"These days, we need our mythmakers, our storytellers, as urgently as we ever have. Storytelling is what turns the pedestrian - a plush toy, a newscast - into something relevant, something moving."
--Charles Fishman in the March issue of Fast Company

Urgent Needs
Mary-Alice Arthur needs plenty of volunteers for the pre-conference: speaker buddies and introducers, and all round logistics helpers. "Many hands make light work!" If you want to join the fun, e-mail Mary-Alice at [email protected]

Kate Dudding will be retiring as our webmaster following the Conference, so we need someone who is willing to take over the website. Kate has it set up and will help with the transition, so please e-mail her at [email protected] with your willingness to help with this important job.

I will be relinquishing my role as SIO SIG newsletter editor following the August/September issue, so if you have an interest in writing, editing and learning all about e-newsletters, please volunteer for this position. I will help you with each step along the way. E-mail me at [email protected]

Chris King, Editor

Find out more about Story Telling in Organizations....

	Support the SIO SIG - Be a Sponsor
Support the SIO SIG - Be (or recruit) a Sponsor By Paula Bartholome and Sara Armstrong The third annual SIO SIG pre-conference is just around the corner! It promises to build on previous success and continue the tradition of bringing together people interested in using story in organizational settings to get things done, help facilitate understanding, inspire commitment and more! We keep registration fees low to enable the largest number and most diverse group of people to attend. The budget is designed to just about break even. Sponsorships help us ensure this SIG is on a sound financial footing so we can continue our ork. We are looking for organizations (or individuals) who would like to support the SIG's efforts in bringing such a group together to learn from each other and increase the professionalism and knowledge base for the use of storytelling in organizations. Being a program sponsor provides visibility, the opportunity to get their product or service information into the hands of attendees and demonstrates the sponsor's commitment to working creatively and collaboratively. If you know of an organization or individual that you think would be interested in being a sponsor, talk to them. Share your story of why you are a member of the SIG and the power of story. Give them the opportunity to help us continue our services and programming! Please direct questions to Paula Bartholome (paula@parallax- perspectives.com) or Sara Armstrong ([email protected])

	Look for the Ladybug and Find a SIO SIG Member
Look for the Ladybug and Find a SIO SIG Member By Sara Armstrong You can find fellow SIO SIG members this year just by looking for the ladybug on their nametag. This identifier will you meet and get acquainted with members you've not met yet. And it will also help prospective members find YOU so they can ask about joining the SIO SIG. This year the SIO SIG will offer a discounted membership to individuals who join during the conference. They will receive 20% off their first year's dues plus a free gift if they sign up during the conference. Please be sure to take the time to talk to prospective members and answer their questions. As a reminder, membership gives you: Access to the members only portion of the SIO SIG website where there is member information and other resources The bi-monthly SIO SIG E-Newsletter to help stay current on what's going on in your SIG and in the world of storytelling in organizations Periodic white papers (see related story in this issue) taking a focused and more academic look at topics from practitioners in the field Free Lunchtime Learning Calls where members share with each other their experiences of using story in a conversational atmosphere We Need Your Help Membership information and sign up will be available in the conference registration area and we need volunteers to man the SIO SIG booth during the conference. Responsibilities will be answering questions, taking memberships and welcoming new members! Please give an hour of your time to staff the booth. You will meet fascinating new colleagues and help the SIG grow! To volunteer, contact Membership Chair Kevin Brooks at Kevin.Brooks @motorola.com True story of how a second grade class helped make the ladybug the state bug of Massachusetts. »

	SIO SIG Pre-Conference Update
SIO SIG Pre-Conference Update Mary-Alice Arthur and her committee have lined up an impressive cadre of presenters for the SIO SIG Pre- conference. Read all about them and their workshops below. If you haven't yet signed up, this will be sure to spur you on. Embracing Uncertainty With Solidarity North McKinnon and Janet Schatzman "When faced with change or initiatives to create something new, people in organizations respond best to personal conversations. But talking about change is not enough. To create shared meaning and alignment we use the power of imagery and storytelling to provoke authenticity as the conversation unfolds. We will present a client case story of how we were able to "draw out" the stories and instincts of both leadership and the workforce as the catalysts to shift resistance towards unification. We will describe and show how we blend Visual Language, Strategic Imagery with the Art of Facilitation to re-ignite authentic participation, accelerate decision-making and fuel transformation that is inspired by imagination and passion. North McKinnon and Janet Schatzman are co- founders of Parnassus Consulting, LLC. Together, have combined 40 years of experience into a mosaic of strategic know-how, change facilitation, executive coaching, organization development and fine arts. Their clients include: ChevronTexaco, Deloitte, Hewlett Packard, Towers Perrin Consulting, Unilever and other Fortune 500 companies. Using Stories in Product Positioning: the LGE story Madelyn Blair and Molly Catron Recently the SIO SIG had the opportunity to lead a project to provide consulting services to LG Electronics (LGE) a South Korean electronics manufacturer. Hear how the project took shape, was completed in a short timeframe and provided real value to a company positioning their products in the US market. Final work on the project will have just been completed at the end of June so this is a fresh example of using story to accomplish organizational objectives. Presenters and SIO SIG members Madelyn Blair and Molly Catron served as project leaders and will conduct a lively and interactive review of the experience. Madelyn Blair is the president of Pelerei, Inc., a firm dedicated to helping clients turn vision into reality. She is a facilitator, designer of learning experiences, and expert researcher. She is a founding member of Goldenfleece, the storytelling-in-business group in DC. Her clients include Bank of Canada, The World Bank, Transamerica Reinsurance, American University, and the International Monetary Fund. Prior to her work with Pelerei, she was a division chief in the World Bank. Dr. Blair also spent five years as Director of Institutional Research at the Universities of Colorado and Maine. Molly Catron is a storyteller and private consultant with over 20 years experience in the corporate world. She works in all areas of organizational change; however, focuses her passion on using story to help individuals and groups unite heart, mind, body and spirit. Some of her recent clients include St. Jude Research Center, United Way of America, Toray Plastics, and Pickens County School District. How Non-profits Use Stories and Storytelling Cathryn Wellner Stories capture snapshots in time, insights into the heart of an organization, what it values, where it is headed. This presentation explores how the ways we can use stories to present what we know to a variety of audiences, from the local Rotary to government evaluators. Non-profits that can identify their defining stories have an edge when it comes time to explain their work to funders, policy makers, service providers, clients and others. These stories are snapshots in time that raise awareness, are the basis of evaluations, help with fundraising, and support proposal writing. Cathryn Wellner is a professional seminar leader, facilitator, communications consultant, storyteller and speaker with a special interest in community development. While living in British Columbia she led initiatives in telecommunications, regional marketing, infrastructure, health promotion, economic development, and other issues. Her research and facilitation work has included projects concerning community equity and health issues and strategies for community action. She recently moved to California's Bay Area, where she is Storytelling Director for Stagebridge, America's oldest senior theater. Dancing With Garbage: The Art and Science of Putting Stories to Work Jo Tyler Every organization is awash in stories. They are a naturally occurring and often untapped resource. Jo's session draws on her newly completed doctoral research on storytelling in for-profit settings to explore the practicalities of strategically unleashing the power of stories for learning, knowledge transfer, idea generation and more. In this session, she'll present the distinguishing features of the strategic storytelling model that emerged from her research, with a special emphasis on what business listeners like. Participants should bring along a business story based on their own experience - as an employee or customer - that they are comfortable sharing as part of the session. Jo Tyler, Ed.D. brings to this workshop 25 years of experience in organization development in companies of all sizes. Her recently completed research focuses on the use of storytelling in business as a strategic element of learning and knowledge transfer. An Assistant Adjunct Professor at Columbia University and Pennsylvania State University, Jo is also an independent consultant focused on delivering organizational development solutions, including the power of storytelling, that humanize business and improve the bottom line. When Stories Mislead: Collective Beliefs and Corporate Decision-Making Yusi Wang How does an organization explore the unknown? Almost by definition, new market entry, product or service introduction, collaboration activities, or governance policies (to name a few) are areas of limited or patchy data. Companies facing myriad choices about new opportunities usually rely heavily on company-wide assumptions about 'how the world works' and 'who we are' to support their limited direct experience. These beliefs are part of a shared causal map - a graphing of the relationship among people, things, actions, places, and situations - heavily based on years of accumulated narratives. While experience is useful, rigid causal maps may also create blinders and lead to lost opportunities for decision-makers who believe they understand more than they do. Yusi Wang is Alumni Program Director at Citizen Schools (www.citizenschools .org), a national non-profit organization that educates children and strengthens communities through hands-on learning and volunteer-based apprenticeships after school. Prior to entering the non-profit world, Yusi was a researcher at the Center for Business Innovation, the think tank of global consulting firm Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. Yusi is a storytelling hobbyist and was delighted to merge business and pleasure at the Center for Business Innovation through SIO research grounded in corporate knowledge management and decision processes. She presented a variant of the "When Stories Mislead: Collective Beliefs and Corporate Decision-Making" workshop at the Storytelling, Self, Society conference in Florida in March 2004. Yusi has been instrumental in bringing fellow SIO consultants to her new organization, Citizen Schools, to design and facilitate retreats and to create more effective marketing materials. She is a co-founder of an ongoing SIO discussion group in Boston. Yusi graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in civil engineering and earned a masters degree in technological innovation at the University of Sussex (UK) through a Marshall scholarship. Capturing Opportunity: Stories in Organizations Hilary McLellan This workshop examines how to market story work in organizations. In order to market organizational storytelling effectively, it's essential to understand the traditional access points: departments such as training, human resources, marketing, planning, etc., and how storytelling can enhance these functions within an organization. For example, Xerox has developed strategies for training and technical support based on the concept of "bootstrapping" on workers' stories about their experiences on the job. It is also essential to touch the future - and to provide organizations with strategies for adapting new strategies for best practices. Hilary McLellan Ph.D, is a consultant, storyteller, media artist, and educator. She has a background that encompasses the humanities, media design, and business. She has taught a range of university courses, including Organizational Storytelling, Mythology and Modern Life, Digital Storytelling, and Stories and Creative Leadership. She is the editor of Situated Learning Perspectives, a book about the story-centered training model developed at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. She serves on the advisory board of the Saratoga Springs Heritage Program and on the Executive Committee of the Digital Storytelling Association. Her clients have included General Motors, State Farm Insurance, and the Metropolitan Transit Authority. She performs as a storyteller, and recently had a small role in a local independent movie. National Storytelling Network 2004 Conference Information »

	The Winning LGE Storytelling Project
The Winning LGE Project By Madelyn Blair and Molly Catron With competition at its highest, wise companies are seeking to understand their customers. One such company is LGE, a Korean electronics company, who wished to better understand their American market. They asked NSN to partner with them through the SIO SIG to collect stories about experiences with their products and those of their competitors. Madelyn Blair stepped up and coordinated the project. Storytellers were asked to select a product line (microwave, cell phone, refrigerator, TV, or washing machine), go out and find it, experience it and write the story of the adventure. Ninety four stories were collected from 34 storytellers. Each storyteller will receive a small stipend for her or his work. While varying in style, the stories were full of information about finding the products, dealing with the sales people, and impressions of knobs, shelves, ringers, latches, and other features of the products. Some of the tellers used their research to make a decision about buying one of the products! Madelyn Blair and Molly Catron read the stories, looked for the patterns, and summarized the general themes. At the request of LGE, Karen Dietz skillfully created a story capturing the essence of the 94 stories in one person's adventure with LGE products. We will be writing a description of the process and our work with LGE capturing what worked and what didn't for collecting and processing the stories hoping we can provide a model for future work in the area of market research. We should all keep a look out for great projects like this one. We were able to showcase our storytellers, the SIO SIG, and the power of storytelling all while helping LGE Company better understand their customers. What a WIN! Exciting news! Madelyn and Molly will be presenting this information during the Pre-Conference. You don't want to miss it.

	Review of Teleclass and Special Offer for SIG Members!
Review of Teleclass and Special Offer for SIG Members! By Sara Armstrong The SIO SIG's second Lunchtime Learning session held May 20th was another resounding success! With Mary Wacker in the role of session moderator, Evelyn Clark shared some of the stories from her new book, Around the Corporate Campfire: How Great Leaders Use Stories to Inspire Success. For her book, Evelyn researched companies that believe in the power of storytelling and use it in their corporate cultures. CEOs from Northwestern Mutual, Medtronic, The Container Store, Mary Kay Company and others spoke with Evelyn, relating their practices. Participants in the Lunchtime Learning session were intrigued with roles companies have developed, such as the Director of Corporate Heritage (Mary Kay Company) and Director of Corporate Education (Nike) to acknowledge and promote storytelling in organizations. When the prime value of a company is love, or, as is the case with The Container Store, sales managers are expected to share success stories every day, and a company-wide email is sent the next day with a selection of these stories to inspire everyone in the company, it seems obvious that the power of story, communication, and caring about each other can make huge differences in work and the rest of our lives. You'll want to get ahold of Evelyn's book to read the full story on some amazing companies and their practices. And Evelyn has generously offered to donate $2 to our SIG for each book sold to SIO SIG members. You can put in a pre-publication order for Evelyn's book by sending her an e-mail at [email protected], or call her (toll free) at 1- 866-818-8079. The book costs $19.95 and will be available later this month. You can also order your book at Evelyn's Web site: www.corpstory.com . Note: be sure to read down to the Business Profile to learn more about Evelyn's Approach. Our able moderator, Mary Wacker, SIO SIG member from Milwaukee, WI is president of M. B. Wacker Associates, a firm specializing in leadership development, team performance coaching, customer service strategies and organizational change consulting. She has worked with clients across industries and is the co-author of Stories Trainers Tell: 55 Ready to Use Stories to Make Training Stick, available at www.mbwacker.com . Join us in July for a conversation with Molly Catron. Watch your email for details.

	SIO SIG to Offer White Papers to Members
SIO SIG to Offer White Papers to Members By Sara Armstrong The SIO SIG will be offering white papers on different aspects of storytelling in organizations to our members in the form of PDF files on our Web site. Elizabeth Doty, President of WorkLore, a consulting firm that focuses on social processes for knowledge discovery and learning. She has recently presented at "Systems Thinking in Action," NASAGA, and the Story in Organizations SIG of the National Storytelling Network, is our first author. Her paper, "Transforming Capabilities: Using Story for Knowledge Discovery and Community Development," will be available soon. The abstract of the paper is as follows: Most leaders know when they need to mobilize their organizations around a new set of competencies or a new value proposition, but sometimes struggle to activate new practices in their organizations. The paradox is that often the necessary knowledge is already there, but hidden in isolated pockets of innovation, or inaccessible because people do not know what they know, do not know it is valuable, or cannot describe it effectively. Through an exploration of two in- depth examples and four common barriers, the author demonstrates how story-sharing can be used to surface, translate, and apply the latent knowledge hidden within organizations, while simultaneously building relationships and cultivating communities that learn. She concludes by outlining how leaders might apply story-sharing activities for knowledge discovery and community development in their own settings, providing sample agendas, guidance on pitfalls, and options for less formal applications.

	Use of Story in Business and/or Organizations
In each issue, we plan to profile a SIO SIG member or members so that we can share the unique ways others in our group have used and are using the power of story in business/organizations. My Approach A Live Profile of Corporate Storyteller, Author and Consultant, Evelyn Clark Editor's note: We want your profiles! Let us know how you use storytelling in business and/or organizations. Just e-mail me at [email protected] I view organizational storytelling from the perspective of a marketing communication and public relations consultant. When I created my Corporate Storytelling workshop in 1993, it focused on helping organizations to identify core values as a basis for their marketing messages. It was a way to reposition my work and to describe a deeper approach to the practice of PR. Gradually my focus has shifted to the internal use of storytelling as a tool for communicating corporate values and desired behavior. David Armstrong's Managing by Storying Around was my inspiration. After writing the case studies/stories for a colleague's book, TechnoBrands, we delivered two presentations at BookExpo America, and a number of publishers expressed interest in a book on corporate storytelling. As I mulled over what a former news writer could contribute to the then-obscure practice of storytelling, it struck me that a collection of stories from a variety of well-known companies would be instructive, fun to read, and useful as a reference. The hope is that my book also will add credibility to the practice. Identifying a target audience for storytelling can be challenging, especially in the beginning. Because the use of stories can be applied to any industry or type of organization at many levels, a number of practitioners have asked, How do you identify a target market for selling the service? The standard advice on marketing applies, at least for starters: focus on an industry you already know. Beyond that, in my experience, people either "get it" right away or they don't. You simply need to get your message out and keep it circulating in the marketplace. There's no need to fear the request for "bottom-line" evidence that storytelling works. David Armstrong told me, "Anyone who asks that question doesn't get it, so just move on and find someone who does." He's right, in that most executives I interviewed for my book don't even try to measure results. Like David, they "see, taste, and feel" the results: high morale, superior customer service, strong teamwork, low employee turnover, etc. But there is solid evidence, too. As reported in my book, studies show that 70% of workplace learning is informal and takes place through story swapping in the lunchroom or hallway. Also, at last year's conference Steve Denning shared some powerful facts on the value of communication based on GNP. And my book includes a chapter on The Container Store, where increases in sales can be measured according to the stories told. My work naturally overlaps with organizational development. Because communication is an essential element of any interaction, my Corporate Storytelling process has been effective in helping organizations with strategic planning, change management, and teambuilding, as well as sales management and its original purpose: message clarification. In today's chaotic workplace, the people who survived downsizing are juggling enormous workloads, and they find it more difficult than ever to step back, take a breath, and refresh their minds. Storytelling is one of the tools that can help them do that. It's very rewarding work! To learn more about Evelyn's approach, read her book, Around the Corporate Campfire: How Great Leaders Use Stories To Inspire Success. Evelyn will contribute $2 to the SIO SIG for every pre-publication order from SIG members- and you'll save shipping charges. Go to www.corpstory.com now to reserve your copy.

Quick Links to Useful Storytelling Sites

Information about the SIO SIG International Storytelling Center

National Storytelling Network