Storytelling for Fun and ProfitStorytelling - It’s a hot topic these days. What do I mean by storytelling? One website says that it is “a narrative account of a real or imagined event or events” That same website (http://www.eldrbarry.net/roos/st_defn.htm) says “Stories connect us with our humanness and link past, present, and future by teaching us to anticipate
possible consequences of our actions.”
Once a month I read to a local first grade. The children get very excited when they see me because they know we will spend a wonderful hour together using our imaginations. We do that by looking at pictures in book and then making up a story to go with them. Sometimes I stop in middle of story and ask them what they think is going to happen. When I read poem Casey at Bat, they preferred their ending with Casey hitting a home run!
Aside from its entertainment value stories help us to connect to others. There is a certain amount of shared intimacy when one person shares a story with another. In addition to that some stories help a person to learn something new. Business leaders are just beginning to see storytelling as a way to deal with change. It can be used to produce a practical outcome that changes an individual, a community and/or an organization.
A story is told about a student and his master. Everyday student spent learning from his master. The student noticed that master always taught him through stories so one day he asked master if it wouldn’t be faster if master taught him directly. The master responded by asking student to bring him some water. The student thought this response was odd but dutifully got a pot and filled it with water for his master. Seeing pot of water, master asked student why he brought him pot when all he asked for was water.
To me that story says so much more than a direct answer and that is just point of story, isn’t it?
