tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81166572191022613332011-07-28T20:19:38.499-07:00Observations and anecdotes about business narrative in the corporate world.Ruth Halpern, Business Narrative Consultanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02870343351186908778noreply@blogger.comBlogger141100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8116657219102261333.post-90686099683549548652010-04-02T10:16:00.000-07:002010-04-02T10:16:49.804-07:00

As a Business Narrative consultant, my job is helping people craft and tell the business stories that will help them win audiences. For both themselves and their organizations, they need stories that show: • Who they are--what makes them unique and trustworthy? • How they got to where they are today--how did their journey shape their destiny? • Where they’re headed--what's their vision of

Ruth Halpern, Business Narrative Consultanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02870343351186908778noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8116657219102261333.post-79231694292084735972010-03-12T10:00:00.000-08:002010-03-12T12:19:57.804-08:00

Want to motivate donors to give to your cause? Studies have shown that telling a story is the single most effective way to motivate donations—more than statistics, and even more than statistics and stories combined. So: if you want to expand awareness of your organization, start collecting stories from everyone who comes in contact with you. Not only the beneficiaries of your work, but the

Ruth Halpern, Business Narrative Consultanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02870343351186908778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8116657219102261333.post-22946437432593000602010-02-01T22:24:00.000-08:002010-02-01T22:26:10.837-08:00

Last Thursday, I was invited to the Oakland Rotary Club to give a speech on “Galvanizing Your Colleagues with the Power of Storytelling.” To my delight, in a completely unplanned moment of synergy, the meeting opened with an electrifying illustration of my message: that a memorable story can transmit and reinforce the culture and values of an entire organization. The motto of the Rotary Club is

Ruth Halpern, Business Narrative Consultanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02870343351186908778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8116657219102261333.post-10380782662492809202009-12-03T17:13:00.000-08:002009-12-03T17:18:52.380-08:00

They say that if you can read, you can cook: Just follow the recipe, and you’re guaranteed success. But just look at the sad form of this flattened-out chicken (the first time I’ve ever roasted a whole chicken). The recipe said “place in the pan,” so I did—wrong-side up, my chef-husband later told me, and all splayed out, he explained, because I didn’t truss it. “But I followed the directions,” I

Ruth Halpern, Business Narrative Consultanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02870343351186908778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8116657219102261333.post-32689463877895272712009-11-28T22:47:00.001-08:002009-11-28T23:22:39.312-08:00

One of my goals in delivering diversity training is to help participants develop understanding for the world-views of people from different backgrounds than their own. This is hard work: you have to want to do it, because it takes energy, empathy, openness, and patience. This year, one way to expand your awareness of diversity is to go to the movies. Rarely have movie-goers had a chance to feel

Ruth Halpern, Business Narrative Consultanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02870343351186908778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8116657219102261333.post-27024423101999633162009-11-24T13:04:00.000-08:002009-11-24T13:43:44.798-08:00

This week, NPR aired the story of Brian Korbon, a 9 year old boy who, it appears, knew he was going to die shortly before he did. The story was recorded at a Storycorps booth, which is part of a national project to record people's stories about friends and family, nationwide. In addition to being a powerful, loving tale of a vibrant boy and his parents' loss, I find myself pondering this

Ruth Halpern, Business Narrative Consultanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02870343351186908778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8116657219102261333.post-90929895294764159672009-09-02T10:41:00.001-07:002009-09-06T20:34:06.991-07:00

Last night I had the honor of speaking at the Commonwealth Club of California, a historic institution dedicated to sharing knowledge and information on many subjects. It was a great honor to be there, and I had worked hard to prepare. My session was on "Galvanize Your Colleagues with the Power of Storytelling," and it was very well-attended. Business people know that they need excellent

Ruth Halpern, Business Narrative Consultanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02870343351186908778noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8116657219102261333.post-45071453628800556012009-06-12T09:28:00.001-07:002009-06-12T09:36:22.902-07:00

I had the privilege recently of leading an ice-breaker session for a board retreat of high-level legal managers. We spent half an hour playing together as a warm-up for their annual retreat. When I say "playing," I mean it in the best sense of the word: Experimenting, taking risks, making mistakes, and laughing our heads off.We make such a grave mistake, suffer such an immeasurable loss, when we

Ruth Halpern, Business Narrative Consultanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02870343351186908778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8116657219102261333.post-90782456634514826252009-06-03T21:34:00.000-07:002009-06-04T10:28:19.356-07:00

After years of studying the skills of professionalism and self-mastery, I firmly believe that the hardest skill for us humans to develop is tolerance. What better, or more bitter, example, than the recent assassination of physician George Tiller, a brave and compassionate man who was killed for practicing his beliefs? Two people differed on a profound moral issue; for one, this difference was so

Ruth Halpern, Business Narrative Consultanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02870343351186908778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8116657219102261333.post-21030616366984854292009-05-15T09:21:00.000-07:002009-05-15T09:33:12.305-07:00

Wondering how to get started as a mentor? Delegate a project to someone today!I was training a group of attorneys recently who said that they simply don’t have time to mentor young associates—it takes more time to delegate a task than to do it themselves. This is a tough complaint to argue with, because in the short term it’s true: it often seems easier to do a task than to break it down, teach

Ruth Halpern, Business Narrative Consultanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02870343351186908778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8116657219102261333.post-63000398496590258212009-03-06T10:49:00.000-08:002009-03-06T11:13:21.287-08:00

Last Sunday, after what felt like 40 days of rain, I took my 3.5 year old daughter out for a rain walk. We put on our raincoats, our rain boots, and our rain hats, and set out on the Seaview Trail in Redwood Park.The bay tree and redwood forest was so dense and green it almost hurt your eyes. The ferns and moss were damp and dripping, though no rain was actually falling. And I thought, "Great,

Ruth Halpern, Business Narrative Consultanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02870343351186908778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8116657219102261333.post-59969689408958551612008-11-12T10:36:00.000-08:002008-12-02T15:44:18.973-08:00

What should we do when the news turns scary and all economic signs seem to point downward?I was talking recently with Dick Frankel, my friend, attorney, and entrepreneurial mentor, who commented that, in his experience, when the economic news is bad, companies cut the two things they can least afford to lose: training and marketing.When times are hard, what we should be doing is maintenance:

Ruth Halpern, Business Narrative Consultanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02870343351186908778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8116657219102261333.post-87213013206122186092008-09-14T21:52:00.000-07:002008-09-14T22:06:23.271-07:00

As an early-adopter techno-geek, I was thrilled to receive an Amazon Kindle for my birthday. For those of you who haven't yet fondled a Kindle, it's a portable book-reading device, about the size of a trade paperback, that lets you download and store about 20 books at a time. You can also annotate and search all of your books and comments, which provides access to the text in ways that printed

Ruth Halpern, Business Narrative Consultanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02870343351186908778noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8116657219102261333.post-64761640505316671512008-07-16T16:21:00.000-07:002008-07-16T16:36:57.947-07:00

When I first developed my "Dress to Impress--What [Not] to Wear" workshop, I was secretly a little embarrassed. Wasn't this subject kind of trivial? How much does appearance really matter in the business world? Shouldn't professionals be more concerned with what they say and how they act than how they look?But the sad fact is, as Malcolm Gladwell demonstrated so persuasively in Blink, we all have

Ruth Halpern, Business Narrative Consultanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02870343351186908778noreply@blogger.com0