Comments on: The Chief Storytelling Officer

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:10:41 +0000

@Joe Thanks! I definitely think there needs to be a greater emphasis on writing, storytelling and leadership in primary/secondary education.

By: Joe Brennan

Joe Brennan — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:18:42 +0000

Great piece! We’re working hard to make this part of every kid’s education. I teach a graduate class for educators and think Jason’s book could be of value to the corporate world too: http://www.jasonohler.com/

By: Colin Beveridge

Colin Beveridge — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 11:44:35 +0000

I enjoyed this post, I have lost count of the times I have had to sit through a boring presentation, overloaded with preambular irrelevance, and losing interest long before the presenter/ storey-teller reaches the point.

I often challenge these situations by saying:

Look if you have a singing dog, let’s see and hear it sing, now please. We don’t need to see the dog’s pedigree sheet, veterinary records and diet sheet.

By: Imran Malek

Imran Malek — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:50:55 +0000

Great article Jon – definitely gives me some food for thought when it comes to starting a business.

By: Lisa McGrath

Lisa McGrath — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:43:00 +0000

ABSOLUTELY. Stories are ket to successful buinsess. Trick (in my case) is getting higher ups to agree & buy-in. Often folks are stuck in the Mad Men age when print ads & commericals ruled. Now it’s much more personal. We all make personal choices everyday. ANd much like we select friends whose stories resonate with us, we do the same in our consumer, and professional, decisions as well. Thanks for sharing!

By: Dennis Stevenson

Dennis Stevenson — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 22:47:16 +0000

Jon
Love it. I’ve been working through posting a series on “the power of story…” (5 posts under the category “story”) – trying to take what is often deemed to be the domain of introverts and bring them into a more story-telling mode. I think the Web 2.0 vs. SOA comparison illustrates the difference pretty well. SOA tends to be more discussion about technology and architecture and a certain brand of idealism… but Web 2.0 is about telling my story and listening to the stories of others – even beyond this, the value proposition is very story friendly – it’s easy to know what I’m getting with Web 2.0 because I can understand the story very well.

Bottom line, you just got into my RSS reader.

By: chrisamichaels

chrisamichaels — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 22:14:06 +0000

Jon,

Great article, though I think that you missed one part of corporate storytelling. That being, that storytelling is linear, or one way.

When you tell a story, you’re anticipating that someone is going to listen the entire time, yet the best stories are the ones that engage people on a deeper level. Whether it be through emotional appeal, developing character dynamics and heroes, or even the reward/moral outcomes, stories are ways to only “speak” to an audience, not necessarily engage.

Ken Martin, Chief Creative Officer for the interactive marketing agency BLITZ, recently said at SIGGRAPH 2008, that “content alone is not enough; especially for digital audiences.” That’s why there needs to be a “choose your own adventure” element to the story. Audiences need to engage themselves into the company’s story, or brand, and use the exploration and creativity that propelled us into magical lands when we were younger.

If you look at some of the best Web sites today that tell compelling stories, it’s not the linear recitation of facts, but the dialogue that is created with visitors through engagement. Sites that react, and provide information to the customer, how and when they want to receive it, that gives a company more than a voice, but an ear to respond.

For digital audiences, that’s made through the UI and user experience. For offline audiences, it’s through adaptation for the target audience. Regardless of how and where an audience chooses to engage the story, it needs to be engaging at a level of parallel response.

By: Richard Reeve

Richard Reeve — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:56:39 +0000

Thanks for highlighting that good story is hard work, sometimes the ease of blogging masks this point. I’llfollow up the book lead you serve too.