At The Storytellers one of our guiding principles is that stories shape our beliefs and our beliefs shape our behaviours. I was therefore fascinated to hear Kate Fox, a social anthropologist, on Radio Four last night talking about her work on the cultural aspects of alcohol consumption in the UK.

When Steve Wynn refers to 'some people from England' in this video clip, it's The Storytellers he's referring to! We designed a storytelling programme for The Wynn in Las Vegas - surely one of the most celebrated hotel resorts on the Strip - back in 2007. It's been a huge success and an approach which lives on to celebrate the acts of exemplary customer service by its 9,000 employees.

There was a fascinating story in last Friday’s Evening Standard about the financial broking firm: Cantor Fitzgerald. 

On September 11^th 2001, 658 of their employees died in the North Tower of the World Trade Centre - two thirds of Cantor Fitzgerald’s global workforce.  Employees in their London office listened to their friends in the tower, on their inter-broker intercom, speak their last words, and then had to watch in horror as the tower and their New York business collapsed to the ground.

We’re always on the look out for innovative ways in which organisations are using stories and storytelling. It’s a bit like spotting cars. Somehow its only when you buy a new model do you realise how many others there are on the road!

Inspiring leaders know how to tell a good story.  So we're delighted to announce the launch of a brilliant new storytelling workshop for business leaders and communicators.

I recently read about a large technology company commissioning science fiction (sci-fi) writers to pen short stories about their future technology and product uses. They believe this can help anticipate consumer aspirations and drive future adoptions of its products. Sci-fi is not a world I am particularly familiar with but I find it fascinating to read that a concept remarkably similar to the iPad was described over 40 years ago in 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke and video chat facilities similar to Skype were set out in the 1911 novel Ralph 124C 41+ by Hugo Gernsback. There are many people who believe sci-fi has a remarkable knack for predicting the future reality.

I’m sure there’s not a CEO around who hasn't been following the Rebekah Brooks story and thinking: ‘could that have been me?’ Not the phone hacking of course, but the wider issue of building rogue cultures. Ms Books left the office with Ben Parker's quote ringing in her ears...

I’ve just finished reading an interesting article about Dutch social psychologist, Geert Hofstede’s research into cultural differences in the workplace.

For Hofstede, a country’s ‘way of doing things’ will have a powerful impact on company culture. Hofstede classifies these ‘ways of doing things’ as Cultural Dimensions, which include factors such as the distribution of power, an alignment with either masculine or feminine tendencies and a country’s tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity.

Music fans of a certain age and disposition will recall the 80’s fondly as the decade of the concept album; an hour or more of storytelling set to music. This echoed the habit of telling stories to music which began centuries before, when minstrels strode the land strumming lutes and passing history from landowner to serf and back again. Cacofonix the Bard, where are you now? I’ll tell you. He is alive and well and singing lead vocals for the Decemberists, whose Hazards of Love album recently took me by surprise not because it is excellent but because it is a concept album for the modern age.

I’ve heard many motivational speakers in my time, but one person stands head and shoulders above the rest: Scott Burrows, one-time kick boxing champion and former athlete.

I heard Scott speak at a conference in Atlanta earlier this month. Young, all American good-looking, vibrant, sparkling blue eyes and white teeth. Smiling from ear to ear from the minute he started. And in a wheelchair, diagnosed quadriplegic after a tragic car accident six years ago or so.