40th anniversary in business. 
B2B companies who embrace social media to connect with prospects and customers need to understand storytelling as a means for communication. No one wants to hear about your products. They want to hear about solutions to their problems. One way to get there is by sharing compelling stories. Read more: http://socialmediab2b.com/2012/05/b2b-social-media-storytelling/#ixzz1vhw6JcjA 
If you aren’t sure how to start storytelling – especially in a way that will resonate with millennials and take advantage of digital platforms – just take a page out of Intel’s playbook. The company recently launched an employee zine (digital magazine) called IQ that publishes social content a la Flipboard. You can read all about it in Adage here. The zine features content that is liked and shared by Intel employees and displays it in a visually appealing way that simulates how people consumer social content. 
What storytelling misses are opinions and life experiences from the other seven hundred people whose story didn’t suit the cause. It doesn’t tell you about the interactions with other variables. It doesn’t tell you where there were no differences between people or slight differences between people. It doesn’t tell you about the exceptions or the unusual cases or the seven other stories that were just as important but not nearly as entertaining. A ten slide story presentation absolutely cannot describe research results in sufficient detail to make a quality research decision. My talk at PromaxBDA's Connect3.0 events in Australia and New Zealand. 
Golden Thread Stories offers storytelling workshops for individuals and storytelling services to organizations. For more information about Storytelling Workshops for individuals, click here. Organizational Stories provide organizations with customized stories about their projects for planning, promotional, or evaluation purposes. Digital storytelling workshops offer a powerful way to capture your organization’s story while providing your staff or clients with a unique opportunity to explore their own voices and build their community. We will work with you to create a custom workshop that fits your needs and strengths. If a workshop is not a good fit, we can also provide a facilitator who works with individuals from within the organization and/or their client base to gather words and images that describe their experiences or addresses key questions. This material is then edited into an audio-visual story about the project and feedback from the organization and/or participants helps shape the final product. Stories run 5 to 10 minutes in length. Organizations receive a completed digital story on DVD and any required accompanying printed material. 
In a complex, loud, and data-saturated world, our work increasingly focuses on the importance of narrative — and the necessity of discovering and communicating meaning across multiple channels. The new website is a celebration of seven progressively exciting years of providing high value throughout the world. 
All human beings and organizations tell themselves a story over and over about who they are, what they do, why they do it, what is possible for them. The story for human beings develops during childhood and is greatly influenced by the family, community and culture in which we grow up. The story for organizations develops out of the founders’ personalities, intentions, dreams and experiences when starting their company. By sharing stories ... your organization ... injects uniqueness into the volunteer experience before the actual volunteering even begins! The benefit is a lasting memory for both the existing and potential volunteer that is consistently signature to your organization and thus increases the likelihood of long term loyalty and advocacy. |
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Thanks, Jim. Scoop.it provides a number of suggestions, but I do find some of the stuff on my own.
Karen, you are a master curator! I read your page everyday wondering how does she do it and where does she find all these articles. Plus, you add some terrific comments. Don't stop!!!!