Thank you for your support. Researching posts to provide context for caring readers is one of the joys of this process. I’m delighted you find value in the resources.

Steve

It’s heartening that professionals in all walks are beginning to rely on storytelling to communicate with audiences. To some extent, we can thank TED talks for popularizing storytelling in business settings. So, here’s to fewer banal Powerpoint preso’s and more gripping stories from the heart…

Steve

~ Deb

Storytelling is a form that makes people feel they aren’t in control so much. That’s why the business world is so latre in adopting it. Control is the issue, if you think about it. Thought provoking post.

-Kris

Susan, great points. My theory about why its taking the business community so long to embrace storytelling is because the predominant paradigm is deeply-rooted. Those of us who came up through traditional business channels were trained to present information in a rigidly linear (premise/facts–>conclusion) fashion. My writing suffers from this and I, too, need to inject more narrative into my reports.

Jan, I’m intrigued about Mr. McKee’s story seminar (http://www.mckeestory.com/). Sounds interesting. Your questions are spot on, “What’s the story here? What’s the story we want to be able to tell? How can we create that situation best?” How about, “Why are we doing this?”

And, Don Hewitt is fascinating. The 60 Minutes Special discussed fights with various CBS bosses who wanted to reign him in over the years. He outlasted them. Fortunately, his tenacity was as powerful as his vision.

Mikado, I think our business cultures have much to learn from each other. I work in other regions — though not Japan — and it seems storytelling is universal. But business cultures around the world tend to be very institutional and traditional in their own unique ways. This is indeed a rich area for all of us to explore.

My story on storytelling is this:

- I was a journalism major as an undergrad. The skills of figuring out “What’s the story here?” and “What are we trying to create, and how do we get there?” – and viewing that as unfolding story – has been very helpful in my career in business in many ways.

- I love great movies. And so, when I read a few years ago that someone found Robert McKee’s “Story” seminar for screenwriters valuable for writing start-up business plans, I paid extra attention. Intrigued, I read McKee’s book and then attended the seminar a few years later. It has been helpful in my consulting work with clients in more ways than I can enumerate here.

- I look at a lot of things in business, whether business planning, new product creation, teambuilding, or process improvement through a storytelling lens. The essence of it is, “What’s the story here? What’s the story we want to be able to tell? How can we create that situation best?”

Thanks for a great tribute to Don Hewitt and what he created with “60 Minutes.” Thanks, as well, for bringing attention to the value of storytelling in many aspects of life and business.

The point he drove home over and over was that you had to consider the reader/listener first. Today I would replace the word “consider” with “engage”. And I don’t think there is a better way to engage a reader (or listener) than with story. I am not a born storyteller so I find that challenging but always worth it.

Why do you think so many people in business today continue to lack appreciation for story telling?

I’d love to see more business and other professional writers take you on this. In my field (Law), it’s dismal. Lawyers ought to take a page from your playbook. Here’s to more storytelling in our worlds…

Diedre