Telling an Organization's Story
Telling the story of an organization can be similar to telling a personal story. As Donald Davis says, one key to developing any story is identifying a central crisis.(1) Or, as I like to say, look for the trouble and you're halfway to the story. To tell a great story, you have to know how it ends. Look for the trouble that you've escaped to start thinking about your story. Understanding how you got out of it will help you craft the middle of the story and the major plot points. And your final out-of-trouble triumph can be your inspiring ending. Stories don't have to be inspiring, but most of the time when people are hoping to tell the story of an organization to a new audience, they are aiming to inspire. I'm working on crafting a workshop for a group of non-profits supported by a central organization based in Springfield. They need to know how to tell the stories of their organizations. My own thoughts are that you need clarity about several key elements a