I’ve sent out 23 invitations to practitioners who work in some way with story to participate in a new Q&A series, which will probably launch in early May (a few may sneak in before that).

Happily, I’ve already had 13 favorable responses.

With the caveat that stuff happens and sometimes folks who commit to these Q&As aren’t able to fulfill the commitment, I’m announcing some folks from whom we might expect to see Q&As later this spring:

David Kennedy, who blogs about the intersection of storytelling and technology; George Dutch, who uses story to help people figure out the right career; storyteller Noa Baum (who is also a performance artist, educator, and diversity specialist); blogger and consultant Gregg Morris; storyteller and ghostwriter Kim Pearson; Digital Survival™/Digital Success™ consultant Jo Golden; Barry Poltermann, CEO of About Face Media; presentation gurus Scott Schwertly and Travis Robertson of Ethos3; storyteller and consultant Cathryn Wellner; Steve Krizman, who writes about storytelling in organizational communications and in branding; storyteller, writer, and communicator David Willows; story coach Lisa Bloom; and Steven Spalding, chief storyteller at Crossing Gaps, a digital-storytelling firm.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

One of my occasional forays into my own story.

It hit me yesterday that I have less than three weeks before I move from the only house we’ve ever owned and the only timezone in which I’ve ever lived. Our Florida-born and based daughter is here saying her goodbyes before we move.

I am struck most of all by how little sentimental attachment I feel to this house and the vast majority of our possessions, so many of which we’ve purged. We’ve lived in this house for the better part of 18 years. Not only is it the only house we’ve ever owned, but this is the longest either of us has ever lived in any one house, or indeed, in any one town.

When we moved in, the house was steeped in 70s decor. Lots of linoleum, wood paneling, and parquet floors. We remodeled every room, making them our own with bright, bold colors. We built a detached addition. We had our pool dug out after the 2004 hurricanes destroyed our screen enclosure, and we couldn’t get anyone to fix it. In short, the house became a palette for our own story as a young family and now as empty-nesters.

As a child, I felt so sentimental about moving from the farmhouse where I had spent seven formative years that I slipped a note to the new owners behind a radiator in my room. We sold our current house just a week after listing it with realtors — to someone who had admired it at our yard sale. (We’ll learn after tomorrow’s appraisal whether the sale will definitely go through.) As I prepare to leave this house, I feel no such sentimentality despite all we’ve put into this house. I only hope the house will bring pleasure to the new owners.

I am also looking very much forward to the next chapter of my story — a new life in a very different place, Kettle Falls, WA — and I look forward to taking all of you along with me.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Count A. Harrison Barnes among career gurus who support storytelling in the job search. Harrison, founder and CEO of CareerMission.com, the parent company of more than 100 job search websites, employment services, recruiting firms, online employment news magazines and student loan companies, characterizes the stories of those who get hired in his article, Use Personal Stories to Connect with an Employer and Get a Job:

There are some common characteristics of stories that get people hired, which I want to share with you so you can understand the entire process. The best stories typically revolve around the employee being very motivated to do a good job and continually wanting to improve in his or her employment. The person is generally portrayed as someone who works hard, has a positive attitude, is loyal, and, due to forces entirely outside his or her control, can no longer grow in his or her position or company. When the story is developed correctly, each job move is shown as part of this quest for continual self-improvement. A well-written story will also detail the candidate’s daily life. It will mention his or her family and friends, so that the prospective employer can come to identify with the candidate as a person.

Barnes handily summarizes his full article:

• When an employer hires you, he or she is making a purchase of sorts.
• The more information the employer has about you, the more (positive) stories that they can associate with you after your interview.
• Stories create a connection.
• You should portray yourself as someone who works hard, has a positive attitude, is loyal, and, due to forces entirely outside your control, can no longer grow in your current position or company.

[Thanks to Wendy Terwelp for alerting me to Barnes’s article.]

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Right on the heels of my latest gnashing of teeth over personal branding are two developments on the subject.

The first is a highly retweeted blog post on Web Worker Daily by Georgina Laidlaw on using storytelling techniques in personal branding. In what is expected to be a three-part series on this topic, Laidlaw begins with characterization. Agreeing at least in part with Gareth Jones who says that brands are static but people are not, Laidlaw diverges from Jones’s assertion that people, therefore, cannot be branded.

“You’re the key character in your story,” Laidlaw notes, and as such, you select “crucial defining information about their characters and focuses on communicating that clearly, in a way that suits the character” and hence, build your brand. Among the choices for information you might select about your character, Laidlaw says, are:

• the channels you use
• the language you use
• your profile data
• the photos you publish of yourself and others
• your interests, pastimes, and the topics you focus on, including links and other content you promote
• your frequency and depth of public engagement with others
• the places you like to visit or meet others

In answer to the question, “How do you know what will best illustrate your character to your contacts?”, Laidlaw states that “the answer will depend on your character! I usually only communicate about things that I feel very strongly about — topics I’m passionate about — which in itself reflects my character to some degree.”

The second development is a new (free) product from Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist network, the “social resume.” This product strikes me as a cross between a LinkedIn Profile and a social-media resume. Intended for Gen Y workers, Brazen Careerist resumes do not focus on the “story” metaphor; “story” is never mentioned. Instead, “ideas” is the top buzzword, followed by “conversation.” (John Zappe quotes Trunk: “The recruiting industry is shifting from search ninjas to those who understand conversations.”)

Still, the Brazen Careerist social resume provides opportunities for storytelling in its “About Me” section, and some of the social resumes I looked at by community members offer stories in that space, such as the one for Brazen Community Manager Ryan Paugh (thumbnail of resume pictured here).

But, ugh, the way Brazen Careerist solicits information for the Experience portion of users’ social resumes is anathema to storytelling; the form asks for a “job description.” I can guarantee that no storytelling will be forthcoming from job descriptions. Brazen should be asking for accomplishments, achievements, initiatives, results, and the like.

Here’s where I see a terrific mashup: Brazen Careerist social-resume users could use Georgina Laidlaw’s personal-branding storytelling techniques for their social resumes.

I keep bringing up new twists on resumes not because they are explicitly storytelling resume but because each new “resume replacement” or “resume reinvention” (as Zappe calls them) suggests that hiring decision-makers are not getting what they need from traditional resumes. With Zappe using phrases like “better portrait” and “living, breathing profile,” I know there is a place for storytelling in these new incarnations.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

A couple of recent pieces have examined the role of relationships and connections in storytelling.

In a scholarly piece called Different Ways of Remembering: the Example of Storytelling, Mark Oppenneer writes:

The telling of a story not only suggests the physical presence of a storyteller and an audience, but the relationship that exists between the two, the relationships between members of the audience, the relationship between humans and the land on which they live and in which the action of the story transpires, etc.

Oppeneer notes that the tendency to see “story” as text is a “Western information bias,” and Westerners tend to find audio and video recordings “sufficient to capture the telling of a story.” But such manifestations of story strip away “essential components of relationship,” Oppenneer asserts.

Laura S. Packer views storytelling and relationships from a different angle in Storytelling as connective tissue:

…[T]he shared experience of listening to a story makes the entire audience into one being. The story is the ligament that binds us. … Regardless of the length of the story, the setting in which it’s told, the experience of the teller or the teller’s background, when we tell authentically tell a story it binds audience members to each other and to the teller. Stories are connective tissue in culture and families as well. They are how we identify ourselves, how we know that I am of this group, so this is my story.

Both authors stress this connective role of storytelling in the act of re-telling. For Packer, listeners “know who they are by the stories they were told and in turn retell.” Oppenneer notes:

..[T]he telling of a story interacts with prior tellings remembered by the audience and is infused with embellishments and improvisations that are in tune with the relationships established during the performance.

and he quotes Rebecca Green: “Repetitive storytelling of the past re-creates, solidifies, and even creates the veracity of events and individuals.”

The underlying message for both authors is that storytelling creates cultural identity, cultural memory, cultural meaning, and knowledge that is passed on from person to person, generation to generation.

As technology provides us with more and more ways to tell stories, we would be wise to ask ourselves the extent to which any given storytelling medium enables us to preserve relationships

I love the words Packer closes with:

Stories reach across time, space and distance to give us the same narrative connection. We are human. We tell stories. Listen to me and I will listen to you: We will recognize ourselves in each others words.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Had to get this out there as soon as I learned of it: The agenda for this year’s Golden Fleece Conference has been posted — now with its own Web site.

And it looks as fabulous as ever.

You can link to registration, speaker bios, and an overview, too.

If you are into applied storytelling, I cannot recommend this conference highly enough.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

I was reading a blog entry by Corey Harlock directed at recruiters when this sentence stopped me dead in my tracks:

A resume in no way, shape or form is an indication of the person who created it.

The point of the article (I think) is that recruiters should not be so quick to dismiss applicant resumes.

But seriously? A resume in no way, shape or form is an indication of the person who created it?

With all the buzz about personal branding and authenticity, it’s disheartening to think such a disconnect could exist between resume and job-seeker. It’s true that some people hire professional resume writers to craft their resumes, but a good resume-writing practitioner should be able to authentically capture the job-seeker in print.

What’s the best way to ensure your resume really an indicator of the person — you — who created it? In my opinion, storytelling. A storied resume opens a window into your personality, conveys the authentic you, creates an emotional connection with the reader, and makes you memorable. As I’ve written many, many times in this space, the perfect incarnation of the storied resume is yet to emerge. But I’ve developed some ways to add storytelling to your resume. You can read about them beginning here or here.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

I wish I had been writing little hash marks each time “story” or “storytelling” was mentioned at last night’s Oscars. So many who spoke cited the importance of storytelling in the movies.

The very first honoree, best supporting actor Christoph Waltz, cleverly crafted his acceptance speech in story form, describing his journey to playing his role in Inglorious Basterds, and weaving in the names of the “characters” in his journey that he wanted to thank.

As the blog Crystal Street (which I think is the name of the blogger) notes, one winner declared that “short films are ‘the jewel box of storytelling.’”

Actors told the stories of working with the best actor and actress nominees.

Many were surprised that The Hurt Locker won for both best picture and director over the wildly successful Avatar; yet I’ve also heard many say that, as groundbreaking as Avatar was in its look and feel, its storytelling was deficient.

As Crystal Street also reports, the same short-film producer said: “The tools never make a great film, the story makes a great film.”

I agree with her words, that “it is refreshing to see that the art of the story is still celebrated in the entertainment industry.”

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Thought it would be nice to have a daily lit quote as an entry:

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

One of my newest discoveries, Gregg Morris (pictured, from his Twitter profile), produces a weekly feature in his What’s Your Story? blog called The Week in Storytelling.

I freely admit that I am seduced by the fact that Gregg cites a number of entries from A Storied Career and calls me his hero. But he lists plenty of other sites and blogs in his review, so this feature is a great way to get a snapshot of what’s been written about storytelling in the past week. Gregg also runs a near-daily feature of curated stories, “a daily post that shares and curates links to the content that I consume over the course of each day … items [that] all deal with change, stories, writing, business issues, marketing and pr, social media and networking. ”

The Week in Storytelling appears to be a new feature. Hope it continues.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

I’m still feeling curmudgeonly about the concept of personal branding, and when I read skeptical views about personal branding like one called “I am Not a Brand. I am Me,” by Gareth Jones, my curmudgeonliness is reinforced.

One of Jones’s arguments against the personal-branding concept contrasts typical brands with humans:

Brands are largely static. Brands don’t rationalise their actions. Brands don’t change their behaviour or opinion after life changing events or after reflecting on some new piece of evidence. Brands don’t offer humility in the face of arrogance. Brands don’t eat humble pie when they got it wrong and then share that experience over social media.

Even though part of me wants to agree with Jones’s conclusion that “the whole notion of a personal brand is a bit of a nonsense and serves only to create another bit of jargon around which some ‘instant guru’ … can build a consulting proposition that preys on the insecurities of others,” I started to wonder if brands really are static.

Given my belief that brands must have stories and the best brands are the best because they have great stories (like the Moleskin notebook for example), can brands really be static? Stories suggest an ongoing plot.

I find it amusing and ironic that personal-branding gurus assert that one’s personal brand must be authentic, but the very thing that personal-branding naysayers rail against is a lack of authenticity, or as Jones writes, a watered-down authenticity:

And then there is the question of authenticity. Brands are strong, stand for something and carve out their definitive position in their relevant consumer space. They don’t try and water down their personality or message on the basis someone might not buy them if they don’t.

Jones’s final argument is that his online identity does not comprise a brand:

I am the sum of a number of profiles, opinions and conversation online, nothing more. These do not constitute a brand. Yes, I should definitely keep out any potentially offensive content. But water down my online and offline personality or manipulate it to present myself as something other than who I really am? Most definitely not.

Well, of course, Jones’s “profiles, opinions and conversation online” do constitute a brand because, in part, they help tell his story; it’s just not a brand or story that he has consciously crafted and manipulated. He has not concerned himself with whether or not anyone will buy his brand.

And there’s the issue — whether we want to put our brands and stories out there as they are or whether we feel we must watch what we say and massage our stories so as to make them more palatable to the rest of the world. Much depends on whether we have something to sell — ourselves as employees or purveyors of products or services.

And the other question is whether we can truly be authentic — be ourselves — if we seek to present our storied-branded-selves to the world.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Reader Stephanie Jones asked me a question I couldn’t answer but readers who are oral-performance storytellers perhaps can:

Do you know of any web tools that would enable a storyteller to keep a log of the stories they tell, along with notes about the stories, sources, places they’ve told, etc.? I know I could use a blog or a wiki, but I would like something more like LibraryThing or Shelfari? I am going to be teaching a storytelling class online this summer for my school library candidates and would like them to keep a record of stories they are learning.

If you have suggestions, please e-mail Stephanie.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Here’s a little widget with the tweets of all the story folks I follow on Twitter on my @AStoriedCareer account. It’s supposed to have a shell and a nice header. Who knows why it doesn’t.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Recently, some of my favorite story practitioners have been registering protests over manifestations of “story” that they consider to be too loosely characterized or defined.

I’ve written a number of times (most recently here) about the six-word stories that are the stock in trade at SMITH Magazine and have caught on in other venues. When an executive coach, part of a team at a school for professional speakers, announced a six-word story contest, Terrence Gargiuolo snarkily responded with this six-word “story:”

Clever marketing imitating engagement misrepresents stories…

Sean Buvala recently reacted to the concept of digital-only groups running “storytelling” contests: “Nope,” Sean said, “yer running some good video contests. There’s a difference.” I know from previous communications with Sean that he believes storytelling involves a live teller and a live audience. His exact definition is: “Storytelling is the intentional sharing of a narrative in words and actions for the benefit of both the listener and the teller.”

Most recently Thaler Pekar wrote in a blog entry on PhilanTopic:

I fear the term “story” is being used so broadly as to render it meaningless. Messages are not stories. Statements of belief and opinions are not stories. And, most of the time, answers to direct questions are not stories.

Thaler offers this definition of story: “‘Story’ implies a series of unfolding events. Something happens to someone or something. A story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.”

She goes on in her excellent entry to tell why recognizing what a “story” really comprises is important. She then tweaks a set of story-eliciting questions from a Nonprofit Quarterly article, "Unraveling Development: Collecting Stories From Your Donors”, suggesting that instead of asking the direct questions suggested in the article …

• What interests you most about this organization? What is less interesting to you?
• Why does this cause matter to you?
• How does your philanthropy reflect your values?

— that story eliciters consider inquiring about the audience’s actual experiences:

• If you look back over your years of knowing and being a part of this organization, what experiences come to mind? What incident stands out as the most delightful?
• Can you tell me about an experience that was less interesting to you?
• When was the first time you heard of our organization? With whom were you speaking? What was happening?
• Tell me about a time when you felt really connected with the mission of our organization.
>

I know from my Q&A series with story practitioners that, while the majority define “story” loosely and broadly, some are quite vehement about what a story is and is not. I compiled practitioners’ thoughts on defining story in this downloadable PDF: DefiningStory.pdf

But sometimes it’s easier to get at what a story is by recognizing, as these three practitioners have, what a story isn’t.

By the way, I’m planning to start a new series of story-practitioner Q&As soon. Please feel free to suggest yourself or someone else for a Q&A. I also welcome suggestions of questions to pose to story gurus. I’d like to mix up my roster of questions a bit. What would you like to ask story practitioners? E-mail me with your thoughts.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.

Because so many great storytelling sites and blogs exist out there, with new ones emerging all the time, I don’t usually write full blog entries about any single site or blog but rather group them together and/or list them on one of my inside pages.

But I’m singling out the brand-new blog Transformative Narratives by Yvette Hyater-Adams (pictured) because her story practice really resonates with me, and I’d like to encourage and support her new venture (and hey, it doesn’t hurt that she shares a birthday with my son and lives a few miles from where I grew up in New Jersey).

I especially love her story of how she came to develop her storytelling approach:

In the early 1980s, I took a Franklin Planner class where part of the course entailed writing down goals and integrating them in my daily, weekly, and monthly calendars. This was a logical and mechanical process. Because my artist brain didn’t work so linear, I did more than write a goal sentence. My goal became a little story. In order for me to experience the goal, I stepped into my imagination and created a fictionalized story about me living and breathing that goal. It was so real, I could smell, taste, and touch it. Writing that visual image made such a difference. Having written the story, I could release it and be it.

And here’s how she characterizes transformative narratives:

[T]ransformative narratives 1) emerge from real and imagined visual, written, and spoken stories, that 2) become material to use for self-awareness, insight, and visioning, and 3) crystallize into deliberate actions for change

I’m really looking forward to more from Yvette and her new blog.

Entry by Kathy Hansen. Learn more.