The Amazing Power Of Story
Make the difference you want to make with the power of narrative.
- Ignite interest in a presentation or proposal
- Kick off a meeting with something that grabs the group's attention
- Connect in a positive and enduring relationship with someone
- Influence opinions when facts or ideologies get apathy or resistance
- Energize your social and web media with inspiring examples of your success
- Build trust in a group or between groups
“Jack was a pleasure to work with in the Storytelling Workshop for our Women In Business Conference. He did a great job of tailoring his material to our needs. During the session, he brought a light touch that was fun, engaging, educational, and extremely inviting. I would gladly work with him again - and plan to.” Conference Organizer, Case Western Reserve University”
Stories are without question the most powerful tools we have for connecting, inspiring, educating and influencing. Since the beginning of time they have animated the deep expression of human potentials.
Our workshops uniquely give people practices and principles to unleash the power of narrative in their work and world. They are designed for people who want to use stories to inspire, educate and connect in contexts like marketing and branding, fundraising and development, trust and relationship building, policy and advocacy - anywhere good stories need to be well told.
We have done the same Power of Story workshops with groups of post-Doc scientists, corporate executives, aboriginal tribal leaders, 10 year old emerging writers, community groups, the homeless, funders and entrepreneurs.
The power of narrative adds unique value to increasing the credibility and impact of leadership and data, empowering coaching and mentoring, building new connections and trust quickly in newly formed and merged groups, developing unique and powerful messaging through social and promotional media, fund raising presentations and campaigns.
Participants develop skills in four core narrative dimensions.
StoryCollecting: Expand your portfolio of available stories for the situations in order to have the right story at the right time and create richer stories that weave stories together
StoryCrafting: Craft well-constructed stories into narratives in a variety of media, shapes and sizes, using a unique StoryBoarding method Jack developed at Harvard Kennedy School
StoryTelling: Deliver stories with clear impact intentions and skillful expression that allows people to personally relate to the story
StoryListening: Listen to other people's stories to help them come more alive and so you can add new stories to your portfolio.
The difference between the half-day introductory and full-day intensive workshops is the depth of principles, practice and feedback participants receive. The workshops draw from Jack's books, "The Stories That Connect Us" and "Making Sense Of Time" as well as story research from film, speech, fiction writing and the neurosciences.
The Stories That Connect Us is both a why-to and how-to book on the power of stories in the possibilities of our connections. It is a space where I invite you to join me in exploring questions like:
Why have stories been the most powerful way of connecting since the beginning of time?
Is social media eroding or empowering our cultural capacity for narrative?
What kinds of personal stories have the greatest potential for creating rich connections?
What are the design elements of well-crafted stories?
How can we listen to evoke rich meaning from each other's stories?
How can we build and enrich our portfolio of personal stories?
Why do stories have more power than statistics in inspiring transformation and change?
Most importantly, use the book as a guide to practice so storycrafting, storytelling, and storylistening can bring a new richness and thrivancy to your life’s connections.
Contents
Invitation
The Case for Stories
The golden age of connection
Why we love stories
Once, upon a time
Are we losing our narrative aesthetic?
To live is to connect
The stories we are
Mythographic identities
Quality connections
The 3 dimensions of our connections
Why we connect Intentional connections
The power of the tribe
Alien Nation
The stories that introduce us
Stories that build trust
Stories as tools of change
The Nature of Stories
Stories as myth
The myths we share
No, it was Tuesday
The power of fiction
Stories & our essential uniqueness
StoryCrafting
Every story is hand-crafted
Story typologies
From experience to story
All stories are intentionally constructed
Constructing our stories
Storycrafting intentionality
Our choice of stories
One possible story
Narrative aesthetic
Ebe's Wish (South Africa)
Characters
Context
Complications
Conclusion
Elements of enrichment
Catalyst
Container
Commentary
Companion stories
Sizing stories
The timing of endings
The moral of the story
Start with conclusions
Narrative architecture
Strengthening your stories
What’s not important
Crowded stories
Legacy stories
Our signature stories
Futuring stories
Stories of innocence & engagement
Every discipline, a container of stories
Living new stories
StoryTelling
The principles of storytelling
Storytelling contexts
Honoring our stories
Our inherited stories
Stories that reveal & conceal
Re/minding the brain
Storytelling as dialogue
The clash of stories old & new
Story protectors
Stories that unite & divide
Sharability footprints
The power of old stories
Traditional stories
Gossip Returned stories
OPS
Shameless storytelling
Collecting stories
The magic of practice
The trance of storytelling
StoryListening
The elements of storylistening
If this was my story...
So, what’s your story?
Story as self-discovery
Engaging imagination
Listening/resonance & curiosity
Not listening
Stop me if I’ve told this one ...
Positive deviance
Choosing the stories we hear
Harvesting stories
The magic of reframing
How stories travel Media boosts
The Future of Stories
Our obsession with measurement
The myth of measurement
Personality typing
Statistics
Creating the community we want
The future of connections
The future of belonging connections
The future of learning connections
The future of asset connections
The future of play connections
The future of power connections
The future of narrative
Five things to do
Gratitude
Stories from My Personal Portolfio
7 Short Stories - Set in Sicily, Serbia, New Mexico, Japan, South America, Nepal and Ireland