Design and Storytelling

I think this truly is a must-read article: Storytelling through design. Ok, the text is from 2003 and pretty long - but hey, this storytelling stuff simply doesn't age.

Once upon a time... before there were mouse pads, moveable type, or even written languages, there were stories-and storytellers. And although storytelling's popularity has flowed and ebbed-perhaps seeming to hit its nadir in the twentieth century, driven by efforts to reduce all knowledge to analytical models'-storytelling has endured. Indeed, stories have moved from caves to campfires, to library floors, to become a "communication tool" embraced by corporate leaders, gurus of knowledge management, and now, practitioners of strategy and design.

The authors, Roger Sametz and Andrew Maydoney, continue to write...

Maybe because storytelling is so old, there is a high degree of consensus about what makes a good story-whether it's a story told to children to transmit cultural values, a story told in the board room to effect organizational change, or simply a story told to a friend at a bar to share ideas and ideals.

This article has many good tips and hints for up-and-coming storytellers.

Building and telling stories that connect teller to listener involves making decisions across a matrix of choices. But when there is alignment among an organization's goals, attributes, and promises; the listener-constituent's needs, interests, and expectations; and the content, execution, and interaction of the building blocks of communications-storytelling brings communications alive.

Worth reading it.