Trying to understand exactly what my 18 year old son is telling me is, in itself an art. In between slang, grunts, and the continual use of the phrases, 'you know' and 'whatever', there is a hint of a story. I just have to find it. On the other hand, when I try and relate a story to him using words and phrases 'most fair,' his eyes roll back, the shutters come down and the body snatchers ascend from the bowels of the earth and he is lost to me forever - or at least until the end of the story.
It does beg the question though - have we lost the art of storytelling?
Toastmasters in their Advanced Communication and Leadership Manual on Storytelling suggests that storytelling has been a form of communication throughout the history of mankind. Mary Catherine Bateson once said that 'storytelling is fundamental to the human search of meaning' and Stephen Denning in his book, 'The Leader's Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the art of and discipline on Business Narrative' (John Wiley & Sons; 2005) argues that the 'widely held belief that storytelling is a rare skill in which relatively few human beings excel is utter nonsense.'
Denning suggests that we master the basic skills of storytelling as young children and that we retain this capability throughout our lives. He points out that you only have to watch what goes on in an informal social setting (i.e., in a restaurant, a party etc.) to see that all human beings know how to tell stories and that learning to tell stories is not so much a task of learning something as it is 'reminding ourselves of something we already know how to do.'
I have to admit though that Denning does have a point. I have watched my son relate stories to his friends and they seem to have very little problem in finding the thread of a story. I have also watched the response from his friends when a story is well told. So, perhaps it is not so much a question of whether we are losing the art of storytelling but rather as Denning suggests, a question of whether 'we are telling the right story' and thereafter 'are we telling the story right?'
So it's back to the storyboards for me or risk seeing my son's eyes roll back and the shutters come down and ....
ian
Comments