THE STORYTELLERS

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A keynote presentation by Jack Bogut

Synopsis

Storytelling is our most effective means of communication

If we think back to the most influential people in our lives, chances are they were storytellers. Aunts, uncles, grandparents, teachers, clergy, anyone who told us something we will never forget or gave us a lesson that we have used successfully over the years, was probably a storyteller. In other words, they passed along information in a form meaningful and understandable to us, personally. They told us a story.

In these days of being “politically correct,” we may be losing our ability to tell stories to each other for fear of offending someone. In the process, we lose the opportunity to share who we are, where we’ve been, what we’ve done and what we’ve learned.

Storytelling is, simply, the most meaningful and effective way of communicating with each other. And the good news is that we can all be good and effective storytellers if we just remember and practice a few basic rules:

1. Good stories must have a beginning, middle, and an ending.

2. We have to know our audience (or person) and what will appeal to them on both an emotional and intellectual level.

3. The really good stories will contain at least a grain of truth.

This forty-five minute keynote presentation is full of humorous anecdotes and tales about “Storytellers” who have influenced my life and saved me more than a little grief. People like:

• The wino who became our class advisor

• The school principal who turned out to be a pool shark

• The uncle who told the first story (joke) I ever heard and wound up in the dog house for a week

• The man who “looped” his way to Dubuque, Iowa

• Picking a fight with the school bully

• Stumping the piano player

Since communicating is such a large part of life, and storytelling is so much fun, it seems silly not to combine the two. And therein lies the tale!