This week I am thrilled to see a Q&A piece I did for Kathy Hansen run on her blog, A Storied Career. There are five questions and answers, one of which Kathy is posting each day. Kathy's site "... explores intersections/synthesis among various
forms of Applied Storytelling ..." and as part of this she has a long running series of Q&As with a wide range of storytellers. These include notable writers such as Annette Simmons and Lori Silverman, both of which I've mentioned before in my own posts. There are many other story practitioners as Kathy describes them, equally as interesting and it's great to join the list.
I don't think Kathy has interviewed herself yet which is a shame as I think her Q&A would definitely make good reading. Here's an excerpt from her bio (click here to read it in full).
Katharine (Kathy) Hansen, Ph.D., creative director of Quintessential Careers, is an author and instructor,
in addition to being a career expert. Her books include Dynamic
Cover Letters (more than 100,000 copies sold), Write Your Way to a Higher GPA,
and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Study Skills,
written with Dr. Randall S. Hansen, as well as
Dynamic Cover Letters for New Graduates
(11,000+ copies sold), and
A Foot in the Door: Networking
Your Way into the Hidden Job Market, published by Ten Speed Press,
and Top Notch Executive Resumes: Creating Flawless Resumes for Managers, Executives, and CEOs (Career Press)
and Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling to get a Job and Propel Your Career (JIST Publishing, April 2009).
There are many many forms of storytelling in many different fields. My interest is of course in business and specifically the stories told by the financials within them. Whether working as a part-time CFO for early stage companies, a senior employee in a large organisation or as a consultant to both it is clear to me that the ability to translate copious and often complicated numbers into a coherent and easily understood story is a key business skill.
The questions and answers in Kathy's interview hopefully give some insight into this. You can read the first installment here and click through to find subsequent pieces. If you would like to contribute to the discussion then I encourage you to comment over on A Storied Career, where I will join you!
Over the coming weeks I will be posting a series of short financial storytelling case studies. The aim of these is to provide insight into what financial storytelling is and how it can be applied. Subscribe to this site to be notified when the series launches and also to stay up to date with the latest news from Stewart.
The below presentation was brought to my attention the other day. I think it does an excellent job of explaining why Storytelling is a Strategic Business tool.
I would extend Raf's metaphor that a company is like a human being. I see the financial aspects of a company as vital signs. They are, to use the traditional word, indicators of a company's health. They tell their own story. In the same way you can learn a lot about someone from their smile and how they look, you can also learn a lot from how they say they are feeling. Are they tired, fighting off a headache or living every minute with in constant pain?
If you meet someone who looks healthy, has a positive mindset, smiles a lot and is comfortable in their own space you take notice. If you were asked whether you thought they could run a 4 minute mile, you would be optimistic. You would have a degree of confidence. However if the signs are not as positive it's easy to become cautious and at worst cynical.
Raf says in his presentation that there is a problem. People hate facts. I agree, especially when facts are numbers. I also agree that Keeping It Super Simple is absolutely key with numbers. To borrow Raf's language again, numbers have no value on their own. They need the context, they need the essence of what they represent communicated effectively.
The financial story of a company is not knowing their heart-rate or sugar level at one point in time, it's about regular check-ups!. It's about knowing when it's time to take more exercise, change your diet or simply slow down. Anyone can hit a home run: that gets you some instant and short lived glory. However if you hit a home run in every game, game after game, month after month, season after season, then people take notice. As spectators they look to the coach and they start to live your story as they watch every at bat.
Financial Storytelling is about making sure you are in the game.
I noticed this morning a contact of mine recommending "Story" by Robert Mckee. Mckee is a screenwriting guru who recently gave his world famous 3 day seminar here in Vancouver. I was thinking about this a couple of days ago as I followed up on this article in the June 13 edition of the Globe & Mail. The article was about Director David Lynch's new project Interview Project. I first remember hearing his name in connection with Twin Peaks back in the early 1990s but of course his list of credits is immense and this was only the tip of the iceberg.
One of my wife's favourite films happens to be David Lynch's The Straight Story, where amongst other things the photography is stunning. This is of course a common theme of Lynch's work. Both photography and screenwriting come to the fore in Interview Project. It is a "32,000-kilometre, 70 day road trip" around the US which Lynch sent his crew on to interview 'normal' folk. The result is 121 three to five minute monologues which are being released one every few days online.
As I write there have been 7 interviews posted, each one is a few minutes long. The website has a little more background. Most of the people were interviewed where they were found, a lot more material was recorded than used. I have been enthralled and amazed by the combination of intensity, photography and screenwriting. Everyone has a story to tell and David Lynch has demonstrated once again his storytelling talent. For me it showed how telling a good story is made up of multiple elements. It's rare to see all of them at such a consistently high standard as Interview Project. I wouldn't be surprised to see characters like Alvin from the Straight Story show up more than once!
As much as this is a 'project,' is it actually the start of a new 'format.' Imagine the addition of a DVD to the Fortune 500 Companies issue which contained short videos of each CEO telling the story of his/her company? For new businesses, putting together a video like this could be a huge marketing asset. Of course we are not all David Lynch, but this project truly shows what is possible. Apart from providing entertainment and education it is a real inspiration.
A young middle aged man found himself in a bit of a quandary. Years ago
he had given up his cable television subscription: disillusioned with
the content on offer, he made do with streaming the odd hockey game
from his computer. His youthful and good looking better half was very
content with a subscription to a DVD by mail service and he also found
himself enjoying this service as well. The quandary was whether or not
to buy a new television set when he didn't actually watch 'television.'
Nonetheless
the young middle aged man saw the merit of a bigger picture and decided
to run the gauntlet of the television stores. Historically he favoured
a particular brand and as it happened they actually had a couple of
their own stores not far from where he lived. One day he decided to
browse in the lions den of fantastically bigger and bigger televisions:
all bright, all loud and all thoroughly confusing. Eventually he did
manage to find a small (by comparison to others) set he liked. He also
found what appeared to be three different prices. What was the
difference?
A smiling salesman approached and listened to the
young middle aged man's questions and helpfully explained the different
features. He asked what the young middle aged man liked to watch
(hockey and DVDs) and described the relevant differences between the
models which helped explain the different prices. The young middle aged
man left the store feeling happy that he had learned something. While
still wondering which of the models he should buy, he was impressed
with the salesman.
A few days later he found himself in another
part of town with his youthful and good looking better half. They
passed by another of the television stores and decided to look
together. They found their way to the lions den of fantastically bigger
and bigger televisions, all bright, all loud and all thoroughly
confusing. Eventually they spotted the size of television they liked.
The same set the young middle aged man had seen in the other television
store.
A smiling salesman pounced on them and immediately
regaled them with stories of the two (not three) models they had on
sale for this year. A 'deal' was immediately presented and sounded to
the young middle aged man immediately like a 1980s car show room with a
salesman like a Canadian version of Arthur Daley. Sadly Arthur's charm
was missing. The young middle aged man then learned all about the
salesman's house, how many children he had and crucially it would seem,
therefore how many televisions he had. The salesman favoured the latest
and most expensive model, having now changed tact from the original
'deal.'
At one point the young middle aged man saw a hockey game
playing on one of the bigger televisions and asked is he could see it
on the smaller TV he was interested in. This would have been very
helpful. The request was immediately declined. The salesman did not
seem to know the features very well and focussed on being very critical
of the idea that you could have a television without 'television,'
mixing metaphors along the way. The salesman then went on to share
information about an offer from a completely different company, another
'deal,' not only for television, but also telephone and Internet.
Confusingly he then explained why he couldn't take the offer up himself
at home.
The young middle aged man was confused. He thought this
was a television store and given his experience at the first store was
very surprised by the contrast in styles of salesmanship. Maybe it was
the youthful good looks of his better half, but it did seem the
salesman thought his potential customers had been born on the previous
day. The young middle aged man's better half did not enjoy the
experience of the store (or the salesman) and he was doubly
disappointed as it was difficult enough to convince his youthful good
looking better half to enter the store in the first place!
The
quandary remained but given the experiences so far, the young middle
aged man is more likely to buy the cheaper television model and take
the time to go back to the first television store he visited.
Then again given his experiences so far, he may just decide not to do anything about it at all!
Last night I attended the sixth installment of Pecha Kucha in Vancouver. What is 'Pecha Kucha' ? According to the 'About' page this was devised back in 2003 as a place for young designers to meet, network and show their work in public.
I can't say too much about the meet and network elements, although I did meet Steven Cox who hosts and introduces the speakers. I was assisting Bruce Sharpe of Singular Productions who was recording the event. You can see some of the recordings Bruce made at the previous event here.
I was particularly intrigued by the format of the event. Every speaker has 20 slides which are displayed for 20 seconds. My instinct tells me this should be written as Twenty20 but maybe that's been done already. That's basically 7 minutes by the time each speaker gets on and off stage. 7 minutes is also, as it happens the average length of a speech at Toastmasters, so I was keen to see how this worked out. Steven opened the evening with a dedication to Arthur Erickson who died aged 84 on Wednesday. Erickson has long been an inspiration in Vancouver and his list of achievements are simply staggering. There's more information on Erickson's website which I encourage you to take a look at. I am definitely not qualified to do what Steven did so well (especially given his own emotions)but I will say I loved the fact that many of Erickson's buildings complemented their natural locations, especially climate (I stole that from Wikipedia!). For instance, the post and beam construction method of the Coastal First Nations - something that particularly resonates with me at the moment.
The Twenty20 format was fascinating. In amongst the crashing beer bottles kicked over by the audience sitting in the dark, each speaker came up and tried to time their delivery with the slides. No monitor was provided for the speakers which meant that sadly most of the time they were looking at their slides not at their audience. A lot of the content was excellent, but generally the delivery was disappointing. Few had very little energy - the pressure of 'losing control' of their slides clearly the biggest impact.
Some spoke very quickly and they had to introduce a pregnant pause until the next slide came up. Some overrun the particular slide. Admittedly a couple of speakers made a joke of this which for the wrong reasons was a highlight of their presentation, simply because from a technique point of view it was very well done compared to how the rest of the speech was delivered. Normally a crashing bottle or a baby's cry would be distracting as a speaker, for many speakers this acted as a release and they seemed to relax more. There were lots and lots of ums and ahhs as well as other crutch words which took away from some of the message.
But let me be clear about this. Public speaking is NOT easy, it is particularly complicated when you add a visual dimension with slides. Add to that the loss of control as the slides change automatically and presenting at Pecha Kucha is tough! All of the speakers got up in front of hundreds of people and shared their personal passion of the moment - that takes guts. Many times I have met/seen designers who in person have eccentricity and extroversion in boat loads, but throw in a big audience (and the above!) in and they become introverted and shy.
Although I can throw stones at the presentation skills, to do so is to a large extent missing the point. The art, i.e. the pictures, the buildings, the stuff the speaker creates and shares is an expression of who they are. If I consider the content of the slides alone then this is more than enough for me to enjoy the whole experience and make sure I get tickets for the next one!
Like the other manifestation of Twenty20, Pecha Kucha is a truly international affair with events in well over 100 cities worldwide. I would love to see an event in another city (maybe a roadtrip would make a good documentary?) - it is amazingly inspiring to be in the company of such amazing creativity.
Last Tuesday I left home at the crack of sparrows chirp, i.e. 5.15am for what was a surprising and straight forward drive with a friend to Seattle. Our goal: attend a one day course by the Leonardo da Vinci of data, the Galileo of Graphics, namely one Edward Tufte.
Despite the frankly over dramatic billing, ET (as he called himself) and his course "Presenting Data and Information" did not disappoint. Part of the course was a copy of all four of his books, which he referred to throughout the day. Pages of which made up the majority of his briefly displayed slides.
Based on the course I should have started this post with a Supergraphic! That I will skip however what I can do is show you this photo which at least contains one, Minard's 1869 flow map of Napoleon's disastrous march on Moscow in 1812.
I came away with lots of ideas, thoughts and of course further reading. ET is clearly one if not the biggest guru in the area of visualising data. For some of the folk attending, much of this was not new and perhaps they had more to reference it to, but for me it was thrilling.
I can give you a bunch of sound bites, some original, some not
... the metaphor is the map ... in an explantion competence is underrated, conspiracy theory overrated ... you need an open mind not an empty head ...until we have better evidence or an alternative explanation comes along ... silence is the sound of good data ... content counts ... whatever it takes ... the smallest effective difference ... don't do amateur designs, steal from the best ... visible certainty ... small multiples ... use a visual solution to a visual problem ... it's better to do something approximately right than exactly wrong ... people can read at two to three times the speed you can speak ...the information is the interface
My favourite has to be that presentations are about two things. 1. the Story, 2. the reasons to believe
All of these are just a part of the story of course, ET's books also convey a wealth of examples which easily tick the credibility box. Not to mention the fact he's been running these courses since 1993.
ET presented in a quiet, understated way. This was very effective and reinforced one of his key themes. I.e. It's about the content not the presenter. For me, it was a day about both. Let me relate a short story to illustrate this:
My kind friend who drove us there and back, mislaid her keys before we bolted back north. I went back into the auditorium to see if they were on the floor where we had sat all day. All of the 400 plus attendees had left, but ET was still at the front packing up. As I made my way back to where we had sat he immediately came over and offered his assistance. I took the opportunity to thank him for the day, say I had enjoyed it and shake his hand. He responded simply that he was relieved! He was pleased to hear it had been well received.
This brief conversation told me something really interesting about ET. He too was a human being, packing out 400 plus theatres in countless cities over countless years aside, he was something else - a word I hadn't heard all day. authentic.
So if you get a chance to attend then don't hesistate, Edward Tufte is a great storyteller. If you can't attend, buy the books - all of them! Hell, even buy his mother's book - they will enhance the bookcase of any household and what's more they will seriously enrich your mind.
Over the last few weeks I have taken part in the annual Toastmasters International Speech Contest. This starts in your club and then moves on to your Area, District and I think Province. One thing this does illustrate is how many clubs there are out there. There are in fact over 11,000 Toastmaster Clubs worldwide and it's exciting to be a part of something which has so much reach.
This year I won my club contest and made it through to the Area contest a couple of weeks later. I decided I would give my speech about Financial Storytelling. I am often asked what I mean when I call myself a Financial Storyteller and it seemed a good opportunity to address this question. Feedback and comments are of course welcome! (The speech runs for approximately 7 mins).
I was awarded 2nd Prize for this speech which concludes my participation in the contest. The next round in in a couple of weeks in New Westminster after which it's off to Whistler in May. I would like to acknowledge the support of my club colleagues and friends, many of which gave up their evening to come and cheer me on. I really appreciated it.
This is the first speech I have given specifically about Financial Storytelling, but it will not be the last. I already have more ideas and material that will help me tell the story of being a financial storyteller. If you have any suggestions or ideas I would be happy to hear them. I believe the opportunity to help organisations and individuals draw out the real meaning behind the numbers has never been bigger!
Thanks as always to Singular Software for working on the Video with their amazing product PluralEyes™.
I would not consider myself to be a Sustainability convert. I do agree with the concept, but I am not at the leading edge. I've read some interesting books (here and here) around the subject and was really sitting there wanting to learn more. What I hoped for a robust discussion of some business issues and what we can do about it.
Sadly, by the time Anita had been introduced and then introduced the panel there was little time for any discussion. Sure there were a couple of questions fired one at a time to each panel member in turn, but really it was a let down, even members of the panel looked miserable or dis-interested. I found this odd as the majority of the audience were already, as far as I could tell, converted. Is this what they wanted?
This event I understand has grown substantially, which is great. Around 300 people or more stayed for the Keynote, but is Sustainability done? Can we really indulge in an hour of flattery and self congratulatory back slapping when there is, even in my uneducated mind, lots more to do?
The panelists ARE doing some interesting stuff, although I struggle by way of example, with the paradox of moving a production plant from BC to Ontario to save transport costs! What about the jobs that were lost locally? Overall the panel struck me as a wasted opportunity to let folk in the audience like me learn something. The bios I can read later myself, assuming I am interested enough by what the individuals have to say. All I really learned was who they were. There was no real discussion. Was that enough?
This rather nicely takes me on to the main event. Majora Carter was there in person, courtesy of Vancity and gave her speech which if you missed it was very similar to the one below from Ted.com.
I had heard most of this before, but it was exciting to see Majora giving this speech 10 feet away from me! She did have some updates, but more importantly she talked about what she actually did. Sustainability, changing the way people think, changing the way decisions are made and so on only happens when ACTION is taken. We can all sit around having a friendly chat about how few parks there are, but it takes action to have any kind of influence.
Majora has become very well known in the last few years and for good reason. What she achieved in New York IS an amazing story. She seems to shoulder the responsibility of this notoriety well when asked to come and speak at events like Sustainability 2.0. She did deliver on my expectations and I went away happy. As for the event, I think the Expo had value but they really need rethink what the panel is there for.
Last week I was featured on the Network Insider by Tatsuya Nakagawa. Network Insider is the monthly newsletter of Atomica Creative and I was pleased to answer Tatsuya's questions about Financial Storytelling. I will link to the interview directly in a separate post but first I wanted to share some of Tatsuya's comments about the subject which he used to introduce me.
... I was intrigued by his
description of himself as so often we are presented with numbers that, recently
frankly are quite appalling. As we struggle to understand the meaning behind
these numbers, we look to financial storytellers to interpret them for us.
The good ones put striking numbers in context and, beyond
just helping us to interpret them, get us excited about what they mean for the
future. Understanding the past is the first step, understanding what this means
for the future and the opportunities it opens up for us personally and for our
businesses is the next, key step.
As we are constantly bombarded with numbers and headlines
about those numbers that can be misleading, the role of the financial
storyteller becomes even more important.
The storyteller these days need not only be an expert at his
or her craft but also at intersecting with technology in such a way that the
word gets spread efficiently to the key people who need and can use it.
I'll give you an example
of a quote in an article I saw just the other day. "Contrary to popular
belief, sales of green products are not tanking in a down economy". While this
opening line makes me feel good about the opportunities in the green economy, a
few paragraphs later (after many readers would have lost interest) I found the
following paragraph:
....sales of green products are up
4.1 percent, driven mostly by price increases, as unit sales in this category
dropped 6.6 percent in 2008.
This information, of course, leads one to the exact opposite
conclusion, hence the need for not only storytellers, but trusted ones. And as
we are all increasingly wired, we look to storytellers who can not only tell
our story, but also have the social media savvy to disperse that information
across the web using the most effective social media tools to reach our target
audience.
As business owners, we all struggle to get our message
across in a way that is effective and interesting. Creating interest leads to
increased understanding and demand, whether for our product or to invest in our
companies.
Using the multitude of new tools available on the web from
Flickr and YouTube to Slideshare and Twitter we look to financial storytellers
to help us get the message across to our stakeholders in an a way that is
interesting, creative and above all trustworthy.
I agree with Tatsuya on this, trust is a very important element of telling financial stories. For some the fact that I a Certified Management Accountant in Canada and a Chartered Management Accountant in the UK helps to build trust. For others it is the recommendations and endorsements of others that makes the difference. Yet others make up their own mind based on a face to face meeting or series of meetings - my preferred method and one that is mandatory at the end of the day.
So if you would like to get together and talk more about Financial Storytelling and how it relates to your business or organisation, feel free to drop me a line.
Following on from my previous post I am happy to report on an event which delivers three excellent business stories. Friday night, Leftantler and I attended a Wine & Cheese Tasting put on by Farmstead Wines and the Benton Brothers. The former is fairly obvious and the latter is the business who provided the cheese! Six wines and seven cheeses. The third part of this story was the location. This was a place called Raw Canvas in Yaletown which combines a cafe with a public art studio, but more on that later.
Let's start with Farmstead Wines. On this occasion it was Jeff Bashford who presented the wines. Farmstead are special as they only carry wines where they have a personal relationship with the Vinaroon. Vinaroon? Ahh yes, this is an old English word which means both wine grower or farmer AND someone who produces the wine. The French equivalent is vigneron. The wines are all naturally farmed and have been personally inspected by Farmstead.
The Benton Brothers have been around for about five years and specialise in providing a range of the very best cheeses from all over the world. Each of these cheeses has it's very own story and paired with a fine Farmstead wine made for a simply delicious experience. Andrew and Jonah presented some of their 'favourites' and like me it would seem it's impossible to have one or two favourite cheeses - you have to have dozens if not hundreds!
The setting was a cafe, soon to be bar I suspect, space in Yaletown called Raw Canvas. The idea here is that you come in, buy a blank canvas and then paint! They provide all the paints, smocks and space to let your inner artist free! The chap who runs it said that a while ago he was in Japan and loved the public art studios they have where you could simply drop by, hang out, paint, drink coffee (maybe tea in Japan?) and enjoy the experience of being an artist.Their website is one of the nicest I've seen for a while as well!
He knew this would work in Vancouver so came back and promptly purchased a yoga studio! However, late last year the cafe opened and I have to say it has a really good feel about it. The seating reminds me of Alice in Wonderland where chairs and sofas have impossibly high backs to them and set next to the studio space it works really well. I'm looking forward to going back and exploring a enticing list of beverages!
But back to the Wine and Cheese! All of the wines were simply exquisite on their own, but paired with the cheeses ... my vocabulary fails me. If you have never experienced how a wine and cheese combine to enhance the flavours and enjoyment of both you are missing something. I will mention only one of each here but if you'd like to know the full list leave a comment below!
For me Marc Tempe's Altenbourg Pinot Noir 2004 was amazing. Do not be confused by the Alsace shaped bottle (Marc's statement about where this is from), the wine was at once surprising, familiar and clearly a step above most of the Pinot you will find available in BC. A nice connection between this vinaroon and Raw Canvas is Japan. Apparently Tempe is a Rockstar there, although I've been unable to confirm if this is for real or purely metaphorically!
My favourite cheese of the night was Piave Vecchio, from Italy which had been aged a minimum of 12 months. I better stop now, as talking about wine and cheese could easily keep me writing for thousands more words. I'll wrap up with what may be my obvious recommendations:
In the wine store look for wines with the Farmstead seal, you won't be disappointed. For Cheese take a trip to Kerrisdale and the Benton Brothers. Outside of that, visit Raw Canvas where very soon you will be able to enjoy both!
I am really pleased to be able to share two food and wine videos that really demonstrate storytelling. What's even more exciting about these videos is that I've met both of the presenters. James Sherrett I've known for a couple of years, and must find an excuse to have him cook something for my better half and I (though not buffalo!). I love the line from his presentation below:
"Local Food is important because it is one of the two things we put inside our body that become part of us, the other I would argue is stories."
In my post Northern Voice 2009 - reflections I mentioned the other speaker, Anthony Nicalo of Farmstead Wines. The video below is 25 mins or so long and rich with stories and information and a great introduction to Anthony and his own story. I was looking for a quote, but picking one is tough. So I encourage you instead to consider the following:
Some business people can be very comfortable with the word 'story' but become very uncomfortable with the idea of 'storytelling.' Further the idea of a 'storyteller' can conjure up images of wise and bearded old men in long coats, preferably leaning on a wooden staff talking to a group of enthralled children! (nothing wrong with that by the way - it's just not what I want to talk about)
There has been a lot written about 'storytelling,' much of it by some very learned writers. However, very little of this is about Business and Storytelling (Stephen Denning is an exception that comes to mind), at least directly, which I find disappointing. Of course we could be talking about terminology. The most significant aspect of Marketing is storytelling, having success in Sales is about convincing the customer of your story. We always hear about the 'story' when things go wrong - The Enron Story, The Nick Leeson Story and so on. Yet we don't find a huge selection of books on the subject it in the Marketing and Sales sections.
Personally I think in business we should be far more honest about what we are doing.
We are telling Stories. This is called Storytelling and as such we are Storytellers.
If a Start-up makes a pitch it is trying to get us to buy into it's story. If a growing company is evaluating growth opportunities it is looking at what kind of stories can develop. If you give a presentation, you are telling a story. If a company is doing well, what is the story of it's success?
As the children listening to the storyteller, we were entertained and if we were lucky, it was a good story and we learnt something. It's the same story in business.
" ... don’t need to be a story expert - just someone who appreciates the power
and value of using story for something other than art &
entertainment ..."
That sounded good to me, so being as it's a New Year I thought I'd go along to something new and see what I could learn. I'm really glad I did!
I met a very erudite and engaging bunch of people. In addition to Denise, I met Nina Winham, Vivian Forssman, Simon Goland to mention just a few. Discussions were wide and varied leading to a whole bunch of recommended books to read and films to watch. I've listed the ones I remember over on the resources page of the Story Salon blog, hopefully I'll get to read/watch some of these then I can share my thoughts on this site afterwards.
I was not expecting to hear about Norse Gods and meditation, programs to help troubled children, First Nations cultural struggles, sustainability, European history and many other things all in the same evening!
I started making note not only of these referrals but also of choice little phrases that I heard over the course of the evening. "Storytelling in Social Change," "A language older than words," and my favourite; to describe a presentation when using slides as "Still Pictures, Moving Words!" The location was the Waazubee Cafe which I would describe as everything I'd expect from a cafe on Commerical Drive. The decor was eclectic, the drinks good, the service excellent. Add to that fascinating conversation it all made for a very worthwhile evening.
Congratulations to Denise for getting it going, if you are interested in storytelling outside of stand-up comics and children's stories, this is the place to come. I guarantee you will go away with at least one thing to follow-up on, a book to read, movie to watch, idea to try. See you next month!
Personal Finance is not something I normally talk about, I normally leave that to say Nancy Zimmerman or Alan Yu. Tonight I'm making an exception. Over the last year or so I've been enjoying the numerous little videos by Lee LeFever explaining subjects in Plain English. Subjects such as Wikis, Social Networking and How to elect a US President and many others have all been covered in short, clear and thoroughly enjoyable videos.
The latest edition to this and a prelude I believe to a series on Financial Basics is "How to Save Money in Plain English"
Lee's business is centred around the Common Craft store where you can pay to licence these excellent tools for use in your organisation. Lee is building up a very impressive library and I can't wait to see the Financial Basics series. It is also an excellent example of great storytelling.
Going back to Nancy for a minute, I've started following a series on CBC where she is coaching a couple on how to improve their financial situation. There's also more about this on Nancy's own site of course. That also has the makings of a great story!
Given the name of this blog I would like to start exploring what I mean by Financial Storytelling. It's a big subject but Iet me start with some basics. Whatever your purpose, in whatever type or kind of business/organisation, the building blocks you have available to you are the same:
Numbers
Words
Pictures
In my view these should be used in the following order. I.e. Start with a picture, develop the story with words that you can then support with numbers. And I mean support. Numbers of themselves tell you nothing. It's only when you label, reference and put them in context with words and pictures that they can make sense. (witness the rise of the pie chart in business). Put all three of the above together and you have a Story.
There another important aspect of this Story that I will also be addressing, that is: Delivery. Be in written (e.g. reports), visual (e.g. Powerpoint!) or oral (e.g. podcasts, voicemail?). All take a specific set of skills giving me plenty to talk about.
Outside of the above there is the whole area of business intelligence or visual analytics, storytelling more broadly in business and anything else I consider worth commenting on!
Some of the above I have touched on in previous posts, some I haven't addressed at all. But that's the fun of developing content for this blog - I get to learn as I go, I'm hoping you will too!
As I begin to increase my writing I am already learning lessons. One of these happened as I typed the previous sentence. In my head I said 'as I begin to try and increase my writing' then I stopped. 'try and increase' ? This illustrates that I need to be far more vigilant as I write and probably as I speak as well!
One of the motivations for writing more is to increase the audience I share/discuss my ideas with. Of course writing also means commenting more on other blogs. In the process of doing exactly this I noticed a friend of mine did not allow a url to be recorded on a comment. I have it, via disqus as optional, as is the facility to leave a video comment (still waiting for one of those!). So I asked Alan what the story was. He was kind enough to share his reasoning via email and now, this very helpful blog post.
Interesting stuff I thought. Although I have been blogging since 2004 I am using the New Year to pretend it's new again, so I am looking at all aspects of the process. This is also an approach I am trying with twitter. In this case I am starting to use it to research a specific subject. Storytelling. I am now following a couple of new interesting people (Gabriel Rossi and Kat Hansen) as well as finding a couple of people I am huge fans of (Stephen Fry and Steve Denning). I'm looking forward to discovering even more in the weeks ahead. By the way, given the second paragraph of this post, Stephen Fry's podcast is very apropos.
Of course one of the biggest stories around at the moment is the financial crisis. It is difficult in some ways to filter the various accounts of all the twists and turns. Yesterday I was thrilled to find that a writer I've been following since the early 1990s, Robert Cringely has a relevant blog. He has a couple actually, but this one is especially aimed at the hunt for a new mortgage on his home. I've already learnt a bunch of things I didn't know before reading it. Robert is US based and I would love to know if he has a twin up here in Canada who can add a Canadian twist to the blog?
In my previous post, the story I told - Raven and the Whale, is an old Inuit story. When I was reading the Toastmasters Manual prior to selecting this story the guidance stressed how I was to tell the story not simply act it out.
This morning I was thrilled to catch the Vinyl Cafe on CBC Radio, presented by Stuart McLean. I saw Stuart for the first time in Vancouver last December and he has become one of my favourite storytellers as I explore my own ideas around being a financial storyteller.
Today's show was a treat. Stuart was playing some old favourites from the many many years he has done the show. In particular he replayed the telling of Roger Woodward's story, the Miracle at Niagara In 1960 when 7 year old Roger went over Niagara Falls with nothing but a life jacket and survived!
Stuart's telling of this story is astounding, reinforced at the end by an interview with Roger himself. I think this aired 5 or 6 years ago and through the wonders of the Internet, this has been made available online for a short period. If you read Stuart's post this week you can download the mp3.
If I needed an example of how to TELL a story rather than act it out, then I challenge you to find me a better example that this! The story is of course,Roger's; but the telling is vintage Stuart's. I feel immense gratitude to both men for allowing it to be shared.
As Stuart said this is story that deserves to be retold and shared, so I encourage you to take a listen and share your thoughts!
It's one thing to see yourself in the bathroom mirror it's another to be filmed outside in the wild doing something public.
A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of chairing the second Mentor panel in this years New Ventures BC competition. I, along with half a dozen or so other mentors, saw eight of the final 30 competitors present their pitch which we then gave feedback on.
The panels are an opportunity for the competitors to practice ahead of hopefully making the final 10 in the competition and presenting to the competition Judges in September. This year one of the pieces of feedback that came out was for one competitor to have their presentation filmed. The idea being that you learn an amazing amount about how you appear to others from watching yourself on screen.
I realised that it had been at least 15 years since I had done this. As it happens the team I am co-mentoring in the competition this year, Singular Software, has a great product for use in multi-camera applications and I was keen to offer the idea of a test application. This week I gave my 11th Toastmaster speech, the first in the Advanced Communicator, Storytelling manual. Bruce Sharpe from Singular came along with two cameras and together with a sound recorder and my digital camera recorded the event.
I've only seen the raw videos as it were, but a couple of things come immediately to mind. Firstly, Bruce's software is quite simply amazing. Basically you load all the video recordings and sound recordings into something like Final Cut Pro and press go. Bruce's software then examines all the clips and synchronises the timing of them. I was able to look at the screen and see three different videos and the sound from the speech all running at the same time and all totally in sync! I was chatting to Bruce while the software did it's thing, but this seemed to take only a few seconds to do.
I'm no expert in video and/or sound recording. However I can see how even with the simplest single camera recording and a soundtrack that getting the two lined up can be a challenge. So to do this with multiple cameras and sound is very very cool. I can see this would save tons of time and as we know, time is money! Additionally of course this enables you to create more interesting videos of an event through using multiple angles. Add to this of course that your sources could be from different people at say, a sports event or a wedding and you can really have some fun.
The second thing I want to mention is that the advise from the mentor panel is spot on. I've only watched myself once but now some of the comments I received from my evaluators make far more sense! I'm really looking forward to seeing what Bruce does with the videos and I'm hoping to put it up on this blog, so stay tuned for some more posts about the experience - it's been a huge learning experience for me.
Looking in the bathroom mirror this morning I saw a different person staring back at me. Now I need to work out who that is :-)
The other day my wife and I were discussing the idea that as people become more famous/successful they have less time for the people who made them famous/successful in the first place. A couple of days later I had reason to question this.
For years I've been reading Robert X Cringely's column. These days of course I follow the rss. When I first read it, about the same time as the Triumph of the Nerds aired in the UK, Mr. Cringely had a really nice feature. Years later, i.e. now I appreciate it more as I think of my Toastmasters speeches and storytelling more widely.
The column would start with something that his wife said/did then go off into the core topic (rumours of a takeover, new product or whatever), then at the end conclude by circling back to whatever it was his wife mentioned/did. For me, sometimes the column was not in my field of interest, but I read on anticipating the conclusion.
Being a wired world we live in I decided the other day to buzz an email off to him. As usual, with these things I did not expect a reply. To my delight 'Bob' - I feel I can call him that based on how he signed the email - reminding me that this was 1987-95 when he did that. Wow! Over 10 years ago it stopped! Bob also mentioned he didn't think it was really appropriate for his current column, which is a shame.
Bob's done some very cool things, which I've read or followed over the years and doubtless more I will discover in future. His email to me probably took less than 10 secs, nothing to him I'm sure. But this simple act sets him apart from many others and gives me another good reason to continue to reading his column.
It's also another reason I should listen to my wife a little more. In our discussion she told me I was being overly cynical and on this occasion (only!) I have to agree with her.
Looking through my feeds this morning, or in this case a link posted on facebook I came across a post from Kris Krug. 1000 True fans is from a blog from another KK and puts forward the idea that:
A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.
Something for me to pass on to Leftantler and her exploration of photography. I like the idea a lot and reminded me I must read The Long Tail - it's been sitting there for ages and the term, like the Tipping Point is now part of everyday language. Unlike the Tipping Point I haven't read the book!
A book I am reading and enjoying is Story Factor by Annette Simmons. It's my first foray into Annette's work and I find myself nodding my head and smiling a lot which must be a good sign.
Returning to 1000 True fans, the idea here is that a true fan will spend $100 per year on your art, be it music, photography, writing etc. Find another 999 of these and you can make a reasonable living of $100K per year (the average in BC was $59K in 2005). The accountant (sorry to use the A-word) in me suggests setting a goal of $59K rather than $100K, meaning that's 401 fans I don't need to find! Therefore I'm 40% towards my goal! (this is where the accountant switches into a dreamer!).
Despite the flippant comments above I think there is lots of merit to this idea, but one that requires more thinking. I'll let you know how I get on ...
Last night I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Stuart McLean and the Vinyl cafe here in Vancouver.
Unfortunately it was at the Centre for Performing Arts, which has to be the most soulless, antiseptic venue I've ever been too. Normally I avoid it, but I guess because it's so close to CBC Vancouver and I didn't have a choice, I attended.
Stuart is simply one of the best storytellers in Canada. I've enjoyed his fictional stories on the radio, which are available as podcasts (well done CBC!) for a couple of years now. Seeing him perform live was a real treat.
This is clearly a man who is very comfortable with being on stage and talking to a large number of people. He did use a lectern and it would be interesting to know how detailed his notes are. A tall man his body was extremely expressive and he clearly has a huge amount of nervous energy. His use of hands and arms was superb and I don't think I counted any umms ahhs.
The other thing which impressed me was his use of silence, which he managed to do AND get everyone's attention on him, for the next line.
Of course last night his stories were very funny and entertaining. I also listened to him speak on Remembrance Day, when the story was completely appropriate for the nature of the day. In fact, that speech was one of the most powerful pieces of radio I've heard in a long while. I can only remember two others as effective and one of those I was not alive to hear!
Last night and Remembrance Day reaffirmed to me the power of narrative and storytelling, not simply for entertainment but for far more 'weighty' topics including, amongst other, financial messages.
Stephen Denning addresses many of these in his latest book, the Secret Language of Leadership, which I've mentioned before and now, almost at the end, thoroughly recommend.
Stephen makes the link to leadership and this made me think again of Stuart. I consider Stuart a leader in communicating stories about Canadian culture. The fact that he makes me laugh so much is simply an added bonus!
Tonight I had a very interesting outing to DemoCampVancouver04, not some time machine driven geek experience but the 4th DemoCamp hosted at Workspace here in Vancouver.
How to describe this?
Well, basically a bunch of folk get together and anyone who has an idea they want to demo or pitch gets 30 secs and to describe it and write it on the wall. All attendees vote using super high tech voting equipment which four on the wall get a slot to present. These four then present and folk then vote on who they think is best using a different piece of high tech voting equipment (need to find the link).
Another fun part was called Battle Decks. In this two randomly selected attendees get to present a 5 slide presentation which they have never seen before. Todd Maffin of CBC fame was author of one of the decks tonight and as previously (I'm told), they were absolutely hilarious.
Things rounded off by a trip to the new restaurant Flux who closed specially for us and the sponsors paid for the first drink and the appetizers.
So apart from enjoying myself what did I think? I won't critique individual presentations, I mean who am I to do such a thing? at least here ;-) However, having hot-footed from my weekly Toastmasters session I found myself noticing the umms and ahhs, watching the timing a little, body language and so forth. It was a magical thing to behold (a bit like a unicorn, but that's another story).
The Battle Decks thing was awesome, reminding me of Table Topics in the Toastmaster meetings. Weird as it may sound, the DemoCamp group and Toastmasters share something here. Both were engaged and generally and supportive of the speaker. I mean, no fear here with the presenters, but as with the Toastmasters meetings everyone came away feeling positive about the experience.
DemoCamp will be back in the new year and personally I can't wait. My next Toastmasters meeting will come along before then and I can't wait.
One of the best authorities on storytelling in business and the use of narrative is Stephen Denning, who I have written about in previous posts. Today and for the next couple of days according to Steve's website he is in Vancouver attending the Annual Conference of the International Leadership Association.
Sadly I will not be able to attend as I'd love to hear him speak but I do have his just published book - The Secret Language of Leadership - Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative.
About a year ago Steve was asking, via his newsletter, for comments on a chapter from his then unpublished book. I buzzed him off an email which I was thrilled and surprised got a very quick response. My feedback was fairly direct expressing my disappointment that it appeared Steve had moved from talking about storytelling to talking about leadership.
Much has happened in the months since then and I've come to realise that talking about leadership and storytelling does make good sense. I'm only a couple of chapters into the finished book but I am already enjoying the stories and learning from the points Steve makes.
As it happens, when Steve requested the original feedback he promised readers who responded would have a chance to win a free copy of the book when it was published (actually I can't remember if it was a draw or something). I'm pleased to say that this is exactly what happened and my copy of the book arrived last week.
I was thrilled that Steve acknowledged my minor contribution and it demonstrated something very important in storytelling and leadership. Authenticity. Steve did exactly what he said he would do, despite a long period between the promise and the delivery. Thinking about this now it also demonstrated to me another aspect of storytelling.
The idea is to make your story become that of your audience (or reader in this case). Steve's book is now part of my story. He did write the book but I am the one that takes it forward, hopefully adding my personal value along the way.
I don't know if Steve has visited Vancouver before but I hope he has a fantastic trip, if you get to hear him speak please DO comment below. In the meantime I will get started on another chapter!
I was off looking for some flickr tools and was treated to an unexpected treat. On flagrant disregards blog this entry demonstrates brilliantly the power of story.
The Lovely and Talented Wife, who volunteers at our elementary school, recently convinced a kindergartner to do something he didn’t want to do by offering him the next two days off from school. Guess what day it was.
How rich are the pictures you have reading this? It's very Stephen Denning, very Springboard. John Watson, the author of the above titled the piece "I Married a Genius.' Seems to me, it's a rich household.
Tonight I attended the lecture given Naomi Klein as part of the Vancouver International Writers Festival. Klein first popped up in my consciousness with her book a few year back called No Logo. Her latest book, Shock Doctrine and the subject of tonight's lecture is about what she refers to as Disaster Capitalism.
I have to hold my hand up here and say that although I was aware of No Logo I haven't read it. The same can be said for her latest book. Given this I wasn't expecting what for the writer was clearly an already converted audience. I appreciate that writers have their fans but I'm sure some people were in a state of nervous and premature hand clapping readiness.
The subject matter was and is a serious matter and given I wasn't already converted I was hoping to learn more about it. I did in a limited way as Klein attempted to tell road stories from the book tour. In fact this aspect of things nagged at me. There was a feeling of self proclaimed celebrity, endorsed by the crowd of course, which made me uneasy. Given the gravity of what her book maybe I expecting someone a little more humble. Klein has a powerful and valuable contribution to make and I hope she is able to focus on this despite the media attention - as she said 'it's just reporting.'
Don't misunderstand me though. It IS a powerful story, much of which resonates with me but I did feel at times like I should have either just read the book, or seen her speak in somewhere other than Vancouver. I was especially pleased that Klein talked a lot about storytelling and the power of narrative to connect people with the bonus it might just make the world a better place.
However, given this focus on storytelling I did feel a little let down when Klein set up an excellent structure (road stories - be they of the book tour(?) rather than her travels) and then not really deliver the content. It reminded me of those formulaic sitcoms where the structure is set out for each episode before the plot is worked out.
There was some very good stuff in amongst all this and perhaps I am being a little harsh. I was pleased to see that the organisers bazarre attempt to dismiss the idea of questions afterwards allowed Klein the opportunity to really connect with people in the hall on a personal level. One lady courageously stood up and explained she was subject to the truly appalling Residential Schools experiment at it's height in the 1950s. This demonstrated very quickly the value and power of narrative.
Maybe I don't know the subject well enough but I did struggle, beyond the solidarity with activism, with how Klein managed to make a connection between her book and the striking library workers (another subject I know little about!) in Vancouver. That said it was a very interesting way to spend a couple of hours and I look forward to supporting my local library when it reopens by taking out Klein's book.
As you may have seen in my delicious posts, I'm thrilled to report that Mike Tan and the team at Teampages picked up the second prize at this years New Ventures BC Competition. The Awards night was last Wednesday, which due to a diary melt-down on my part I managed to miss. However I did manage to get to the bar afterwards and toast their success.
Together with Jim Brosseau, we acted as the mentors for Teampages as they progressed through the competition. From our first meeting it was very clear that these guys were highly motivated and well prepared as they went through the various stages. I'm not sure how much Jim and I were 'needed' as such, but simply the opportunity to be a small part of their success is a real buzz, not only for them of course but for Jim and I.
From memory my advise to Mike was based around a simple idea. Tell your story. As Mike professionally responded, "Teampages is made for coaches, parents and athletes who want to make their lives easier.'
It's a simple message and one that anyone who has ever been involved with a team can understand not only on a practical level but also an emotional one. It clearly worked on the judges as well!
This was my second year as a mentor in the competition and seeing the spark in Mike and his team after winning the prize was a huge reward for me. These guys will appear in the press and hopefully go on to make Teampages a real success story not only in Vancouver, but across Canada and the world (hey! the dream is real!). Watch this space!
This week I will be giving a talk about blogging to members of the Society of Certified Management Accountants in Vancouver. My self-written publicity looks like this:
Stewart Marshall, a UK designated Chartered Management Accountant, financial storyteller and blogger introduces ...
A conversation about blogs.
What they are, who used them, who writes them, how you find them and why, as a CMA you should care. Stewart will answer these questions and introduce you to one of the most important communication tools available today. By translating the buzzwords and the geekery, he will illustrate the potential of this worldwide resource to you and your business. Stewart will explain how as a CMA, you can maximise the opportunity blogging presents, capitalize on the knowledge it can give you and even how you can participate yourself!
It should be a fun evening, I just need to finalise the slides ....
Over the last 9 months or so I've completed a 12 day personal development programme based around experiential learning, narrative and leadership. Much of this was driven by Dr. Ginger Grant. Amongst many thing Dr. Grant has a PhD in archetypal pscyhology and mythology and did her post-doctorate at Standford Graduate School of Business. There she was taught by Michael Ray on the Creativity in Business program, which Jim Collins, author of 'Good to Great' took in 1982.Dr. Grant is the only Canadian in the teacher/trainer group for the Standford "Creativity and Business" program.
Dr. Grant has recently taken the position of Director, Small Business Consulting Group at Simon Fraser University. It's been a real thrill to be taught by Dr. Grant, I've learnt so much about myself, leadership, narrative and so many other things it's simply amazing. So I was very pleased to hear that this summer the Small Business Consulting Group is putting on a Summer speaker series.
It kicks off with Dr. Jane Fee talking about "Technologies in our Everyday Lives" - a couple of the questions she will address are "How are Advertisers using technology to drive sales?" and "What should parents know about the culture of technology: risks and benefits associated with it?" - sounds like a rich topic which unfortunately I will miss.
All the events take plac at the Westminster Savings Credit Union Theatre, a 200-seat theatre, which is located on the mezzanine level of the new SFU Surrey campus at Central City. Dr. Fee's talk is on June 27th. Then in July and August, on the 25th and 22nd respectively, Dr. Grant has a couple of events of her own.
The first is called "The Power of Story" - an excellent introduction to a subject I'm getting more and more into. On this occasion you will have an opportunity to "learn how to capture the power of story," and how it can be used as "a gift of communication to unite those you love and build community."
The second is called "Re-Visioning Retirement." The description of this event talks about how many of us have become distracted with the making of plans, rather than the living of live. It picks up on the heroic journey, which I've learnt a lot about in recent months and how having a clearer understanding of your own journey can enable you to engage, collaborate and grow - in all areas of your life.
I strongly recommend you make the trip out to Surrey for all three of these events. Dr. Grant is beginning something very exciting and remarkable at SFU. Each event is I believe $30. Given I know a little of what to expect at two of the three, I think this is probably the best $100 you could spend all summer!
