What is Your Story and How is it Being Told?
One of the keys to sharing information is telling a story. A story about who you are; a story about a product or brand; a story about a country or a culture. I write in our own blog that in defining a brand—everyone has a story—people use those stories to identify not only with one another but also in reference to the products and services they choose to use. In our “About Us” section of this blog, I ask “is your story being told“?
This post today was triggered by a magnificent talk I listened to on one of my favourite websites, TED Talks. I think the speakers that participate—who happen to come from all walks of life, cultures, areas of expertise and experience—open up thoughts and ideas within ourselves. They energize me in ways that words cannot describe. I try to listen to a talk once a week—as a way to lead me to experience vastly different ideas from an enormous range of perspectives that I do not encounter on a day-to-day basis. Tonight, my week began with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, an author and writer from Nigeria. Her talk was about the power of a story and the danger of a single particular story. She discusses the impact that a single story can create for the reader or readers on mass.
It made me relate that back to the story I tell our clients, both current and future, and the question I ask them: What is your story and is it being told? In her talk, Chimamanda’s cites that if we hear just a single story, we run the risk of critical misunderstanding. As a result, the perspective of that story can narrow and bias the view of the recipient—preventing them from experiencing the rainbow of ideas, offerings and opportunities that that may make up a product, place or thing.
I thought this to be facinating and interesting, especially in light of the debut of Sarah Palin’s book via her Oprah interview, and the media frenzy post interview. Sarah Palin is now out to define who she is by the story that is in her book and the story shared during her Vice Presidential run last year. I took time out today to watch the interview. From my perspective, she spent much of her time defending her story with the reasoning that her handlers and managers of the campaign kept her from her true self.
I think the wonderful thing about this perspective, and the parallel of technology, is that now we have the ability to engage and connect in a global sense—so that we experience a wide range of thoughts and ideas that relate to one story. You get to share your perspective of that story with another directly, as they read it, and they get to discuss and define that story with you as it relates to them. The dangers of the past, as described by Chimamanda’s recounting of her experiences growing up in Nigeria—reading foreign stories about snow, apples and ginger beer, while she lived in endless sun shine, eating mangos—point out how she thought that all stories had to be about the places she read of in those books. But now: they’ve become something that can be instantly shared and translated in a way that allows everyone the opportunity to see the varied perspectives that make the story viable to them—allowing them to connect with others who may read the same story but have another perspective that they can bring to life, in real time, on the global platform called “the internet”.
A magnificent historical adventure from the earliest days of man to the rapid fire movement of the information highway in the 21st century. Have you created your story? How is it being told?
Best Nicole
