Posts by Park Howell

8 reasons why your brain craves visual storytelling

Most powerpoint visuals are benign charts, graphs and bulleted lists of nonsense that wallpaper over the true story behind the presentation. I just received this terrific infographic on the power…

Park Howell

Why the resurrection of storytelling in business?

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/106234050″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] “Is storytelling enjoying a resurrection in business?” I asked screenwriting coach, Robert McKee, who is working with business executives to help them…

Park Howell

Branding: the stories consumers tell themselves about your product

Sir Richard Branson of Virgin sports his branded hair cut. Nike tells its story through its shoes. And Red Bull is making a virtue out of addiction. Hear what else…

Park Howell

The water cooler remains the best campfire for business storytelling

Email is the most one dimensional form of business communication. There is zero emotion conveyed, so our overactive imaginations frequently strain to make up behavioral context for the content. There…

Park Howell

The rational business leader embraces the irrationality of their employees

My dad was famous for saying, “Do as I say, not as I do.” I’m sure you probably heard that growing up, too. I call it the directive contradiction. On…

Park Howell

When you’re not the smartest guy in the room, tap into mojosynthesis

My mom and dad, Pat and Keith, are 88 and 87 years old respectively. We spent Mother’s Day 2013 in Seattle filming their life stories. The timing was perfect for…

Park Howell

Great business leaders think like authors

My Business of Story podcast series with Robert McKee happens to coincide with a new article in Speaker, the National Speakers Association’s magazine, where McKee talks about bringing the power…

Park Howell

As we drown in big data, storytelling becomes our lifeguard

Can you imagine Thog, and his associate Krag, on the Savannah a few million years ago assessing the cheetah in the bush? Their survival minds (which were identical to ours)…

Park Howell

Top business leaders turning data into drama to motivate teams with storytelling

On this episode of The Business of Storytelling with legendary screenwriting coach Robert McKee, we’ll explore why storytelling typically freaks out stiff executives who’d rather present data than reveal the…

Park Howell

Does business survival require better storytelling? Nearly 500 corporate communicators think so.

The folks who produce the Incite: Marketing and Incite: Communications Summits in New York asked their attendees what are the most pressing concerns they’d like to have covered in the…

Park Howell