Failure. Point to a movie or a book that captivates, and I’ll show you failure. Shrek. Absolutely. Something more high-brow, like the best-selling novel “A Little Life.” Again, failure underpins the story. For it’s the failure — something going horribly awry, the more pain the better — that creates the tension in a story. As …more
I’m tardy in capturing the best business storytelling posts during the first half of 2014. As always, figuring out the “best” combines popularity (number of views) and what rated high on my personal amusement scale. Here goes: Can You Measure Storytelling in Your Media Relations Effort? It turns out you can (and we do). Simply …more
I attended the Communicator’s Conference in Portland last week where keynote speaker Jim Olson shared Starbucks’ commitment to storytelling in its communications. When asked how Starbucks measures the impact of storytelling, he explained that it’s still early days. I’d like to answer the question, but before doing so it’s useful to dust off the axiom, …more
I conducted a storytelling workshop last week. Yes, the objective for the session was to help this corporate PR team apply the concepts of storytelling in business communications. But I’m hoping for something bigger. I’m hoping for two interrelated actions: They question the status quo. They experiment in their day-to-day jobs. The Holmes Report has …more
