Category Archives: Excellent stories
Filmmaker’s advice for great business storytelling
Filmmaker Peter Guber (Rainman, Batman, The Color Purple) once used storytelling to win Fidel Castro’s support for filming in Havana Harbor. The official application form had been torpedoed, but El Presidente enthusiastically endorsed the project once he heard Guber tell of the harbor’s historic significance and Castro’s responsibility to the world to share that piece of [...]
Also posted in Applied stories, storytelling theory | Tagged authenticity, Book reviews, career, communication, conversation, emotion, leadership, openness, organization, Organizational communication, rhetoric, storytellimg, storytelling, storytelling theory, storytelling tips | 1 Comment
How much time is left to civilization?
What was going through that Easter Islander’s mind when he cut down the last palm tree, sealing his people’s doom? Was the last Viking to die in Greenland a wealthy man or a peasant who stormed his farm to butcher his last cow? Jared Diamond excels at putting human flesh on the archaeological bones left [...]
Also posted in Book reviews, Opinion | Tagged Book reviews, books, culture, Opinion, storytelling | 1 Comment
A five-man team in a six-man league
Driving to work Friday morning, I was pulled into a story that unfolded on Colorado Public Radio. Five Arickaree High School boys talked about the decision they had to make when the school’s tiny student body did not yield enough boys to field a six-man football team. They decided to stick together and play with [...]
Posted in Excellent stories | Tagged culture, npr, storytellimg, storytelling, storytelling theory, storytelling tips, teams | Leave a comment
Why the flame is eternal
The Chicago Tribune’s John Kass writes that with the death of Teddy Kennedy, perhaps we can now put the Kennedy / Camelot myth to rest. Sorry, Mr. Kass. Myths don’t work that way. Did Jacqueline Kennedy and a fawning press create the myth? Kass makes a pretty good case for that. But no matter how [...]
Also posted in Opinion, storytelling theory | Tagged communication, leadership, myth, storytelling, storytelling theory | Leave a comment
A story for parents whose chicks are leaving the nest
Frank Sanchez saw that there were many parents among the auditorium full of entering college freshmen. As the convocation for new students drew to a close, Frank, my university’s associate vice chancellor of student life, shared this story: The eagle gently coaxed her offspring toward the edge of the nest. Her heart quivered with conflicting [...]
Also posted in Applied stories | Tagged authenticity, emotion, openness, storytelling, storytelling tips | Leave a comment
Story of the week: Memorial service for a “baby killer”
Maybe sticks, stones and names can hurt you. Denver Post columnist Mike Littwin went to a memorial service for murdered abortion doctor George Tiller last week and came back wondering whether poison words lowered the barriers to violence. Might the value of Tiller’s life eroded in the eyes of anti-abortion activists who tagged him “Tiller the baby [...]
Also posted in Opinion, story of the week | Tagged abortion, Bill O'Reilly, conversation, dialogue, George Tiller, James Dobson, Jim Daly, language, Mike Littwin, President Obama, rhetoric, Warren Hern | Leave a comment
Story of the week: ‘You, your patient, and their story’
“Let me tell you the story of the frantic father and his 2-year-old daughter who was gasping for breath in the middle of the night. The father feared the worst as he rushed with his daughter to The Children’s emergency room.” It was easy to see why Jonathan Browser was chosen by the 39 graduates [...]
Also posted in Applied stories, story of the week | Tagged emotion, health care, story of the week, storytellimg | 1 Comment
Story of the week: Optimistic college grads
The jobless numbers are bad, as the TV anchor team reminded us in their lead-in. But even so, students who got their sheepskin Saturday at University of Colorado Denver were upbeat. How could they not be? The heavy cloud cover broke up precisely at 9 a.m., just as Pomp and Circumstances began to play. In [...]
Also posted in media, story of the week, Your career | Tagged career, media, story of the week | Leave a comment
Story of the week: Mystery makes the newspaper
As the man’s eyes wandered across the red-rock country of southeastern Utah, he first saw a weather-beaten saddle jammed in a canyon wall crevice and then, behind it, bleached bones sticking out from the earth — the keys to unlocking one of the West’s enduring mysteries. Thus began an excellent tale spun by Kevin Vaughan [...]
Posted in Excellent stories | Tagged media, mystery, newspapers, story of the week, writing | Leave a comment
Story of the week: How to defeat willpower