Storytelling became a popular trend. While Steve Jobs made it popular, it is quite an ancient art. My first comprehensive written document, submitted for promotion in the Israeli Air-Force, started with a story telling that when I started writing this, I had a terrible tooth pain. The examiners actually were quite surprised, especially when in first few pages they had to go through a series of caricatures (I never knew how to draw, but I enlisted people who knew to help). Their first reaction was -- this guy is not serious, this is supposed to be a serious professional project. However, when they kept reading, they understood why the story served as a good introduction to the project, and provided the ultimate motivation for what I am doing. Since that time I am practicing storytelling from time to time. I found it very powerful, especially as a way to start a presentation, or in long presentations as a way to regain attention. The art is to do the storytelling natural to the presentation, it has to be relevant and have a message or emphasize a point, and not a distraction on out-of-context issue. I notice that now there are even competitions on digital storytelling,
The IBM CEO, Ginny Rometty, is famous for practicing storytelling.
Now I am looking for some good story for my next week tutorial in ER 2013. I have to talk for three hours alone, so good stories are essential to get by...