Here are some interesting sites I've come across recently that offer story collections. Some solicit stories from the public.
Two final sites deal with fiction. Although I don't focus on fiction much in A Storied Career, I spotlight these sites because of their interesting approaches.
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One of the special delights of this Q&A series is its international flavor. We've had Q&As from the UK, Canada, Denmark, Australia, Sweden (by way of UK) — have I missed any? — and now France. Stephane Dangel almost single-handedly upholds organizational storytelling in France and builds bridges from there to the worldwide storytelling community. Here is my Q&A with him. Bio: Stephane Dangel has a background in political science, journalism, and communications. His interest in storytelling has derived from these activities, and he defines now himself as a "storytelling activist," since organizational storytelling is still an emergent discipline in his country, France.
He's also a writer; his forthcoming (fall 2009) book (in French) is Rires Post-mortem. It's about stories — a collection of real-life events throughout the world and related to burials, coffins also. The pattern is that they are all funny stories. Q: The storytelling movement seems to be growing explosively. Why now? What is it about this moment in human history and culture that makes storytelling so resonant with so many people right now? A: We hear a lot about "narrative turn." I don't see storytelling as a turn, but as a story "to be continued." Organizational storytelling is a modern form of the very ancient art of storytelling, adapted to contemporary needs. Storytelling is not a revolution, it has accompanied evolutions. As Robert McKee says, "stories are the currency of human relationships," basically. Marketing, management, and other disciplines integrate some structured narrative dimension because the focus is now on these disciplines as the focus was in bartering (with a strong narrative dimension) yesterday when bartering was the way things were going on in the world. So it's somewhat natural. Another dimension is related to "the quest for sense." We hear a lot about the lack of sense. I think it's more a lack of sense quest, because sense quest is complex and time spending. As storytelling is already deeply anchored into each of us, it's a relatively low-cost solution to engage on sense quest. So it's a solution for lazy people, but lazy, that's what we are all, and it's not negative. A problem occurs when corporations are extremely lazy, so they only grab and arrange stories in a database, instead of pursuing the quest till the patterns-finding stage. Q: Are there any current uses of storytelling that repel you or that you feel are inappropriate? A: Not everything is storytelling, but storytelling is able to be integrated in almost everything. What I see, especially in France , is that some users in the political area have written the screenplay of a soap, and they even have already shot season 1, 2, 3, and more in advance. How could such a practice operate within an ever-changing world? It doesn't fit the very basics of storytelling requirements. It's like displaying, say today, an episode of a soap featuring Saddam Hussein, head of Iraq, as if he was still there. Irrelevant and ridiculous.Q: What's your favorite story about a transformation that came about through a story or storytelling act? A: Here is the full (and long) story: In the winter of 1954 in Paris, there was a man named Abbot Peter (Abbé Pierre) [pictured]. Here are some excerpts from the message: A woman has just died tonight, frozen, on the sidewalk of Boulevard Sebastopol in Paris. She was keeping in hand the paper by which she was expelled from her home two days ago. Each night, there are 2,000 persons who have no home, no bread to eat, some almost naked. They need your help. In each Parisian borough, in each French town, boards have to be put under a light in the night, in front of houses where you can read. You, who suffer, whoever you are, come and sleep, eat, regain hope, here we love you. Weather channels announce terrible freezes for the next weeks. Thank you. The most interesting fact is not that barely he had finished to address the message people began to act and help those poor people with great success, but the wave of collective innovation that followed after that emergency need for help. While some weeks before, the government refused to take money to build homes for poor, this single story was sufficient to trigger what will be called "the revolution of Good," whose actors were an anonymous team constituted by people from the whole country, who didn't know each other but were united by the same spirit. The days following the radio message, money could be collected, people joined Abbot Peter, acting as a team. As a result, several organizations were created — an association called Emmaüs, a sub-division dedicated to the building of low-wages houses, the first non-profit organization dedicated to the defense of tenants, the creation of communities for homeless people where they could find a roof and a job (collecting old objects and reselling them)… The Emmaüs organization still exists (Abbot Peter is now dead) and has an international scope, spreading in a lot of countries wolrdwide.Q: You mention on Worldwide Story Work [a community of story practitioners focussed on the application of story-based techniques in organizational settings.] that you are "trying to expand storytelling in France." What similarities and differences have you observed in the storytelling community in France and the storytelling community in the US ? A: The "storytelling community in France" is for the moment… a fiction. We are only two bloggers running a blog dedicated to storytelling! There is only one and major book dedicated to storytelling in French, and it has been written by a man who hates storytelling (Christian Salmon: Storytelling)! His message is very raw: "storytelling = fiction = manipulation."  So, building the storytelling community is a big task, trying to educate people who don't have the patience to read all the wonderful available resources in English, and reinsuring those who are tempted by storytelling but express doubts since they are hearing such "negative mess." I also see French focusing on marketing uses, knowing few about the analytical potentiality. This is also a real issue. But we cannot let a guy like Christian Salmon establish himself as The Voice about storytelling in France, seeing the ideas he tries to infuse.Q: You have undertaken some storytelling initiatives, such as a bilingual storytelling blog, a tag cloud fueled by 2009 storytelling resolutions, the newsletter (in French) that springs from your blog, and many discussions on Worldwide Story Work. To what extent do you feel these initiatives have succeeded? What has contributed to their success or lack of success? Do you have plans to make them more successful, and do you plan new initiatives?  A: What I wanted to do is to prove that even an under-developed country (in the storytelling field), could contribute to the worldwide storytelling community. I've also launched the first Digg-like [site] dedicated to storytelling. I need to take care of it because after some good start, it has somewhat faded; I didn't give enough time to it.
I'm working on a method to elicit stories within conflictual situations and contexts which I've called "The I forgive…" method. I've already released a paper about it. I'm currently refining it, getting some advice especially from Cynthia Kurtz. I will release a completely new, expanded version as a chapter of a collective book to be released by mid-2010.What I expect from these initiatives is a reverse, boomerang-like effect in France, in addition to the somewhat "frontal attack" I'm implementing.In addition, I'm working on some projects to organize training sessions in France, with trainers coming from the "expert countries," hat is to say the anglo-saxon ones — sessions conducted by renowned storytelling consultants are good tools to expand storytelling in the country. |
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| This week, well-known career blogger Penelope Trunk bravely told the story of her two abortions on her blog Brazen Careerist. Even more interestingly, she connected abortion to career. The entry's title is "What's the connection between abortion and careers?"
Trunk says she had her abortions to preserve her career. But she also admits she is not sure her life would have turned out differently had she not had them. I have known near and dear ones whose abortions were at least in part prompted by that same desire to preserve their careers. I also know one young woman with a thriving career who made the courageous choice to give up her baby in an open adoption. This week I also watched Jon Stewart and Mike Huckabee debate the abortion issue. Stewart admitted that of all the "liberal" positions, his pro-choice stance is the one his feelings are the murkiest on (for the record, I don't think he used the phrase "liberal positions"). Stewart pointed out early on that it just doesn't make a lot of sense for men to debate and make policy on the issue. They are not the ones directly affected. That's why it is so important for women on both sides of the issue to speak out — to tell their stories. I applaud Penelope Trunk for having the courage to tell hers.
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| Last week, Michael VanDervort blogged on RecruitingBlogs.com that resumes must die. He asked the question: Are resumes obsolete? To illustrate the flaws of resumes, he took up a large chunk of his entry with his own fairly lame resume from 2007, which he had built using a Careerbuilder template. He then condemns "Careerbuilder for creating a template that takes 23 years of professional work experience and turns it into a jumbled, difficult to read mess." He also says the resume doesn't represent who he is in 2009. I don't disagree that VanDervort's 2007 resume is a mess, but just to play devil's advocate:
VanDervort goes on to say, "I would much rather have my current body of social media work representing me in the market place than even a cleaned and pretty copy of this resume." He says an ideal resume would contain things like his LinkedIn profile, his tweets on Twitter, and results about him from search engines. OK, good argument for a Social Media resume like mine. Personal-branding guru Dan Schawbel's quintessential article on how to create a social-media resume is here. VanDervort also cites the argument "your blog is your resume." This line, which I've discussed on this blog and here, is starting to feel a bit shopworn and really applies to a very small subset of job-seekers (techies and social-media strategists, perhaps). Not that I'm the world's most brilliant blogger, for example, but I've never had a flicker of interest from an employer based on this blog or any of my other extensive social-media efforts. Louise Fletcher, who runs the excellent Career Hub blog, reacted to VanDervort's post over on CollegeRecruiter.com, (especially his contention that his resume "does nothing to communicate anything at all about me that I would want to put out if I were job searching") writing: People say to me all the time "I can't capture who I am in a resume" and I always ask them the same question: Why not? Is it because words are just not adequate to describe the wonder that is you? Unlikely! More likely it's because you are being limited by what you imagine a resume should be. If you step outside the box (sorry for the cliche!) a little, you might see lots of ways to convey who you are and what you have to offer a company. Yes. What the world needs is an outside-the-box incarnation of the resume. Fletcher and virtually any professional resume writer can do a far better job than VanDervort in crafting a compelling resume. But the drum I've been beating for a long time is that a new form needs to emerge. The key is in these words, "a resume that captures who I really am." In other words, tells your story. To support his "death to resumes" argument, VanDervort cites a blog entry from marketing author Seth Godin in which he asks the question, "Why bother having a resume?" I would cite Seth Godin, too, for my argument for the Storytelling Resume. In fact, I have cited him in my book, Tell Me About Yourself, but in a different way: Godin … does not believe marketing without story is possible: "Either you're going to tell stories that move people, or you will become irrelevant," he writes. If marketing products and services without storytelling is not possible, then neither is it possible to market oneself without storytelling. The Storytelling Resume must and will emerge. |
| Q&A with a Story Guru: Sean Buvala: You Must Tell Stories to Get Better at Stories Posted: 18 Jun 2009 10:14 AM PDT
See a photo of Sean, his bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, Part 2, and Part 3. Q&A with Sean Buvala, Questions 6 and 7: Q: What's your favorite story about a transformation that came about through a story or storytelling act? A: I am not so sure that transformation comes from story. I think stories of transformation are powerful, but not sure story alone causes transformation. I have many stories about how the use of "community service" has transformed teens, for example. If in some way the sharing of these stories creates an open door to other opportunities for service, then that is a good use of the story. In most cases, I think story is there to "frame" the facts, ideals and purposes of groups, actions or information. I know recently a woman, who was in one of my youth programs two decades ago, found me to tell me about her life now. She shared with me how one of my stories in particular led her to her public service. Did the story cause that transformation? I do not know. More likely, it gave and gives her a framework from which she moved forward into community service. Stories carry the message but I am not sure they are the message. I also have experiences of storytelling in corporate training that caused people to both recommit to their jobs and also caused at least one person to quit. Story, in those cases, was an amplifier of values and decisions already in existence in the listener, the catalyst to have them take transforming actions. Q: If you could share just one piece of advice or wisdom about story/storytelling/narrative with readers, what would it be? A: You must tell stories to get better at stories. You can no more be a storyteller by thinking about stories than an artist can create beautiful water-color paintings by thinking about paint. One must pick up the brush or open one's mouth as the case may be. |
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Q&A with Sean Buvala, Questions 4 and 5: Q: Your Web site, Storyteller.net is a major resource for performance storytellers and others interested in storytelling. The site is almost 12 years old, and even at age 10, you noted, "Ten years is forever in Internet terms." What inspired you to start the site, and what has motivated you to keep it going? A: Thanks. It is always interesting to see how people perceive Storyteller.net. It is not as much of a performance storytelling site as it is a clearinghouse for the many ways story can be expressed. When we began Storyteller.net a dozen years ago, there was nothing like it on the Internet. Actually, there was barely an Internet. We are older than Google. Our goal, back in 1995, was to expose people to storytelling in ways they might not have thought of before going to the site. It was unheard of that you could listen to stories online. We hoped that people might turn off their computers once they experienced recorded stories and book one of the storytellers in the directory to help them create storytelling in their schools, workplaces and other places in their communities.
We also wanted to create community online via such offerings as the articles, written and audio stories, events calendar and even, at one point, a "playground." Back in our earliest days, the playground and the "storytelling coloring pictures" were the most used sections of the site. I still get hits for "coloring pictures" several times a month. We pulled the playground from the site as we thought we were just promoting the idea that storytelling was just for children. We really were on the cutting edge of blogging, article marketing, directory listings, and podcasting before any of those words existed. The technology barely existed. Now, all the things we built and systems we set in place are ubiquitous for everyone on the Internet. Back then, storytellers trembled in fear about putting their faces, stories and contact information on the Web and we had a huge job in front of us trying to help folks see the future. I am tired just remembering all that work. We are in need of a face-lift and few new "cool" features, with our last major revision back in 2002. That may take place later this year. I have plans! We are privately funded, that is, my wife and I pay for the site, so we have to work out a new budget. However, even with our need to update, storytellers in the directory are always telling me that they get many bookings from Storyteller.net. The articles and stories, which we are always adding, get plenty of traffic. We have very high Google search-result rankings. So, we are very much alive and well at Storyteller.net. It is our gift to the community. Q: If you could identify a person (such as a celebrity) or organization who desperately needs to tell a better story, who or what would it be? A: Just quickly, non-profit organizations must make better use of their stories. People give their money to organizations that have stories (results) that resonate with the donor. For all the years that I worked in non-profit groups, I can tell you the money followed the value of the story, not the spreadsheet. |
Q&A with Sean Buvala, Questions 2 and 3: Q: How important is it to you and your work to function within the framework of a particular definition of "story?" (i.e., What is a story?) What definition do you espouse? A: I think that definition of storytelling is critical for it is within the lines of definition we get the most freedoms. I have worked for some time with the following definition. "Storytelling is the intentional sharing of a narrative in words and actions for the benefit of both the listener and the teller." Just quickly, "intentional" means that not everything we do is storytelling. Storytelling is a planned activity and process. "Narrative" means what is being talked about has a beginning, middle, and end. "Sharing" means that there is an audience in front of the teller which can be one person or thousands. That is a rather quick take on my definition of storytelling. We usually go rather in depth in our workshops on this definition so the audience can add to or take away as they need. Q: The culture is abuzz about Web 2.0 and social media. To what extent do you participate in social media (such as through LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Second Life, blogs, etc.)? To what extent and in what ways do you feel these venues are storytelling media? A: I like Twitter (and I have the fun ID of @storyteller) for the immediacy of having some very smart people sending bits and pieces of wisdom and fun my way. I enjoy podcasting as a way to let people think about ideas. Although audio stories in podcasts in themselves are not storytelling, recorded pieces do open the door to live interaction. I have had some fun with YouTube, most recently making a video-podcast of our "gestures" training. Storyteller.net embraced technology and storytelling very early on. I love seeing what's next in the tech world since I am one of the "early adopters" we keep hearing about. |
I am so excited to bring you a Q&A from Sean Buvala, a frequent commenter to A Storied Career. A storytelling "purist," Sean keeps me on my toes, makes me think, and keeps me from descending too far into appreciating the sillier interpretations of storytelling and uses of applied storytelling. He is extremely active in many corners of the storytelling world and is a prolific Twitterer. His Storyteller.net is about the same age as Quintessential Careers, the parent site of A Storied Career, and his description later in this Q&A of the pioneering aspect of his site sounds much like the journey of QuintCareers. This Q&A will appear over the next five days. Bio: (From one of Sean's Web sites): Sean describes the collection of stories in his head as "life and legend" representing the mix of stories from his experiences, myth and legend from many cultures, sacred stories and observations of shared life events. As a storyteller, Sean primarily works with teens and adults in business and corporate settings. However, schools and libraries use him all the time for younger children. He describes his style as somewhere between "in your life and in your face" depending on the needs of the group he's telling to/with at any given gathering.
Sean's experience also involves training and design for the telecommunication and hospitality industry. He's done customer service instruction/team development for companies ranging from government to faith based organizations to major corporations. He's taught and told for companies such as Wells Fargo, AT&T, Unilever, the Arizona Courts and more. Most important of all, Sean is the father of four daughters and husband of one wife. He lives in the Phoenix, Arizona, area. His wife says that when he is home from the road, he is a great cook. His current projects include Storyteller.net and "Outside In Storytelling.".
Q: The storytelling movement seems to be growing explosively. Why now?' What is it about this moment in human history and culture that makes storytelling so resonant with so many people right now? A: Storytelling has been bedrock to all cultures through history. In that, I mean the process of telling a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end to convey a particular thought, a societal idea or to entertain. With the advent of so many electronic communications, people are just growing more aware of their need for deeper communication and connectedness. Our neighbors are no longer the people who live next door. Now, neighbors are the communities and people we self select. Since so many people are now engaged in long distance communities, families and friends spread out, people are feeling a lack of something in their day-to-day existence. That longing is being met in sharing of story in its many forms. There are many folktales that talk about wholeness or one person separated into two beings. It is only by coming to terms with one's story and wrestling with oneself that these two parts can be made whole. Our stories are native and entwined in each of us. For me, I do not think that I see the question as you see it. I am not so sure "storytelling" is growing explosively. I know that the use of the word "storytelling" is growing at a rapid clip, and it is being applied to all forms of communication. Therefore, now, everyone who shares any idea at all is a "storyteller." I think this does a disservice to other art forms. For me, storytelling is the "mother" of all other communications. A person who excels at writing a story is an author, not a storyteller. A person who creates great videos is not a "digital storyteller" but rather a gifted filmmaker. There has been a dilution of the word storytelling. If everything we do is storytelling, then nothing is storytelling. I am neither a gifted author nor a filmmaker and do not wish to be. I am a storyteller and my work needs the presence of an audience right in front of me. Without an audience and immediate interaction, then whatever the artist is doing is not storytelling. It may be any of many other gifted and needed art forms.  I am critiqued for expressing my understanding of what is and is not story. Essentially, I am accused of keeping people "out of the tent." That is not my intention at all. "Story" has many ways to be expressed and there are tents all over the field. In my tent, story is presented in an oral expression (or ASL manual communication) called storytelling that requires a live audience of at least one person. Over there, there's another tent filled with talented filmmakers expressing story. In a third tent, maybe there are talented dancers, scrapbookers, or authors. I do not want to dilute any of the art forms by having to cram us all into the same metaphorical tent. I want the freedom to go enjoy the filmmakers in their tent and maybe even join them in a few attempts of my own. I also know that all the artists in those other tents will benefit by coming and learning foundational things in the storytelling tent. I think I know that we in the storytelling communities have lost grip on the word "storytelling" and I am banging a drum that no one will really hear. Nevertheless, my place in life is to call the crowd to many different ways of thinking and says, "Look over here." I would be untrue to my art and myself if I did anything less. |
| I tweeted last week about this blog entry from Michael Long (The Red Recruiter), but I haven't blogged about it till now. Long writes about five skills recruiters will need in 2025, including storytelling, which he frames as "vision." Read his description of vision/storytelling skills below and see if you agree there's no need for recruiters to wait to develop these skills. There's also no need for job-seekers to wait to use these skills. Everything Long envisions in the passage below can be turned around to apply to job-seekers. Long's words: Vision — This could also be called "Storytelling Skills" but, "Vision" seems easier. The bottom line is this… can you paint a picture in a person's mind? Can you show them through words what their future looks like? In exploring someone's career path, it becomes vital that you share a vision of the future. What are their next career steps, strategic moves, compensation angles, etc… You don't wake up one morning with the ability to convey vision. Well, perhaps some people do… but, that was not my fortunate tale. I had to work on it. Read stories, listen to stories, write stories… explore, travel, meet new people. Get exposed to things that are completely foreign. Take so much in to your mind that you can't take anymore. Then, do it again. Experience and exposure are the parents to good storytelling. The life narratives that you are exposed to in recruiting, coupled with the life experiences that you should be pursuing, will result in a much richer experience for your candidates. Let's face it… given the option… wouldn't you want your recruiter to have some perspective on the world? So, go get it! Here's how the first paragraph might look from the job-seeker perspective: Can you paint a picture in a hiring decision-maker's mind? Can you show him or her through words what the future looks like with you in the job you seek? Can you describe the story of your career path so that it's clear you share a vision of the future with the hiring organization? What's your future story of next career steps, strategic moves, compensation angles, etc.? All the advice Long applies to learning storytelling skills applies to job-seekers — plus many more techniques that I'm sure readers of this blog could share. Just remember, 2025 is way too late. |
Last Sunday's entry sparked a very interesting idea from Shawn Callahan. It's in the comments to the Sunday entry, but I wanted to bring it to the forefront in hops of getting the thoughts of others. Here's what he said: Here's an that I would love to hear your thoughts on. As a job candidate, in addition to telling your story and eliciting the story of the company and its people from the interviewer, should they also be trying to trigger stories about themselves by doing something remarkable (in that the interviewer tells that story) in the interview? I was chatting to Terrence Gargiulo a few weeks ago and we were referring to this triumvirate as a leader's narrative triple threat (sounds a bit threatening however) much like an actors triple threat is to dance, sing and act (al la fellow countryman Hugh Jackman). Is this something a candidate would want to do or is it too dangerous? And here's how I responded: Shawn [actually I misspelled his name in the comment … oops], I think you are onto something. I think that — within reason — you've suggested an excellent idea. The question is: What is the appropriate "doing something remarkable?" It could be giving an unexpected presentation in the interview. Or doing such comprehensive research on the employer that the candidate demonstrates extraordinary insight into meeting the employer's challenges. Or telling the interviewer a story that makes a profound emotional connection. I would love to hear other ideas for remarkable things candidates could do so the interviewer tells stories about them. Shawn and I then exchanged a few e-mails privately in which he suggested trying to solicit examples of remarkable acts that have so impressed interviewers that they have told the story to others. I told him I would post the question on LinkedIn Answers, which I finally did yesterday (here). But let me throw the question open here as well: Have you ever observed something a candidate did in an interview that was so remarkable that you told others the story? Or have you perhaps heard such a story told by an interviewer? |
Q: What's your favorite story about a transformation that came about through a story or storytelling act? A: My favorite moments in UX stories are when a story can make a point and help a team see a problem or opportunity clearly. Without going too deeply into the specifics, perhaps this example will work." "On our web site, some people seemed to get lost on the opening page of some great information. They missed all the navigation and links to get started, and would just… wander off. We'd seen this behavior, but never really understood it, until we looked closely. They were reading the page, and clicked on the first link, ready to dive in when.. WHAM. They were thrown into a page to order bulk copies of printed literature. Someone else skipped that link and took the next one. WHOOPS. She was back at the same page she'd started from. So she tried again. And it happened again. She went around that merry-go-round at least three times. Now we understood. We'd dangled "garbage" links in front of someone, and distracted — or frustrated them. Now we knew how to fix it. Happy reader." |
Q: The storytelling movement seems to be growing explosively. Why now? What is it about this moment in human history and culture that makes storytelling so resonant with so many people right now? A: In my world of user experience — which usually means technology-mediated experiences — I think it's about finding ways to connect. We are craftspeople, in the sense that we make things for other people to use. But we often have a very tenuous relationship with those people.  Think about how strange it is to have a group of people working on software or a web application who have no real, practical understanding of the daily lives of the people who will use what they create. This is very different from the lives of traditional crafts people. When you built a house, or made a tool, you could see and touch the world and lives it would be part of. Technology is such a paradox: it allows us to connect in so many new ways, but it also allows us to be apart. Stories are a way of rebuilding that connection. There are many ways to tell user experience stories: personas, scenarios, comics, storyboards. They are all ways of letting us see more than just the technology we work with, and give us a window into the context of the user experience. This is increasingly important now because of how pervasive technologies are in our lives. We need to understand all the possibilities and variations. Stories help us do that.
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Q: The first chapter in your upcoming book, Storytelling for User Experience Design, addresses why "stories are important as part of user experience work." Without re-creating the chapter, can you offer a bit of insight as to why storytelling is especially important in user experience design — and do it in a way that gives an overview of UX for readers unfamiliar with the field? A: Every UX project involves managing a lot of information. Even a small site involves balancing the business goals, user needs, and technical possibilities. When you are working on a large project it's hard to stay focused on the goal of creating an excellent user experience, because you are managing so many details and (sometimes) conflicting needs. The other difficulty is keeping the "user" in sight. Perhaps that sounds strange for work on the user experience, but typically the users are not part of the design and development team, so it's easy to ignore them. With their ability to communicate so effectively, and on such a deep level, stories are one way to manage both challenges. They are a natural way to describe events, brainstorm ideas, engage the imagination, and build community around the new design. |
User Experience (UX) Design is one of those exotic (to me) areas that I know almost nothing about. Yet, it makes sense that "user experience" would suggest storytelling. Whitney Quesenbery is a practitioner who uses storytelling in User Experience Design. I'm excited about her upcoming book, She is currently working on a book on Storytelling in User Experience Design. I'm so tickled to bring you her thoughts on yet another fascinating application of storytelling. This Q&A will appear over the next five days. Bio: (From the Web site Whitney Interactive Design) Whitney Quesenbery is a user researcher, user experience practitioner, and usability expert with a passion for clear communication. She has been in the field since 1989, helping companies from The Open University to Sage Software to the National Cancer Institute develop usable web sites and applications.
She has served as the president of UPA (Usability Professionals' Association), Manager of the STC Usability and User Experience (UUX), and a member of the Executive Committee for UXNet, as well as an active participant in local usability groups. In 2005 she was given the STC President's Award for her work on communities in membership organizations, and in 2007, she was honored with a UPA President's Award and as a Fellow of the STC. Her most recent publication is a chapter on "Storytelling and Narrative" in The Persona Lifecycle, by Pruitt and Adlin. She's also proud that one of her articles won an award as a Society for Technical Communication (STC) Outstanding Journal Article, and that her chapter "Dimensions of Usability" in Content and Complexity turns up on so many course reading lists. She is currently working on a book on Storytelling in User Experience Design for Rosenfeld Media As a principal at Cognetics Corporation for 12 years, she was instrumental in building a great design staff, and the design leader for many design and usability projects. Her project credits there include work with companies such as Novartis, Deloitte Consulting, Lucent, McGraw-Hill, Siemens, Hewlett-Packard, and Dow Jones. While at Cognetics, she was one of the developers of LUCID (Logical User-Centered Interaction Design), which promotes the importance of a user-centered approach and usability in design. Her projects have won many awards in industry competitions, but the two she is proudest of are the 1996 Best of Show in the STC International Online Competition for a multimedia CD-ROM on the benefits of non-traditional documentation for AT&T/Lucent and the 2001 Frank R. Smith Outstanding Journal Article for "On Beyond Help — User Assistance and the User Interface" in STC's Technical Communication journal.
Q: You note in your blog that "the real value of stories in user experience design is that they can move us into the future." Can you elaborate a bit on how stories do that and perhaps given an example of how you have used story in user experience design to move people into the future? A: I meant something very simple. Although user experience stories are built on insights from research, their purpose is to help create something new. Often, they explore how a new or updated product can change an unsatisfactory experience into a good one. They describe a possible future condition, and in doing so help it become a reality. This is not all user experience stories, of course. Sometimes, we use stories to present a current or past situation. But the reason we spend time thinking about current experience is to be able to create new experiences — and move us into the future. |
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| I am heartened by how often I come across career experts these days who share my support for using storytelling in the job search. The headline is almost not far-fetched — that I come across one almost every week.
Myers describes interviewing as "two-way storytelling," noting that the job-seeker must tell the interviewer "accurate, relevant stories about career achievements and job performance," while the interviewer must tell the story of the company, the position, and the fit he or she sees for the job-seeker there. Like many storytelling advocates, Myers points to the beginning-middle-end aspect of stories. He also contends that accomplishment stories are the job-seeker's most powerful selling tool. His twist on the well-known Situation-Action-Result story is a series of questions that help the job-seeker develop an accomplishment story:
He then provides a checklist of accomplishment-based items to help job-seekers brainstorm their achievements — not dissimilar to the Accomplishments Worksheet on A Storied Career's parent site, Quintessential Careers. Myers provides a nice value-added feature for buyers of the book and others who complete a quick, free registration on his site, lots of downloadable worksheets and other goodies. One of the downloads is a worksheet for accomplishment stories. |
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| This will be a pretty quick-and-dirty compilation of some of the most talked-about storytelling topics on Twitter in the last three weeks. Yes, I know I have not given A Storied Career my best effort recently — the perils of writing another book — but that should all end on June 15, my deadline. I could feature more videos here, but Randall doesn't want me to use too much bandwidth till we get our DSL line later this month.
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This must be the week for kindred spirits in the realm of using storytelling in the job search. Rob Sullivan, a pioneer on this topic, has been my Q&A subject this week. A more recent discovery was Judy Rosemarin (pictured at right) , whom I came across while researching the executive-interviewing book I'm now working on. She has made some wonderful contributions to the book.
Instead, she recommends telling a story when encountering new contacts. Here's her example that clearly would make a wonderful emotional connection with others: When I was a young boy growing up in Chicago, I bought myself a paper route at age 12. All excited, I took my bag of papers and threw the first on a customer's front porch. Out of the front door he came. "Who are you?" he asked. "I am your paper boy, " I told him with some pride. "Well, I want my papers delivered later in the day as I work late and do not want to be awakened. I also want it covered so it doesn't get wet. And, anyway, what is going to make you different from all the other paper boys I have had?" "I said, "Well sir, I plan to give you the best customer service," and I have been doing that for over 25 years in corporate America. Nice. I talk about elevator stories, a similar concept in my book, Tell Me About Yourself. Judy has also done a terrific podcast, "The Magic of Storytelling for Job Search," the transcript of which you can read here. |
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| SlideShare has just announced a contest inviting entrants to tell a story in 30 slides or fewer. Last year, the site held a more general contest, and I analyzed the winners for their storytelling capacity. I'm tickled that this year the storytelling theme is built in. I see more and more about the importance of storytelling in presentations — from such gurus as Nancy Duarte and Joyce Hostyn. That this year's contest focuses on telling a story is a strong endorsement of storytelling in presentations. Of course, many would argue that to truly employ storytelling in a presentation would involve no slides at all. Everyone who enters the contest gets a free Fuze Meeting account ($270 value), and prizes include a grand prize $5,000 and four category prizes: iPhone + $100 iTunes card, the categories being Best Design, Best Story Telling Ability, Most Popular, and Best Use of Multimedia. |
| Several weeks ago, Irina Shamaeva posed the question on ERE.net, a site for recruiters: Will Resumes Become Obsolete?. Not long before that, David Manaster asked on the same site: Social Media: The New Cover Letter?. Both postings are the latest in a long line of predictions from recruiters and job-search experts that resumes and cover letters are on the way out. The most prevalent prediction I've heard from the hiring community is that some sort of very standardized profile (hmmmm, sounds a lot like a job application; haven't we already done that?) is what they want to replace resumes. I don't buy it. Shamaeva talks about "how the expansion of everyone's online presence may affect the set of documents and information that accompanies a job application." In my opinion, the massive gravitation of hiring decision-makers to using social-media tools to recruit proves that a standardized profile or questionnaire won't cut it. The fact that social media has become such a prevalent tool in recruiting tells me that recruiters hunger for a more human way of viewing candidates — dare I say it? — a more emotional connection. They hunger for candidate's stories. Shamaeva discusses the process she'd use for reviewing candidates if she were a hiring manager — resume, LinkedIn profile (not Facebook), possibly Twitter. Her rationale — "I also may get a sense of who the person is. We are looking for a live member of our team; this always involves some chemistry, so the person's style of presenting himself matters" — tells me that she would like stories. What better way to discover who the person is, how the person will fit in as a live member of the team, what kind of chemistry the candidate will have with the employer, and how he or she presents himself or herself? Manaster notes that "social media allows you to take control of your personal brand and highlight your strengths. You can show rich examples of your work. You can let people peek inside your head in a way that resumes and cover letters never have and never will." I don't agree with "never will." I believe resumes and cover letters must morph into formats that do open that window on your personality for hiring managers. I also believe it is already relatively easy to use a cover letter as a storytelling vehicle — much trickier with a resume. Shamaeva concludes by asking: "… looking into the future, could it happen that a submission of a candidate will not have a resume but will be done with a set of online professional profile links accompanied by a job-specific questionnaire?" The professional profile links, if done well, will help tell the candidate's story. I'm not sure about the job-specific questionnaire; it still seems too much like a dehumanizing application form to me. I can see the value of such a questionnaire for evaluating how well the candidate expresses himself or herself. I can see gleaning information on the candidate's job-specific knowledge and skills. But I still think there is a job-search communication vehicle that has yet to be developed. I am still in a quest for the Storytelling Resume, which I am convinced has not yet fully evolved. I, and folks like my storytelling-in-the-job-search doppelganger Rob Sullivan, and the career experts who contributed resumes to my book, Tell Me About Yourself, have developed story techniques to integrate into resumes. But the true, elusive Storytelling Resume vehicle has yet to emerge. When it does, I am reasonably certain it will incorporate social-media elements. Terrence Gargiulo and I are working on research into what the Storytelling Resume looks like. Like social media for recruiting, the Storytelling Resume would not be without legal and ethical issues. Discrimination is always a possibility when candidates put themselves (and their photos, for example) out there. It's also true, as Manaster points out (citing Alison Doyle) "The vast majority of professionals are unwilling or unable to send the time and effort needed to maintain a[n effective online] presence." The same is already true of resumes and cover letters. Most job-seekers don't put the required time and effort into them. I know from my five years as a resume writer that the vast majority of resumes are crap. However, just as job-seekers hire career practitioners to write their resumes and cover letters, they can hire them to help them craft compelling social-media profiles and other aspects of a compelling online presence. Manaster cites college student Matthew Cadwallader as having the kind of presence that impresses hiring managers. He sure does — because his Web site tells his story. |
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| This is exciting. Story Week begins May 4 with the networks and blog readers of three international consulting firms participating. The firms are Anecdote (Australia), Sparknow (UK), and Innotecture (Australia, I think), which "have been working together for a little while now to find out a bit more about what stories have influence and impact," says Mark Schenk of Anecdote. Schenk continues: We've found quite a difference in views, even among ourselves. So we're inviting our combined readership and their networks (and their networks) to participate in Story Week (starting May 4th) Over 5 days we're going to show you 5 stories from different people in different formats, intended for very different audiences and settings. You're going to tell us how you respond to them. We'll tell you what you collectively told us. We'll all learn something in the process. Oh, and it will be fun, too. In Anecdote's newsletter, Anecdotallly Speaking, Schenk goes on to explain the origins of the day: When conducting Narrative Insight (story-listening) projects, we are often faced with the challenge of selecting from a large volume of anecdotes. We started with three criteria: impact, relevance, and clarity. This has now expanded to six. Shawn [Callahan] and I, Victoria Ward from Sparknow, and Matt Moore from Innotecture have joined forces and designed a little project to find out a bit more about what stories have influence and impact. Here is Innotecture's link for Story Week. |
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