Written & Narrated by Britta R. Kollberg – Germany Kokopelli carries his story like a flute ahead, making himself heard before you or anyone can see him. He showed up on a website when I started searching a way out of what I was doing into a new career or a new direction of thinking […]
Category: about storytelling
We start our lives watching and listening to sounds made by the world around us. As William James once wrote “The baby, assailed by eyes, ears, nose, skin, and entrails at once, feels it all as one great blooming, buzzing confusion”. At some stage, many of these sounds become words and acquire meaning and emotion. […]
Vishnu and Naruda were sitting in deep conversation and Naruda asked “What is time Lord Vishnu?” Vishnu replied “Why don’t you cross the river and find out?” So Naruda went down to the river and swam to the other side, climbed up the bank and proceeded to the village where he stopped at the first […]
Organising Principles are the foundations that provide and guide beliefs, behaviours, thinking, understanding and practice and what is expected of people within the organisation. There is no organisation possible without organising principles. Organising Principles include Vision, Mission, Values, Measures, Purpose and Promise statements. A hallmark of powerful organisations is that they regularly evaluate and remind […]
The way you tell a story either inspires you or keeps you in a state of despondency. It doesn’t have to be a long story either most of the stories that impact our lives profoundly can be told in a couple of sentences. For instance: ‘Suffering has been in my family for many generations – […]
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Storytelling plays a profound and fundamental role in creating and shaping reality, both individually and collectively. Our experience of the world is not a direct apprehension of “what is,” but rather an internally generated “model” of what we think is going on. This model is built from filtered sensory information, and stories are central to […]
We may as well ask “why do people read newspapers?”, or “why do people watch television?” Somewhere in our DNA there’s a compelling vibrating strand asking so be told a story, because stories help us to survive and experience happiness. For as long as human beings have had language, children have learnt about hunting, travelling, […]
We work with Leadership & Exco. to improve storytelling confidence, ability & delivery. We work one-on-one or with a group up to 15 participants. Group Sessions Group sessions last one day going into the evening, preferably in a venue with a fireside around which stories can be told and shared under African skies at night. […]
It’s common for “story” and “narrative” to be used interchangeably, but there are some nuanced differences. Think of the story as the ingredients and the narrative is how you cook and present the meal. A story can be seen as a store of data and information and might include a sequence of events and/or describing […]
Meaning – Stories are used to convey meaning, whether it is how to close a sale, reprimand a subordinate, motivate someone, give a presentation or something more profound Planning – Cognitive scientist William Calvin suggests that we gradually acquire the ability to formulate plans as a result of storie s we hear in childhood. From […]
Stories, whether they emerge from external inputs or are generated internally through thought processes, play a significant role in shaping our experiences and biological responses. This process begins in the nervous system, which is intricately connected to both the endocrine and immune systems. Understanding these connections offers a deeper insight into how our thoughts and […]
The greatest stories are all about change. What does a story have to do to change someone’s behaviour? Well, we should firstly admit that it is not just the story that changes people, but whole communities talking about stories. Behind all behaviour patterns and thought patterns lies the “weight of past experience”. That experience determines […]
Conversations that Count: In an age where digital monologues, selfies and superficial chats are the norm, the power of conversation is waning. Disconnected in our connected world, text, email and social media exchanges are hardly interactive, let alone conversational. TV, live-streamed and public-event ‘conversations’, from political debates to discussion groups, tend to be immature, combative […]
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Telling a story with impact
What makes a story have the desired effect? Simply, the story must meet certain criteria. The story must be appealing. It must be memorable. It must stimulate the imagination. It must have an element of suspense. It will often involve drama but will also be authentic and make it easy for the listener to identify […]