BizzArtic » Advice

Telling Tales

Željan Topić — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:01:44 +0000

Today I held a presentation to my faculty colleagues about Stephen Denning‘s article Telling Tales. What he says is that managers should use storytelling as a business tool in organizations.

Why the brain likes a good tale

Margaret Parkin says stories can be included in change programs in many ways, such as:

as part of a brainstorming session;
to communicate the future of an organization, clearly and enthusiastically;
to unpick a problem and offer a parallel view;
to add spice to a presentation on forthcoming changes;
as an aid to memorable learning;
to aid discussion and reflection during training sessions; and
to stimulate curiosity in a “change update” newsletter or e-mail.

Her choice of the word “brainstorming” might take on a more literal meaning as she explains:

Research shows that while listening to stories, biochemical changes take place in the brain; levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) drop and levels of immunoglobulin A rise. So listening to a story can promote relaxation.

It makes you think, doesn’t it?

When Stephen Denning was program director of knowledge management at the World Bank in the mid-1990s, he gave impressive demonstrations and made compelling arguments about the need to gather information that, at the time, was scattered throughout the organization.

Frustrated at the poor response, he told them a story about a health worker in a tiny Zambian town who needed to know something about treatment for malaria, knowledge she was able to get immediately from a web site. The World Bank’s vast array of knowledge on poverty-related issues was not available to her in the same way.

Make’s you think, doesn’t it?

was the sort of response the little story elicited, and it did make them think and change the way they approached the management of their organization’s knowledge.

Ironically, Denning’s account was later criticized by a storytelling “expert” as being somewhat pathetic, lacking in detail and “plot”, few details about the health worker, nothing about her problems and so on. To his credit, Denning rejected this particular expert’s view.He says:

The ‘maximalist’ account would be more engrossing than my relatively dry anecdote. But I had learned enough by then to realize that telling the story in this way to a corporate audience would not galvanize implementation of a strange new idea like knowledge management. I knew that in the modern workplace, people had neither the time nor the patience – remember executives’ general skepticism about storytelling in the first place – to absorb a richly detailed narrative. If I was going to hold the attention of my audience I had to make my point in seconds, not minutes.

Storytelling can be used effectively at a time when an organization is about to undergo huge changes, and when those at the top need managers and other employees to envision what the organization will be like, and their role in it, after the changes. Human nature tends to make us apprehensive, maybe downright scared, of change, with a consequent reluctance to go for it enthusiastically. In the absence of a time machine to let people see that the future organizational change is not such a bad thing after all, the nearest you can get to it is their own imagination, fired by a “story-like” explanation of what is involved.

How Does Storytelling apply to blogging?

Article It is a very useful guide for blogging too. I know much of you already arranged your blog as a one big tale of yours but think again and try to give your audience a useful tale from your experience. Sometimes that’s what they need and that is what they will read with as little pain as possible.

Here are 30 storytelling blogs you’ll love:

Karen Chace – Catch the Story Bug!
http://karenchace.blogspot.com/2008_02_01_archive.html
Granny Sue’s News and Reviews
http://www.grannysue.blogspot.com/
Ellouise Schoettler
http://www.storyteller.net/tellers/eschoettler
http://www.ellouisestory.blogspot.com
Storynory
http://storynory.com/
Stephen Hollen
http://mountainstories.easyjournal.com/
Priscilla Howe
http://www.storytellingnotes.blogspot.com/
Going Deep: The Long Traditional Story Festival
http://www.storytellingnotes.blogspot.com/
Gwyn Calvetti – Musings on story and me…
http://musingsonstoryandlife.blogspot.com/
Kevin Burge – Siegfried’s Viking Tales
http://siegfriedsvikingtales.blogspot.com/
Sean Buvala: A Quarter for a Tale
http://wheresmyquarter.blogspot.com/2008/01/roadblocks-to-your-storytelling-success.html
Sally Crandall: Heads or Tales
http://sallycrandall.typepad.com/heads_or_tales/2008/01/storytelling-re.html
Rachel Hedman
http://www.storytellingadventures.blogspot.com/
Limor Shiponi: Limor’s Storytelling Agora
http://lisb.wordpress.com/
Eric Wolf
http://www.ericwolf.org/
Kathy Hansen: A Storied Career
http://www.astoriedcareer.com/story_seminar_essay.html
Mathew Needleman: Creating Lifelong Learners
http://www.needleworkspictures.com/vic/
Austories
http://austories.blogspot.com/
Teresa Clark – Storyteller
http://teresaclark.blogspot.com/
Tim Ereneta: Some Thoughts from Tim and Breaking the Eggs
http://storytelling.blogspot.com/
http://blog.myspace.com/storiesbytim
Storytelling Guild of Eastern Idaho
http://snakeriverstories.blogspot.com/
Chris King: Curiosity Cubed
http://www.curiositycubed.blogspot.com/
Holly Stephens: The Storyteller and the Listener Online
http://storyteller-and-listener.blog-city.com/
Liz Weir: Liz’s Ireland Journal
http://irelandjournal.typepad.com/lizs_ireland_journal/
How to Tell a Great Story: A Beginner’s Guide to Storytelling
http://www.howtotellagreatstory.com/resources/blogs.html
TallTales Audio Storytelling Blog: All About Storytelling
http://www.talltalesaudio.com/blog/index.php
The Multicolored Lady
http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com
Hope Baugh: Indy Theatre Habit
http://www.indytheatrehabit.com
Dianne de Las Casas: The Story Connection Blog
http://storyconnection.net/blog/
Laura Lewis-Barr: Jung As I Can Be
http://www.storiesthatwork.blogspot.com/
Stories From Papi
http://papistories.blogspot.com/

List source: http://www.story-lovers.com/listsstorytellingblogs.html

Post from: BizzArtic - Blogging Ideas and Tips

Telling Tales

How to Define Success?

Željan Topić — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 19:03:28 +0000

If you don’t know what you want to achieve or don’t know where you are heading, you’ll never know when you’ve reached it. Your idea of success may also be quite different from that of another business owner’s. So how to set up goals that would mach your personality and your own professional preferences?

Original image by: csitscenter

But if you do define your goals, what to do when’ve gotten it? It sounds like a never ending circle thus let me give you some possible goals you might pursue and reach with no trouble at all:

Money as Value

Most of people define their/others success by the amount of money they have. Well if you are doing business only for the mere bucks you’ll fail 99%. You could set a goal how much money you want to earn to feel great about but you’ll soon find out that you want more and more and more…(I won’t write more word further on as you’ve got the point now:). I won’t say that setting amount of money earned as goal is always going to be a failure but problem starts when you reach that goal. How will you motivate yourself to keep going? I gues you see my point.

Beeing your own boss

I am really amazed how much money people would give away only to be on their own and have their own business. Have to say I am bit like them but still take decisions on my common sense. I have a friend (won’t say the names as you probably don’t care anyway) that mutually agreed with his boss to take over a business to become a director. It sounds great but now he pays himself the amount of money he thinks is the best for the company. That amount is much lower and he has to worry about tons of things he never imagined would be his responisbilities. I asked him why he’s done that and he said it is only temporarily and that he knows what he’s doing,…eventhough I’ve piscked from his words that he is much happier now than ever before.

Work first family next?

A married small business owner with a family may have the intention to make a substantial living, but his or her personal definition of success may revolve around the family. Finding a happy balance between all aspects of life is often found as the driving force.

Personal vs. Professional goals

Before you outline what would make your business a success, take a moment to think about your own definition of success – both personal and professional. Remember, you are on a journey. Your success may be found in that journey. Success is not simply an end point; once you reach one goal or benchmark, there will be others to pursue.

Lessons learned:

Do what you like and leave if you’re not happy – now!
Empower your employees but not yourself!
Familiy, friends first, business next!
Combine your personal goals with professional ones, if that is not possible than chose your personal ones!
And do business for money, favours for others will hit you back like a rock (I meant that in business practice, so no hard feelings)!

If your definition of success is owning your own business and working from home, read article 10 Steps to Running a Successful Home-Based Business for tips on how to get your dream off the ground.

Post from: BizzArtic - Blogging Ideas and Tips

How to Define Success?

Making Money Without Lying?

Željan Topić — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:34:57 +0000

Sometimes I think how is it possible to make money and not lying about it. For instance, I am really trying to put all my efforts to show you how I make business, but on the other hand I already had two customers but didn’t write about. Well I didn’t lie about it I just didn’t tell and also this blog is ’bout a week old so it doesn’t matter really.

There are often heard words from people that are accusing marketers of lying – of selling ‘get rich quick’ products, taking advantage of hopes and dreams of the average perspective bizzmen just to take their money and then move on to the next sucker without really caring about the success of their customer. Thus let me put some lines on my commitment to fair and square bizz I stand behind.

Original image by: zen

So how will I do business and not lie about it?

Gaining Trust

Writting and informing my customers and readers about all the bizz steps I take is probably most notable effort I am doing to make them/you feel more comfortable to do business with me. My posts don’t include any financial information about individual projects but in future when I start a commercial project, I’ll include reports with all the info you want (in other words that means I’ll probably give you overall information about my monthly revenue from all projects – see, I am not lying:)

Being Honest

I will sell my customers the best services and products in the whole wide world. They will get everything cheaper than they would with the competition and even though all the products will be just the best.

Now how many times you’ve heard those words? People often tell lies and throw lots of nonsense to make you feel better. I’ll put it this way: I will sell you a product/service on a fair price that is probably bit higher than you expected and you’ll probably have no idea what on earth costs that much. But on the other hand you’ll get the best expirience I can give and you’ll go away happy – see, I am not lying:)

Being Myself

What I found out while reading blogs and articles over the web is that people often don’t like to expose themselves. Even if a blogger is the only one behind a website, he/she starts a lot of sentences with WE, OUR,…US…but why? Are they afraid to take responsibility for their actions (posts), are they just fencing themselves from possible failures or just want you to know that they are worth more than one individual?

I am the only individual behind this blog, and with only one I mean there’s just me and nobody else (except possible experts I’ll have to outsource if demand rises) – see, I am not lying:)

Privacy Concerns

Privacy is an increasing concern and a big issue for all business in the marketplace. Although enterprises promise sound privacy practices to their customers, there is no technical mechanism to enforce them internally. Access decisions are extended with obligations, which list a set of activities that must be executed together with the access request. Grantors allow to define a separation of duty between the security officer and the privacy officer…(Text used from Computer Security Foundations Workshop).

Now let’s talk for real. I managed to put my privacy policy and terms of conditions together but who really reads it? So I am lying that I care about your privacy or am I putting it all together just to prove my merit in a ‘secure’ online environment? Yes, you guest it, I would care if I had enough money to do that, but now I used Digg’s stuff to make all legal and to satisfy the minors – see, I am not lying:)

Final Advice if You’re a Bizzmen

Take a bit of time to craft the words together when selling stuff, believe in what you write and focus on products you know that will provide value to your customers. Be honest, and don’t lie, in long term you’ll have your dignity if everything else fails!

Post from: BizzArtic - Blogging Ideas and Tips

Making Money Without Lying?

BizzArtic » Advice

Telling Tales

Why the brain likes a good tale

It makes you think, doesn’t it?

How Does Storytelling apply to blogging?

Here are 30 storytelling blogs you’ll love:

Related Posts (auto generated)

How to Define Success?

Money as Value

Beeing your own boss

Work first family next?

Personal vs. Professional goals

Lessons learned:

Related Posts (auto generated)

Making Money Without Lying?

So how will I do business and not lie about it?

Related Posts (auto generated)