Visual Communications & Digital Storytelling

Storytelling in a Business Context

We all like to tell stories, right? Stories about families, friends, good memories, even stories about hardship, lessons learned and tough times, bested or otherwise. The lure of the story is its universal appeal, its ability to communicate beyond its storyline or major details, to reveal a depth not possible in traditional explanations.

But, have you ever considered for a moment the power of the story in the board room, or with the prospective member, the media or the professional world in general? With so much time spent on PowerPoint slides or reams of data or products and services, couldn’t a story reveal all that the listener needs to know?

In reality, when it’s time to really hammer your point across, what works better than a timely, well-told anecdote? One that crystallizes your views eloquently and gives the listener a resonating message in the context of a simple narrative?

An article from John Janstch of Duct Tape Marketing fame recently reminded me of the power of storytelling. I wrote an article for chambers of commerce awhile back that covers some of the basics of using storytelling to meet business objectives; you can read it here.

Storytelling: Who am I?

I recently had to create a presentation – about myself. Talk about difficult! I asked some colleagues in one of the professional association I participate in – ASAE – for some ideas to make it engaging and informative rather than an ego-fest.

Here’s part I of the summary, verbatim from the contributors, in case you’re ever in this position!

"Me" Bingo

Create a Bingo card with five rows and five columns. Put one "fact" about yourself in most of the squares and a few outrageous lies in the rest (for example, I write songs for U2....I lived in a tree to help save the spotted owls in my home state...). 

Give a bingo card to each person who has to listen to your life story.  Then use your time to talk about yourself and weave in only the true statements on the card until one of them yells "bingo".  If you're lucky, you may make it in five minutes instead of ten.

"Me" - The Q & A Approach

I took a seminar on this at some point and one thing that they noted was that this is an opportunity for your colleagues to try and get a sense of your parameters, belief systems and what makes you tick versus just high-level your likes/dislikes.

Additionally, the seminar pointed out that many people don't really want to publicly name their likes/dislikes or taste/preferences, or are in roles in which they should not disclose likes/dislikes because of the possibility of misinterpretation, bias, etc. unless the subject was soooo neutral as to not offend anyone (e.g. "I like the sun").

Instead, the seminar suggested to give situations or experience-based questions that you answer such as:

• "a good day is one in which I...."
• "the type of colleague I aspire to be is...."
• "I think leadership is...."
• "the business method I find most effective are/aren't...."
• "my biggest gripe is...."

These types of questions give real context to you as a colleague and provide useful insight into how you will likely operate within your new position. The seminar's point was to throw your colleagues a bone and set expectations/understanding early to quickly build rapport and have a clear way to communicate going forward.

I think you can still be creative in doing this--e.g. exemplify your answers with video clips, cartoons, pictures, or personal stories to get the message across.

What About You?

Stay tuned for part II. By the way – what techniques have you used to “introduce” yourself to a group of people? Help your colleagues by sharing your ideas and trials below.

Storytelling: Who am I? Part II

As promised in Part I, here are some additional creative ways to formally introduce yourself to a group in presentation-style. Hopefully without boring everyone to tears! I have to do this in August, so wish me luck in that…

Again, the suggestions below are verbatim from contributors of a very helpful professional association that I belong to... ASAE.

Demo Yourself

How about a "demo" of yourself? You could use one (or several) of your interests as the anchor, then pull in the other aspects of yourself to create a complete composition.

For example, if you're a foodie, you could do a mock cooking demo using your personal and professional interests as ingredients. If you choose, it could be very prop oriented, and give people "real" visuals rather than pictures. You could even pull someone from the audience to be your sous chef.

Cover Story

Another way to accomplish this sort of idea is to create a magazine cover about you, if you're artistic or have a designer who can help. The article titles featured on the cover could be about your interests and, if presented this using a slideshow, those articles could be designed in a magazine format, keeping the theme constant throughout the presentation.

Personal Pictionary

Just a thought...have a large tablet of paper/easel at front of room. Have them play 'Pictionary'. You're the one drawing and they're guessing or if you're not a huge fan of drawing and depending on how large the group is...have them divide into teams and draw using clues you give them... IF you draw you can spend time thinking about WHAT you will draw to make clues guess more quickly and concisely.

Don't forget to use the comments feature to add your own ideas!

Experimenting with 3D - a Photosynth

So, I went to a museum this weekend. Not a shocker, since I live in DC, "capital" of the museum world, and I am endlessly fascinated by them. From the interesting flotsam and jetsam of our popular culture (after all, who could resist oohing and ahhing over the egg prop from Alien??) to the "cosmos in miniature", DC's museums have it all.

The museum I visited - the Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academies - was small compared to DC's usual fare - just a few exhibits (and one is traveling at the moment - I'll have to go back to see that one, putting DNA to work, when it comes back to DC!) but just as engrossing.

Victoria, a museum volunteer Howard University who's studying biology, welcomes all. Below is a set of digitals I used to create a test "photosyth" mini panorama. (Here's another photosynth I created from my visit to the Marian Koshland Science Museum.)

I ran across the Photosynth site when I was working on a presentation, and thought I'd share it. You can see from my first try below I'm still learning, but the concept is to take several still shots of an area, then the Photosynth app puts them together so that you can see it in "3D." I think the app will help anyone involved in creating e-learning modules - the more your learner can engage and interact with your material, the better chance it will stick!

All of the exhibits were interactive, which was cool. And, not the interactive designed for the K-8 set (though those are fun to play in, especially while you watch your 5-year old nephew discover his inner Picasso).

The museum of the National Academies provides an interesting twist on interactive - it's for thinking adults who want to understand some of the science for some of the biggest issues of our time, including climate change and the spread of infectious diseases.

This afternoon there were about 20 of us pushing buttons to make our "choices" between possible public policy options to reduce CO2 emissions, or sliding the giant indicators across world maps showing global hot spots for malaria, TB, and more, or learning what the greenhouse effect has had on our home towns with the push of a button.

I highly recommend you visit - it's a hidden jewel of a museum, and about a block or so away from the Judiciary Square metro station, so it's also easy to get to!