By J. Dean Spence
One of my obsessions at graduate school was learning about organizational storytelling. The literature on this subject, and on storytelling in general, is both prescriptive and descriptive. The focus is on what stories are and what they can do. The focus is on what storytelling is and how it can be used.
WHAT IS A STORTELLER?
In all of my research, however, I did not come across one concrete definition of what a storyteller is. The fundamental assumption of Walter Fisher and narrative paradigm theory is that humans, homo narrans, are essentially storytellers. But what does this mean?
Is it possible for narrative paradigm theory and organizational storytelling literature to inform each other and allow us to arrive at a usable definition of the “storyteller”?
The story of Frankenstein is about a doctor who overreaches. He is driven to madness by his obsession to know God’s secrets. This leads him to act outside of the bounds of nature to create a man—a man whose physical deformity mirrors the temporary state of Frankenstein’s restless soul.
Perhaps I am overreaching too by attempting to define the storyteller in so short a blog. Frankenstein robbed graves to piece together different body parts, and animated the final product with harnessed lightning. Similarly, I will attempt to create the storyteller by robbing existing storytelling literature (as well as the little I know about what an artist is) to string together predicates (often from disparate semantic domains) and blasting them with the fire of wit and creativity…
THE STORYTELLER SPEAKS
So, now, arise storyteller! I have created you! Arise from around the campfire—you bard, you shaman! Drop your pen, your typewriter, and your computer! Arise, and let not another story pass your lips before you tell me what you are!
“I am he who makes sense of the world through narrative logic. The stories I tell must display narrative coherence and narrative fidelity—that is, my stories must hang together and its characters must be reliable and consistent. Also, my stories must ring true to my audiences in some way, by either matching or challenging their beliefs and/or experiences. This distinguishes me from the animals! I am also a surrogate. I give a voice to the voiceless, whether it be a rock or the moon, a dog or a gadget, the oppressed or the sick.
“Specifically, I conceive of and invent new things, and report on the old. I am a rhetorician—I like to persuade. I am an explorer, like Orpheus travelling to the underworld, but returning with the spoils of enlightenment. Heaven bless me, for I am also opportunistic—I venture out, often with an unsure destination, but refine my story based upon cues from my environment.
“Rodin’s Thinker is a storyteller because like me he’s reflective: I express ideas in stories, ideas I revise, develop and edit to my satisfaction—but admittedly never to perfection. Proteus is my son—interpretation of my stories constantly changes like the sea.
“I am inspiration. I am spurred to narrate by the light that emerges from chance or unconsciousness, or else my stories are fashioned consciously by the stuff of my life. Above all I am he of undimmed thinking because my craft clarifies my thoughts. Indeed, a man or woman without stories is like the sun obscured by thick clouds.”
THE END IS THE BEGINNING
Thank you, storyteller. But as a professional communicator, I am especially interested in business storytellers. All that you have said applies here, but the business storyteller is even more. Business storytellers are creators of value-added content for their audiences. S/he tells stories that are aligned with the communication function to which they belong. For example, a PR professional’s story will differ—markedly or slightly—from communicators who work in government relations, corporate communications, investor relations marketing etc.
Perhaps I should have called this blog “Towards Defining the Storyteller” because it is quite the task. Returning to the question I asked near the beginning of this blog, yes it is possible to arrive at a usable definition of the storyteller in business. But it is beyond my power to do so. It would take encyclopedic knowledge of all the communication functions to arrive at something comprehensive. And that, Dr. Frankenstein, is out of my reach.