I cruised back through my 2009 posts, flagging my personal favorites.

Here’s half the list:

1) AIG Jumps Into Fray with Its Side of the Story

This was my first time getting in touch with my inner smart-ass self:

The power of empathy championed by Oprah and her ilk is not lost on Mr. Liddy. His op-ed kicks off:

The government rescue of American International Group (AIG) and other financial firms has produced a palpable wave of anger on the part of Americans and a rising public demand for accountability from corporate and government leaders. The anger is understandable, and I share it.

Is he saying that he shares our anger or he shares an understanding that we’re angry? I’m not sure. Still, right move to jump on the anger bandwagon.

2) Conversing Like A Real Human Being

One of my soapboxes and the following perspective from Dick Costello (now COO at Twitter) absolutely nails the issue:

People like it when companies have personalities. It makes us feel like there are actual people on the other side of the communication. It’s fun to be the customer of a company with a personality. This seems totally obvious, and yet you too rarely see companies with distinct personalities really grab your attention in the marketplace. Why is this? It’s actually hard to remove personality and character from communications. So, instead of saying that companies don’t take the time to have personalities, it’s probably more accurate to state that companies don’t allow themselves to show their personalities.

3) Making Sure The Cobbler’s Kids Don’t Go Without Shoes

By applying the same storytelling principles to our own brand-building, we’ve enjoyed attention from a range of media properties, including an op-ed in BusinessWeek. I got a kick out of the following line even if the only positive feedback came from my mom (”You never liked carp. I remember when we took you to Lake Mead and …”):

If we learned anything from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) last year—never a good sign when an acronym rhymes with carp—it’s that pumping large sums of money into the banks by itself is not the answer to the credit crunch.

4) The David-Against-Goliath Story Never Goes Out Of Style

Malcom Gladwell has taken non-fiction storytelling to a new level. This post examines one of his New Yorker pieces:

He frames the story with a subplot that anyone can relate to: a youth sports team, in this case a 12-year-old girls basketball team coached by the CEO of software company TIBCO, that demonstrates effort and smarts trumping expertise. Think Bad News Bears in pigtails (although it’s tough to visualize TIBCO CEO Vivek Ranadivé playing Morris Buttermaker instead of Walter Matthau).

5) A Modern Pipeline Story Comes To Life In The Wall Street Journal

Storytelling in the business media benefits from quantification. The numbers add up to one mega project:

Last leg of the pipeline cost $6.7B

Created 10,000 jobs

Used 1.4M tons of steal

Welded 110,814 sections of 42-inch pipe

Negotiated with 6,530 landowners for rights of way

Side note: Can you imagine? I can’t even get my neighbors to trim their avocado tree hanging over our front yard.

Worked 27 million man-hours

I’ll share the remaining five tomorrow.

The power of storytelling is now being deployed in medicine.

The Irish Times writes on the topic “Keeping the Narrative Going,” kicking off with the question:

Why settle for role of tragic victim when you could have that of courageous survivor?

It makes sense.

If storytelling offers the means for more effective communications in life and business, why wouldn’t the same techniques help doctors connect with their patients?

That’s the premise for what’s being called “narrative medicine,” pioneered by Dr. Rita Charon.

The Irish Times cites studies that have found a storytelling approach increases the likelihood that a patient will reveal his or her fears and concerns.

Another study in the article finds that it takes patients only 28 seconds on average to tell their story (obviously, they didn’t interview anyone in my family tree, which would have upped that average considerably).

Unfortunately, the same study reveals that doctors often interrupt after only 18 seconds.

To borrow from Scooby Doo, ruh-roh.

And how the heck are they measuring this stuff? The image of someone with a stopwatch behind one-way glass doesn’t quite seem right.

But I digress.

Dr. Charon points out:

If the doctor can’t engage with the patient’s personal story, the patient won’t tell the whole story or ask the most frightening questions and, therefore, will not feel heard. She suggests that incorrect diagnoses might be made followed by poor compliance from the patient, the search for a second opinion and a shallow and ineffective therapeutic relationship.

She even suggests that narrative medicine has the power to help doctors regain some of the public trust in medicine that has recently been called into question.

I go back to my post last year “Conversing Like a Real Human Being.”

How many doctors converse like real human beings?

I’m guessing “narrative medicine” has different levels of expertise - perhaps like the belt system in karate - so doctors can build up to more sophisticated techniques like empathy.

If that’s the case, my own GP is a yellow belt, giving him the benefit of the doubt.

This is not an actual post, but a measure to verify our claim token with Technorati so you can find us there too.

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We are inundated by information. (How’s that for going out on the limb; hopefully not a precursor for 2010.)

If all or part of that information can be translated into a visual, you strengthen the “consumption” process - particularly in areas of complexity; i.e., technology, cleantech and life sciences.

That’s why, when I projected the expertise of tomorrow’s communications professional, I highlighted “videography, photography and editing skills that exceed your garden-variety postings on Facebook.”

Thanks to rise of digital media, we’ll increasingly see publications expand the definition of visual storytelling.

For example, WIRED has taken to running what are called charticles, a technique which depicts an entire article in visual forum. You can see a perfect example of WIRED’s approach below in the charticle titled “Seafood Express.”

Compelling storytelling by WIRED writer Michael Kaplan and illustrator Rafael Macho.

There’s plenty of drama … especially for the fish who don’t know if they’ll make the saltwater tank or get relegated to a sauce until Hour 33.

Looking at the big picture (couldn’t resist), visualization should be part of communications, not just the sole domain of the data jockeys.

If you’re looking to come up the curve in this area, I highly recommend the blog Simple Complexity. The following visualization on land mass and population density provides a sense of what the blog covers:

I also keep a copy of “The Visual Miscellaneum” by David McCandless on my desk as a brainstorming tool.

Even with tight resources, most media properties prefer to build visuals in their own style (although I’ve been surprised at The Wall Street Journal’s willingness to publish corporate photos).

We’re now experimenting in applying the “B-roll” concept to visual storytelling. In other words, creating the raw frame for say, a charticle, but still leaving room for the media property to take the piece to final.

I’ll report back later in the year on how this progresses.

Everybody loves a train wreck and what I affectionately call a “NASCAR story.”

Even the promise of a collision tends to attract a crowd.

With this as the backdrop, UTStarcom faced a quandary.

The Justice Department had nailed the company for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a fancy phrase for bribery. How does one put its best foot forward in disseminating such news?

Ultimately, the company went with the old “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, did it make a noise?” strategy. By distributing the news release on December 31, the company calculated that reporters would have one foot out the door in anticipation of their New Year’s Eve celebrations.

I think it’s fair to say the new release’s headline UTStarcom Inc. Agrees to Pay $1.5 Million Penalty for Acts of Foreign Bribery in China - compliments of a writer at the Justice Department - made this tough to miss.

As it turns out, reporters were willing to stay for a few extra minutes before New Year’s Eve, as you can see from a sampling of headlines:

San Francisco Chronicle: UTStarcom settles bribery case for $3 million (Dec. 31, 2009

PC World: UTStarcom to Pay U.S. Fines for Bribing Chinese Carriers (Dec. 31, 2009)

The Associated Press: UTStarcom pays $3M to settle bribery charges (Dec. 31, 2009)

The Wall Street Journal: UTStarcom to Pay Fine for China Bribery (Dec. 31, 2009)

The New York Times: Telecom Company to Pay $3 Million in China Bribe Case (Jan. 1, 2010)

I got a kick out of The New York Times piece that highlights, “A company spokesman could not be reached for comment on Thursday.” Apparently, The Times held out a day waiting for a return call, which explains the January 1 publication date.

Still, if you’re UTStarcom, you might make the case that most of the media coverage was nothing more than a regurgitation of the news release. With the worst behind, let’s now embark on a fresh start in 2010.

But this rationale would be flawed.

Trying to hide bad news by distributing an announcement on a late Friday afternoon or on December 31 is akin to flashing a red cape in front of a bull. It’s only going to increase the media’s “enthusiasm” to explore the story with greater depth.

Plus, the story has a Tyco-like quality to show excess or just plain buffoonery (although we can safely assume no $2M birthday parties were staged in Sardinia). Consider that the Justice Department documentation already shows ditties like the company paying for Chinese officials to take junkets to Hawaii, Las Vegas and New York under the auspices of training.

It’s not like this is the first time the company has lost its way.

The law journal The Recorder published a piece entitled “UTStarcom’s Crash Shows Pitfalls of Doing Business in China” back in 2007 that captured:

Over the past couple of years, the company has admitted to backdating stock options for executives, investigated its own employees for paying bribes across Asia, and admitted improperly recording hundreds of millions in revenue.

Ouch.

And there’s still more fodder to explore.

For example, it’s not every company that asks its general counsel to do double duty as chief ethics officer, but that’s the dual title worn by Susan Marsch. I’m guessing Ms. Marsch had a few voicemails when she returned from the holiday break.

The company might also want to rethink the “Our Values” section on its Web site:

That line “clear standards of right and wrong” could use some work. Perhaps that Justice Department copywriter is available.

Kidding aside, this story has all the elements of a country song.

It behooves UTStarcom to recognize that a) the story won’t disappear behind a December 31 release date, and b) without proper preparation, its public image will be savaged beyond rehabilitation.