The Cheese & The Christmas Party - Or - How a little story can make BIG change

Once upon a time, there was a successful IT company based in Johannesburg. It was expanding quickly and had a very hands-on managing director who had grown the company from his bedroom at home to an operation that employed 80 specialist developers and programmers in plush offices in Rosebank. The MD led by example - he was always first to arrive and last to leave and was completely committed to his vision of carving a niche for the company in the IT world internationally and to show that a boy from Boksburg could make it big. The company had landed new contracts from Singapore and everyone became used to working long hours fuelled by adrenaline and coffee.

When the December holiday season came, the MD planned a big party that was designed to help people let off steam. A lot of money, time and effort was spent on the party and there were musicians, jugglers, mountains of food and fancy dress. And, as an afterthought, an accountant was asked to buy some cheese from the local supermarket for the cheese platter for which she would be reimbursed. As it happened, the company closed for two weeks and it would be another 3 weeks before the employee who bought the cheese would be reimbursed.

Now, while the cheese only cost around a hundred Rands, the employee suffered considerable financial distress during the holiday and came back to work in January with a rather dispirited attitude. When she wasn't immediately reimbursed, she told story to a friend of hers that the company didn't pay her back for the cheese because they were in financial difficulties.

This story immediately started to do the rounds and escalated into a crisis of which everyone was aware. Everyone except the MD. It was only after external consultants were asked to shed light on the reason behind the rash of resignations amongst the normally loyal employees that the cheese story emerged as a core driver for many negative experiences and perceptions - people's fundamental need for safety and security was compromised. As it happened, the employee left in January but the impact of the story was felt for many months afterwards.

A Teaching Story - The Water Bearer and the Pots

Once Upon a Time...A water bearer in China had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it. The other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots of water to his house.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. After 2 years of what was perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house."

The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

Contributed by Bert Gruber

A Zen Story - Open Your Own Treasure House

Daiju visited the master Baso in China. Baso asked: "What do you seek?"

"Enlightenment," replied Daiju.

"You have your own treasure house. Why do you search outside?" Baso asked.

Daiju inquired: "Where is my treasure house?"

Baso answered: "What you are asking is your treasure house."

Daiju was delighted! Ever after he urged his friends: "Open your own treasure house and use those treasures."

Get their attention. Tell a story

My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas is a one-sentence story that is much easier to remember than the sequence of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Students throughout history have relied on mnemonics in the form of short stories to aid memory.

Stories work because they imprint mental images accompanied by feelings in our consciousness. Can't you just see that celestial mother quick-stepping through our solar system dispensing pizzas to a family of planets?

Telling a good story about a product is the secret of super-salespeople. An engaging thirty second story on radio or television is a brand's marketing gold. In a troubled organisation, an empowering story well conceived and well told can spur everybody to achieve what they never thought possible. Because when a good story is in the telling, the audience pays attention. Their curiosity is engaged and they really want to know what happens next.

The persuasive magic of story

A story is about change. There once was a situation that was just so. And then something happened… It could be a threat, an opportunity, danger, loss - even a stranger that appears in a settled community. The story is about how ordinary people deal with the 'something' and about how they are changed by the event.

In organisations, selling a radical idea to staff or clients can be daunting. The idea may have taken a long time to develop and the logic could be perfect, but how do you get people interested? How do you get them to understand where you're coming from? How can you quickly take them on a trip through the thinking process? How do you get them to be as convinced and excited as you are?

Ahah! A powerpoint presentation. Lists. Bullet points. Facts. Figures. Charts. It's easy to do; anybody can do it. The trouble is that there is rarely applause at the end of such a presentation. The audience is happy it is all over so that they can be on their way. They may have seen some point, but they are unmoved and unmotivated. They didn't connect with your passion.

Developing and telling a story isn't easy. It takes longer to prepare. It requires more personal input from the originator. You need to be able to describe the past and present situation clearly and with real insight. You need to think about how the change will affect individuals and understand how they may react. You need to consider not just the facts and figures, but feelings too. And you need to be completely honest and not hide any of the down-side of a situation. Says Robert McKee, a scriptwriter who works with companies like IBM. You emphatically do not want to tell a beginning-to-end tale describing how results meet expectations. This is boring and banal. Instead, you want to display the struggle between expectation and reality in all its nastiness.

Story and organisational culture

Part of working together as a cohesive whole; an organised entity that knows where it is going and how it can get there, is that there is one simple, easy-to-understand story that everybody can buy into.

Everyone loves a story – especially if they can see their part in it. An increasing awareness of this idea allows practitioners in organisational storytelling to access, mould and reinforce the stories that guide and shape organisational culture. We are rediscovering the principles of how the purposeful use of story, together with meaningful symbols, can achieve desired outcomes within an individual, a community, or an organisation.

(c)opyright by Eugenie Banhegyi eugenie@storytelling.co.za

How Leadership uses Myths

Leaders and those in the healing professions are often able to help people understand and appreciate their personal narratives. In effect, the leader or healer is given powers of authorship (authority) over the personal mythologies. The leader helps them interpret a set of circumstances in a more positive, empowering light. Doing this creates a new motivational landscape for followers and allows them to understand their personal history in a way that facilitates their growth and development. Simply put, this process consists of:

• Active listening to the problems and issues of the current situation (the pre-transformational mythology).
• Understanding the issues – this is accomplished by asking questions and probing deeper into the issues.
• Agreeing on the key points of the pre-transformational mythology and then telling the pre-transformation story.
• Turning it around – this involves the leader re-interpreting the mythology almost like a diviner or therapist would do. For example, conflict in the home of origin could be interpreted as a motivation to ensure that conflict is dealt with in new, creative ways in the future. Questions such as ‘what have you learned from this process?’ and ‘what advantage has this given you over the other people here?’ are key to ensuring a different perspective.
• Describing the new, empowered perspective – here the leader tells the new personal mythology
• Changing the language – the follower is asked to tell the newly agreed upon personal mythology. The key here is that when the language changes, the experience of reality also starts to change.
• Reinforcing the transformation – the follower is now regarded by the leader as having transformed. They are seen as being newly empowered, changed, capable and whole. The language the leader uses further reinforces this transformation. Statements such as: Remember how you used to feel before we spoke? / Isn’t it simple to see things in a different light? / Isn’t it nice to have that situation behind us? / You look far calmer and more purposeful now.

Jargon, Language, Management & Stories

• Every field of human endeavourhas its own language, jargon and stories – one of the best ways of connecting to the mind and language of business is to spend time looking through a variety of business oriented websites, newspapers and business programming on TV.
• if you expect to manage people, be clear about who you are and who your role models are. Decide and be clear on what your core values are.
• Substances (foods, drinks & drugs) that you consume will impact neurotransmitter levels in the brain which will impact your mood states, motivation and on your ability to learn. Stay off sweeties, caffeine, soft drinks and sugar.
• Learning is optimal when it is approached with a feeling of fun and excitement which you will need to learn how to generate yourself (more tips on this later)
• Exercise, spend time with yourself, appreciate yourself more. Hey, why not Love yourself a little more while you are about it?
• If you'd like to explore management, a useful place to start is in the area of self management

Leadership Storytelling - Reclaiming the American Dream - Barack Obama

Reclaiming the American Dream from http://www.barackobama.net/barack-obama-reclaiming-the-american-dream.html made January 29th, 2008

You know, we have been told for many years that we are becoming more divided as a nation.
We have been made to believe that differences of race and region; wealth and gender; party and religion have separated us into warring factions; into Red States and Blue states made up of individuals with opposing wants and needs; with conflicting hopes and dreams.
It is a vision of America that's been exploited and encouraged by pundits and politicians who need this division to score points and win elections. But it is a vision of America that I am running for President to fundamentally reject - not because of a blind optimism I hold, but because of a story I've lived.
It's a story that began here, in El Dorado, when a young man fell in love with a young woman who grew up down the road in Augusta. They came of age in the midst of the Depression, where he found odd jobs on small farms and oil rigs, always dodging the bank failures and foreclosures that were sweeping the nation.
They married just after war broke out in Europe, and he enlisted in Patton's army after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. She gave birth to their daughter on the base at Fort Leavenworth, and worked on a bomber assembly line when he left for war.
In a time of great uncertainty and anxiety, my grandparents held on to a simple dream - that they could raise my mother in a land of boundless opportunity; that their generation's struggle and sacrifice could give her the freedom to be what she wanted to be; to live how she wanted to live.
I am standing here today because that dream was realized - because my grandfather got the chance to go to school on the GI Bill, buy a house through the Federal Housing Authority, and move his family west - all the way to Hawaii - where my mother would go to college and one day fall in love with a young student from Kenya.
I am here because that dream made my parents' love possible, even then; because it meant that after my father left, when my mother struggled as a single parent, and even turned to food stamps for a time, she was still able to send my sister and me to the best schools in the country.
And I'm here because years later, when I found my own love in a place far away called Chicago, she told me of a similar dream. Michelle grew up in a working-class family on the South Side during the 1960s. Her father had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at just thirty years old. And yet, every day of his life, even when he had to rely on a walker to get him there, Fraser Robinson went to work at the local water filtration plant while his wife stayed home with the children. And on that single salary, he was able to send Michelle and her brother to Princeton.
Our family's story is one that spans miles and generations; races and realities. It's the story of farmers and soldiers; city workers and single moms. It takes place in small towns and good schools; in Kansas and Kenya; on the shores of Hawaii and the streets of Chicago. It's a varied and unlikely journey, but one that's held together by the same simple dream.
And that is why it's American.
That's why I can stand here and talk about how this country is more than a collection of Red States and Blue States - because my story could only happen in the United States.
That's why I believe that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that the dream we share is more powerful than the differences we have - because I am living proof of that ideal.
And that is what I have seen all across this country over the course of this campaign.
I've seen crumbling schools in South Carolina that are stealing the future of black children and white children.
I've been told of the injustice in the growing divide between Main Street and Wall Street by the lowest-paid workers and the wealthiest billionaires.
I've met autoworkers in Iowa and teachers in New Hampshire and dishwashers in Nevada who are all fighting the same fight for better wages and good benefits and a retirement they can count on.
And I've talked to young people and old people; Democrats, Independents, and Republicans who love their country, support their troops, and believe it is time to bring them home from Iraq.
We are not as divided as our politics suggest. Yes, we disagree. Yes, we have interests and ideologies that don't always align. Yes, we have real differences.
But the biggest divide in America today is not between its people, it is between its people and their leaders in Washington, DC. That is where our collective dream has been deferred. That's where the money and influence of lobbyists kill our plans to make health care more affordable or energy cleaner year after year after year. That's where campaign promises to keep jobs in America or put tax cuts in the pockets of working families are cast aside to make room for the politics of the moment. And that's where politicians would rather demonize each other to score points than come together to solve our common challenges.
That is where the real division lies - in a politics that echoes through the media and seeps into our culture - the kind that seeks to drive us apart and put up walls where none exist.
It's the politics that tells us that those who differ from us on a few things are different from us on all things; that our problems are the fault of those who don't think like us or look like us or come from where we do. The welfare queen is taking our tax money. The immigrant is taking our jobs. The gay person must be immoral, and the believer must be intolerant.
Well we are here to say that this is not the America we believe in and this is not the politics we have to accept anymore. Not this time. Not now.
This will not be easy. Because the change we seek will not just come from overcoming the ingrained and destructive habits of Washington, it will require overcoming our own fears and our own doubts. It will require each of us to do our part in closing the moral deficit - the empathy deficit - that exists in this nation. It will take standing in one another's shoes and remembering that we are our brother's keeper; we are our sister's keeper.
This will not be easy, but America's story tells me it's possible. My story tells me it's possible. What began here in Kansas all those years ago tells me it's possible.
Because as we face another time of anxiety and uncertainty - a time where foreclosures sweep the nation and families struggle to stay afloat; where loved ones leave for war and parents wonder what kind of world their children will inherit - I believe that this nation can rally around the simple dream that my grandparents held on to even in the darkest of days.
It's a dream that we can find a job with wages that support a family. That we can have health care that's affordable for when we get sick. That we can retire with dignity and security. And that we can provide our children with education and opportunity - so that they can be what they want to be and live how they want to live. They are the common dreams that can finally unite a nation around a common purpose.
There are those who will continue to tell us we cannot do this. That we cannot come together. That the divisions in our politics run too deep. That we are offering the American people false hopes.
But here's what I know.
I know that when I hear people say that we can't come together to lift up working families who are struggling in this economy, I think back to the streets of Chicago, where I began my career as a community organizer twenty-five years ago. In the shadow of a closed steel mill, we brought white people and black people and Latinos together to provide job training to the jobless and after school programs for children. Block by block, we restored hope and opportunity to those neighborhoods, and I can believe we can do the same thing for the working families of America.
Right now, there's an economic stimulus package moving through Congress that will provide a boost to the economy and to working families. It's similar to the one I proposed a few weeks ago, and would provide immediate tax relief for working families. I hope that when it's final, it will also provide relief to seniors and extend unemployment insurance to those who've lost their jobs.
But we need to do even more to restore fairness and balance to our economy. Last night, we heard the President say that he wanted to make his tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans permanent - again. Well we can't afford more George Bush tax cuts for those who don't need them and weren't even asking for them. It's time to give tax relief to the middle-class families who need it right now.
When I am President, we'll stop giving tax breaks to companies who ship our jobs overseas, and I'll put a middle-class tax cut into the pockets of working families. This tax cut will be worth up to $1000 for a working family. We'll provide struggling homeowners some relief by giving them a tax credit that would cover ten percent of a family's mortgage interest payment every year. And we're also going to give seniors a break by eliminating income taxes for any retiree making less than $50,000 a year, because every single American should be able to retire with dignity and respect.
That also means helping Americans save for retirement when they're still working. When I'm President, employers will be required to enroll every worker in a direct deposit retirement account that places a small percentage of each paycheck into savings. You can keep this account even if you change jobs, and the federal government will match the savings for lower-income, working families.
It's also time we had a President who won't wait another ten years to raise the minimum wage. I will raise it to keep pace every year so that workers don't fall behind. I'll institute a Credit Card Bill of Rights that will ban credit card companies from changing the agreement you signed up for, changing the interest rate on debt you've already incurred, or charging interest on late fees. Americans should pay what they owe, but they should also pay what's fair, not just what's profitable for some credit card company.
The same principle should apply to our bankruptcy laws. I opposed the credit card industry's bankruptcy bill that made it harder for working families to climb out of debt, and when I'm President, I'll make sure that CEOs can't dump your pension with one hand while they collect a bonus with the other. That's an outrage, and it's time we had a President who knows it's an outrage.
It's also time we had a President who stopped talking about the outrage of 47 million uninsured Americans and started doing something about it. When I hear that we can't come together and expand health care to the uninsured, I think back to how I was able to bring Democrats and Republicans together in Illinois to provide health insurance to 150,000 children and parents. And when I'm President, we'll finally pass a universal health care plan that will make sure every single American can get the same kind of health care that members of Congress get for themselves. My plan does more to cut costs than any other plan in this race - up to $2500 for a typical family. And we won't pass it twenty years from now, not ten years from now - we'll pass health care by the end of my first term in office.
When I hear that there's no way we can overcome the power of lobbyists and special interests, I think about how I was able to pass the first major ethics reform in Illinois twenty-five years. I think about how in Washington, I was able to bring Democrats and Republicans together to pass the strongest lobbying reform in a generation - we banned gifts from lobbyists, meals with lobbyists, subsidized travel on fancy jets, and for the first time in history, we forced lobbyists to tell the American public who they're raising money from and who in Congress they're funneling it to. Washington lobbyists haven't funded my campaign, they won't run my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of working Americans when I am President.
And when I hear that some of our kids just can't learn; that we can't do anything about crumbling schools and rising tuition, I think back to the chances that somebody, somewhere gave my family. The ticket my father got to come study in America. The opportunity my mother had to put herself through graduate school. The chance I had to go to the best schools in the country, even though we didn't have much.
It is time to give every child in America that kind of chance - no matter what they look like or where they come from. When I am President, we will provide all our children with a world-class education, from the day they're born until the day they graduate college. That means early childhood education to give them the best possible start. That means not just talking about how great teachers are, but rewarding them for their greatness, with better pay, and more support. And it means providing every American with a $4,000 a year tax credit that will finally help make a college education affordable and available for all.
This election is our chance - our moment - to restore the simple dream of those who came before us for another generation of Americans. But only if we can come together and like previous generations did and close that divide between a people and its leaders in Washington.
Because in the end, the choice in this election is not between regions or religions or genders. It's not about rich versus poor; young versus old; and it is not about black versus white.
It's about the past versus the future.
It's about whether we settle for the same divisions and distractions and drama that passes for politics today, or whether we reach for a politics of common sense and innovation; of shared sacrifice and shared prosperity.
In the face of war and depression; through great struggle and tremendous sacrifice, that is the future that my grandparents' generation forged for their children. It is why that little girl who was born at Fort Leavenworth could dream as big as the Kansas sky. And it is why I stand before you today - because there are two little girls I tuck in at night who deserve a world in which they can dream those same big dreams; in which they can have the same chances as any other child living any other place. It is a dream I share for your children and all of our children, and that is why it's American - always hoping, always reaching, always striving for that better day ahead. I hope you'll join me on that journey, and I thank you for welcoming me back to the place my family called home.

Copyright © Barack Obama.net. All Rights Reserved. Barack Obama.net

Leadership storytelling

If you spend time with a leader, you’ll notice some interesting aspects of how he or she talks, In fact, what a leader does could more correctly be described as the creation of stories and wordscapes - landscapes made of words. Through the skilful, and often unconscious, use of words, tone of voice and body language, the leader will often hold an audience spellbound as a master storyteller would.

The storytelling aspects of leadership are vitally important. Most children's early and most profound learning experiences are based on stories. These were the stories that taught us all about the world around us. The stories told about us, especially if told by an authoritative figure, were vitally important in helping shape the people we are today.

Stories can be about the past, the present and the future. And it appears as though a compelling story, if related with the appropriate sense of drama and occasion, can have the effect of creating a reality. And a true leader will know this. The stories can be about varied themes. For example:

• Where have we come from?
• Where are we going?
• What will we be like when we get there?
• What will we feel like when we get there?
• How have we changed?
• What makes us different?

These are the kinds of stories people never appear to tire of, especially if the stories are about them. The stories might have many different and varied characters. For example, African Mythology is teeming with animal spirits and archetypes such as baboon, snake, chameleon, tortoise, scorpion, leopard and lion. On closer examination, you will quickly see that we perceive that these creatures embody certain characteristics that are found in human beings. For example, in some cultures the baboon will embody cunning and intelligence. Jackals would display slyness, cowardliness and stealth. Baboon stories display elements of slyness and cunning.

Learning the Creative Game

Steve Banhegyi / steve@storytelling.co.za
(c) 2007 Published in Enjin Magazine, 2007 June

"It takes a very long time to become young." (Pablo Picasso)

Did you have difficulty making friends as a child? Experience scholastic boredom and more than the normal helping of social problems? A little unconventional and nonconformist even at primary school? Eccentric parents? A study of gifted creatives by Psychologist Ellen Winner cited these early life experiences as stimulating creativity because of the introversion that springs from teasing or isolation; the greater the isolation, the more introspection and the more profound the gift she suggests.

There are many writers who suggest that the truly creative being is the child. And the child energy is still available and accessible to each of us. An interesting way of reaching this space is to think of the following question : Who were you before you became 'adult'? Before you knew all the big words that you know now? Many people when asked this question are stimulated to think of the events that made them adult on various levels Think what it was like to experience the world as a child.

There are many factors that stimulate a need to create but can the creative ability itself be learned and developed like a muscle? Maybe it is something like an ability to ride a bike. Whereas it is really quite impossible to describe what riding a bike involves, you contain your sense of certainty in your 'ability'. In much the same way, you construct your creative ability in your narrative.

Practical experience and a weight of evidence says that you can learn to be more creative and we've integrated some of these ideas into a narrative-centred life skills course that is now running in its third year at CIDA City Campus. The fundamental idea is this: You are created by the stories that you tell to yourself about yourself and the world around you. In other words, we are not only described by our life narrative, we are actually created by it. These stories shape your experience of the world and as you learn how to reframe these experiences (even the ones you've already had), you empower yourself. We also spend time describing creativity as a game and provide some ideas from the approach here:

Creative Narrative
Who is the being doing the creative act? In other words, Who are You? What is the story you tell about yourself as a creative being? How do you remind yourself of your brand? We've seen some amazing transformations in lives when they start to consciously work on their stories. Here is a before and after life script from a creative in a large Ad. Agency. Mary's experience suggests that if you craft your story and embed creative metaphors and symbols into it, that you will have a very different experience as a creative. She attributes the change in her experience to becoming aware that she needed a new story as the old one was literally killing her.

Before Lifescript
My Name is Mary. I am an addict. I drink quite a lot of rum and wine. Sometimes I get so smashed that I wake up on a Sunday Morning and don't know who I am anymore. I have also been doing coke and coffee at work and I feel really burnt out. I think I've lost the ability to crack a concept and I don't even want it back anymore.

After Lifescript
I'm Mary and I was born into a creative, artistic family where the house was filled with wonderful sounds and joy. My parents were both musicians and I experienced a warm and idyllic childhood of freedom and exploration filled with great stories, forest animals, fairies and mermaids. In my exploration of the forest that was part of my home, I spent hours mesmerised by the workings of bees and other forest creatures and was taught by my mother how to make fairy shoes out of the petals of wild flowers. I have never forgotten these carefree, wondrous explorations and I still experience and view the world in this way. My experience at Waldorf school brought me a valuable understanding of friendships and the often peculiar ways in which people behave.
My path as an artist was created when I went with my family on a pilgrimage to Spain and Italy to see the great museums and works of art. I recall staring at the Pieta for what seemed like moments but later turned out to be hours.
I'm clean of the alcohol and the bad drugs. I remember more. I'm more present. And I don't need a substance to make me brave enough to go into a presentation. I am now exploring my options, my possibilities and an empowering story of my future self. I have the support of my friends and family and look forward to living my story wholeheartedly.

Steve Banhegyi
steve@storytelling.co.za

Pres. Barack Obama's Inauguration Speech - "The time has come to re-affirm our enduring spirit" with tag cloud

"I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom."

Tag cloud generated by TagCrowd.com

Obama's Inauguration Speech crafted by 27 year old at Starbucks - from the Guardian

To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site, go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/20/barack-obama-inauguration-us...

Obama inauguration: Words of history ... crafted by 27-year-old in Starbucks
? Chief speechwriter known as president's mind reader
? Young aide studied past inaugural orations
Ed Pilkington in New York
Tuesday January 20 2009
The Guardian

When Barack Obama steps up to the podium to deliver his inaugural address, one man standing anonymously in the crowd will be paying especially close attention. With his cropped hair, five o'clock shadow and boyish face, he might look out of place among the dignitaries, though as co-author of the speech this man has more claim than most to be a witness to this moment of history.

Jon Favreau, 27, is, as Obama himself puts it, the president's mind reader. He is one of the youngest chief speechwriters on record in the White House, and, despite such youth, was at the centre of discussions of the content of today's speech, one which has so much riding on it.

For a politician whose rise to prominence was largely built upon his powers as an orator, Obama is well versed in the arts of speech-making. But today's effort will tower over all previous ones.

It is not just that Obama has set an extremely high bar by invoking the inaugural speeches of Abraham Lincoln as his inspiration - admitting to feeling "intimidated" when he read them. It is also that, as he begins his term with the US in an economic crisis and two wars, he knows he needs to kick start his presidency with a soaring rhetoric that both moves and motivates the American people.

The tone of the speech could be decisive in determining how the public responds to his first 100 days, as Franklin Roosevelt's famous line "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" helped to determine his.

Obama aides have let it be known that a key theme will be restoring responsibility - both in terms of accountability in Washington and the responsibility of ordinary people to get involved. Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff, talks of a "culture of responsibility" that would "not just be asked of the American people; its leaders must also lead by example."

In composing the high notes of the speech, Obama has leant on Favreau, whom he discovered almost by chance four years ago when the younger man was working on John Kerry's failed presidential bid. "Favs" has since studied Obama's speech patterns and cadences with the intensity of a stalker. He memorised the 2004 speech to the Democratic national convention which first brought Obama into the limelight. He is said to carry Obama's autobiography, Dreams From My Father, wherever he goes. As a result, last November when Favreau sat down to write the first draft of the inaugural address, he could conjure up his master's voice as if an accomplished impersonator.

That skill had been put to almost daily use in the 18 months of brutal campaigning on the presidential trail. Favreau would be up most nights until 3am, honing the next day's stump speeches in a caffeine haze of espressos and Red Bull energy drinks, taking breaks to play the video game Rock Band. He coined a phrase for this late-night deadline surfing: "crashing".

He crashed his way through all Obama's most memorable speeches. He wrote the draft of one that helped to turn Iowa for Obama while closeted in a coffee shop in Des Moines. For the presidential election, he wrote two speeches: one for a victory, one for defeat. When the result came through, he emailed his best friend: "Dude, we won. Oh my God."

The tension between such youthful outbursts and his onerous role has sometimes cost the 27-year-old. In December, pictures of him and a friend mocking a cardboard cut-out of Hillary Clinton at a party, Favreau's hand on her breast, were posted on Facebook to his huge embarrassment.

Obama is an accomplished writer in his own right, and the process of drafting with his mind reader is collaborative. The inaugural speech has shuttled between them four or five times, following an initial hour-long meeting in which the president-elect spoke about his vision for the address, and Favreau took notes on his computer.

Favreau then went away and spent weeks on research. His team interviewed historians and speech writers, studied periods of crisis, and listened to past inaugural orations. When ready, he took up residence in Starbucks in Washington and wrote the first draft. The end result will be uttered on the steps of the Capitol.

Obama's mind reader has crashed his way through yet another deadline.

? This article was amended on Friday 23 January 2009. Jon Favreau, age 27, is not the youngest chief speechwriter in the White House. He shares that honour with James Fallows, who served as Jimmy Carter's speechwriter at the same age. This has been corrected.

Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited 2009

Professional Storytellers

There are many professions in which proficiency in storytelling is vital. That is because all professions are based on beliefs about the world that are themselves completely contained in story, language and ritual.

Almost everything you do involves communication with other beings. If you think of the content and impact of these communications, they often involve the exchange of complex values, feelings and perceptions. Stories are used to persuade, describe and encourage action by motivating yourself and others. If you accept the notion that power and change are intimately related, then your ability to tell a convincing, motivating story that makes you and anyone who listens to it feel good is related to your personal power. It is your story that makes you who you are. Who would you be without stories?

Professions associated with storytelling include: Medical Doctors (there is a specialised niche in medicine called narrative medicine which looks at the relationship between story and healing), Traditional Healers (called Sangomas and Inyangas in Southern Africa), Salespeople, Journalists, Astrologers, Priests, Shaman, Lawyers, Psychologists, Advertising copywriters, Psychotherapists, Advocates/Barristers, Judges, Politicians, Teachers & Academics, Leaders, Managers, Songwriters and even Accountants (accountanting is in fact one of the earlest forms of storytelling!). Seems everyone is trying to tell or sell you a story....

Storytelling and the world of work

At first the idea is a little puzzling - what has storytelling got to do with the world of work? Well, quite a lt it seems. Think of this - whatever we know of the world and of ourselves is story. And there is a lot of research around which suggests that it is the good storytellers who are generally more interesting, successful and wealthy. So is it in the story or is it in the way of delivery? Maybe it has a lot to do with:

• what story are you are telling?
• why you are telling this particular story?
• how you are telling it?
• who you are telling it to?
• how are you responding to your audience? Is it authentic?

The most important thing you are ever going to sell is yourself. Your ability to tell an empowering story and to be able to paint a clear, finely granular word picture of 'who you are' and 'what is going on' is probably one of the most important life skills you have. The ability to tell a good story will literally help you get what you want. The only thing you need to know, is what you want.Stories are the way we transmit complex information to each other accross space and time. The way we tell a story is our qnique understanding or perception of 'how things are' or 'what happened or 'what is happening'.

Storytelling.co.za in die nuus! (from Beeld Newspaper 23-April, 2008 in Afrikaans)

http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Vroue/0,,3-1841_2311191,00.html

Reis na ’n land ver, ver van hier . . .

Eendag lank, lank gelede was daar 'n storie wat om die kampvuur vertel is. Soveel mense het die storie oorvertel dat dit sterk geword en ontsnap het. Vandag word dit in raadsale en kantore, teaters en huise vertel. Marzanne van den Berg het gaan luister.

‘Het jy gehoor?”

Vra dít en skielik het jy almal se aandag. En het jy al agtergekom mense onthou ’n storie baie beter as ’n voorlegging in puntformaat?

Almal is lief vir stories – om dit te hoor en te vertel.

“Een keer ’n maand kom ons storievertelkring bymekaar,” vertel me. Elizabeth Jansen van Vuuren van die Johannesburg-storievertelkring.

“Elkeen moet ’n gereg en ’n storie bring. En dit raak al hoe gewilder, elke keer is daar meer mense.”

“Alles wat ons oor onsself en die wêreld weet, leer ons óf deur persoonlike ervaring óf deur stories, en meestal deur stories,” sê mnr. Steve Banhegyi, ’n fasiliteerder, konsultant en skrywer wat spesialiseer in persoonlike en organisatoriese veranderingsbestuur.

“Stories is die enigste manier wat mense het om sin te maak uit die wêreld. Dit is een van die dinge wat ons menslik maak,” sê hy.

“Stories maak dat ons op sekere maniere reageer, soos om hartseer of gelukkig te wees of selfs om te emigreer.”

Stories skep identiteit en waardes

Stories voed mense, en veral kinders, op en ’n mens leer morele waardes deur stories, sê me. Khosi Mazibuko, direkteur van Zanendaba Storytellers in Johannesburg.

“Stories is ’n goeie manier om boodskappe en inligting oor te dra. Ons spreek maatskaplike kwessies soos dwelmmisbruik deur stories aan en vertel dikwels stories om mense meer bewus te maak van MIV/vigs.”

Sy sê hulle het onlangs die werkers van die Johannesburgse padagentskap deur stories geleer hoe die MI-virus oorgedra word.

“Die inligting word makliker ingeneem in ’n storie.”

Mazibuko sê storievertel raak al hoe gewilder.

“Ons vertel stories by verjaardagpartytjies, ook vir volwassenes. Ons skryf ook stories om produkte te bevorder, en vertel dit dan byvoorbeeld op radio.”

Die regisseur Janice Honeyman meen weer die kuns van storievertel is besig om te verdwyn weens rekenaars en televisie.

“Stories word op televisie vervlak vir algemene verbruik. Kinders en volwassenes gebruik nie meer hul verbale vaardighede soveel as voorheen nie,” sê Honeyman. “Mense het nie meer die geduld om te sit en ’n storie te vertel nie. En ons behoort dit net meer en meer te doen!”

Honeyman sê kinders kan deur stories hul vrese en fantasieë in die veilige hawe van hul huis of ’n donker teater konfronteer.

“Stories help Suid-Afrikaners om ’n gemeenskaplike identiteit te vind ná ons land se verdeelde verlede.”

Honeyman vertel die toneelstuk Shirley, goodness and mercy, wat sy geregisseer het, gaan oor ’n bruin familie, “maar toe ek dit lees, sien ek daar is soveel dinge wat dieselfde was in my kinderjare”.

“Só bevestbanig stories dat ons ’n gemeenskaplike identiteit het en dat ons dieselfde is.”

Stories by die werk

In organisasies word daar altyd stories vertel en dikwels is daardie stories negatief met negatiewe gevolge, sê Banhegyi. Hy en sy vennote help organisasies om stories tot hul voordeel in te span. “Stories is nooit die waarheid nie, dit is altyd konstruksies, maar as dit dikwels genoeg herhaal word, word dit as die waarheid aanvaar,” sê hy.

“Ons vind uit watter stories vertel word – hoe mense oor hulself praat met betrekking tot die organisasie – en of dit deur alternatiewe stories vervang kan word.”

Elke organisasie behoort ’n groot storie (grand narrative) te hê. Dit is die waarmerk van enige suksesvolle organisasie, sê Banhegyi. Dit is ’n storie oor waar die organisasie vandaan kom, waar dit tans is en waarheen dit op pad is.

Alle stories, dié wat in jou organisasie vertel word en dié wat oor jou as individu gaan, moet jou help om te kry wat jy wil hê, sê hy.

Storieterapie

Mense maak sin van hul lewe deur die stories van hul lewe te vertel, sê dr. Dirk Kotzé, direkteur van die instituut vir terapeutiese ontwikkeling in Pretoria.

In die storie van jou lewe is daar ’n oorheersende tema, tendens of storielyn, sê hy. In narratiewe terapie is die doel om iemand se fokus te verskuif van ’n probleemversadigde, oorheersende storie na ’n alternatiewe storie.

“As iemand vir ’n terapeut van sy probleem vertel, gaan die oorheersende storielyn waarmee hy of sy leef, na vore kom en die terapeut kan vrae vra om die probleem te struktureer.

“Die groot vraag in terapie is egter wat die ander storie is – dit wat gebeur het en nie vertel word nie.”

Kotzé vertel as voorbeeld die storie van ’n depressiewe vrou wat met die idee geleef het dat sy niks werd is nie en niks kan regkry nie. Dit is deur verskeie gebeurtenisse versterk.

Haar ouers het haar as kind baie gekritiseer en haar soms in ’n donker badkamer toegesluit. In terapie het sy skaam vir hom gesê dat sy dit nog nooit vir iemand vertel het nie, maar sy het altyd voordat hulle haar in die badkamer toegesluit het, skelm haar teddiebeer uit die kamer gaan haal en in die badkamer weggesteek. Nadat sy uitgelaat is, het sy weer die beer uit die badkamer gesmokkel en teruggeneem kamer toe.

“Ons het deur terapie hierdie alternatiewe storie ryker en dikker gemaak sodat dit ’n volledige storie geword het.

“Ek het haar byvoorbeeld gevra hoe sy die beer gaan haal en weggesteek het. Die gevolgtrekking wat die vrou uit die alternatiewe storie gemaak het, was dat sy nogal kreatief kan wees. Die terapeut moenie die gevolgtrekking afdwing nie, die pasiënt moet dit self bereik.

“Dan soek ’n mens nog stories om die gevolgtrekking te bevestig en gewoonlik kom daar meer goeie karaktertrekke uit hierdie stories na vore.”

Die alternatiewe storie is reeds verskuil in die probleemstorie, maar word nie altyd raakgesien nie, sê Kotzé. Hy sê mense moet bereid wees om nuuskierig te wees oor ander se stories. “Gee iemand kans om sy storie te vertel. Luister, voordat jy net wil begin oplossings soek. Dikwels sorteer ’n mens ’n probleem vir jouself uit deur die storie te vertel.”

Meer oor stories

• Besoek www.storytelling.co.za vir stories en ook stories in organisasies.
• Besoek www.zanendaba.org vir die Zanendaba Storytellers.
• Die instituut vir terapeutiese ontwikkeling lewer terapeutiese dienste en lei beraders op.

Teaching Story - About Monkeys and Market Crashes

Once upon a time, in a village in Africa, a trader man arrived on a mighty ship and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them.

The man bought thousands at $10 and built a giant cage to hold them until the ship returned, but as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. The trader man further announced that he would now buy monkeys at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it! The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50 !

However, since he had to fly to the city on some business, his assistant would now do business on behalf of him.

In the absence of the trader man, the assistant told the villagers. "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each." The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys.

They never saw the man or his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere!

Now do you have a better understanding of how the markets work?

Telling tales for corporate advantage

by Karen Alsfine 23 January 2007
From RalBusiness Network http://www.realbusiness.co.za/Article.aspx?articleID=3884&typeID=2

ONCE upon a time. Happily ever after. Comedy or drama. Telling tales is far more than an activity just for respite, so it seems.

Storytelling is the meaning of life, connecting the prosaic to the divine and constituting the most engaging way of communicating, says Peter Christie, Big Chief Talking Bull from Not the Bored Room.

An expert in storytelling for organisations, Christie, claims people need great stories. “All the religions know this, they have stories and they have rituals to reiterate those stories.”

Conversely, organisations generally do not have conscious stories and they have impoverished rituals that typically do not sustain themselves either, Christie explains. “Business often pays too much attention to business and not enough attention to the ‘show’ — which is the great story the business represents.”

Stories are important because meaning of the world takes form by telling them, agrees corporate storyteller and change consultant Steve Banhegyi.

“Organisations, cultures and societies are sustained through stories and our attempts to understand and negotiate the world are grounded in narrative. Storytelling translates bare facts and logical argument into a form with which people can engage both emotionally and intellectually.

“If you wish to transform how people approach issues or demonstrate the value of behavioural change, there is no better way than through a good story,” he says.

Why? Simply because ideas become stimulating and inspiring when presented as stories. And stories demand to be passed on, retold and embellished as part of an organisation’s oral culture.

Stories are also powerful mediums to articulate key business drivers such as brand, vision, mission, values, measures, purpose and the marketing message. Archetypal marketing, for example, looks for the yearning that is missing in people’s lives.

Think of the Marlboro man — the adventurer archetype or Harley Davidson — the rebel-archetype. “These stories will determine whether people buy, participate, invest in, work for or even believe in your offering,” says Banhegyi.

But, he cautions, to achieve this you need a story people can relate to. A just-can’t-put-it-down tale.

In his book, Telling Tales, Stephen Denning proposes that effective storytelling can accomplish something that logic and analysis fail to do in today’s business world. It “offers a route to the heart”.

And that’s where we must go if we are to motivate people not only to take action but to do so with energy and enthusiasm.

“At a time when corporate survival often requires disruptive change, leadership involves inspiring people to act in unfamiliar and often unwelcome ways. Mind-numbing cascades of numbers or powerpoint slides won’t achieve this goal. But effective storytelling often does. Storytelling can translate dry and abstract numbers into compelling pictures of leaders’ goals,” says Denning.

Storytelling can enhance an organisation’s performance, culture and creativity because an effective storytelling process forms a space where organisational participants articulate and “let go” of stories of the past. By so doing, it generates and embraces a more expansive vision of the future, says Banhegyi.

“These stories fashion a context in the organisation where it becomes safe to really live organisational values such as teamwork, innovation, and integrity.”

Storytelling therefore constitutes a powerful force for transforming organisations. “But this requires leaderships’ involvement. They need to acquire the skills of great storytelling and they need to tell authentic tales.”

So, what makes a good storyline?

In a Harvard Business Review article, What’s Your Story, the authors describe the key elements of a classic story as having: a protagonist whom the listener cares about; a catalyst compelling the protagonist to take action; trials and tribulations that reveal, test and shape the protagonist’s character; a turning point after which the protagonist can no longer see or do things the same way as before; and a resolution in which the protagonist either succeeds magnificently or falls tragically.

As an example, Christie refers to the North American Indian legend of Jumping Mouse, a hero archetype who embarks on a hero’s journey. The story recounts the tale of a mouse that jumps “above the grass to hear what other mice don’t hear … and then sets out on a path of discovery”.

The story is filled with twists and troubles and has characters who represent metaphors for life, like the racoon who acts as Jumping Mouse’s guide (a mentor).

Christie says: “The archetypes in these stories generate change because they stimulate thinking about what the story is saying about me, and story archetypes underlie every culture, like The Three Little Pigs (make sure you build solid foundations). When you tell such stories, people share at a deep level and engage emotionally.

“The element of being human is embedded in most stories. And this will always be relevant.”

Stories also have the hooks and therefore represent a compelling resource to maintain a consistent message. There are two distinct forms of organisational storytelling: the life stories of the individuals within the organisation and the organisational narrative, says Banhegyi. “It is important to engage both because the stories of individual employees are useful in understanding the unique organisational diversity mix, and the organisational story creates a context for day-to-day experience.

“The organisational narrative engages stories with themes such as: What is going on? Who are we? What do we sell? How do we do things here; Where are we coming from and where are we going?”

One of the first symptoms of an organisation in trouble is when its narrative collapses, says Banhegyi. Everyone has a different story about “what is really going on”.

So stories can capture the DNA of an organisation and the “memes” (genes) or deeply held beliefs within the corporate structure. “These stories are therefore profoundly significant and need to be deliberately controlled and told by leadership,” says Banhegyi.

“All forms of communication are ultimately stories that try to stimulate understanding, belief, a sense of identity and action. ”

For Banhegyi, stories constitute persuasive, action-oriented communications that change minds. A good story, as long as it is well formed and consistently told, has the power to change attitudes, perceptions, expectations and behaviours, because stories depict the world in terms of a complex, living dynamic rather than a linear cause-effect relationship.

And what is the “aha” factor in all this? “Stories intrinsically remind people of who they are and we should not spend our lives trying to forget this,” says Christie.

A Well-Planned Retirement

Outside England's Bristol Zoo there is a parking lot for 150 cars and 8 buses. For 25 years, its parking fees were managed by a very pleasant attendant. The fees were for cars: £1.40, for buses: £7.

Then, one day, after 25 solid years of never missing a day of work, he just didn't show up; so the Zoo Management called the City Council and asked it to send them another parking agent.
The Council did some research and replied that the parking lot was the Zoo's own responsibility.

The Zoo advised the Council that the attendant was a City employee.

The City Council responded that the lot attendant had never been on the City payroll.

Meanwhile, sitting in his villa somewhere on the coast of Spain or France or Italy ... is a man who'd apparently had a ticket machine installed completely on his own and then had simply begun to show up every day,commencing to collect and keep the parking fees, estimated at about £560 perday -- for 25 years.

Assuming 7 days a week, this amounts to just over 7 million pounds .. and no one even knows his name.

From the Times of London

How the Monkeys Saved the Fish

That year, the rains were the strongest ever and the river had broken its banks. There were floods everywhere and the animals all ran up into the hills. The floods came so fast that many drowned except the lucky monkeys who were used to swinging high up in the treetops. They looked down on the surface of the water where the fish were swimming and jumping out of the water as if they were the only ones enjoying the devastating flood.

One of the monkeys saw the fish and shouted to his companion: "Look down at those poor creatures. They are going to drown. Do you see how they struggle in the water?" "Yes," said the other monkey. "What a pity! Probably they were late in escaping to the hills because they seem to have no legs. How can we save them?" "I think we must do something. Let's go close to the edge of the flood where the water is not deep enough to cover us, and we can help them to get out."

So the monkeys did just that. They started catching the fish, but not without difficulty. One by one, they brought them out of the water and put them carefully on the dry land. After a short time there was a pile of fish lying on the grass motionless. One of the monkeys said, "Do you see? They were tired, but now they are just sleeping and resting. Had it not been for us, my friend, all these poor creatures without legs would have drowned."

The other monkey said: "They were trying to escape from us because they could not understand our good intentions. But when they wake up they will be very grateful because we have brought them salvation." (Traditional Tanzanian Folktale)

Narrative Medicine

Professions such as Social Work, Medicine and Psychology are becoming increasingly aware of the therapeutic properties of writing and storytelling and there are numerous examples of how people of all ages face and overcome life’s challenges through the art of telling their stories.

Everyone understands the important role of stress in life experience. The relief of stress and stressors by narrative (either verbal or in writing) has also been well known for over 100 years. The Europeans, starting with Anton Mesmer (of mesmerism fame) and the use of hypnosis, called "verbal healing," laid significant foundations in narrative therapy. It was further developed by Sigmund Freud and his followers who discovered that patients became better when they "free associated." His patients became more functional in their lives simply by “talking out” whatever came into their mind. Analysis and "talking therapy" is still primary form of treatment with individuals when seen by mental health professionals.

Writing and journaling have been found to have very positive effects in reducing stress and have been used very successfully in a number of programmes. A number of Life Management systems such as the Franklin-Covey model rely on thinking out one’s day and goals and writing these down. They do this as a way of gaining control of the individual’s life situations. The AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) Twelve Step Programs focus significantly on writing down thoughts and sharing them with oneself, and one’s sponsor. There is also a significant movement in a number of cultures on reclaiming one’s oral history as a way of grounding oneself to their heritage, traditional pre-consumer culture and their roots.

Research conducted in this field suggest that both speaking and writing, either as journaling, or in messages to others, are ways to reduce stresses. Whilst narrating one's thoughts does not initially affect the external stressors, it can certainly help to change the way one feels about the world. A story allows one to share these feelings with others and to organize one's thoughts around these issues and to move forward in life. The very act of committing one’s thoughts to paper, e-mail, collages or recording facilitates a better and healthier formulation of the issues, and hopefully leads to decisions that can then react to and deal with life stresses.

Teaching Story: lipstick on the mirror

According to a news report, a certain private school in Brisbane was recently faced with a unique problem. A number of 12-year-old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints.

Every night the maintenance man would remove them and the next day the girls would put them back.

Finally the principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the custodian who had to clean the mirrors every night you can just imagine the yawns from the little princesses).

To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required.

He took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet, and cleaned the mirror with it. Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.

The Biology and Chemistry of Creativity

Ultimately your experience of the world is reflected in the many billions of electro-chemical changes that occur continuously in your endocrine system, your immune system and your nervous system. It is known that the various substances we consume can have a profound impact on the way in which we experience the world. Make it your business to understand how common foodstuffs, drinks and drugs impact your moods and your creative abilities. Coffee is an example of how commonly available substances can impact your work; the 'lift' you get from coffee actually comes from the 'fight or flight' response -that cappucino has made you feel more awake by stimulating your body to produce adrenaline. Adrenaline is classified as a neurotransmitter and can often express itself as paranoia, angst and fear – emotions not useful if you want to create a creative space. Many people certainly do change their outlook on life after they contain a coffee habit. However, coffee is useful for certain kinds of thinking such as thinking in process (making sure all the ducks are in a row) and when there is an important deadline that can't be missed. Coffee is probably least useful when you want to create new associations and metaphors and to build vision – best performed when relaxed, laid back, chilled, playful, happy and close as possible to the creative space of the child.

Research has shown that even simple foodstuffs can have a profound impact on thinking, often days after consumption. More and more evidence is coming to light that suggests that the junk foods are particularly bad if you want to experience a creative space so watch the lunchtime takeaways.

Primate Creativity A lot of time has spent by psychologists studying Primates (or is it the other way around?) and the way they go about solving banana acquisition problems in the lab. In a typical experiment, all the bits and pieces necessary to solve the problem are available in the cage but it is only when the monkey has exhausted every possibility and thrown temper tantrums followed by a 'giving up' on the problem does the ape seem to have a flash of inspiration allowing it to acquire the banana. This has some important ideas for humans striving to be creative as follows:

describe the problem you have play with the parts of the problem – the operative word is play, so don't be serious here. Serious problems are not solved with serious thinking. What other language can you use to articulate the problem? Can you change your point of view? leave the problem & do something else. Trust that inspiration will come.

The Star Maiden

This story based on on a story told in Sir Laurens van der Post’s book "The Heart of the Hunter"

Once upon a time... on the edge of the dry Kalahari desert, there farmed a bushman farmer. He had crops and a few cows and, though he was relatively content, he did so wish that he would one day have a wife to share his life. One morning when he went out to milk his cows, he saw that they had already been milked. He couldn’t imagine who had done this. The next morning when he came out he found again that the cows had already been milked.

The next night he decided to hide near the cattle kraal and discover exactly what was happening. As midnight came he saw a remarkable sight. Climbing down from the sky on a ladder that extended between the stars and the earth was a multitude of Star Maidens. They each carried a bucket and as they touched down onto his land, they began to milk the cows. This went on all night long and as the dawn approached they began their trip back to the stars, ascending the ladder one by one. Just as the last Star Maiden approached the ladder, the farmer ran out from his hiding place and grabbed her and told her that she would become his wife. The Star Maiden was very open to the idea of marrying the farmer. When they returned to the farmhouse, she told him: “I shall be very happy to marry you and I promise you that your farm will prosper. I have only one condition that I must set. I have here a basket. You must promise me never to open this basket. If you do open it, then I promise you that I will leave.” The farmer promised that he would do as she wished. The Star Maiden put her basket down in a corner of the room and so their life together began.

As his new wife promised, the farmer’s farm and crops prospered and he became one of the most successful farmers in the whole area. His wife went out into the fields to work every day and everything that she touched seemed blessed by the gods. He was a very happy man and, as the years passed, he became happier yet with his good fortune for he loved and appreciated the Star Maiden.

One afternoon when his wife was out in the fields and he was at home looking for something, he found the basket she had put away many years before. Though he what his wife said, he didn’t take it seriously so he picked up the basket, put it on the table, and opened it up. To his surprise he found it was empty. He found this very amusing and had a good laugh over the fact that it was empty. He remembered well the seriousness with which she had warned him about not opening her treasure.

A short time later the Star Maiden returned from the field. As she entered the room she knew immediately what had happened. She spoke to her husband with the following words: “A long time ago I warned you never to open up this basket because it was very special to me. I told you also that I would have to leave if you did open it. Well, you violated your oath and this evening I am going to be leaving you. I want you to understand the reason for this. I am not leaving you because you opened up this basket without my permission. That would have been all right after all these years. I am leaving you because when you opened the basket you found nothing in it. That is why I can no longer be with you.”

And so it was that as night came the Star Maiden, with great sadness, climbed the ladder back to her home in the sky, not because he had broken his vow, but because he had looked into her most precious possession and could see nothing there.

The Power of Storytelling

Story is very important. A story can land you the job, make the promotion a reality, get you the girl (or the boy:?), get let off a speeding fine, convince a client to sign on the dotted line, resolve a long-standing conflict and create the possibility for anything else you desire. Stories can start a war (or a divorce), lose a court case, break a friendship or get you on the front cover of Noseweek or Newsweek.

Stephen Karcher's translation of the i-ching talks of certain stories and words that send you 'across the ghost river' into the world of spirit. Ancient cultures have long recognised that stories are intimately related to how you feel. This is not only true of the stories that happen in you head, it is true of those stories you expose yourself to on a daily basis. What are those stories and who do you trust to tell them and why? From where do you know what you know? What are the stories you pay attention to? What is the media? The internet? NBC, Fox, the Deutsche Welle, Beeld, The Star, The Sinday Times? The local knock and drop? How do you believe exposing yourself to certain stories in the media cause an emotional response that you act/think out in your day-to-day existence?

The Tyranny of Rectangles

How did humans ever come to agree that one of the primary ways they would represent their experience of the world is through the rectangular shape?

The rectangle is rare in the natural world but it is the shape of the canvas almost invariably used by the artist to paint on. Rectangles are about limits and boundaries. Straight lines. Perfect 90 degree angles at the corners. It is this shape that a great proportion of humanity stares at much of the time. TV screens are rectangular - some studies suggest 6 hours of TV a day are not uncommon for many consumers. What about the shape of computer screens that mesmerise geeks, stockbrokers, shop assistants, hackers, bank tellers, teenagers and businessman alike? Most of our experience of the world comes through looking at through windscreens and windows. Into mirrors. At photos. In newspapers, magazines, traffic fines and comics. The words you read here are constrained within a rectangle. The rectangle of the screen, canvas or page are normally straight lines, creating authoritative boundaries, order imposed over entropy.

Media is mostly rectangular. Maps, engineering drawings, powerpoint presentations, architectural concepts, promisory notes, birth certificates, credit card statements (and the cards themselves), PDAs, porno books, academic journals, holy texts, electricity bills, passports, grimoires, summonses, banknotes, cheques and all other representations of our world are invariably rectangular.

I remember looking at an anarchist 'blow up the system' poster in grimy Lancashire some 30 years ago and even that was, predictably, a rectange. The Rosetta stone once had the familiar shape. We live our lives through four 90 degree angles. What is it about this shape that which replicates itself across all different media? Marshall McLuhan suggested that the media was the message. And what shape does the media come in? What messages are we sending ourselves? Which rectangles are you paying attention to?

Steve Banhegyi
steve@trans4mation.co.za
December, 2006

The meaning of Myth

A number of thinkers from widely differing fields have studied and commented on myths and legends. Here is a sampling of their observations:

• A myth is a sacred story from the past. It may explain the origin of the universe and of life, or it may express its culture's moral values. Myths concern the powers that control the human world and the relationship between those powers and human beings. Although myths are religious in their origin and function, they may also be the earliest form of history, science, or philosophy (Rosenberg)
• Myths are public dreams that, like private dreams, emerge from the unconscious mind (Sigmund Freud)
• Myths often reveal the archetypes of the collective unconscious (Carl Jung)
• Myths orient people to the metaphysical dimension, explain the origins and nature of the cosmos, validate social issues, and, on the psychological plane, address themselves to the innermost depths of the psyche (Joseph Campbell)
• Some myths are explanatory, being pre-scientific attempts to interpret the natural world (Frazer)
• Myths are usually functional and are the science of ‘primitive’ peoples (Malinowski)
• Myths are both individual and social in scope, but they are first and foremost stories (Kirk)

The nature of story

We can only appreciate story through engaging it wholeheartedly, telling it and then reflecting upon it. Does story describe? Does it possibly create as well? Is story simply the only way we have of organising memory? What is the link between language and time? What is your story? Who are you? To what extent is a sense of identity created by the way you talk about yourself? Are you, in fact, a creation of your story or can the story, and thus the ‘you’, be changed? Are you free to change? Then how do you? And what does thinking have to do with language and story? What makes a story powerful? What stories are you paying attention to? Why do we feel so enriched at the end of a story well told?

Ken Wilbur has a beautiful definition of spirituality as 'your relationship to the realtionship between things'. If you like the definition, think about now your relationship to the world around you is actually the story you tell about the world

Thursday Night Storytelling - The Tale of Mushkil Gusha

This is one of my favourite stories - it is designed to be told on a Thursday evening so as to remind us all to be grateful - for by being grateful, you have more resons to be more grateful.

Once upon a time not so long ago, there lived a woodcutter whose name was Ahmed. The old man was a widower and he lived with his daughter, Samira, in a small hut in the forest.

He used to go every day to chop branches from the trees, cut the branches up, gather the sticks together and take them back home. Then, in the afternoon, he'd have a bite to eat and take the sticks to the nearby market town, where he'd sell them for firewood and buy some food for himself and for his daughter.

One evening, they'd just settled down to eat their meal when Samira said: 'Father, I sometimes wish that we could have different kinds of food to eat .'

The old man thought about this and so the following morning he got up much earlier than he usually would and he went deeper into the mountains where there were more trees. Ahmed worked long and hard sawing wood and bundling it up, and he collected far more than usual. And when he'd done, the old man carried the heavy bundle back home on his shoulders and left it round the back of the hut, ready to take to market.

When he tried the door of their little hut, he found it locked and he knocked and knocked, calling 'Samira, Samira, please let me in, for I am tired and hungry and I must have something to eat and have a nap before taking the wood to market.' But while he'd been away, having forgotten all about their conversation the night before, Samira had got up, made herself some breakfast, tidied the hut and gone out for a walk by the stream.

So the old man thought about this and decided that he might as well go back into the mountains and collect some more wood, so that the next day they'd have a double load of wood to take to market. And he worked for longer than he usually would, sawing wood and bundling it up.

When he'd done, the old woodcutter carried the heavy bundle back home on his shoulders and left it round the back of the hut, ready to take the double bundle of wood to market first thing the next day.

When he returned, however, he was already much later than he would usually be, and Ahmed again found the door locked, and he knocked and knocked, calling 'Samira, Samira, please let me in, for I am tired and hungry and I must have something to eat and sleep if I am to be up early tomorrow morning for market.'

But while he'd been away, his daughter had returned, made herself something to eat and gone to bed, thinking that her father must have gone to market and arranged to stay the night there. So, tired and hungry, the old woodcutter went to sleep by the piles of wood round he back of the hut. But he was so tired and hungry that he could not stay asleep.

Then Ahmed thought he heard a voice saying: 'Old man, what are you doing there?'

'I am telling myself my own story,' he replied and went on to tell everything that had happened to him since his daughter had first mentioned wanting different kinds of food to eat.

Then the voice told him to leave his wood. If you want little enough and need enough,' the voice said, 'you shall have delicious food.'

So the old man got up and followed the voice, but eventually as the light faded, he became hopelessly lost. And again, even more tired and hungry by now, he sat down and fell asleep. But he was so tired and hungry that he could not stay asleep.

Then he thought he heard a voice, just like the first, telling him to follow him. The voice told him to stand up, close his eyes and to raise his right leg, as if mounting a stair.

'But I do not see a stair,' he said.

'Nevertheless,' the voice insisted: 'If you wish me to help you, do as I say. Stand up, close your eyes and raise your right leg, as if mounting a stair.'

The old man did as he was told and as soon as he thought of it, he found himself standing up. He lifted his right leg and, sure enough, when he put his foot down, he could feel a step beneath him.

'Keep your eyes closed until I tell you to open them,' the voice commanded.

And now the old woodcutter could feel that the staircase was moving quickly and he could feel himself being lifted up with it.

Finally he reached the top of the staircase and the voice told him that it was alright to open his eyes now.

So the old man opened his eyes and when he did so, he was astonished to find himself in a place that looked like a desert, except that instead of sand, the place seemed to be made out of gleaming stones in all colours: red, green and blue.

'Now, gather up as many of these stones as you can,' the voice told him, and he filled his pockets and his shirt with them until he could carry no more.

'Now, close your eyes once more,' the voice said. 'And don't open them until you are at the bottom of the staircase.'

He did so, and again he felt something like a staircase, moving beneath him. And when he opened his eyes, he saw that he was back home, standing outside his own little hut. He knocked at the door and Samira came out to greet him, and he told her what had happened to him while he'd been away. But his story seemed so far-fetched to her and she could make little sense of it.

They did not know what to do with the stones - they looked like ordinary stones to them - so they placed them in a corner of the room and left them there.

'Nevertheless, you may not know it,' he said, as they ate their meal and shared some dates that evening: 'but we have been helped by Mushkil Gusha. Mushkil Gusha is the remover of all difficulties, and we must always be grateful. Every Thursday evening we must give thanks or give a gift to the needy, in the name of Mushkil Gusha.'

Each day for a week, he collected wood and sold it easily for a good price, so he bought different kinds of food for himself and his daughter to eat. Then one evening, there was a knock at the door and when he opened it, he found it was his neighbours. 'Our fire has gone out. Please give us some of those wonderful lights which you have in your window.'

'What lights?' the old woodcutter asked.

'Come outside,' said one of his neighbours, 'and see for yourself.'

And, sure enough, when he went outside and looked, Ahmed saw all-manner of wonderful lights streaming out of the window.

He went inside and checked, but found that the light coming from the stones was cold and he could not have kindled a fire from it, so he went outside and said: 'Neighbours, I am sorry, but I have no light to give you.'

He shut the door in the neighbours' faces, and they went away muttering. But they leave our story here.

Then the old man and his daughter Samira covered the stones up with all the scraps of cloth they could find, for fear that someone would come and steal them.

Next morning, when they uncovered the stones they found a heap of sparkling precious gems. And each day they took them to different towns and sold them, and with the money they received they built a fine mansion right opposite the king's palace.

One morning, the king's daughter got up and saw the mansion. 'Who has built it?' she demanded to know. 'How dare they build such a thing so close to the palace?' And she sent her servants to ascertain the woodcutter's story as best they were able.

So the princess set out to confront the woodcutter and his daughter, but when the princess and Samira met they soon became fast friends and they used to go and play in the stream which the princess's father had built for her.

Then one day, as the princess was going to swim in the stream, she took off a valuable necklace her father had given her and hung it on the branch of a tree overlooking the stream. And when she came out, she forgot it.

When she got back home, the princess noticed that the necklace was missing and she thought a little and decided that the woodcutter's daughter must have taken it, so she ran to her father the king and told him. He had the woodcutter arrested and thrown into jail, had his land confiscated, and had the daughter sent to an orphanage.

After a time, according to the customs of the country, the old woodcutter was taken from the cells and put in the stocks in the town square with a sign around his neck which read: 'This is what happens to people who steal from kings.' And for a time the townspeople would jeer at him and throw rotten vegetables in his face. But after a time they forgot about him, as is the way of men. Sometimes a passer-by would toss him a little food; sometimes they would not and he would go hungry.

Then one Thursday evening, the old man suddenly realized that it was the eve of Mushkil Gusha, the remover of all difficulties, and that he'd forgotten to commemorate the occasion for so long.

No sooner had the thought entered his mind than a passing merchant tossed him a tiny copper coin.

'Kind sir,' said the woodcutter. 'This coin is of no use to me. But if your generosity would stretch to buying a handful of dates with the money and you would come and share them with me, I would be eternally grateful.'

And so the merchant bought some dates and shared them with the old man and Ahmed told him his whole story right from the time his daughter first asked for different kinds of food to eat, and how he'd been helped by Mushkil Gusha, the remover of all difficulties.

'You must be mad,' the merchant said, but he himself was beset by difficulties and when he returned home he found they had been remarkably removed, which made him think a great deal about Mushkil Gusha. But he leaves our story here.

The very next day, the princess went back to her favourite bathing place and as she bent down to dive in, she thought she saw something glistening in the bottom of the pool. At that moment, she happened to sneeze and as her head went back she noticed her necklace hanging in a branch where she'd left it so long ago, and that what she'd thought was a necklace in the stream was merely a reflection.

So she took the necklace and ran back to the palace to tell her father, the king, and he had the woodcutter released and his daughter brought back from the orphanage.

And they all lived happily ever after.

These are some of the events in the story of Mushkil Gusha, which is never ended. It has many forms and many names, but it is because of Mushkil Gusha that this tale is remembered day and night, wherever there are people who gather. Will you share some dates on a Thursday evening and tell the story, or give a gift to the needy in the name of Mushkil Gusha, the remover of all difficulties?

Where the www.storytelling.co.za logo comes from - Kokopelli and a Picassoesque Sun

In the creation of www.storytelling.co.za, and after much searching, we settled on a modified version of Kokopelli, a fertility deity and trickster god who is usually depicted as a humpbacked flute player (often with feathers or antenna-like protrusions on his head), who has been venerated by some Native American cultures in the Southwestern US. In these traditions, we read of travelers who would arrive from afar and approach the village playing a flute and carrying a bag of interesting things like seeds on their backs from afar. Of course, they would also bring stories with them.

So what interested us about Kokopelli is that he seems to be one of the original 'wandering bards' - making his living through travelling, telling stories, bringing new seed and helping connecting communities - a shamanic calling. Kokopelli also seems to be one of mankind's oldest brands and his image is to be seen in many parts of North America, the earliest dating back to between 750 and 850 AD.

In another tradition, Kokopelli's fluteplaying chases away the Winter and brings about Spring. Many tribes, such as the Zuni, also associate Kokopelli as the bringer of rain.

There are also interesting stories about the flute played by Kokopelli and the enculturation of young men in a tribe. In order to woo a maiden, the young man would need to make and then learn to play a 'courtship flute'. When he had mastered the flute, he would then play outside the village and when his intended heard the sounds (and her 'elk medicine' and his 'elk medicine' were sufficiently strong), she would come to him.

So Kokopelli is many things, an entertainer, bringer of rain, dispeller of winter, bringer of seed from exotic places and, of course, shaman and teller of stories.

And shining down from Kokopelli's image is a yellow sun that looks very much like Picasso's sun in 'don quixote'

Your Personal Mythology

The following exercise provides a useful insight into our own mythologies, what we are and how we represent ourselves to ourselves and the world around us. You may also wish to do the following exercise:

• Take a clean piece of paper and draw a horizontal line on the page. The start of the line is your birth, the end of the line is your death
• (b)|---------X------------------------|(d)
• Mark with an ‘X’ on the line where you are now
• Write down 10 (or more if you like) experiences have characterised your life up until the ‘X’
• Write down 10 (or more if you like) incidents that you wish to characterise your life between ‘X’ and the end
• Can you change the way you speak and think of these experiences? Notice what happens and how you feel about yourself when you start to change the experiences that have and will characterise your life.
• The last point is probably the most interesting one. Many people will start to argue that they cannot determine the things that will happen to them. If you are one of these people, ask yourself what circumstances in your life have led you to think this way?