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2. CBQ REVIEW ESSAY: Listen Deeply, Tell Stories, Spin Yarns:

Books on Personal, Organizational and Digital Storytelling Skills
by Betsy Butler
For centuries, the oral tradition of storytelling has allowed people to share their personal
experiences and cultural traditions. People tell stories not only to make sense of, but also to
help them remember, their lives. Because stories entertain, educate, and enlighten, they also
allow people to feel more connected and less alone.
Social and broadcast media have reinforced the importance of storytelling. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube make it simple for individuals to tell stories about their lives and the
products and services they use. People who want to share personal stories have found a great
partner in StoryCorps, an oral history project that offers individuals the opportunity to record,
share, and preserve their stories. Since 2003, StoryCorps has collected more than 35,000 interviews from more than 70,000 participants, the projects website reports. Each story is recorded
on a free CD for sharing and all are preserved at the Library of Congresss American Folklife
Center; many are also aired on National Public Radio.
Storytelling also enhances an organizations business potential. It can increase customer
loyalty, emphasize positive experiences and diffuse negative ones, strengthen a brand, and
attract customers. Moreover, relating past events can help not only to share an organizations
history, vision, and values, but also to create a community of shared meaning and purpose
among a diverse group of employees.
Seasoned business professionals realize that a story can facilitate understanding and personal connections in ways that facts, numbers, statistical data, and PowerPoint slides cannot.
Public speakers rely on storytelling to capture attention and foster emotional connections, and
leaders use it to communicate important themes, convince others of a certain viewpoint, and
inspire transformation in a group.
Digital storytelling is a powerful, modern spin on the ancient practice of storytelling. By
weaving together narrative, images, music, and voice, it creates multidimensional characters
and situations. Voice-overs, sound effects, and visual images enhance first-person narratives,
transforming stories power to communicate lessons learned through a life experience. Because
digital stories are only three to five minutes long, the storyteller has to choose every word,
image, and sound carefully.
Digital storytelling surfaced in California in the early- to mid-1990s, when workshops
began to be offered for people to learn how to use digital media to create short stories about
their lives. At the Center for Digital Storytelling in Asheville, North Carolina, workshops
begin with the story circle, an exercise designed to loosen up participants storytelling capabilities by sharing ideas spontaneously and quickly. Verbal games, making lists and writing
make-believe scenarios are ways people learn to tell their stories. The Center for Digital Storytellings taglineListen deeply, tell storieshas relevance to anyone who wants to tell
their story.
For over a century, the publishing industry has capitalized on the strength of storytelling
through book jackets, where a well-designed single image captures the essence of a work. Today, authors and publishers like Random House are realizing the potential of digital storytelling
to generate exposure and revenue for authors. Book-based digital games not only introduce

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works to new, younger audiences, but also deepen fans interaction with their characters and
plots. Novels written and read on cell phones have become all the rage in Japan.
Likewise, CellStories provides a 1500-word short story or essay daily for cell phonereading. CommentPress is transforming reading and writing into a social experience by allowing
people to make notes in the digital margins of a book and to participate in discussions with
other readers. Collaborating with media company Six to Start, the British branch of Penguin
books explored new ways to tell stories in the We Tell Stories project. As part of the
project, British spy novelist Charles Cumming used Google Maps to give readers a place-based,
interactive experience in The 21 Steps, a digital story based on John Buchans espionage
tale, The 39 Steps. By clicking pointer-bubbles, the reader not only can trace the protagonists
path from London to Edinburgh, but also can see real places in the context of the story.
Libraries facilitate and promote the practice of storytelling by sharing historical tales
and the stories of communities through archival collections. Moreover, stories help libraries
market their collections and services, showing the impact they have on the lives of their users.
Museums share stories about objects by adding interactive digital components to exhibits.
Storytelling also appeals to educators. Teachers use stories to pose questions and bring
subjects to life. Through Columbia Universitys Medical Narrative program, medical students
and physicians alike are trained to become better listeners to the words patients choose and
the narratives their patients tell them, resulting in more effective medical treatment. Teachers
are expanding the reach of the kindergarten practice of the storytelling circle, which not
only teaches shared leadership, but also fosters face-to-face collaboration. It also integrates
media literacy into the curriculum. Moreover, storytelling offers a hands-on, project-based
learning experience, engaging even the most at-risk student to see the connection between
life experiences and school.
In this era of rapid change, new digital technologies are also helping marketing departments tell their stories in innovative, effective ways. Corporate communications teams are
delivering information in a three-dimensional format, through graphics, and in immersive,
interactive visual environments. Video editing programs can create simple digital stories that
elegantly deliver a key message. A multimedia slide show called VoiceThread allows contributions by multiple storytellers through voice, text, audio file, or video.
Nokias Conspiracy for Good project created social benefit storytelling, a form of
entertainment that connects people for the purpose of doing good. A narrative is told through
the projects website, Twitter, Facebook and other media platforms; a mobile application allows
readers to find, photograph and create tags for objects, providing clues to the story in the real
world. Clues not only allowed the story to move forward, but also created an immersive story
that played out around the readers. The project proved that becoming part of a story is an
effective way to engage and mobilize people to become involved in creating positive change
in the world.
Farmers are even experimenting with digital storytelling. Passion for the Land, a project
of the University of California, Davis, told the story of the importance of preserving agriculture and rural life. Project organizers believed that the public needed to hear from rural
entrepreneurs about what its like to live off the land; personal stories leave an impression on
policymakers in ways that reports and testimony cannot.
The ancient art of storytelling is thriving. In fact, it seems to have become a trend, as
revealed in the October 2011 issue of Spirit, the in-flight magazine of Southwest Airlines. The

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Art of Storytelling introduced readers to several unique storytellers. For example, comic artists
and siblings Peter and Maria Hoey tell multiple stories simultaneously by gridding out a single
scene. Graphic designer Doogie Horner tells stories through flowcharts. Illustrator Christoph
Niemann creates sequences of drawing-embellished photographs to tell stories and includes
them in Abstract City, a blog he created for the New York Times; some of Niemanns pieces
will be compiled in a book in 2012. The article also highlighted O. T. Powell, a storyteller
featured in The Moth, a storytelling nonprofit that shares stories that are less than 15 minutes
long through podcasts, public radio broadcasts, and live performances in four American cities.
It also mentioned Six Word Stories (http://www.sixwordstories.net/), a collection of the briefest
of stories by famous and regular people alike that was inspired by the bet Ernest Hemingway
won in the 1920s for writing a complete story in just six words.
Whether youre interested in telling your own story, or one designed to foster leadership
or corporate loyalty, the following titles are fine resources to acquire.

A. Personal Storytelling
43:195
The Elements of Story: Field Notes on Nonfiction Writing by Francis Flaherty (New York:
HarperCollins, 2010$15.99, paper, ISBN 978-0-06-168915-4, 320 pages) offers 50 storylevel principles from a New York Times journalist who has learned how to weave tales in
the Story Doctoring Room. To Flaherty, story doctoring is about making every word count
in creating riveting, persuasive prose. He begins by discussing the importance of giving your
subject a human face by describing emotions and creating empathy in the listener. Next,
he underlines the importance of being loyal to the storys theme, saying what you mean
by choosing verbs carefully, exploring your subject, including opponents viewpoints, and
carefully selecting things to include. Flaherty suggests that since reading is meant to entertain,
writers can include historical tidbits to create a brief meander. In the third part of the
book, Flaherty describes how to keep the story moving by describing and explaining the
scenery, using metaphor and simile, and varying sentence structure. However, he advises not
to use breathless proseextreme adjectives, splashy verbs, outsized claims, and alarmist
punctuationto encourage reader interest. Grouping similar points together, employing the
senses, writing descriptions in new ways, describing witnessed events, saying things sideways
so as not to divulge everything to the reader, and using quotations liberally and symbols
carefully are other tips Flaherty shares in the fourth and fifth parts of the book. Next, Flaherty
gives several examples of how to write a good, curiosity-building lead, including the plainspeaking Harry Truman lead. To illustrate which leads work better, he offers a fact lead
and an anecdote lead for three imaginary stories and invites readers to pick their favorite. He
introduces the concept of the billboard paragraph, a key element of longer stories that guides
the reader to the works major area, and the kicker, or the end of the story. He concludes
by discussing how to compose a title and a subtitle and how to play with words so that
readers can solve a puzzle and read between the lines. Quoting from writers like Nicholson
Baker and John McPhee and offering plenty of well-chosen examples, Flaherty shows that
if you tell about the things you love, the difficult craft of writing can be enjoyable and
rewarding.

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43:196
Once Upon a Time: Using Story-Based Activities to Develop Breakthrough Communication Skills by Terrence L. Gargiulo (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, 2007$55.00, ISBN 9780-787-98535-6, 240 pp.) is a well-organized, understandable, and results-based approach to
organizational storytelling. The first part of the book offers story-based techniques and tools
for developing breakthrough communication. In the first chapter, Gargiulo, a skilled storybased communications workshop leader, discusses how stories function, what role they plan
in effective communication, how stories can lead to experiential learning, the five levels on
which stories operate, and nine ground rules for working with stories. Fortune 500 companybased research yielded a competency model and tool for assessing command of story-based
communication, which is the feature of the second chapter. Practical techniques for using
stories for sense-making is the subject of the third chapter. Here, the author offers experiential activities for leading discussions that help to elicit stories from others. In the second
part of the book, Gargiulo presents a collection of story-based activities, tips and techniques
for developing communication skills while selecting and telling stories. Each exercise presents
objectives, necessary materials, directions, post-activity discussion guidelines, sample variations, tips for implementation, and applications to groups best suited to the exercise. Sample
exercises include study tours, where participants visit public places to become aware of and
discuss how perceptions are formed; random conversations, where newspaper and magazine
articles are used to help people experience not only how stories can be triggered by stimuli, but also to develop the ability to scan information to find personal connections; story
scrapbooking, where scrapbooking techniques are used to create a conversation piece that
will encourage discussion; and the Story Collage, which includes Story Hubs (short descriptions of stories and associated words to encourage recall of the story). The book concludes
with several story energizers, fun, short story-based exercises for reinvigorating a group.
Discussion of active listening, answering questions with a story, using metaphors and analogies, telling stories to change perspectives, and employing tone and body language to tell
a story are some of the suggestions presented here. Throughout the text, tip boxes present
suggestions on eliciting and selecting stories, while tables and figures illustrate pertinent facts,
such as the story-based communication competency model. A summary and list of key points
concludes each chapter. The appendix features an article on the importance of listening
and sample workshop agendas for combining the tools and activities found in the book.
An accompanying CD-ROM includes sample relaxation scripts; a sample Story Collage, together with a form and text; and guidance on selecting a story tip sheet. The CD-ROM
also includes handouts related to the nine functions of stories and their effects; the storybased communication competency model; the animated competency model; and bonus audio
story files.
43:197
Tell to Win: Connect, Persuade, and Triumph with the Hidden Power of Story by Peter Guber (New York: Crown Business, 2011$26.00, ISBN 978-0-307-58795-4, 272 pp.)
applies the authors experiences as a movie producer, sports team owner and university professor to communicate the power of purposeful storytelling: persuading others to support your
vision or cause. Guber takes the reader through examples of how storytelling can motivate
executives, shape the media, engage customers, and sell an individual. Using an abundance

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of personal narratives about well-known individuals to prove his point, Guber begins by
defining a purposeful story: one that features challenge, struggle and resolution. He describes
how to build a story by realizing what interests listeners, getting their attention, connecting with them by sharing an emotional experience, and offering a resolution that calls them
to action. Discussing the hidden power of backstories, which result from memories of past
experiences, Guber suggests how backstories can be a powerful ally with listeners, and that
repetition of backstories can produce different results. Turning to how to put a story to
work and win over listeners, Guber emphasizes the importance of preparation in mastering
the art of telling a story. Ensuring that the story has a purpose, is relevant, authentic, and
has a conclusion is just as important as the way in which a story is told. Finding the right
context in which to tell a story, using how that context colors your story to your advantage, and selecting the right hero for your story are other important suggestions that Guber
makes. To find raw material for a story, he suggests firsthand and witnessed experiences; information scenarios, where research is converted into stories; using metaphors and analogies
to encourage imagination; and drawing inspiration from history, books and movies. Turning to how to tell a story, Guber encourages capturing the listeners attention through body
language, props, arousing curiosity, and active listening, since stories are dialogues, not monologues. To make a story endure, he suggests identifying the essential elements in the story
and encouraging audiences to retell your story in their own voice and through their own
experience. To conclude, Guber discusses the future of storytelling, including the use of storyboards, social media and new forms of technology. Each chapter concludes with a summary
of key points.
43:198
The Power of Story: Rewrite Your Destiny in Business and in Life by Jim Loehr (New
York: Free Press, 2008$15.00, paper, ISBN 978-0-7432-9468-3, 288 pp.) examines how
we tell stories about ourselves. Loehr begins by looking at the story that a company tells
its workers, then proceeds to examine the stories that people tell about their work, family,
health, happiness and friendships. He explores how to capture the storys purpose correctly,
question its premise, establish its theme, and ensure that the action of the story aligns well
with its purpose. He also suggests how stories can indoctrinate their listeners, how values
and beliefs affect storytelling, and how to distinguish between your private voice and your
public voice. Loehr offers how to measure a storys workability and success by the three rules
of storytelling: purpose; truth; and action. He describes reminders of how our physical state
influences the stories we tell, showing how these hidden stories can contaminate our current
stories. Enumerating how to embed a new story into your life by indoctrination, Loehr suggests
that the most effective way to do this is to write, think about, visualize and talk about it,
finally deliberately acting it out by your new behavior. To turn story into action, he presents
training missions and supporting rituals to turn your life into the story you want it to tell.
To finish and provide accountability for a story about your relationship to your work, Loehr
presents a checklist that enumerates key areas where needs are aligned or heading toward
alignment. Finally, the book presents eight steps in storyboarding the transformation process
of your life story, with a sample daily training log after which to model. Exercises hone readers
ability to write their current and their new story, their ultimate mission, faulty assumptions
they make, and dynamics of storytelling.

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43:199
The Story Factor: Secrets of Influence from the Art of Storytelling by Annette Simmons
(New York: Basic Books, 2006 [rev. ed.]$16.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-465-07807-3, 299 pp.)
explores three trends: the rebirth of and appreciation for the art of storytelling; the growing
realization in the business community that thriving organizations need whole people working for them; and the success of practical psychology in helping to achieve lasting influence
through relationships. Using personal stories to help readers start thinking about their own
stories, Simmons shows how the story can be used to persuade, motivate and inspire. She
begins by presenting six types of stories that can lead to effectively influencing people: Who
I Am; Why I Am Here; The Vision; Teaching; Values-in-Action; and I Know
What You Are Thinking stories. Next, she defines stories by showing how they can shape
perceptions, provide factual, narrative accounts of events, simplify concepts for understanding,
transform people into evangelists, make order out of chaos, address opposing sentiments, and
communicate viewpoints. After presenting a number of situations that show how stories were
used to simulate experiences, Simmons helps the reader learn how to tell the perfect story.
She outlines how we convey information through our tone, pauses and packing, gestures, facial
expression and body language. Revealing the psychology of a storys influence, she not only
offers ways to connect with listeners before convincing them to change their minds, but also
suggests that a good story can be hypnotic. To show the influence of story, she describes five
common reactions faced when trying to persuade the resistant and how a good story can overcome them. Likewise, she underlines the importance of storylistening, a genuine, active, and
respectful attentiveness to a story being told. Offering dos and donts of storytelling, Simmons
concludes that the secret of telling an influential story is one based on believing that the teller
can make a difference. To become a good storyteller, she suggests seven techniques for finding
stories in daily life, including incorporating personal stories into conversations with coworkers
and appreciating a good story when you hear one. This revised edition concludes with a new
chapter on story thinking as a skill, addressing issues that prohibit the growth of storytelling
as a useful tool. Three stories illustrate how story thinking increases the number and quality of
stories you find, hear and tell. Finally, a case study applies the six-story framework to real-life
situations, offering a step-by-step storytelling guide to demonstrate practical application in
organizations. The book concludes with an extensive resource list that presents information
on storytelling festivals, conferences, artistic performances, academic journals and courses.
43:200
Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins: How to Use Your Own Stories to Communicate with
Power and Impact by Annette Simmons (New York: AMACOM, 2007$22.00, ISBN 9780-81440-914-5, 240 pp., bibliography, index) is an effective tool for learning how to integrate
more stories in communication in order to develop a presence. To begin, Simmons presents
the concept of story thinking, or how storytelling can allow people to reinterpret what
the facts of a story mean to them, leading to new points of view, behavioral changes, and
the potential to change the future. After setting aside misconceptions about storytelling and
storyteller talents, she defines a story as a reimagined experience narrated with enough detail
and feeling to cause your listeners imaginations to experience it as real (p. 19). She suggests
that by paying more attention to the stories we tell, we can not only be more mindful about
the perceptions we build and sustain, but also can create the kind of results we desire to see at

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work, in our families, and in our communities. To define her point, Simmons presents six types
of stories: Who I Am; Why I Am Here; Teaching; Vision; Value in Action; and I Know What
You Are Thinking. Next, she offers specific ways that the brain can be trained to think in
story, rather than to block imagination by summarizing information. Telling winning stories
is a matter of finding stories that will communicate a message, that are enjoyable to tell,
and that are told in real-life situations, so Simmons suggests where to find stories, how to
elicit feedback on storytelling, and how to train a listener. To develop mental habits that
make it easy to find, develop, and tell stories, Simmons presents ideas for each of those six
types of stories that provide opportunities to practice translating an idea into a story, testing
that story, recording results, and refining stories. For each type of story, she encourages the
reader to think about times when they were successful and not so successful; a mentor; and a
book, movie or current event, and then develop a story based on those thoughts. To perfect
storytelling, Simmons suggests creating mental images and sensory associations, researching
the audiences experiences by interacting with them, and practicing ways to develop vivid
descriptions that can build context for the story. Discussing the importance of brevity in
storytelling, Simmons identifies the causes that undermine good communication. Next, she
turns to brand, organizational and political stories and how influential storytelling results from
the ability to establish a point of view. She concludes by describing how to listen for and to
stories, including how to be truly present for other peoples words and meaning.
B. Organizational Storytelling
43:201
Storytelling Organizations by David M. Boje (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2008$54.95, paper, ISBN 978-1-4129-2977-6, 288 pp., references, index) begins with Bojes definition of a
Storytelling Organization: a collective storytelling system in which the performance of stories
is a key part of members sensemaking and a means to allow them to supplement individual
memories with institutional memory (p. 1). To begin this scholarly text, Boje explains how
narrative and story differ: narrative is a controlled, complete telling with a beginning, middle, and end; story is less cohesive and more apt to be disordered. In developing a theory of
sensemaking types, Boje discusses eights ways of narrative and story sensemaking, including
retrospective narrative sensemaking (narratives with a beginning, middle and end plot structure); emotive-ethical storytelling that appeals to the listeners capacity to help; here-and-now
sensemaking; and prospective ways of sensemaking (picking up context as the story moves).
In the books first chapter, Boje presents a new concept of systemicity, the dynamic, unfinished and interactive properties of storytelling. Next, Boje describes how the dialogism of
storytelling (different voices, styles and ideas) differs from narrative, particularly how emergent
stories (spontaneous tales including gossip, rumors, and fads) have a role in leadership and
strategy. He follows with a discussion of developing different types of collective memory in
Storytelling Organizations and their relationship to emergent, here-and-now stories. In the
second part of the book, Boje applies these concepts to strategies. For example, polyphonic
strategy stories are collectively written and told by all the stakeholders to an organization.
Strategy narratives discussing an organizations motto, mission, vision, and founding story are
particularly important examples of polyphonic strategy stories because they share an organizations character with stakeholders. In the books third part, Boje explores how story consulting

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is done to change relationships with stakeholders. New forms include restorying (constructing
a new narrative out of lesser-known episodes in an organizations history), positive dialog and
debate. Finally, Boje examines issues of the living story method, which involves how a tale
emerges and morphs until its teller forgets to share it any more. To conclude, Boje describes
a Socratic Story Symposium with historical figures where forensic methods for studying living
story and dead narrative fragments, exploring imagination, and employing listening techniques
are explored.
43:202
Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation
by Tim Brown, with Barry Katz (New York: Harper Business, 2009$27.99, ISBN 978-0-06176608-4, 272 pp.) introduces the concept of design thinking, using observations as a strategic
way to transform problems into opportunities. The first part of the book focuses on how design
thinking can be applied to business. Brown begins by demonstrating how design thinking takes
place in groups, resulting in innovative, serious play to implement ideas. Then, he turns to
three reinforcing elements of design thinking: insight, observation and empathy. Next, Brown
discusses how brainstorming, prototypes and visual thinking help to express ideas. Showing
how we can design experiences that create opportunities for people to actively participate,
Brown suggests that by building an experience culture, everyone becomes a design thinker.
Storytelling helps design thinking to thrive, Brown says. Scenarios, a form of storytelling
in which a potential future situation is described using words and pictures, keep people at
the center of ideas and problem-solving. Stories can also be used to introduce a meme, or
an idea that changes behavior, attitudes or perceptions. Storiesparticularly those told in
the context of advertisingshould be told in a meaningful, compelling way if they are to
be heard, Brown says. Stories should be included in every aspect of a project, an ongoing,
engaging narrative throughout the process. In the second part of the book, Brown shows how
design thinking can be applied to the problems facing business and society. Organizations can
be transformed by incorporating designers creative problem-solving skills into larger strategic
initiatives, such as shifting to a customer-centered service mentality and other opportunities
to directly engage with people. Using a number of examples of effective storytelling, Brown
shows how design thinking engages an audience, particularly when customers are allowed to
write the last chapter of the story themselves. He concludes by providing a list of ways design
thinking can help to make businesses more profitable and our lives more meaningful.
43:203
Storytelling for Grantseekers: A Guide to Creative Nonprofit Fundraising by Cheryl A.
Clarke (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009 [2nd ed.]$29.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-4703-81229, 224 pp., appendix, index) updates a text that seeks to change the readers approach to
writing. Clarke suggests that grant applications can be enhanced and be made more readable
by employing the same techniques for fiction writing, such as incorporating heroes, conflicts,
and inspirational visions. First, Clarke describes how to prepare for the grantseeking process,
including researching, identifying and developing a relationship with a target audience of
funders most likely to award a grant. After covering letters of inquiry, Clarke demonstrates
how to present a story effectively in a proposal narrative, including understanding the story arc;
developing a narrative hook; introducing the characters and setting; using data and statistics

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effectively; addressing the climax of the story through goals and objectives; writing an epilogue
with a compelling evaluation section; and planning for a sequel through opportunities for future
funding. To demonstrate how proposal stories are told both in words and in numbers, Clark
explains how to translate a narrative into a proposal budget, including a helpful discussion of
different types of expected revenues and expenses, in-kind contributions, cash flow analysis
and financial statements. Finally, she covers how to market and package a proposal. Here, she
describes why the summary is like a book jacket; how to craft persuasive titles and headings;
and preparing the proposal for submission. The book concludes with two new chapters in
this edition; one describes site visits and communications with funders while proposals are
pending and after a decision has been reached, while another shows how grantwriting skills
are transferable to other fundraising areas. Each chapter offers a summary of key points, while
examples from actual grant proposals provide illustrative examples. Exercises that incorporate
the storytelling approach provide active learning opportunities for readers to practice these
grantwriting techniques. An appendix provides two letter proposal samples.
43:204
The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations by
Stephen Denning (Boston: Butterworth Heinemann, 2001$42.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-75067355-6, 248 pp., bibliography, index) tells the story of how Denning realized storytellings
power in persuading people to understand new ideas, adopt new attitudes, and accept and
become enthusiastic about change. Recognizing the many strengths of stories, Denning wondered why the potential of storytelling had such little recognition. He suggests that a certain
kind of storythe springboard storyenables organizational change. It has impact because
it helps listeners visualize ideas quickly and in a nonthreatening way. In the book, Denning
describes why springboard stories work well with certain audiences and outlines the principles
that can achieve a particular effect. The springboard story is told by a protagonist in a predicament that is not only typical of an organizations business, but also familiar to listeners so that
new stories can be created in their minds. Denning shares personal stories about knowledgesharing and how he realized that a story that rings true can create meaning for an audience
and help them accept change. Then, he progresses to how a storyteller can communicate a
vision, share an idea, and transmit meaning with an audience. In the third part of the book,
Denning offers suggestions for crafting the springboard story, performing the story before an
audience, building the story, and embodying the idea in the listeners minds. He concludes
by sharing the results of introducing change in his organization and what he learned in the
process. The most helpful part of the book can be found in the appendices. Here, Denning
provides characteristics of the elements for developing the springboard story; elements for
using visual aids in storytelling; elements for performing the springboard story; four different
structures to build up the springboard story; examples of springboard stories; and a knowledge
management chart.
43:205
Organizational Storytelling for Librarians by Kate Marek (Chicago: American Library Association, 2011$50.00, paper, ISBN 978-0-8389-1079-5, 120 pp., resource list, index) applies the
insights of Stephen Denning, Annette Simmons and other organizational storytelling authors
from the business community to the library setting. Marek begins by defining organizational

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storytelling as learning how to share experiences and make connections with people, ideas and
values effectively in the workplace. Then, she focuses on three categories of organizational
storytelling: stories for organizations; stories for leadership; and stories for building community.
Sharing some unique applications of organizational storytelling for libraries, Marek describes
how personal stories can not only manage change, but also communicate a leaders vision, values and behavioral expectations. Readers are introduced to the springboard story, a 29-word
change management technique to help listeners see new possibilities for an organization. They
also discover the sacred bundle, a collection of stories about important people and events in
an organizations history that help to build organizational culture among employees, and how
defining that sacred bundle can be an effective teambuilding exercise for staff and management
alike. Describing how organizational storytelling can help a library assess its services to the
community, Marek relates the DOK Agora: Storyboard of Your Life and Living Library
programs as ways to begin a conversation with community members. Next, Marek turns to
telling stories through buildings. Presenting four case studies of library building, expansion and
renovation projects, she shows the potential to enhance users experiences through exterior
architecture, interior design, unique location, and growing efforts for libraries to become the
Third Place, where people can meet, talk, learn and have fun. Marek concludes by providing guidance on how to develop a storytelling skill set, including matching types of stories to
specific situations and ways to generate story ideas from within an organization.
C. Storytelling and Leadership
43:206
The Leaders Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative by Stephen Denning (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011 [rev. ed.]$27.95, ISBN 978-0470-54867-7, 368 pp., bibliography, index) shows how storytelling can be used to encourage
collaboration and future action. Recognizing that storytellers can make an audience engrossed
in what they say, while leaders can often confuse their audiences, Denning suggests that the
best way to communicate with those you are trying to lead is often through a story. Employing numerous examples of personal stories to make his point, he demonstrates how to
use different narrative patterns to deal with the difficult challenges leaders face. In the first
part of the book, Denning discusses the role of story in organizations. Choosing the right
story for the leadership challenge at hand is the subject of the first chapter. Denning offers
a helpful sidebar and table that outline kinds of narrative patterns in stories, including those
that spark action, communicate who you are and who the company is, transmit values, foster collaboration, tame rumors, share knowledge, and lead people into the future. Next, he
addresses four key elements of storytelling performance: style; truth; preparation; and delivery, which is accompanied by a sidebar describing different styles of storytelling. In the third
chapter, Denning discusses how to use the narrative of a springboard story to ignite action
and implement new ideas for the future. He also suggests ways to avoid pitfalls of springboard
stories, such as steering clear of a story that lacks an uplifting ending, not employing the
negative to spark enthusiasm, and handling bad news. Sidebars reveal how to incorporate the
springboard story into a presentation and offer a template for crafting the springboard story.
Then, Denning describes how to use narrative to communicate who you are, through humor,
a positive tone and an interesting context. The chapter also includes a related discussion and

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template to follow in deciding the purpose of your life. Turning to the important, powerful
ways in which social media offer opportunities for organizations to tell their stories, Denning
provides suggestions for crafting the story of the character of the firm. He then discusses how
to use narrative to transmit organizational values and to get things done collaboratively, using
an extensive sidebar to provide examples of four patterns of working together. In demonstrating how to use narrative to share knowledge and understanding, Denning provides a helpful
list of approaches for retaining the knowledge of departing staff. Similarly, Denning suggests
how to use narrative techniques like satire and counterstories to dispel gossip and rumor. To
conclude, Denning outlines the seven principles of continuous innovation and explores interactive leadership, where every persons perspective is taken into account and overall moral
direction is present.
43:207
The Secret Language of Leadership: How Leaders Inspire Action through Narrative by
Stephen Denning (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, 2007$27.95, ISBN 978-0-7879-8789-3,
304 pp., appendices, index) explores how leaders connect with and engage their audiences. In
this sequel to The Leaders Guide to Storytelling (immediately above), Denning begins with
a powerful story about losing his job with World Bank and how he became a sought-after
expert who employs narrative techniques to different challenges of leadership. Then, he gets
down to the business of exploring how communications tools can be used to the greatest
effect in transformational leadership. First, Denning explores the 10 mistakes transformational
leaders make. Here, he suggests that abstract arguments and body language can fail to engage and inspire audiences, while the assertive, enthusiastic, and attention-getting language
of leadership encourages and reinforces desire for change. By calling attention to the three
steps in the language of leadershipgetting attention, stimulating desire, and reinforcing with
reasonDenning introduces narrative intelligence (the ability to understand, act and react
adeptly) and why it is key to leadership. In the second part of the book, Denning explores
the language of leadership, including articulating a clear, inspiring goal by committing to
the goal and making it happen, mastering the audiences story, and finding and encouraging
new leaders. Next, he describes how to change minds by cultivating narrative intelligence,
or knowing what effects different narrative patterns can have in situations. Telling truthful
stories, communicating distinctiveness, and the body language of leadership are also covered
in this section. The third part of the book explores ways to attract an audiences attention,
encourage desire, reinforce that desire with reasons, and continue the conversation. Along
the way, Denning employs storytelling techniques about actual experiences to convey his information in powerful ways. By enumerating storytelling techniques about handling adversity,
recognizing the audiences problems, asking questions, using metaphors, issuing a challenge,
admitting vulnerability, and creating a frame by inviting an audience to look at a subject from
a certain perspective, Denning illustrates that once the language of leadership is learned, any
idea for change can have a great impact. Tables illustrating the utility of various communication devices for getting attention serve as helpful desktop reference tools. Appendices include
Dennings 1996 presentation to the Change Management Committee of the World Bank,
a number of exercises to facilitate preparation of the various communication tools discussed
in the book, and a quiz testing the readers understanding of how narratives work (answers
are provided).

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43:208
The Elements of Persuasion: Use Storytelling to Pitch Better, Sell Faster & Win More
Business by Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman (New York: Collins, 2007$19.95, ISBN
978-0-06-117903-7, 242 pp., exercises, bibliography, index) suggests that good leaders know
how to tell a story in order to sell products, build morale, inspire their employees to be
innovative problem-solvers, and achieve a healthy profit. Maxwell, a screen and television
writer-producer, and Dickman, an executive coach and teacher of narrative strategies, employ
their experiences to create a formula for constructing winning stories. All successful stories
have five elements: the passion with which the story is told; a hero; an antagonist or obstacle
that the hero must overcome; a moment of awareness that allows the hero to prevail; and
a resulting transformation in the hero and in the world. The authors discuss how to make
personal persuasion work for storytelling, such as how to increase your likeability in the
first 60 seconds of your presentation and the importance of including an element of surprise;
how to motivate people; how to build trust by showing how a hero personifies a core quality
of a business; and how to find common ground with your listeners. For a story to stick in
listeners memories and persuade them to act, the authors encourage using emotion, visual
elements and verbal repetitions to present the facts. They also suggest ways to develop listening
skills, read nonverbal communications, condense a company story down to a simple phrase
or sentence, and create an appealing environment in which your story can be told. Plenty of
iconic examples from recent history, the business world and popular culture provide models
to follow in creating the right story that, if given at the right time, can help to shape and
organize listeners thoughts.
43:209
The Leaders Edge: Six Creative Competencies for Navigating Complex Challenges by Charles
J. Palus and David M. Horth (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002$32.95, ISBN 978-0-78790999-4, 304 pp., appendices, index) outlines the six keys to creative leadership that are promoted at the Center for Creative Leadership. These include paying attention; personalizing,
or using life experiences to gain insight into and overcome group challenges; imaging, making
sense of complex information by using pictures, stories and metaphors; serious play; co-inquiry,
continuing a meaningful dialogue across boundaries of language, culture, and professional discipline; and crafting, integrating issues, events and actions in meaningful ways. Throughout
the book, case studies and real-life stories illustrate how individuals and communities have
relied on these competencies in solving challenges. Storytelling is featured in the book as a
way to develop the leadership competency of personalizing. Seen as a way to share personal
experiences and ideas with others, stories are powerful ways to teach and learn because they
require attention, create anticipation, increase retention, and encourage reflection. Leadership
stories begin with the story of a leaders identity and progress into stories of group identity
and vision, while management stories look backward, focusing on what happened and how
things can be fixed. The authors offer a technique for composing stories: telling the story in
the present tense from another characters perspective yields different takes on motivations
and values. Freewriting is another technique that the authors suggest; by starting to write and
continuing without stopping or editing, the resulting ideas can generate valuable material. Appendices provide competency checklists, offer more information about the Leading Creatively
program, and strategic planning scorecards.

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D. Digital Storytelling
43:210
The New Digital Storytelling: Creating Narratives with New Media by Bryan Alexander
(Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2011$44.95, ISBN 978-0-313-38749-4, 275 pp., bibliography, index) is written with first-time digital storytellers in mind. Offering practical examples
for building digital stories, principles to apply to many situations, and creative inspiration,
Alexander begins with a historical sketch of storytelling, sharing problem-based examples,
well-known story openings, and descriptions of how businesses and political campaigns have
used storytelling. Then, he explores how computing and narrative practice combined to create digital storytelling, emphasizing the power of personal content, creativity and educational
opportunities that the practice presents. A survey of the current state of the digital storytelling art follows, beginning with simpler, accessible technologies like Web 2.0 and advancing through audio, video and advanced forms of gaming. The personal aspect of Facebook
and blog posts and comments makes them perfect for storytelling and character development,
Alexander suggests, while Twitters immediacy lends itself to sharing live stories, particularly those about rapidly unfolding current events. Wikis encourage collaborative storytelling,
while visual images ability to communicate information and persuade audiences also offers
storytelling capabilities. Alexander explores new narrative forms emerging from combinations
of storytelling practices, such as networked books like Wikipedia and other bookblogging
projects. He suggests that mobile devices may become the primary digital storytelling device,
and explores innovative approaches to multimedia storytelling, such as the chaotic fiction
of alternate reality games and augmented reality, an alternative to virtual reality which links
digital content to the physical world, especially by location. To provide practical lessons on
brainstorming, planning and developing digital stories, Alexander describes the three-day Center for Digital Storytelling workshop model in great deal, including outlining the digital tools
that the workshop requires. After covering how digital storytelling can be used in education,
Alexander concludes by looking at future digital storytelling trends.
43:211
Fostering Community through Digital Storytelling by Anne M. Fields and Karen R. Diaz
(Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2008$42.00, paper, ISBN 978-1-591-58552-7, 114 pp.,
appendix of web resources, index) takes a look at how stories can be of value to academic libraries, librarians and staff. By creating them, libraries can grow, listen to their users, enhance
interdisciplinary activities, and create new campus collaborations. To begin, the authors
both academic librarianslook at the ways in which people tell stories to create both their
individual and social identities. After defining what story means and why we tell them,
they outline the seven elements of a digital story as suggested by Joe Lambert (point of view,
dramatic question, emotional content, gift of voice, power of the soundtrack, economy and
pacing). To describe the process of creating a digital story, they relate their first experience
with digital storytelling at the Center for Digital Storytelling in Asheville, North Carolina,
where Lambert is the executive director. Next, they provide social and civic contexts for
digital storytelling, suggesting how it can complement social networking in building community. Exploring the relationship between social technologies, stories and higher education, the
authors cover media literacy, visual literacy and technology skills; the importance of imagi-

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nation in creating meaningful content; and problem-based learning, where students working
in collaborative groups solve a real-world challenge. Educators who wish to use digital stories
in their classroom will benefit from the criteria the authors suggest for creating a digital story
for a class and the ideas they present about how faculty can use digital stories to introduce
themselves to their students at the beginning of a course and share their personal insights
about the subject at hand in the weeks that follow. Likewise, employers will benefit from the
discussion about how stories can help an organization communicate its values and attitudes
to its employees. Offering an abundance of examples of digital stories told by libraries, the
authors elaborate upon the role digital storytelling plays in the academic library, including
student research, information literacy and coping with information overload. They also suggest how digital storytelling can enhance scholarly communication with peers and researchers,
build communities of researchers around collections, and develop relationships with communities, including potential donors. Finally, they explore the potential of digital stories to foster
community within the library and the community alike. Throughout the course of the book,
the authors emphasize the importance of the storys ability not only to exchange experiences
between the teller and the listener, but also to inspire a reaction in the listener.
43:212
Story Circle: Digital Storytelling Around the World edited by John Hartley and Kelly McWilliam (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009$38.95, paper, ISBN 978-1-405-18058-0,
328 pp.) is a collection of new international studies of the digital storytelling movement.
A useful departure from how-to guides by practitioners and textbook models exploring the
virtues of storytelling for learning, this volume analyzes how digital storytelling fits within the
context of new media studies. Contributors explore consumer-generated content, the digital
storytelling youth movement, and microdocumentaries. In part I, introductory chapters by
the editors provide a conceptual framework and an international survey of digital storytelling.
Whether television stories can still serve a bardic function (its ability to articulate and
comment on cultural concerns and issues) after its evolution from broadcast to broadband
technology is the question presented in the first chapter. A study of the online presence of
300 digital storytelling programs is explored next, complete with lists of the educational and
cultural institutions, community organizations, and government/business/religious institutions
included in the study. Part II of the book first contains contributions by digital storytelling
pioneers Joe Lambert and Daniel Meadows, assessing work done at the Center for Digital
Storytelling and the BBCs Capture Wales digital storytelling project as multimedia sonnets from the people. Next comes a discussion of how the technique can be used in radio
broadcasting, in cultural institutions, following the lead of the Australian Centre for the
Moving Image and how the Memory Grid, an interactive exhibition space, contextualizes
and preserves moving-image stories produced by the public. A brief look at radio storytelling
workshops completes this section of the book. Examples of digital storytelling projects in
Australia, southern Asia, Scandinavia, Belgium and Brazil and are featured in Part III. The
final part of the book shows how digital storytelling is evolving in order to adapt to new
contexts and purposes, such as role-play scenarios and engaging young people through online games and school-based activities. A chapter devoted to digital storytelling in China
explores the Generation C phenomenon of user-created content on the Web, including
opportunities to engage netizens (those who actively participate in and contribute to online

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communities) and prosumers (new consumers who are also producers). Discussions of what
happens after an organization goes through a digital storytelling training workshop and how
cultural institutions can create content through strategic team-based participation conclude
the book.
43:213
Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community by Joe Lambert (Berkeley, CA:
Digital Diner Press, 2009$35.00, paper, ISBN 978-1-616238-49-0, 204 pp., web resources,
bibliography) offers insight into the history and vision of digital storytelling, how to make
and use a digital story, and how digital storytelling has been taught and applied. To begin,
Lambert shares personal experiences transitioning from a profession in theater to collaborating
with Dana Atchley on a conversational storytelling project that became the San Francisco
Digital Media Center. After presenting his concept of the Memory Box, a conversational
media version of a family archives, he begins sharing tips on crafting a story, including interviewing techniques and kinds of personal stories. Then, he turns to the Seven Steps of
digital storytelling. Originally referred to as the Seven Elements in previous editions of the
book, these procedures were renamed to reflect a significantly different way to how they
are approached in order to help storytellers visualize their story as a finished work before
they begin writing the script. The steps include owning your insights and emotions, finding
the moment that illustrates the storytellers insight, seeing and describing the moment of
change in the story, hearing the storys tone, assembling the tale through storyboarding, and
sharing the story with an audience. Some of the suggestions Lambert makes include using
4x6 index cards to help prepare for writing a story, pursuing writing exercises, determining
ways to involve the audience into the scene and developing a storytelling style. After offering advice on making a storyboard, Lambert shares tips on working with digital imaging,
audio and video. Then, he addresses the issues of facilitating a Digital Storytelling Workshop, which educators and training professionals should find helpful. Next, Lambert turns
to how storytelling can be applied to organizations, youth programs, activist causes, teambuilding, the classroom, urban planning, and journalism. The book concludes with transcripts
of Lamberts conversations with four digital storytellers, providing insight into their experiences creating digital stories. Appendices offer ideas for those who appreciate the narrative
arts (poetry, theater, fiction, film, etc.) and want to create work on a computer. First, Lambert
discusses digital storytelling in performance, the hypertextual environment, social media, and
place-based mobile storytelling. Then, he turns to creating a digital storytelling production
environment.

3. RESEARCH METHODS
43:214
Media Research Methods: Understanding Metric and Interpretive Approaches by James
A. Anderson (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2012$69.95, paper, ISBN 978-1-4129-9956-4,
427 pp., tables, charts, notes, appendices, glossary, references, index) brings the insights of a
senior theorist and methodologistAnderson teaches at the University of Utah. Departing

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