Tag Archives: culture

Social networks: From campfires to Facebook

By Steve | Published: September 11, 2011

It’s alchemy: A group of people is greater than the sum of its parts. A hunting party keeps the tribe fed. A bucket brigade douses the barn fire. Thirteen colonies become mightier when they unite. An assembly line mass produces autos. A tech firm creates dazzling innovation. A Twitter community brings a despot down. What’s [...]

Posted in Book reviews, Health movement, Life | Also tagged Book reviews, books, change, communication, diversity, health care, marketing, organization, Organizational communication, PR, racism, research, social media, social networks, transparency | Leave a comment

Imagine all the people: Living life in health

By Steve | Published: October 16, 2010

Four conferences over two weeks … there’s so much swirling in my head that I could write a post for each of eight different topics. But tonight I landed on a central theme after watching the video of Regina Holliday describe the painting she created during the Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco. She captures [...]

Posted in Health movement, Marketing and PR, Visual storytelling | Also tagged change, communication, health care, marketing, PR, public opinion, research, storytellimg, video, visual | Leave a comment

How I suffered an actual storytelling injury

By Steve | Published: September 30, 2010

When my siblings and cousins get together we tell stories about those idyllic days 40 years ago when we frolicked and dodged death and dismemberment at The Cabin. Even our in-laws tell the stories — and they weren’t even there. The Cabin was a tiny A-frame that sheltered six adults and 10 kids at a [...]

Posted in Visual storytelling, What I figured out | Also tagged conversation, family, my stories, parenting, personal brand, storytellimg, teepee, visual | 1 Comment

Family teepee project: Too many chiefs; not enough Indians

By Steve | Published: July 11, 2010

I love my family, for all its weirdness. My aunt plans to live in a teepee in the badlands on the Colorado-Utah border, so of course the family got together to build it. We didn’t know what we were doing, but we had an instruction book and lots of opinions. The canvas fit the tangle [...]

Posted in Visual storytelling | Also tagged family, Indian, my stories, personal brand, storytellimg, teepee, video, visual | Leave a comment

Story of the week: How to defeat willpower

By Steve | Published: January 28, 2010

WNYC’s Radiolab created the most intriguing audio science story I’ve ever heard. Aired this week on NPR’s Morning Edition, two narrators play off each other to lure you through the back story that sets up the report on an astonishing experiment. A marketing professor had a set of subjects memorize a 2-digit number and another [...]

Posted in Excellent stories, media, story of the week, Visual storytelling | Also tagged npr, research, storytellimg, storytelling, storytelling tips, writing | Leave a comment

Three narratives told on Yoga Day

By Steve | Published: January 23, 2010

The Magician’s story In town only four days, she serendipitously had met the hostess of the Yoga Day USA open house just hours before. Now she stood in the suburban basement, surrounded by strangers sitting cross-legged on mats, and talked about her lineage. She is a descendant of ancient Jewish high priests and of Dakota [...]

Posted in Applied stories, storytelling theory | Also tagged change, conversation, emotion, my stories, mystery, myth, openness, storytelling, storytelling theory, yoga | Leave a comment

A book for resolve: Change or Die

By Steve | Published: January 1, 2010

Change or Die by Alan Deutschman was referred to me by a physician who is using its ideas to help her patients make life changes (thanks, Deb). It was an ideal read to usher in a new year, a new decade and a new phase in my career. Many of the change ideas were familiar to [...]

Posted in Book reviews, Leadership, Life, Organizational communication, Organizational culture | Also tagged Book reviews, books, career, change, communication, conversation, emotion, health care, leadership, openness, organization, Organizational communication, public opinion, rhetoric, storytelling, storytelling tips, teams, writing | Leave a comment

Poet brings vision statement to life

By Steve | Published: December 23, 2009

Tears of pride welled up yesterday as I watched a corporate video. A corporate video! Diane Gage-Lofgren, our national VP of communications and PR, had asked a poet/performance artist to bring life to our communication team’s new vision statement. A stroke of genius. I will forever have a visual and resonant image to add soul [...]

Posted in Applied stories, storytelling theory, Visual storytelling | Also tagged authenticity, career, communication, emotion, health care, leadership, openness, organization, Organizational communication, PR, rhetoric, storytelling, storytelling theory, storytelling tips, teams, video, visual | Leave a comment

How much time is left to civilization?

By Steve | Published: October 16, 2009

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 [...]

Posted in Book reviews, Excellent stories, Opinion | Also tagged Book reviews, books, Opinion, storytelling | 1 Comment

My responsibility as a white guy

By Steve | Published: October 14, 2009

A sharp Metro State College student asked me about my earlier post on racism during my guest lecture yesterday. He seemed to get the gist of my story, but I could tell he was confused. I think I was too cute in that post, and I liked my answer I gave him better: As a [...]

Posted in Opinion | Also tagged communication, dialogue, diversity, emotion, language, my stories, openness, President Obama, racism, racist | Leave a comment