Disney Institute: Inspiring Creativity with StoryTelling
Thursday, January 26, 2012 at 12:26PM Last week I (Heather) flew from New York down to Orlando to, you guessed it, DISNEY WORLD!
I had the opportunity to graphic record for Austin Brock from the Disney Institute. Austin has an amazingly rich visual language and practices what she preaches when speaking on the art of storytelling to Build a Business. I was excited to scribe for Austin, it seemed like a perfect match between her visual language and our visual storytelling!
In the presentation, Austin spoke to the importance of "storytelling your culture," stating that the key is to connect experiences with your customers through sharing stories. She encouraged the sales folks in the audience to take a shot at "storytelling your business practices" by letting people know your history, your identity, and your vision.
Not only did the Disney Institute share the secrets of their well practiced story telling elements, but they also offered good storytelling techniques, and my personal favorite, "The DOs and DON'Ts of Storytelling."
As a graphic recorder, some of our favorite speakers follow these rules. They increase the value of the presentation by insuring clear understanding, greater memory retention, and just plain ol' enjoyment from your audience!
I'd like to share some of the Disney Institute's Tips:
DO use plain-speak
DO choose length wisely (and inform your graphic recorder *wink*)
DO be careful about claiming someone else's story as your own
DO use inclusive language (be careful of acronyms)
DO practice (If you say you will make 3 points, you want to remember to state all 3)
DON'T begin with "I want to tell you a story"
DON'T characterize the story as "This is a really funny story." They can decide
DON'T muddle the point by fussing with statistics. It just matters that action happened
ADDED BLOG BONUS:
When I am not graphic recording client's stories, I like to make sketchnotes at different storytelling events around New York City. These are some organizations that we love!
You can even take storytelling classes with Kevin Allison at The Story Studio
Happy Story Telling!
Reader Comments (3)
Thank you for the nice note, I appreciate the compliment. I loved the content that Austin was presenting, I am happy it came through in the graphic recording!
Best,
Heather