NOW HEAR THIS NOW HEAR THIS is a night of people coming together to hear and tell stories. Your story can be funny, moving or silly, all in a few spellbinding minutes. Images: Highlights from 2012 Now Hear This by Adam Thomas and Felix Barbalet. Dates and Locations * A 'slam' event is where all storytellers are chosen at random and have five minutes to tell their story to the theme. 5 Storytelling TipsThe NOW HEAR THIS storytelling slam features 8 storytellers, sharing true stories inspired by the night's theme -- without notes and in front of a live audience! Stories should go for no longer than 5 minutes. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Marshall Ganz: Why Stories Matter | Friends of Justice Marshall Ganz is a lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He played an instrumental, and largely anonymous, role in shaping Barack Obama’s recent campaign. Most importantly, Dr. Ganz has served as mentor to my daughter (and Friends of Justice board member) Lydia Bean. This understanding of story has helped Friends of Justice understand the power of our narrative strategy. I don’t have to tell you anything more because Marshall Ganz begins with his own story. by Marshall Ganz I grew up in Bakersfield, California, where my father was a rabbi and my mother was a teacher. I got my real education, however, when I left Harvard to work in the civil rights movement in Mississippi. I also was raised on years of Passover Seders. I went to Mississippi because it was a movement of young people, and there’s something very particular about young people, not just that they have time. How do organizers master urgency to break through inertia? Hope is not only audacious, it is substantial.
What Storytellers Can Teach You About How to Learn Faster Storytelling is a demanding craft. Not only do you have to be able to write or perform the story accurately, you need to create vivid descriptions. Boring, complex or difficult to understand metaphors can turn an imaginative journey into a lifeless plot. You may not think of it deliberately, but learning is very similar to storytelling. Metaphors and Holistic Learning Awhile back I mentioned about how I use holistic learning to get good grades with little studying. Holistic learning is based on the principle that learning works as a whole and not through rote memorization. The storyteller’s art of metaphor is crucial in holistic learning. How to Create Good Metaphors After writing extensively about holistic learning and metaphors previously, I’ve received comments from people asking how they can find metaphors for math, physics, biology, philosophy or some other subject. Storytellers understand that there is no perfect metaphor. Isolate a Characteristic. Taking Metaphors Further
Ethical practice | Transformative storytelling for social change The highest standards of ethics are necessary for research and practice with creative storytelling methods. Ongoing examination of ethical processes should occur throughout the process. Informed consent As an ethical practitioner it is very important that you take this issue extremely seriously. Storytellers must have the ability to make informed choices about workshop participation and the content, production, and use of their work. It’s recommended that you give participants the consent form to consider at the beginning of the workshop, and then collect them on the last day of the workshop. Download DST release form: Example consent form for sharing digital stories Sharing the stories In terms of ethical practice it is critical that the storytellers have ownership of the stories that they produce. It is important that participants honestly, fully understand what the consequences of, for example, putting their story online might be. Mitigation of Harm Right of Withdrawal Links:
Ty Montague on what ‘storydoing’ means for PR Aarti Shah For a few weeks now, consultant and author Ty Montague’s post “Good Companies Are Storytellers. Great Companies Are Storydoers,” has sparked considerable interest on the HBR Blog Network. Montague makes a compelling assertion that storytelling is a powerful business tool and has data that backs this up. The piece breaks down six criteria for identifying a storydoing company: They have a storyThe story is about a larger ambition to make the world or people’s lives betterThe story is understood and cared about by senior leadership outside of marketingThat story is being used to drive tangible action throughout the company: product development, HR policies, compensation, etc.These actions add back up to a cohesive wholeCustomers and partners are motivated to engage with the story and are actively using it to advance their own stories When reading these, it occurred to me that a huge lot of companies (and agencies) would claim to adhere to these six tenets.
Robert McKee on the power of story As children we were naturally good at telling stories about events or topics that mattered and learning from others via their stories, but as we became older we were taught that serious people relied only on presenting information and "the facts." Accurate information, sound logic, and the facts are necessary, of course, but truly effective leaders in any field — including technical ones — know how to tell "the story" of their particular research endeavor, technological quest, or marketing plan, etc. There are a few people talking about the importance of storytelling these days (see this post from last year: Ira Glass: Tips on storytelling), and if you look to non-traditional sources there is much to be learned. Famed screen writer Robert McKee's book (Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting) is one I have recommended before—highly recommend it. Below, I summarize McKee's points by touching on just a few of the questions discussed in the interview.
Kurt Vonnegut on the Shapes of Stories and Good News vs. Bad News “The truth is, we know so little about life, we don’t really know what the good news is and what the bad news is.” This season has been ripe with Kurt Vonnegut releases, from the highly anticipated collection of his letters to his first and last works introduced by his daughter, shedding new light on the beloved author both as a complex character and a masterful storyteller. All the recent excitement reminded me of an old favorite, in which Vonnegut maps out the shapes of stories, with equal parts irreverence and perceptive insight, along the “G-I axis” of Good Fortune and Ill Fortune and the “B-E axis” of Beginning and Entropy. The below footage is an excerpt from a longer talk, the transcript of which was published in its entirety in Vonnegut’s almost-memoir A Man Without a Country (public library) under a section titled “Here is a lesson in creative writing,” featuring Vonnegut’s hand-drawn diagrams. Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter.
Lessons from the Future of StoryTelling summit Who says a conference, like a university course, can't be flipped? At the Future of StoryTelling event last month in New York, delegates were given homework to complete before they had even arrived at the venue -- and instead of standard keynotes or panels, they sat in groups to discuss their studies. Admittedly, the "homework" consisted of the not-too-unpleasant task of watching 15 entertaining short films, around eight to ten minutes long, that were sent out in the weeks and days before the event. Of the 15 videos, each offering a personal perspective on where storytelling is moving, we had to choose our favourite six. It was a fresh approach that put the pressure on delegates themselves to think through their position and engage in the discussions. They're certainly an accomplished group of organisers. It was a long day, which began with breakfast even before an 8.15am ferry from Battery Park to Snug Harbor on Staten Island. There were some conventional stage talks and performances.