RavingLEARNatics

Waste to energy . . .

This is a nice use of visual storytelling to help us understand how we can reduce landfills by using waste to make energy. It was posted on the Burlix Studios blog.  

 

A quick guide to storytelling & personalization

Over the past few years I have done significant research on how stories impact learning. I have also been fascinated with personality typing and how it could be applied to learning to personalize the experience. This quick guide (pdf) contains information that has been gathered and condensed from the list of books found at the end of the guide along with my experience designing and developing learning content. All of the books listed were tremendously insightful and I suggest you purchase those you find most interesting so you can dig into more details on that specific topic.

Building a "Foundation" for Growing Companies.

Many small companies grow despite having a frail "foundation" of "straw and mud." They survive, to a point, because of a good product or concept and hard work.  Then, slowly the foundation begins to crumble because of internal issues and stresses that occur without good values, systems, processes and a strong culture.

Effective companies most always have solid "foundations" with "deep footings" consisting of well-defined processes and procedures and agreed upon values as well as effective training programs that create a customer and employee oriented culture.

Much of my coaching is with small to medium sized, fast growth companies that are in need of a foundation that will support their expansion.  The first step in building a foundation is a "Practical Planning Session."  This session is facilitated using portions of a strategic planning session and facets of the basic SWOT analysis.

Do all small companies need a solid foundation and strong culture?  Not always.  A small company can be successful, to a point, without the foundation but that company will not continue profitable growth and will stall without the underpinnings described in this post.

I once worked with a $100M service company that, after experiencing the pitfalls of a weak culture and sloppy processes rebuilt the foundation.  It was time consuming, occasionally painful two-year process that resulted in a company that was recognized as the finest in the industry, bar none.

This "brains in gear" planning session identifies and prioritizes the company's needs and opportunities.  Action steps are created and the final product becomes the beams and joists for the foundation.  Completion of the foundation almost always includes the creation of the following components:  Mission, purposes, policies, procedures, values, training, budgeting, dashboards, job descriptions and communication processes.  We focus on defining responsibilities and accountability and operating with integrity at the clearest and deepest level.

The plan and foundation is most effectively built with input and assistance from people at all levels and in all disciplines of the organization.  Edicts from the top down seldom work as effectively as when people can say, "We created this company ourselves." Completion of the foundation is a time consuming and ongoing project but, done correctly, creates the culture, rules and processes needed to do the right things and do things right.  Owners that build a profitable company with a strong foundation and effective culture are rewarded with higher multiples when they sell and the satisfaction of knowing that their company was "built to last."

I work with companies that have excellent foundations as well as those that that don't understand the importance of strong values and clearly defined processes.  The amount of work is similar in both organizations but only one benefits from the payback and satisfaction of untamed ambition joining with rock solid systems.  Priceless.

Successful companies will then identify and effectively communicate with pit-bull determination those values and processes important to the core foundation of the company.  Explosive impact and growth occurs when management inspires your team to execute steadfast company processes and values even when no one is watching.

 

The Story of Stuff

If you haven't seen the The Story of Stuff yet, you should. The 20-minute story takes you from stuff's extraction through sale, use and disposal, and how it affects communities at home and abroad. It exposes the connections between a number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable world. That's cool, but the real story behind the Story of Stuff is the the great use of visual learning, animation, video and of course story.

Right Page Last Panel

In a recent blog post - When it comes to Marketing or your Personal Brand what is your "right page last panel"? - Saul Colt, a comic book writer and publisher, discusses applying successful comic book techniques to your personal brand marketing. His tip is a great storytelling technique to keep in mind. Saul feels that the secret to writing a good comic book is the "right page, bottom panel." Most comic books are read left to right and top to bottom. To keep the reader engaged throughout the book the first panel of the left page and the bottom right panel of the facing page become extremely important to the story process.

In the first panel of the left page you lead with a reveal (sharing new information, answering a lingering question, etc.). On the right page bottom panel you close with a cliffhanger, something interesting or even pose a question. The obvious goal is to make people want to turn the page to find out more.  Keep in mind that as powerful as the cliffhanger is, the reveal is even more powerful. If the reader is disappointed in the reveal, you'll begin to lose their trust and subsequently their attention.

panel above is from The Adventures of Johnny Bunko

Storytelling at Pixar

I found an article from 2007 on the Animation World Magazine website titled The Secret of Pixar Storytelling that gives good insight into the Pixar process. Some article highlights below from Pixar Writer/director Andrew Stanton. . .

• "Be wrong as fast as you can." Get your ideas onto the page. The real gold is mined later. This advice is similar to that of Chuck Jones on drawing -- make your mistakes early and fast, so you can get them out of the way. Refine your efforts until you get to the good stuff."Genius" looks effortless only because there are 100,000 bad drawings (so-called failures) already behind you.
• Empathize with your main character, even if you don't like all of his/her motivations or qualities. (For example, Woody in Toy Story initially masked his selfish desires as being selfless.)
• Unity of opposites. Each character must have clear goals that oppose each other.
• You should have something to say. Not a message, per se, but some perspective, some experiential truth.
• Have a key image, almost like a visual logline, to encapsulate the essence of the story; that represents the emotional core on which everything hangs. (For example, Marlin in Finding Nemo, looking over the last remaining fish egg in the nest.)
• Cast actors with an appealing voice, and whom the microphone loves. Test their voice performance with animation to see if it fits.
• Know your world and the rules of it. (Such as in Monsters, Inc.)
• The crux of the story should be on inner, not outer, conflicts.
• Developing the story is like an archeological dig. Pick a site where you think the story is buried, and keep digging to find it.
• Animation should be interpretive, not realistic.
• "Just say no" to flashbacks. Only tell what's vital, and tell it linearly.
• Consider music as a character to anchor the film. Music is a keeper of the emotional truth.

The Silent Dialogue

"Never write a line of dialogue when you can create a visual expression. Ask, 'How can I write this in a purely visual way and not resort to a single line of dialogue?'"

-- Robert Mckee, author of the book Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting

Current TV & Storytelling by Ira Glass

Current TV is a cable network that tells informative stories from the real world with about 1/3 of their content being viewer-created content, or what they call "VC2". They break their schedule into short segments called "pods" — each just 3-7 minutes in length and generally use a character, action, or event to tell a story. Anyone who wants to contribute can upload a video on their website. Then, everyone in the Current online community helps decide what should be on TV.

On the website, They have a training section to help amateur/beginning producers better understand the craft of journalism/storytelling/production. Under the Storytelling section they have video clips from industry “experts.” I found one clip by Ira Glass, host of radio program This American Life interesting. Ira talks about there being 2 building blocks to creating a good story:

1. Anecdotes - A sequence of events that leads from one thing to the next to the next and creates suspense. Raising questions and baiting the audience.
2. Moment of Reflection - Here's the point of the story, the bigger something we are driving at.

Ira's video segment is almost 20 minutes long but worth the time.

Digital Storytelling

A good storytelling quote from Dana Atchley, the late digital storytelling pioneer:

"...digital storytelling combines the best of two worlds: the 'new world' of digitized video, photography and art, and the "old world" of telling stories. This means the "old world" of PowerPoint slides filled with bullet point statements will be replaced by a "new world" of examples via stories, accompanied by evocative images and sounds."

Story Structure II

Screenwriting and story guru Robert Mckee, author of the book Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting describes story as "a design in five parts."  The five parts are:

1. Inciting Incident - A sudden decisive event that significantly upsets the character's life balance either positively or negatively.
2. Progressive Complications - To generate more and more conflict for the characters as they face greater forces of antagonism.
3. Crisis - The decision of the character to take one action or another.
4. Climax - A revolution in values from negative to positive or positive to negative.
5. Resolution - Tie up lose ends and allow the audience to gather it's thoughts.