The Writing Edge for Business Writers: 2/23/18

Feb 23, 2018 | Reading Lists

You’re a businessperson. You may not think of yourself as a writer, but you know that writing well can boost your results and your career. Naturally, you want to do better. Every week I point you to articles and blog posts that I think will teach you something or spark an idea or two. The posts are about the intertwined tasks of reading and writing. Some weeks there are more pointers than others.

This week I’m pointing you to three posts on storytelling.

From Nick Morgan: Real Storytelling – A Few Secrets

“Most speakers pay lip service to storytelling, but what they really do is relay pieces of stories, anecdotes, or name-dropping factoids-on-steroids. My wife and I celebrated New Year’s one year at the Charles Hotel, and as we were checking out, guess who got into the elevator with us? Matt Damon and his family. True story. Only it’s not a story. It’s a factoid given artificial significance by the celebrity involved.”

Thanks to Smartbrief on Leadership for pointing me to this story

From Paul Smith: How to Tell a Story with Data

“Have you ever been hammered with data that you knew was important but you didn’t understand why the person sharing it was so passionate about it? Have you ever shared data and facts with colleagues in an attempt to influence them only to find they didn’t care about the message you were trying to convey? There’s a better way to communicate than just throwing data at people.”

From Margaret Morford: Organizational Storytelling: The Swiss Army Knife in Your Leadership Toolkit

“Like a Swiss Army knife, organizational storytelling has numerous, powerful uses. CEOs attend multiple-day seminars to learn how to do this well because storytelling is an effective way to communicate a strategic vision, to discuss (and change) culture or to illustrate the ethics that exist (or need to exist) within your organization.”

Sources I Check Regularly

I find the posts and articles that I share with you on The Writing Edge in many places. But there are a few that provide insightful pieces again and again. Here they are.

Alliance of Independent Authors

Frances Caballo

Jane Friedman

IngramSpark

Jerry Jenkins

Joel Friedlander

Joanna Penn

Kindlepreneur

Problogger

Daphne Gray-Grant

Becky Robinson’s Weaving Influence