Strategic Storytelling

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The Making of a Strategic Storyteller

First and foremost, I'm a writer. Essays, short stories, television, film and book reviews - you name it, I write it. All that led me to my current job, in which I use every skill I've ever acquired (plus a whole bunch of new ones) and all the obscure trivia that has been accumulating in my brain for 40 years. I describe it as a bit like researching and writing one Masters' thesis after another; each project requires me to become conversant (if not an expert) in the client's field.

This lens is about how I bring my right-brain creative, artistic side and try - some times more successfully than others - to merge it with the needs of clients and what I continue to learn about strategy.

I believe, as Annette Simmons says in The Story Factor, "A story is worth a thousand assurances." As we move into an increasingly crowded marketplace (left-brain words I never, ever thought I'd be writing), it's all about differentiation. Blue oceans. Small is the New Big (yes, I'm drunk on Seth Kool-aid). To my mind - and increasingly, to corporate minds - the only way to truly differentiate yourself or your product is with an authentic story. Who are you? What do you stand for? Who is your market? And what do they want that you have - that nobody else does?

So what's different about me, about this lens? What can it offer you? As far as I can tell, it's the first one dedicated to corporate storytelling, and E+S is the best (and one of, if not the oldest, at 20 years) in a rapidly growing field. If you want to learn a bit about strategic storytelling, what it is and isn't, or what happens when you take artists and teach them marketing strategy (chocolate! peanut butter!), bookmark this page. For "Brand Sarah," I'll have to create a new lens.  

About Envisioning + Storytelling

Envisioning + Storytelling, based in West Vancouver, British Columbia, assists clients around the world in creating foundational, transformational and brand stories that empower teams of decision-makers to guide unique, specialized projects into being. Ours is a world in which teamwork and consultation are outclass hierarchy and control by using 'story' to build consensus, provide clarity and identify the champions who will realize the team's shared vision.

There is no more effective way to create a unified identity than through a well-crafted, well-told, strategic story - one that addresses the past, present and future - the logic and the magic. A strategic story brings everyone together and provides common ground by illustrating, articulating and uncovering the ways companies can move from individual concepts and multiple points of view to the only story that could possibly be told. E+S crafts this story using your ideas and insights, your 'aha' moments and flashes of inspiration. So if you're ready to turn thoughts, dreams and ideas into reality, drop us a line.

Blog vs. Lens

What's the difference?

Each links to the other, but they have separate (and, I hope, synergistic) purposes:

My blog is focused on topics relevant to all of E+S; it's meant to (as we say) inform, inspire and enlighten. If outside people who are curious about strategic storytelling come across it, all the better. If we get clients from it, even better still.

This lens is where I can explore the more creative stuff, a way to keep my artistic-writer side nourished while my business-writer side makes a living.

I'm more apt to talk about personal things in these little text modules. Things like how my head is better than any meteorologist at predicting changing weather patterns, and whether that relates to being a highly creative person. Or how to keep in mind the Hero's Journey when writing about a business culture. Or where I am with the manuscript I haven't touched since I began this job 19 months ago.

That kind of thing.

Storydriven: The Blog

My work blog, which includes information on storytelling, branding, sustainability, trends, cool ads and lots of other relevant stuff.
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I'm LinkedIn. Are You?

View Sarah Chauncey's profile on LinkedIn

Stories of Strength

Includes my essay "The Bracelet."

All proceeds benefit disaster relief agencies
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Writing Books

I have a whole library of writing books. I may well add more modules, but for now, these are the books I consider essentials. I refer to them over and over, whether I'm writing a short story or a strategic storyline.
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Storied Brands that Work: Apple

Apple's story, in a nutshell, is "we simplify your life." The Mac vs. PC commercials are brief comedy sketches that bring that story to life by differentiating the platforms through personification. They're fun, funny and tap into the key demographic by using a hip guy for Mac and John Hodgeman, a well-known writer and satirist (and Jon Stewart regular) as PC.
Apple - Get a Mac - Surgery
by MacSpoofs | video info

2,663 ratings | 1,596,157 views
curated content from YouTube

Business Books

When I began at E+S, I started reading - gasp - business and strategy books. Books I would have looked at askance before. But guess what? Many of them - especially the ones listed below - are well-written, interesting and applicable to individuals (including artists!) as well as businesses. Who knew?
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Simply Great Reading

(actually, it's the writing that's extraordinary)

You are what you read. Reading amazing books will make you a better writer, whether your audience is the readership of The New Yorker (I wish!) or the stockholders at your annual meeting.

These five books are so exquisitely written that I read them over and over and over, both to enjoy them and to inspire me to even better writing.
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Cool Sites

Envisioning + Storytelling
A strategic storytelling boutique based in British Columbia, with clients worldwide. And my employer.
Absolute Write
One of the top writing communities on the Web (more than 10,000 members). And where I won the Absolute Write Idol contest.
Absolute Write Idol press release
It wasn't televised, because, well, who wants to watch writers stare at a blank screen? But it was great preparation for the marathon writing I do at E+S.
New York Times
Essential reading.
Holland Barrs Planning Group
The top sustainability consultancy in Canada (and quite possibly North America).
Enlightened Brand
You want to learn about storied brands? You want to talk to Pam van Orden.
Seth's Blog
You're on Squidoo. You have to ask?
MediaBistro
If you're a freelancer, you can't afford not to make this part of your daily reading.
Malcolm Gladwell's blog
Chewy and nutritious food for thought from the New Yorker writer and author of Blink and The Tipping Point.
Boing Boing
The site for all things pop culture.
Common Errors in English
A fantastic resource for those times you can't remember whether to use "comprise" or "compose."

Quotes about Story and Storytelling

Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.
-Robert McAfee Brown, American theologian

Storytellers, by the very act of telling, communicate a radical learning that changes lives and the world: telling stories is a universally accessible means through which people make meaning.
-Chris Cavanaugh

Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart bigger.
-Ben Okri, Nigerian author

Strategic storytelling enables change by providing direct access to the living part of the organization. Stories inhabit the head space of the individuals who make up your organization and affect how your corporate culture and its values evolve.
-Susan Luke, corporate mythologist

The universe is made up of stories, not of atoms.
-Muriel Rukeyser

A story is worth a thousand assurances.
-Annette Simmons, The Story Factor

Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact.
-Robert McKee

Storytelling captures an aspect of childhood experience when being told a story was a common ritual. It's a warm place for most of us and in some ways represents our first experience in really listening.
-Paul Lansky, American composer

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Sarah_Chauncey

From September 2005 through January 2008, I was a strategic storyteller with Envisioning + Storytelling, a small, innovative company based in West Vancouver,... more »

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