Tag Archives: storytelling
Story of the week: How to defeat willpower
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, Visual storytelling, media, story of the week | Also tagged culture, npr, research, storytellimg, storytelling tips, writing | Leave a comment
Three narratives told on Yoga Day
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, culture, emotion, my stories, mystery, myth, openness, storytelling theory, yoga | Leave a comment
A book for resolve: Change or Die
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, culture, emotion, health care, leadership, openness, organization, Organizational communication, public opinion, rhetoric, storytelling tips, teams, writing | Leave a comment
Poet brings vision statement to life
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, Visual storytelling, storytelling theory | Also tagged authenticity, career, communication, culture, emotion, health care, leadership, openness, organization, Organizational communication, PR, rhetoric, storytelling theory, storytelling tips, teams, video, visual | Leave a comment
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 [...]
Video storytelling is a whole different game
I’ve been working for a couple of years on my video technical skills. In the past few months, I’ve concentrated more on the storytelling part. I have a long way to go, as my Vimeo portfolio will attest. Kai gives Granny a knitting lesson from Steve Krizman on Vimeo. What I’ve learned so far: Video [...]
Posted in Visual storytelling, storytelling theory | Also tagged my stories, storytelling tips, video, visual | Leave a comment
Stories trump facts: The mammography lesson
The facts are clear: You have to give 1,900 women mammograms before you save one life. Along the way are hundreds of false positives, needless worry and unnecessary procedures. The stories are more compelling: We all know someone whose breast cancer was caught early. That one life is real to us. The hundreds of false-positives [...]
Posted in Applied stories, storytelling theory | Also tagged communication, health care, Organizational communication, public opinion, rhetoric, storytelling theory | Leave a 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 [...]
Posted in Book reviews, Excellent stories, Opinion | Also tagged Book reviews, books, culture, Opinion | 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 | Also tagged culture, npr, storytellimg, storytelling theory, storytelling tips, teams | Leave a comment
Somebody walking over my grave?