Story colored glasses

Thanks for the link, John. It is a similar pattern...

2010-02-19T10:27:14.296-08:00

Thanks for the link, John. It is a similar pattern, probably the same pattern.

Cynthia, I read a different blog post on a differe...

2010-02-18T08:19:59.577-08:00

Cynthia, I read a different blog post on a different topic, yet it had a lot of resonance with the essay you present here. It's by a business scholar named Roger Martin and you might find it an interesting read: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/02/false_friends_the_inauthentic.html

Yeah, that's exactly what I was talking about, and...

2010-02-03T13:37:44.808-08:00

Yeah, that's exactly what I was talking about, and the greatest thing is that you and they probably learned something not only about ancient Greece but about OUR time and culture as well.

Cynthia, this reminds me of a recent experience. M...

2010-02-03T12:53:57.590-08:00

Cynthia, this reminds me of a recent experience. My sons asked me to read them some of "the Odyssey" after we had gotten to talking about the Trojan War and what happened after.

Reading the real poem, in verse, I realized that the poetic language, mythical allusions, etc., were way way over their head, even if they understood most/all of the actual words.

So I found myself reading a few lines, then saying, "OK, the Cyclops is a son of Poseidon, so it's going to be difficult for them to escape via water, but that's the only way for them to leave. So, Odysseus is likely to find more trouble."

I was annotating like this every few lines. I think the kids got it, but it amazed me how much of the meaning was between the lines or connected in some fashion to the mythology, history and way of life of ancient Greece.

Hi Kathy, thanks for the comment (sorry for not re...

2010-01-27T11:22:10.056-08:00

Hi Kathy, thanks for the comment (sorry for not responding sooner, the email got filtered into spam for some reason). I'd like to learn more about any locastory movements. The only thing I've seen so far that fully qualifies is participatory theatre, where a group helps people (often young people) put on plays about, for, and in their own communities in order to make sense of some of the challenges they are facing. Everything else I've seen includes so much performance and polishing that it precludes true sharing. I'd be very happy to find out about more good stuff going on!

Great post, Cynthia. I think there actually is som...

2010-01-23T08:57:30.138-08:00

Great post, Cynthia. I think there actually is something of a locastory movement; I'll try to share some references on community storytelling later. LOVE the idea of a story CSA!

Thanks for posting a comment. Actually, whether it...

2010-01-12T17:09:31.574-08:00

Thanks for posting a comment. Actually, whether it is legally permissible to publish identifiable images of people at a private event without their permission is a gray area that hinges on the meaning of a "resonable expectation of privacy." Some people say that if the event is not on public property - a street or park - you need permission from each identifiable individual to publish the picture. Others say you can get away with more than that (though they are generally not lawyers).

But the legality of posting pictures is beside the point. You started out by describing the situation that "we are close friends." I would not BE close friends with you if you posted pictures of me without getting my permission. (Or if I was and you did, I'd be sure to let you know I didn't like it.) Some people feel differently and would not mind. But that's the point: people vary, and relationships vary, and groups vary. Getting along with others is full of nuances and idiosyncracies, and I don't think social software has yet done a very good job of working with the realities of social life.

I couldn't more disagree with you. Example : - ...

2010-01-11T08:09:06.675-08:00

I couldn't more disagree with you.

Example :

- We are close friends
- You come to my place for a supper or whatever kind of get together event
- During the GT, I decide to take a pic of you.
- Have I got the right to do what ever I want to do with that picture?
- Unless you EXPLICITELY take the time to mention to me before I take the picture that you want this picture to stay secret, you DON'T have the right to keep me from having it made into a T-Shirt picture if I want to. Hey I could have one of my house's walls covered with it if I'd want to.
- "I" am the beholder so "I" am the one to decide who when where why and how people see it.

I found it fun to have you at my place, I decided to let people know that I had a GT, I decided to let them know that you were part of it, so I decided to show them that pic. Where,s the friggin problem?

Next time you come to a GT to my place, I'll ask you to come hooded so nobody recognises you in the pics that I'll take.

Come on! Get serious!

Thanks Josh for the thoughtful comments. That's a ...

2010-01-05T16:03:37.005-08:00

Thanks Josh for the thoughtful comments. That's a good point that people need to imagine themselves in the situation. Asking people to take time to delve into metaphors was kind of the point of using the nature images - but I do wonder if I am asking too much there, or if it just comes off as confusing instead.

The problem with using images of people is not so much in finding a photographer as in finding subjects. You can't include pictures of people in commercial products without their permission. That's why stock photos cost something - they paid those people to have their pictures taken. So finding a local photographer is, I think, the easier part of the task. I have no idea what would be entailed in having a photographer hire people to model and to get signed releases from people. That all sounds way more complicated than just making a deal with one person.

If I used stock photography I could be sure I had the legal right to use all photos of the people portrayed. But ... stock photos tend to be stereotypical, and they don't lead people to think very deeply about what has been said. And they aren't free.

So, it's still a quandary. But thanks for your advice! I appreciate it!

Pictures tell a story just as much as your words. ...

2010-01-03T10:04:57.790-08:00

Pictures tell a story just as much as your words. The picture to the left is a little bland but at least there are people doing something, and the reader can well imagine themselves in that situation (mental simulation being a key ingredient for a great story). The leaf gives nothing more than some introspection if the reader even takes time to delve into the metaphor.

General Rule: Good pictures of people doing the things you are talking about always trump stock photography or overly artistic images.

Find a local photographer with some promise and trade full credit in your book and website for some work. Even a half decent photographer can take some great pictures, at least for your purposes.

... if can't think of one, contact my friend Robert Root, he's gifted and would be willing to trade I think (robertroot@hotmail.com)

Sorry about that! Mistake fixed.

2009-12-26T22:28:55.081-08:00

Sorry about that! Mistake fixed.

Actually, I'm the source of the Homer quote (not M...

2009-12-26T20:20:57.697-08:00

Actually, I'm the source of the Homer quote (not Mr. Wayne) - as you correctly indicated in your block quote near the top of your article - and I meant the oral tradition from which Homer came. Because that was indeed the epitome of democratic creation, in contrast to the written tradition that followed. More on this in New New Media, and in The Soft Edge.

Thanks, John. More thoughts about numbers of stori...

2009-12-02T11:14:03.897-08:00

Thanks, John. More thoughts about numbers of stories: Fifty stories is minimally tolerable but will get only the low-hanging fruit. I get nervous with so few stories. A hundred stories is a great number for getting most of what's useful without being overwhelmed.

But there is sometimes merit in pushing it up above 100, because doing that tends to sort the very important from the less important; you get more definition in your themes and patterns. I'm happy when I see 120 or 150 stories, especially if more than one issue is being explored. But at the same time, as soon as you get much over 100 stories you start hitting difficulties in distribution. The range between 100 and 150 is a sort of "sweet spot" for getting enough without getting overwhelmed.

When you get over 200 stories you get into dimishing returns for most projects. I've never seen a project with more than 200 stories (and I've seen some as high as 5000) do more than heap up more patterns of the same thing. If your goal is quantification or strong proof, or your topic is very broad or ambitious, heaping up patterns MAY be important. But for most projects it's just not worth it. And huge volumes close off other possibilities such as keeping within a scale that works for distribution. Collecting something that everybody in the company can read in a half hour may be more important than collecting large patterns, in some cases.

I like your point about insights that don't come out of the metadata. That's true, and it may be part of what saddens me about the shift in projects. Questions about stories should ADD to the insights gained from reading stories, not replace them. One could even say that collecting questions about stories and counting them up, without reading the stories themselves, is just another way to look into the looking glass without climbing through to the other side.

Love this post. Absolutely love it. On the project...

2009-12-02T06:45:06.793-08:00

Love this post. Absolutely love it. On the projects I've done, I've always found that the raw anecdotes get to people more than the graphs. They are what people remember.

As to volume of stories, assuming the scope of a story project is well defined, I've seen a lot of repetition, and few new insights, after 100 or so stories. Perhaps groups would be better served by focusing on the texts of the 50-100 stories than, as you write, looking at lots of reports.

I've also found that different insights come up from story texts vs. metadata. For example, a group found on one of my story projects (stories from sales calls), that a "customer confusion" pattern emerged. It was clear from the dialogues that this was happening, but it did not emerge from the metadata at all.

The client's insight was: "Wow, it is easy to confuse our prospects, because our products are complicated with lots of options, and our reps don't always explain them well. Oh, my--we are about to launch a new set of products that will give customers EVEN MORE options! We need to talk to the marketing folks right away!"

My guess is that "We don't encourage anecdotes" is...

2009-11-20T10:16:47.221-08:00

My guess is that "We don't encourage anecdotes" is code for "We don't encourage revealing the truth." :)

Hi Mike, being new to blogging I've asked my blogg...

2009-11-20T10:15:40.979-08:00

Hi Mike, being new to blogging I've asked my blogging mentor (John Caddell) and he said it IS proper to respond to blog comments. So, thanks for the kind words! I hope this stuff is useful to people making decisions about reaching people.

John, let's do that. I never finished War and Peac...

2009-11-20T10:13:46.744-08:00

John, let's do that. I never finished War and Peace. I was reading it on the train, and a guy said "Oh, you're reading War and Peace? How do you like it?" I said, "Well, it's great but there sure is a lot of this battle and that battle. I'm hoping that thins out." And he said, "No, it's pretty much that the whole way through." So my enthusiasum dropped off. But I should give it another chance. I love Tolstoy's other stuff, though I must admit I threw the book across the room when Anna Karenina died (and left it there for a few days in demonstration of my sense of betrayal).

I've gotten my most "visceral reading experiences" while reading pages of dense description! Like the parts in Henry James when you finally start to get an inkling of what is wrong (or the characters do). Maybe there are Hemingway readers and James readers, and the world needs both kinds (of readers and authors).

We should talk about old books sometime. Last wint...

2009-11-20T08:38:16.083-08:00

We should talk about old books sometime. Last winter I read the new translation of "War & Peace" and it was an unbelievable experience (though it took me the better part of two months to read it once). I have "The Brothers Karamazov" (again, new translation) on deck for December. That is one of my favorites that I haven't read in years and years.

One thing that has happened to novels is that they've gotten afflicted with "real-time" syndrome. Authors, to create a more visceral reading experience, use about the same time to describe a moment as the moment takes in real time. Like a movie. (Or they summarize like heck. For me, that only works if you're Joseph Heller.) Or they focus on first person narrations where the narrator's voice is the focus. Rarely if ever do they slow things down.

I love the idea of making stories happen...rather ...

2009-11-11T20:14:16.772-08:00

I love the idea of making stories happen...rather than just 'telling'.

Advance the action or reveal the character.

Thanks for the read.

Hey Frank, I agree that stories can't be pulled a...

2009-11-11T12:04:17.668-08:00

Hey Frank,

I agree that stories can't be pulled apart. I'm not advocating pulling them apart (at least I didn't mean to!). What I *am* advocating is adding packing material to the *outside* of the story to help it travel better. People can do this by including some of the "story of the story" along with the story whenever possible. Tinkering usually pertains to messing with the insides of a thing, and I'm trying to advocate the opposite of that.

Also I never suggest "analysing" stories for exactly the reason you give - that stories can't be taken apart and put back together again. That's why I talk about "catalyzing" and sensemaking with stories.

So, we agree! I'd also add that even if a story does *not* bypass the intellect but engages it fully, that is *still* no reason to tear it apart. The coherence of stories has to do with their unique communicative structure, not on the absence of reason or intellect. People thinking there can be no reasoning in stories is one of the reasons stories are one of the underappreciated workhorses of communication.

Hmmm. My worry is that stories can be delicate thi...

2009-11-11T10:49:24.006-08:00

Hmmm. My worry is that stories can be delicate things that might not stand up to being pulled apart.

It's like when I write fictional stories there arrives a point when any further tinkering will destroy the integrity of the story.

A good story hits you at a level which bypasses the intellect.

Sometimes a good story will have no meaning for you until something happens in your life and you say "Aha! So that's what that story was about!:

A good story has many levels of meaning. I'm talking here of fictional learning stories. True stories also have these attributes, the degree depending on the story.

What I'm saying is not contradicting you. I'm just a little uneasy of analysing stories.

I think people often tell stories all the time and...

2009-11-11T10:39:00.702-08:00

I think people often tell stories all the time and are not aware of it.

Ask them to tell a story and they clam up.

Step back and let the conversation flow and you won't be able to shut them up.

That's why I'm a little sad that now at work one day seminars or annual refresher courses the instructors (I refuse point blank to use that ugly and misleading term "facilitators") discourage story telling often dismissing them by saying "We don't encourage anecdotes."

Frank

Cynthia, this post made me realize something about...

2009-11-09T06:10:29.617-08:00

Cynthia, this post made me realize something about Ken Burns' Civil War series (possibly a good example of telling a story by having others tell stories).

As I recall watching the series, a couple of times, I can't recall that he ever quoted news stories of the time. If he did, it wasn't often.

On the other hand, Burns used personal letters extensively, throughout the series, to tell the story.

To him, anyway, professional journalism from the time was not as useful as personal stories. Not by a long shot.

The train story is a great story, and can't be in ...

2009-11-03T14:10:39.164-08:00

The train story is a great story, and can't be in too many places!

Cynthia, welcome to the blogosphere. These posts a...

2009-10-23T11:34:18.792-07:00

Cynthia, welcome to the blogosphere. These posts are fantastic - more like book chapters than mere blogging! Can't wait to read the next 6... regards, John