The structure of stories

The new phonebooks are here, the new phonebooks are here!

Finally, I stumbled on a link to one of the This American Life Episodes on Showtime.

Anecdotes and Skypecasting

I recently made a great discovery. There is a company in Australia called Anecdote that specializes in storytelling, narrative, sensemaking, etc. for business knowledge management. They have a pdf that explains how to create your own Anecdote circle to extract stories and tacit knowledge about the themes you are interested in exploring. At the same time, I found out about using Skype to create "Skypecasts". Skypecasts would allow us to use the anecdote circles methods while taping the stories and bringing people from different locations together. I can't wait to try this.

Story as best practice

A fabulous example of the power of storytelling in organizations.

This American Life tv trailer

Writing the script

• Choose and edit final quotes as you write the script
• Notice how you tell the story to your friends and colleagues, notice what you say and the order you say them
• Write the way you talk
• Remember to keep raising a series of broader questions, woven in the story
• Move between different kinds of moments
Funny
Emotional
Positive
Negative
• Run first draft by someone else for critique
• Read them the script
• Play the quotes

The art of the interview

Prepare a structure
• Go in with 3 or 4 plot points you are trying to draw out
• What happened
• Why they think it happened
• What did they think it would be like before they started
• What was it really like
• Look for the lesson

Pointers for a good interview
• If you are calm and casual your subjects will follow your lead
• Tell subjects not to be afraid to interrupt
• If you want your interviewee to open up, tell them a personal story

Where do stories come from?

Character:
• Stories should be character driven
• A character you identify with
• Who interacts in with other characters
• Who grow, change, learn something new
• Learn something surprising not what you would expect

Follow literary structure
• Start with an anecdote (Sequence of actions makes people want to know what happens next which creates tension)
• Then a moment of reflection about what sequence means
• Then start the cycle again (anecdote, reflection, anecdote, reflection. Etc.)

Questions in my action research

1. What theoretical framework can emerge that may describe the role of narrative structures in learning?
2. What is the impact of applying narrative structures to standalone training?
3. How do I best implement what I have learned?
4. How do I share what I have learned with my organization to improve their practice in narrative driven course design?

This American Life

I think the npr radio program This American Life produces some of the most compelling stories–only using audio. As part of my research I would like to analyze what makes their storytelling so effective.

The navigation topics from what I have learned:
• story elements
• interviewing
• script writing