Blog Archive
Elsewhere
(This from our colleague Dan Honeywell, whose expertise in all things Mandarin earns him huge respect from the team):
Isn’t language fascinating? I have always been amazed at how squiggles, lines, dots and sounds can combine to form such beautifully intricate forms of communication.
Thanks to Helen Love at Intuitive Brands for this little gem. As I pursue my quest to de-jargonise business communications, please feel free to have a go…
I was touched by this poem ‘Lost Generation’ by Jonathan Reed. It speaks of the negative, cynical viewpoint of a Gen Y individual, yet on reaching the end – and you have to follow the instructions – a message of positivity and a statement of intent shines through.
Congratulations to my colleagues Glenn and Louise for coming up with a great idea at our summer social / team-building exercise this week.
I hear the BBC is bringing Jackanory back to our screens. When you consider how sophisticated childrens’ TV has become, the simplicity of a presenter reading direct to camera might seem at odds. Just shows how the charms of old-fashioned storytelling never go away….
The Xerox Chairman and CEO, Anne M Mulcahy, was interviewed in the March issue of Fast Company magazine under the heading What I Know Now. Among other things she talks about the importance of storytelling:
Storytelling is hugely important. At our town meetings, the most frequently asked question wasn’t whether we’d survive, but what we would look like when we did. I got great advice: Write a story. We wrote a Wall Street Journal article, because they had been particularly nasty about us, dated five years out…
Evelyn Clark discusses the power of storytelling in the April issue of Washington CEO magazine.
Stories have been the glue connecting people with their cultures and with one another throughout human history. Corporate cultures are no different from ethnic cultures in their need for, and dependence on, stories. Because stories reach people’s hearts as well as their minds, they stay with people longer.
An interesting article by John Simmons in the Observer this Sunday.
It seems obvious that words must be important to brands because words are needed to tell their stories. But it’s surprising how they have neglected the power of language, channelling most of their energy and creativity into the logos and visuals that for many people still represent the totality of ‘branding’.