21st Century Organization

Michael Eisner on Story Driven Content: CNBC Video

About.com podcasting guide John Haven's interview with Dan Rayburn, at the April NYC PODCAMP revealed Streaming Media magazine is nearly a decade old.  With that industry context it was interesting to hear Michael Eisner in a CNBC interview forecast that with increasing Internet speed within 1-5 years mainstream, professionally produced content will be streamed.  With the amount of news video especially already available online is streaming video not already arrived?

Eisner also makes attention getting comments, especially for traditional media companies, about the:

".. sea change in story driven content not controlled by gatekeepers beginning with movie theaters, exhibition and broadcast and cable, and government, licenced venues, as big a sea change as invention of motion picture camera."

and suggests that the changes are:

"... more important than people understand .."

Recommended listening.

Hearing Eisner talk about "story" I thought about Steve Denning and his pioneering efforts to promote "storytelling" for knowledge sharing in organizations and the more recent efforts of Shawn Callahan at Anecdote.  As the experience with participatory media, starting with instant messaging and more recently blogging, is that consumer use drives enterprise adoption, I wonder if Eisner's focus on "story" indicates growing use of '"storytelling" in organizations too.  Anyone care to predict?

~ Jenny Ambrozek

WSJ Stories from Main Street: Anecdote for the Business StoryTellers

Since the incomparable "Multiples of One" Conference at the MIT Media Lab in 2003 --site no longer available but here is Bill Ives mention-- and hearing Kevin Brooks PhD describe his job as Motorola's "storyteller" I've been following storytelling as an organizational management tool. Co-presenter, Dr. Suzanne Roff has introduced me to how the Cynefin Center (now Cognitve Edge) method uses storytelling and I follow the growing interest in using narrative in organizations through the work of Steve Denning and Anecdote. 

Hence I took note this morning when CNBC promoted today's Wall Street Journal article reporting stories from main street, titled Andecdotes on Mortgage Mess, Stock Slumps in the paper.

The WSJ interviewed four people to indicate the state of the economy: a Connecticut home builder, Floridian stockbroker, Californian mortgage lender and a Michigan shopping center operator.

Apparently Wall Street Journal has been doing similar "Ahead of the Tape" stories as a prelude to official economic report data being released, so Squawkbox co-host Betty Quick asked (my interpretation of her words):

"So how do the experiences of the people you have interviewed align with the data?"

And yes it seems the stories generally represent the official indicators.

Having not used storytelling in organizations I don't know if my anecdote is helpful but perhaps one of the gurus will weigh in to advise.

Now Shawn Callahan if you were holding one of your U.S. workshops in New York I could attend and learn more about this emerging art.

~ Jenny Ambrozek