A Running List of Story Practices, People, Initiatives, and Organizations

Series of Q&A Interviews with Well-known Story Practitioners
Links will go “live” when each interview is published:

• Molly Catron Q&A
• Jessica Lipnack Q&A
• Terrence Gargiulo Q&A
• Jon Hansen Q&A
• Svend-Erik Engh Q&A
• Loren Niemi Q&A
• Gabrielle Dolan Q&A
• John Caddell Q&A
• Shawn Callahan Q&A
• Stephanie West Allen Q&A
• Madelyn Blair Q&A
• David Vanadia Q&A
• Tom Clifford Q&A
• Sharon Lippincott Q&A
• Ardath Albee Q&A
• Sharon Benjamin Q&A
• Carol Mon Q&A
• Ron Donaldson Q&A
• Cynthia Kurtz Q&A
• Annette Simmons Q&A
• Karen Gilliam Q&A
• Michael Margolis Q&A
• Corey Blake Q&A
• Susan Luke Q&A
• Mike Wittenstein Q&A
• Cathie Dodd Q&A
• Sarah White Q&A
• Chris Benevich Q&A
• Karen Johnson Q&A
• Jon Buscall Q&A
• Thaler Pekar Q&A
• Lori Silverman Q&A
• Casey Hibbard Q&A
• Katie Snapp Q&A
• Rob Sullivan Q&A
• Andree Iffrig Q&A
• Whitney Quesenbery Q&A
• Sean Buvala Q&A
• Stephane Dangel Q&A
• Karen Dietz Q&A

• The Storytellers “help business leaders engage their people in strategy, vision, values and change….connecting people through storytelling.”

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• Compelling Cases “integrates … customers’ powerful experiences into … sales and marketing strategy by constructing relevant, purposed testimonials, snapshots and customer success stories…”

  The company’s blog is Stories that Sell.

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• Both Two Men Talking and the related site narativ are rather spare Web sites into which one must do a bit of digging to see what they’re all about.

  A press release on Two Men Talking explains the origins:
  

  Murray Nossel and Paul Browde met in 1974 in Johannesburg when they were 12-year-old rival schoolmates and were challenged by a teacher to tell each other a story. Decades later, they met by chance in a New York street and the story has continued, but has become the tale of their own experiences and individual and shared lives. Murray is now an Oscar-nominated filmmaker and Paul a psychiatrist, and their conversation is frank, unsentimental and without boundaries. Within a broadly chronological framework, TWO MEN TALKING examines their shared experiences growing up white, Jewish, gay and privileged under the apartheid regime. Over the many years of performing this show, this unscripted piece has dealt with difficult issues including harassment, homophobia, racism and AIDS, each of which has deeply touched the lives of the two men. Each performance is absolutely unique as the way they tell the story changes in a continually transforming and developing piece. The combination of theatre and real life and has inspired audience members to tell stories of their own, and to better value their own relationships.

  

  Murray apparently now leads story workshops and seminars with special guest Paul under the name narativ, described this way on the narativ site:

  Discover your Life Story as a source of creative expression. Clearly and confidently communicate who you are + what you do. In an amazingly short time you will learn how to master your own storytelling ability and be taught how to use that skill to succeed in any part of your life, including business and socially.

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• The Chief Storyteller is a firm that helps businesses tell their stories. Visitors can download short PDFs of these stories.

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• THIRSTY-FISH is a boutique story consultancy that helps revitalizes organizations in the midst of transition, growth, or turn-around. The firm offers an “inside-out” approach to brand storytelling that creates meaningful connections from core constituents.



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• STORI (STorytelling ORganization Institute) is the leading coalition of professional story practitioners. Led by Dr David Boje, a pioneering thinker in organizational communication, the workshop brings together STORI scholars, each of whom is a recognized expert in story noticing, story strategy, and story in organization development: Ken Baskin, Carolyn Gardner, Grace Ann Rosile, Jo Tyler, & Theodore Taptiklis. They combine their talents to create original, engaging and practical storytelling organization workshops.

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• “Nothing changes until the story changes,” says Mette Norgaard, who puts on workshops and has written The Ugly Duckling Goes to Work, with workplace wisdom based on Hans Christian Andersen stories.

  

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• The Circle Project:

  We provide innovative learning experiences in communities and organizations by creating surprise, energy, depth, and relationship around difficult issues like diversity and inclusive leadership. We do so using story, theatre and experiential processes, forming creative and safe spaces where people don’t have to be clever, but are free to truly learn and explore. We help individuals in organizations deepen their working relationships across difference, transforming how they work together in the process and enhancing their capacity for innovation. Our work is more oriented toward learning (a process that leaves us changed) than toward problem-solving (a process focused on changing our surroundings) because we believe that changing our surroundings can only come after we ourselves are changed in some way.

  

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• Evelyn Clark, The Corporate Storyteller, has an article about organizational storytelling in Reader’s Digest Asia.

  

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• Rachel Hedman teaches educators and others how to use story in the college classroom.

  

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• Maggie Foster blogs about the Benefits of Storytelling Therapy.

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• John Kotre author of eight books about lives, memories, and legacies, all of which take a narrative approach, is collecting stories of personal cosmologies, as well as stories of journeys get from one understanding of the cosmos to another at his Web site.

  

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• David Drake, PhD, offers the Center for Narrative Coaching. I saw his excellent presentation at last year’s Golden Fleece conference.

  

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• My friend and fellow Central Floridian Rick Stone is at i.d.e.a.s. with the title of Story Analytics Master.

  

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• MovingPictures helps companies tell their story. Check out the cool video, The Essence of a Story, on the company’s site.