Learn from the best. Here’s the first of a four-part series on storytelling from Ira Glass of This American Life. Here he begins with the two fundamental building blocks of good story.
A skill worth developing as far as you are capable, although few of us will reach his level of mastery.
I’m turning into a bit of a Hans Rosling groupie, having blogged about several of his previous performances at TED conferences (Hans Rosling talk on world economic development myths and realities and More insights from Hans Rosling at TED 2007). Most recently, he presented at TED India. He’s a wonderful story teller and watching his material is its own class in better story telling. Watching his videos is one of those great twofers you get from the best teachers – insights into both his material and his technique. Here he takes a look at what the deep data trends have to tell us about Asia’s economic future.
Hans Rosling: Asia’s Rise – How and When – TED India
A version of the tool that Rosling uses for his data analysis and display is available at Gapminder World.
Luis Suarez pointed me to this excellent clip by NPR’s Scott Simon on how to tell a story:
I’m with Luis that storytelling skill is an essential in today’s knowledge intensive organization.