THE TLC (TEACHING, LEARNING & CREATING) STORY, by Dilip Mukerjea

Dilip Mukerjea has deliberately crafted this 2000 word or so document to test the reading speed of participants in a recent presentation event with parents:

[I have taken the liberty of breaking it into more smaller paragraphs for easier reading online!]

The world is made not from atoms and molecules, but from stories. The art of story is the dominant cultural force in the world; and the art of film is the dominant medium of this grand enterprise. Story serves as metaphor for life.

Teaching and learning, via the art of story, enables us to seek, discover, and propagate elements of truth, and anchor our lives in something larger than ourselves.

Traditionally, humankind has sought the answer to Aristotle’s quest for the meaning of life from the four wisdoms —philosophy, science, religion, art — extracting insights from each to bolt together a livable meaning.

Story isn’t a flight from reality but a vehicle that carries us on our search for reality, our best effort to make sense out of the anarchy of existence.

Children have evolving brains that are tailor-made to respond to story: enchantment leads to enlightenment, and on to excellence! Education, in its truest sense, begets ecstasy!

No culture, especially that which concerns the upbringing of children, can evolve without honest, powerful storytelling. When society repeatedly experiences glossy, hollowed-out, pseudo-stories, it degenerates.

We need true satires and tragedies, dramas and comedies that shine a clean light into the dingy corners of the human psyche and society. If not, as Yeats warned, “…the centre can not hold.”

Literary and story talent are distinctively different but related. Stories do not need to be written to be told. Stories can be expressed any way human beings can communicate. Theatre, prose, film, opera, mime, poetry, dance, are all magnificent forms of the story ritual, each with its own delights.

At different times in history, however, one of these steps to the fore.

In the 16th c. it was the theatre; in the 19th c. the novel; in the 20th c. the cinema, the grand concert of all arts. The most powerful, eloquent moments on screen require no verbal description to create them, no dialogue to act them. They are image, pure and silent. The material of literary talent is words; the material of story talent is life itself.

Every teacher, especially those who interact with children in their primary years, must acquire skills in speech, drama, and storytelling.

The secrets of successful teaching lie embedded in the art and science of story. Story is about principles, not rules. A rule says, “You must do it this way.” A principle says, “This works…and has through all remembered time.”

Anxious, inexperienced writers obey rules. Rebellious, unschooled writers break rules. Artists master the form. Great teachers have these elements alive in their DNA.

Story is about eternal, universal forms, not formulas. An archetypal story creates settings and characters so rare that our eyes feast on every detail, while its telling illuminates conflicts so true to humankind that it journeys from culture to culture. Or from subject to subject when incorporated into school curriculums.

When talented people write badly it’s generally for one of two reasons: Either they’re blinded by an idea they feel compelled to prove or they’re driven by an emotion they must express.

When talented people write well, it is generally because they’re moved by a desire to touch the audience. These truths also apply to classroom presentations: Talented teachers elocute beautifully, in ways that inspire their students to bring forth their inborn eloquence.

Originality is the confluence of content and form — distinctive choices of subject plus a unique shaping of the telling.

Content (setting, character, ideas) and form (selection and arrangement of events) require, inspire, and mutually influence one another. With content in one hand and a mastery of form in the other, a writer sculpts story.

As you rework a story’s substance, the telling reshapes itself. As you play with a story’s shape, its intellectual and emotional spirit evolves.

We shape the telling to fit the substance, rework the substance to support the design. If you can’t play all the instruments in the orchestra of story, no matter what music may be in your imagination, you’re condemned to hum the same old tune.

Every teacher must acquire a repertoire of skills that blend, metaphorically and literally, the magic within music and dance, art and science, spirituality and humanity.

Storytelling is a work of art that reveals the art of work. Look upon yourself as an artist, and as a work in progress — a grand story able to dispense streams of tales, fables, anecdotes, and liturgies that light upon, and light up, all souls.

Your narratives and parables come to life when they exude meaning, beauty, enjoyment, and excitement…stemming from imagination, emotion, intelligence, and experience. You are then the creator of an atmosphere brimming with the kind of infectious enthusiasm and wonder found generally only in children.

Teaching, learning, and creating can never succeed in cut-and-dried forms; this is a barren approach. Life must be ennobling. When you are creative, you are the architect of something meaningful that would never have existed if you hadn’t been there.

You are the creative spirit behind the chord that haunts, the phrase that thrills, the movement that enchants, and the scene that lingers. Great stories help you radiate the richness of your spirit: they need not be elaborate, as long as they are emotionally, and aesthetically rich, and crafted to propagate joy.

In the business world, the fundamental stories within each organization begin with their vision and mission statements. Yet numerous people get mixed up between these two tenets of business behaviour.

A simple explanation: Christ had a vision and sent out a multitude of missionaries; he didn’t have a mission and send out a dispersion of visionaries! Visions and missions have different designs and directions, and their stories emanate differing aesthetics.

The four biblical modes of worship are present in healthy churches: liturgy, reading and exposition of the Bible, small group worship, and charismatic praise.

Story lies embedded in all these forms. The path of the future lies in incorporating fresh narratives that portray methods of viewing God in a way that can bridge the gap between Christian myth, and today's evolving consciousnesses.

In doing so, we shall be doing no more than did others in their time, drawing on the cultural milieu in which they lived, but with a language and spirit relevant to life today.

Stories must evoke passion and compassion, love and loyalty, courage and conviction, hope and spirit, adventure and achievement, using the ‘old’ to create something new, via leaps of imagination.

Children are far superior to adults at translating imagination into creativity: their hearts are not distorted by fears that reprimand them about their work not being good enough for display.

They aren’t afraid of their own imagination! Their minds are bristling with artistic tension, alive with swashbuckling intelligence in being able to connect and interconnect disparate pieces of information to bring forth an original work of art.

The word intelligence is born from the words in Latin for “between” and “reading.”

Thus, intelligence is the ability to read between the lines; and coupled with imagination, beyond the lines! Great teachers are not preachers; they are ‘reachers’ ~ they reach out and touch souls; their stories glisten with genius.

All brilliance incorporates a balance between gift and grit: it comes alive when we are able to see possibilities, anticipate feelings, recognize connections, and accumulate insights. These phenomena can be beautifully expressed via storytelling, song, and dance… the essence of play, where play power trumps power play!

Imagine teachers being the troubadours, balladeers, and minstrels of the intellect! Classrooms will be awash in animated artistry.

Great storytelling plants impulses in people, infusing them with a personal urgency to express something original, beautiful, meaningful. Great teachers distinguish between the mundane and the musical. They are able to express emotions that might otherwise stay unconscious.

Epiphanies ensue when we are deeply immersed and simmering in our creations. Teachers that instruct to inspire such ‘emergences’, succeed in transforming passive pupils into active actors; this is where teaching, learning, and creating come together with firecrackling finesse — a mutually reinforcing energy exchange.

Learning must move from static to fluid, separated to connected, discrete to continuous, passive to passionate. And it must exude beauty that is not just pleasant but arrestingly so. Beauty simultaneously quickens the pulse and quells the mind.

Real beauty, as in art such as the Venus de Milo, is both stimulating and restful. Great stories evoke the same sensation, an oxymoronic duality of calming stimulation that makes beauty so memorable.

It’s the duality that delivers the excitement, and makes the event unforgettable. And enjoyment emerges from finding what’s fresh in what’s familiar. Familiar freshness, another welcome oxymoron that is essential to creative content, and contentment.

For meaning to emerge, our communication must establish a bridge between the personal and the universal. This is why parables are peerless, priceless, and precious. Our stories should stimulate us to consider what gives our lives meaning.

To do so, we must think in both the present and the future tenses: “What have I created? What will I leave behind?

The actor-comedian Billy Crystal relates a lesson he learned early in his career. After a performance, he came off stage believing he’d done a great job. But a mentor cautioned him, “You didn’t leave behind something.”

Crystal realized that to be successful on stage (and that could extend to life, the ultimate stage) you must leave something of your self for the audience, something that goes beyond you the performer, and bequeaths what you are, who you are, what you represent, why you are peerless, priceless, and precious.

Great teaching calls upon individual stories to convey universal themes. Life has no meaning; we give it meaning. Similarly, stories feed the universal need… for meaning.

The best way to reach into people is to share something personally meaningful; we do this when we’re in the service of a purpose that is larger than ourselves.

Consider three different types of stonemasons: One says he’s cutting stone, another claims he’s erecting a wall. The third states he’s crafting a cathedral! He is the one who has seen the connection between the art of work and a work of art….and is doing something about it. He is transporting himself from creative and imaginative exertions to produce beautiful and meaningful outcomes… for the greater good of humankind.

Edward Morgan Forster, (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970), was an English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist.

Forster's humanistic impulse toward understanding and sympathy may be aptly summed up in the epigraph to his 1910 novel Howard’s End: "Only connect". Forster states: "The king died and then the queen died" is a story. "The king died, and then the queen died of grief" is a plot. Succinct, suspenseful, superb.

In his book of lectures, Aspects of the Novel, central to his chapter on ‘story’ he states: “We are all like Scheherazade’s husband, in that we want to know what happens next. That is universal and that is why the backbone of a novel has to be a story.”

Similarly, the backbone of good communication, teaching, and learning, has to be story.

Forster continues: “And now the story can be defined. It is a narrative of events arranged in their rime sequence — dinner coming after breakfast, Tuesday after Monday, decay after death, and so on. Qua story, it can only have one merit: that of making the audience wanting to know what happens next.

And conversely it can have only one fault: that of making the audience not wanting to know what happens next. These are the only two criticisms that can be made on the story that is a story. It is the lowest and simplest of literary organisms. Yet it is the highest factor common to all the very complicated organisms known as novels.”

And it is the highest factor common to the needs and demands of teaching, learning, and communicating.

All creative expression is created ad maiorem gloriam dei, toward God’s greater glory. Tell your tale, sing your song, pen your poem, whatever you do: tell your story!

"The quickest path between one person and another is a story." BRAINTALES SHOWS YOU HOW TO DO IT WITH FINESSE!

Braintales is the creative affirmation that ‘Beauty lies in the brain of the beholder, and within the hearts of ‘taleblazers’.

The quickest path between one person and another is a story.

Storytelling has a direct impact on:

* building intelligence
* enhancing communication
* developing rapport
* crafting strategy
* exercising leadership
* igniting entrepreneurship

You can’t bore people into buying your offerings! Customers don’t just buy products; they buy what these products and services are going to do for them.

Braintales teaches you not just how to communicate, but to sell...via a platform of story techniques that arouse interest, build expertise, and close the sale.

Seminar Objective

How to get attention, communicate, and persuade... with eloquence, eminence, and elegance: Move ahead from apathy to attention,confusion to communication, survival to success! Via vibrancy in thinking, reading, writing, speaking, and bonding...the indispensible facets of story!

Methodology

Fast-paced, totally interactive, and with ample opportunity to develop these skills in real time for regular future integration in the worksphere. Emphasis is placed on practical applications, for immediate use.

Who Must Attend

Executives at all levels and from any discipline in the corporate and educational ecosystems.

People who wish to become brilliant communicators, astute strategic thinkers, authors, editors, or publishers, and stunning high performers in their quest for the best across diverse aspects of life in what has become a world of incomparable competitive intelligence.

Above all, people who do not wish to die with their story untold!

Benefits

An entire listing of fundamental benefits is given on the next two pages.

Essentially, Braintales:

• Enables you to become articulate with words and imagery

• Inspires you to become a collaborative communicator and an eloquent conversationalist

• Saves you vast sums of money by establishing a culture that propagates your brand

Duration: 2 or 3 days, 0830-1830 hours/day/seminar

Cost: S$995/person/2 days, min.24 pax S$1295/person/3 days, min. 24 pax

Seminar Leader: Dilip Mukerjea

Venue: Arranged by Client

How do stories enable an organisation (or a society) to move ahead from strength to strength?

Some Examples:

* Storytelling invests our lives with more meaning

* It connects us more empathetically with others

* It stimulates and nurtures our creativity

* It enlivens and enhances our sense of humour

* It infuses us with courage and confidence

* It renders our lives more memorable

Converting Parables to Profit:

Stories

* help us create a flesh, blood, and soul environment

* help us learn from the past

* are effective at raising hidden issues

* can be successful at transferring knowledge

* help to build trust, and to command attention

* humanise the teller, the listener, and the prevailing situation (where relevant)

* inspire ‘internal branding’ about people getting things done

* enable us to think, learn, communicate, and bond

* help to create yearning, learning, earning organizations

* infuse a human element into discussions (note that the crucial missing ingredient in most failed communications is humanity).

* help people feel acknowledged, connected, less alone, and more alive.

* tether us to something safe, thus acting as a life-preserver in a chaotic ocean of choice (which often leaves us as disembodied voices begging for attention).

* help us to feel more than just a dot on a bell curve!

The vital issues of this world are ultimately decided by the story that grabs the most attention and is repeated most often.

The Values Embedded in Storytelling:

For the individual

* Inspires interest in life, stimulates imagination, sharpens intellect, and propagates innovation by enhancing our ability to: think, feel, listen, speak, narrate, communicate with empathy, and above all, to understand ourselves, and thus excavate meaning from life in order to bond with one another.

* Awakens our interest in other cultures, enlightens us with a deeper understanding of our own, and builds bridges across the oceans of consciousness that separate us through prejudice, bigotry, and fanaticism.

* Engenders ideas via subtle shifts in contexts, whereby a pinball effect of associations can lead one from breakdown to breakthrough.

For a community, an organisation, or a nation:

* Transforms and regulates behaviour by communicating morals, values, beliefs, and the infinite wisdom of the ages.

* Archives history, preserves tradition, and propagates harmonious evolution for future generations to learn from past wisdom.

* Propagates strategic thinking, leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship via its inherent structure.

* Promotes group bonding through shared joys and sorrows.

* Nurtures empathetic leadership whereby leaders learn to communicate in response to diverse scenarios: through their powers of storytelling, they can calm a mob, energise a nation, and turbocharge conviction in order to realise a greater good!

Interested parties looking for onsite or offsite engagements can write to Dilip Mukerjea at email: dilipmukerjea@gmail.com.

THE STORY YOU TELL YOURSELF

Two nights ago, I had reluctantly sat down to watch a sci-fi thriller movie, entitled 'Alien Raiders', on StarHub cable television.

The movie director (Ben Rock?) & all the actors/actresses (Carlos Bernard? Mathew St Patrick? Rockmond Dunbar? to name just a few) were unknown, at least to me. Hence, the movie somehow triggered my initial lukewarm response, even though I was intrigued by the catchy title.

However, as the story progressed, I began to be drawn into the taut & gripping movie plot.

In a nut shell, the movie had centred on a bunch of masked gunmen who raided a small town supermarket, killing some employees &/or customers along the way. They then herded all the remaining clueless people who happened to be around - wrong place, wrong time, as they say - into one part of the supermarket, while the masked raiders seemed to be determined in hunting for something.

Police soon came, but couldn't really help the hostages as the lights in the supermarket were shut down, & also the masked gunmen didn't demand anything, except for scrawling two big words on the front glass panels, 'STAY BACK'.

Gradually, it was revealed that the masked gunmen were actually a group of scientists who had turned vigilantes, hunting for some mysterious alien bugs that had apparently infested humans, using the warm bodies as some sort of gestation process, & the supermarket was identified as a "hot spot".

Interestingly & amusingly, the rogue scientists seemed to have found an ingenious way to isolate humans who were infested. That gruesome process, coupled with the fast-paced action sequences, really made the movie thrilling to watch till the end.

Frankly, I didn't quite like the movie ending, where the evolved alien bug in human form eventually managed to escape the siege. I reckon that's how Hollywood producers often leave room to plan their sequels.

Nonetheless, I had really enjoyed watching the seemingly low-budget thriller movie till the end.

To me, the story plot was awesome, & also original in many ways, when compared to most other movies in the same genre.

Transposed the movie experience - analogically - to a personal life application: What is your story?

More precisely, what is the story you tell yourself?

In other words, if you keep telling that story - your internal dialogue, your self-talk - you will keep living that life.

You are the one in charge of your internal dialogue, your self talk, & you are the one that can change it by making it exciting to talk in ways that encourage you & inspire you.

Are you loving your old story too much?

People don't just have ideas & self-images about themselves; they have stories.

The stories come up repeatedly in your internal dialogue, your self-talk,

That's to say, the story you tell yourself is what determines your future outcome.

We are what we tell ourselves. This is the harsh reality.

AN INCREDIBLE TRUE STORY ABOUT THE MAN WHO NEEDS NO SUPERVISION

Dilip Mukerjea has emailed me today this wonderful excerpt from the new book, 'The Professional', by Subroto Bagchi, co-founder of MindTree Ltd., a global IT & R & D services company based in India.

The author offers a fine distinction between a ‘professional’ from a ‘professionally qualified’ person.

What are the chances that you work in an entry level position or even a middle level job in a hotel, a hospital, a software company, or a government organization? Or, for that matter, you could be a self-employed professional like a doctor, a lawyer, or a journalist.

In all probability you are educated, know English, and are working in (or have interacted with) the corporate sector. Perhaps an MBA, or a student at an engineering college? You probably consider yourself a professional, or on the road to becoming one. Definitely your station in life is well above someone whose job is to bury unclaimed corpses from city hospitals.

I want to introduce the idea of who a professional is through a man whose life is dealing with dead bodies. Unclaimed dead bodies. This is not someone who is conventionally associated with the term ‘professional’. His name is Mahadeva. He came to Bangalore as a child when one day his mother simply walked out on her entire village and her own family in a huff. Mother and son lived on the streets; she worked to support him.

Until the day she became very unwell. She brought herself and her son to the government-run Victoria Hospital. There she was admitted in a state of delirium and her little son, Mahadeva, made the streets outside the hospital his home.

He found many playmates among the urchins there and soon that world engulfed him. It was the first time he had had anyone to play with. For little Mahadeva, it was his first experience of kinship and he lost himself completely in this new world.

It was pure happenstance that one day someone told him his mother had died. Where had he been when that happened? Died? What was that? The hospital had been unable to wait for him and had disposed of the body. Now Mahadeva had nowhere to go. No family.

A few people in the hospital ward where his mother had been admitted raised some money to help him go back to his village. He refused. Instead, he grew up running errands in the hospital.

The hanger-on who had helped with his mother’s admission process and made a living by running errands for patients asked him to move in with him. He was an old man who had no one either.Mahadeva grew up under his tutelage; the hospital became his universe.

And then, one day, the cops asked him to bury an unclaimed dead body and paid him Rs 200 for the job. This was when Mahadeva entered his profession and eventually became the go-to guy for burying the city’s unclaimed corpses. Every time the police picked up a dead body that had no claimants, Mahadeva was summoned.

He had to do a turnkey job: Pull the stiff body from the morgue, hire a horse-drawn carriage, put the body in it and take it to a burial ground, dig the ground to bury the dead—all by himself, and for only Rs 200.

After doing the job, he would hang INTEGRITY 5 around in the hospital to be summoned to dispose of the next unclaimed body. Mahadeva did his work with such dedication, focus, care and concern that soon he was very much in demand.

His work grew and he bought his own horse-drawn carriage, and between his horse and himself he was the undertaker to the abandoned.

One day, the horse died. People who had watched Mahadeva all these years came together and bought him an auto-rickshaw. The white auto-rickshaw, his hearse, carries the picture of the horse in memory of the animal who helped him take thousands of people to be laid to rest. It became the logo of his business and appears on his business card today.

Mahadeva has buried more than 42,000 corpses in his lifetime and his dedication has earned him phenomenal public recognition. Local petrol pumps do not charge him when his hearse is topped up and the chief minister of Karnataka felicitated him for his selfless service to the abandoned citizens of Bangalore.

Mahadeva is proud of his work and business, and today his son has joined him. Mahadeva: the high performer, and a true professional.

What are the two qualities that Mahadeva has which differentiate a professional from someone who is simply professionally qualified?

One is the ability to work unsupervised and, two, the ability to certify the completion of one’s work.

Whenever Mahadeva got a call to reach the morgue, day or night, hail or high water, he arrived. Most of the time, it was a gruesome experience dealing with a dead body; there was no telling what had been the cause of death or state of decomposition.

In his business, Mahadeva does not choose his clients. He accepts them in whatever size, shape or state they come. He treats them with respect and care, with due dignity, covering them with a white sheet and placing a garland around their necks before burying them.

The day he buried the man who had taken him home after his mother died, he had cried. He was special and Mahadeva had bought a garland as a mark of his respect. That day, it occurred to him that he should be garlanding all the bodies he buried, not just his benefactor’s. Everyone deserves respect and no one should feel ‘unwanted’ in death, even if life had treated them that way.

The cops do not supervise Mahadeva. He is not an employee of the hospital; he is the outsourcing agency the hospital has engaged for the disposal of all unwanted cadavers. He does not have a boss who writes his appraisal, giving him constructive feedback for continuous improvement.

In most work environments, people who produce anything of economic value usually need supervision.

A person who needs supervision is no professional. He is an amateur, maybe even an apprentice.

Whenever Mahadeva picks up a corpse, it goes straight to the burial ground — no place else. He completes the task with the immediacy it demands. And he certifies his own completion of the task: between the dead and the living, there is no one to question him.

[More information about the author, his book, 'The Professional', & his company, Mind Tree Ltd., is available at the weblinks as embedded respectively.]

Come to think of it, the foregoing heart-warming story reminds me of what leadership strategist Mark Sanborn has talked about in his book, 'You Don't Need a Title to be a Leader: How Anyone Anywhere Can Make a Positive Difference', which I had already reviewed in my 'Optimum Performance Technologies' weblog. [Here's the link.]

In a nut shell, at the heart of it, leadership is really about ordinary folks, just like Mahadeva, doing extraordinary things.

CONCEPTUAL SYMBOL: Braintales

This elegant integral imagery in the form of a conceptual symbol from Dilip Mukerjea, created through his masterful combination of digitisation technology & pencil renditions, readily captures the essence of his new series of corporate seminars, designated as 'Braintales', at the Singapore Institute of Management.

The first one was successfully completed from July 21st to 22nd, 2009.

Please proceed to this link to check out the next seminar schedule, as well as to get more information, including downloading a brochure, about the seminar.

'Braintales' is just Dilip's unique way of describing the ancient art of storytelling, as well as storycrafting.

In fact, he also has another unique word for the latter, 'Taleblazers', which also happens to the the title of his book. The book is currently available in all Kinokuniya books stores.

Alternatively, you can go to his corporate website to read some excerpts from the book. Here's the link.

Even better, you can also go to read my personal review of the book in an earlier post.

In recent years, there seems to be a resurgence of interest among today's business & organisational leaders in the telling of a good tale, at a time when electronic communications are supposed to have made it obsolete.

I reckon what is good & new today about storytelling is the purposeful use of a crafted narrative to achieve a desired outcome in an organisational setting.

To paraphrase Robert McKee, the world best known & most respected screenwriting teacher, & also author of the best-selling book, 'Story: Substance, Structure, Style & Principles of Screenwriting':

"If you want to motivate your employees, tell them a story, but not just any story..."

'Braintales' is thus targetted at corporate executives, or private individuals, who want to get a handle on storytelling as well as storycrafting, so as to use it as strategy tool for communication.

Historically, storytelling is deeply rooted in all cultures, & had contributed significantly to the richness & continuity of all our human experiences.

Despite all the modern innovations, the attraction of storytelling has not really been lost, as seen in the many annual storytelling festivals, locally as well as abroad.

Looking at my own teenaged years, during which I have had access to many exciting stories in the form of comics as well as those out of Redifusion broadcasts, I dare to say that no phrase excites the imagination more powerfully than 'Once Upon a Time...'.

In the prehistoric era, since the dawn of time (as depicted by the hour glass in the integral imagery), people often crowded around camp fires (as depicted by the burning flame) - to listen to their elders, as they spun stories (as depicted by the movie reel) to entertain, to inform, to teach, to maintain social order, to establish moral precedents, to record history, to remind themselves of old traditions, & to lay down new laws.

In a nut shell, it was an effective way of passing down the lessons learned from one generation to the next.

Looking at it from a deeper level, especially from my own personal experience, storytelling is more than an audience just sitting down there & listening to the story. It becomes a truly interactive event, as each of us bring his or her own vivid imaginations as well as past experiences to the unfolding story.

What is more exciting, there is always a yearning for a good story.

Interestingly, & at least from the neurological standpoint, stories are often how we remember what we have been told &/or what's happening around us.

They fulfill our profound human need to grasp the pattern of living, not merely as an intellectual experience (as depicted by the letter & number elements), but within a very personal & emotional experience (as depicted by the heart element).

I reckon the fire element gives another meaning: it's a natural expression of the inter-connectedness of man & his universe, as well as of his balance between the seen & the unseen (as depicted by the seemingly angry faces & darkly-shaded outer boundary of the brain).

In fact, I would add further - the fire element represents the burning passions & inspired imaginations of our early ancestors in making new tools, finding new lands, new ways of living, & inventing new technologies through the spread & sharing of success stories (as depicted by the globe & the swirling letters & numbers).

Well, what I have just demonstrated is the power of creative imagination, which is an essential aspect of storytelling as well as storycrafting.

In the 'Braintales' seminar, Dilip will guide participants to put, via structured as well as imaginative exercises, all their innate talents & unique gifts to good use, productively, purposefully, meaningfully.

I guarantee it will be 'A Creative Experience for Stale Brains!'

[Readers can also read Dilip Mukerjea's enlightening article in an earlier post, entitled 'Storytelling: A Strategic Business Art'.]

CREATIVE STORYTELLING: TRAILBLAZING VIA TALEBLAZING

[continued from the Last Post.]

* inspire ‘internal branding’ about people getting things done;

* enable us to think, learn,communicate, and bond;

* help to create yearning, learning,earning organizations;

* infuse a human element into discussions (note that the crucial missing ingredient in most failed communications is humanity);

* help people feel acknowledged, connected, less alone, and more alive;

* tether us to something safe, thus acting as a life-preserver in a chaotic ocean of choice (which often leaves us as disembodied voices begging for attention);

* help us to feel more than just a dot on a bell curve!

The vital issues of this world are ultimately decided by the story that grabs the most attention and is repeated most often.

The Values Embedded in Storytelling:

For the individual:

* Inspires interest in life, stimulates imagination, sharpens intellect, and propagates innovation by enhancing our ability to: think, feel, listen, speak, narrate, communicate with empathy, and above all, to understand ourselves, and thus excavate meaning from life in order to bond with one another;

* Awakens our interest in other cultures, enlightens us with a deeper understanding of our own, and builds bridges across the oceans of consciousness that separate us through prejudice, bigotry, and fanaticism;

* Engenders ideas via subtle shifts in contexts, whereby a pinball effect of associations can lead one from breakdown to breakthrough;

For a community, an organisation, or a nation:

* Transforms and regulates behaviour by communicating morals, values, beliefs, and the infinite wisdom of the ages;

* Archives history, preserves tradition, and propagates harmonious evolution for future generations to learn from past wisdom;

* Propagates strategic thinking, leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship via its inherent structure;

* Promotes group bonding through shared joys and sorrows;

* Nurtures empathetic leadership whereby leaders learn to communicate in response to diverse scenarios: through their powers of storytelling, they can calm a mob, energise a nation, and turbocharge conviction in order to realise a greater good!

[Excerpted from the 'Catalysing Creativity' edition of The Braindancer Series of book azines by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

CREATIVE STORYTELLING

Much of the knowledge that exists within working groups comes from an exchange of executive war stories. The frequent storytelling about problems and solutions, disasters and triumphs, exchanged over meals and refreshments, serves a number of overlapping purposes.

Stories are good at:

* presenting things sequentially (this happened, then that).

* presenting things causally (this happened because of that).

Thus, this medium of communication is a powerful way to understand events (their sequence, and the causes and effects stemming from those events). Storytelling is particularly useful for executives for whom "what" and "why" are critical but often difficult to discern.

Storytelling is encoded in our DNA. Economists narrate via their models, scientists via their experiments, executives in their business plans. Such forms of ‘dialogue’ help us discover something new about the world. It also enables us to transfer that discovery on to others.

And critically, it helps the people around the corporate campfire develop a common outlook, by evoking a shared framework for interpretation that allows executives to collaborate even though formal processes assume they are working independently.

Experimentation and improvisation are essential, too, of course, but stories about such experiences will amplify the benefits to tellers as well as to listeners.

How do stories enable an organisation (or a society) to move ahead from strength to strength?

Become a TALEBLAZER!

Some Examples:

* Storytelling invests our lives with more meaning
* It connects us more empathetically with others
* It stimulates and nurtures our creativity
* It enlivens and enhances our sense of humour
* It infuses us with courage and confidence
* It renders our lives more memorable

Converting Parables to Profit:

Stories

* help us create a flesh, blood, and soul environment
* help us learn from the past
* are effective at raising hidden issues
* can be successful at transferring knowledge
* help to build trust, and to command attention
* humanise the teller, the listener, and the prevailing situation (where relevant)

[To be continued in the Next Post. Excerpted from the 'Catalysing Creativity' edition of The Braindancer Series of book azines by Dilip Mukerjea. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]

STORYTELLING: A STRATEGIC BUSINESS ART, by Dilip Mukerjea

INTRODUCTORY ELEMENTS

Life evolves, not from atoms and molecules . . . but from stories. In fact, our atoms and molecules are evolving stories. Each human being is a story in utero, waiting to unfold.

A picture may be equal to a thousand words; sometimes, a word might equal a thousand pictures. But a story consists of an infinitude of words and pictures . . . with each retelling, its form and function morph into fresh dimensions of perception.

SOME POSSIBILITIES WITHIN STORIES

Our most meaningful relationships are enacted through stories . . .they bind and bond us to one another, and the quickest path between souls is a bridge of stories.

A story might be as short as a phrase, and as long as . . . infinity. And a story well told is infused with kinetic energy: it can facilitate rapport between people, and harmony within cultures, because our minds work via links, connections, and associations.

Stories unfold a vast vista of possibilities by enabling us to encompass multiple points of view simultaneously. Listening to stories creates a sense of expanded consciousness: where we are encouraged to reflect on our similarities, appreciate diverse perspectives, and to negotiate our differences.

One of the greatest benefits of stories is to inspire reflection: old and new, concrete and abstract, logic and imagination . . . they all come together to bring new levels of meaning into evolving contexts.

Stories are a prime medium for modeling ideas, acquiring fresh knowledge, comprehending complex emotions, and analyzing situations; and most wondrously, stories are an exquisite mechanism for managing ambiguity and paradoxes.

BUSINESS BENEFITS

The best managers of people are often those who are the best managers of stories. And a story narrated with compelling finesse can dynamically link to business objectives.

Organisational EQ soars when managers are able to elicit, and become aware of, their employees’ stories, and when they themselves are adept at narrating their own stories.

Through the devices of imagination — imagery, analogies, metaphors, drama, and an array of visual and other sensory stimuli — a bond is established between personal and organizational realities.

The potential benefits include:

- Employees become energized, enthused, and eager to contribute ideas and perspectives;

- Work becomes compelling, creative, and collaborative, not a drudge masquerading as a job!

- There are fewer management silos and layers;

- Paranoia gives way to productivity;

- A culture change has inspired future-readiness via entrepreneurial behaviour;

- The organization is infused with Learning Leaders, each a Leading Learner;

Thus, in such a context, stories accelerate commerce!

Business moves rapidly, impelled by an agile organizational culture. Stories build competitively adaptive, dynamically flexible minds.

Ideas proliferate, and dance to the ebb and flow of a vigorous marketspace. In time, our experiences become our remembrances: in the form of stories, with lessons learned, knowledge built and shared, and ideas executed.

ORGANISATIONAL LEARNING

Learning is fluid, and organisational learning is best achieved via a fluid flow of communication. This is often enacted via creative conversations, most eloquently articulated via stories.

People are our greatest sources of information: Their lives glisten with meaning when organisational rupture morphs into workplace rapture.

Our lives are moving targets. In our search for meaning, we find it difficult to excavate a finite purpose in the thicket of spreadsheets, databases, and ‘administrivial’ minutia.

Stories help us see the substance and significance of issues. They facilitate understanding, inspire rapport, and stimulate action.

The largest galactic cluster is larger than the smallest known particle by a factor of the number one with about thirty-seven zeroes following it. Impossible to imagine. Yet, stories, moving from mind to mind on a caravanserai of images, are replete with possibilities that dwarf the largest of numbers.

The master unsolved problem of biology is how the hundred billion neurons of the human brain work together to create consciousness. But this gift of consciousness is where stories come from.

The nebula of pathways might include the Cretan labyrinths of cyberspace, the dark depths of one’s subconscious, the happy imagination of a child, or the chaotic anecdotal library within the brain of a frenzied executive.

Stories integrate art and science, and kindle a synthesised awareness which begins in wonder and ends with wisdom.

In one sense, stories are civilisation’s first abstract art form. Our word for imagination derives from the Greek phantasia, which itself is derived from phaos (“light”) because it is not possible to see without light. Stories draw out the light from our imaginations . . . and cast light upon our lives.

A mosaic breaks up space into sharply distinctive pieces — and yet produces a coherent image.

In such a way, stories are like great art, which can communicate before it is understood.

What is YOUR story?

[All images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]