Many business professionals today accept storytelling as an effective means for communicating … in theory. Whether they actually embrace the act is a different story (retaining my reputation for bad puns). Of course, many books promise to recast you with Ira Glass’s gift for narrative and Jimmy Kimmel’s wit. I wrote about one such a …more
Earlier this year, The New York Times celebrated the 20-year anniversary of its website. My Tuesday post shared a back story leading up to the site’s launch, compliments of Pete Lewis who was the paper’s foreign correspondent for cyberspace at the time. Today, we look at the actual words from Jan. 22, 1996 (my takes …more
Earlier this year The New York Times celebrated the 20-year anniversary of its website. Prior to the launch, the paper’s online reach depended on that “pioneer of online media,” AOL. Friend, colleague and periodic co-trainer for our storytelling workshops, Peter Lewis, wrote the introduction story. But before taking a look at his words from …more
As a storyteller, I often combine sad stories with one another. Mostly with a positive outcome, but often I use stories without a happy ending. Stories where listeners really have to think about what they just learned. Stories where there is no gold at the end of the rainbow. It’s amazing when such stories evoke …more
The grab bag returns with three vignettes from the wacky world of communications. Financial Times Rejects Business Storytelling The job description for columnists always includes the verb, provoke. In this regard, I suppose the column by FT’s Lucy Kellaway, “Stories Are Best for the Bible and In Novels” works. After all, I’m taking the …more
Joint Venture Silicon Valley is incredibly thorough in putting together its annual index on Silicon Valley. Perhaps too thorough. Reviewing the 100-page document might be best described as a trudge. To save you the time of plodding through the pages, here are the CliffsNotes. Where Invention Happens The combined patents generated in Silicon Valley …more
The relationship between journalists and PR is never going to be a perfect fit. Each party has a different agenda. But I do think it’s possible to diffuse what is too often considered a contentious relationship between PR and journalists. Specifically, framing the issue by supply-and-demand economic theory would go a long way to solving …more
In one corner we have the biggest, baddest and most valuable company on the planet, Apple. In the opposite corner sits the U.S. government getting more ornery by the minute. As you know by now, the government has asked Apple to unlock a phone used by a terrorist in San Bernardino. Apple has refused, believing …more
I’ve known Shawn Callahan for some time. I just had never met him or spoke to him. You see, he runs a management consultancy based in Australia that specializes in the use of storytelling in business. I’ve followed his firm, Anecdote — great name, by the way — from afar. That changed last month when …more
