I think Steve Clayton has my dream job. I’m not a particular Microsoft fanboi but he’s their Chief Storyteller. I recently watched his presentation about “the secret to telling awesome stories” which was fascinating, mostly from the point of view of how a company like Microsoft differentiates storytelling from marketing.
Since doing my dissertation I’ve been interested in storytelling within organisations and recently I’ve been going out and talking about how it might work in the education sector (more on that soon, I hope).
Some of the key points Steve made that really resonated were about how often it’s the small side stories of a project that are the most engaging (see his anecdote about the development of the tech for Kinect), that stories and case studies aren’t the same thing, that the point is to focus on change and impact. He also talks about the power of images and how stories (or “narrative” more accurately) aren’t just about what you write or film, they’re built by the way you behave.
You can see all the stories on microsoft.com/stories.
So, if your organisation had a “Chief Storyteller” what stories would you want them to tell?
Image: Microsoft sign outside building 99 by Robert Scoble https://flic.kr/p/4s8vqM CC-BY 2.0
