Richard Maxwell (1)

This is a concise and thoughtful introduction to communicating through storytelling. I found their framework and supporting examples - ok, stories - instructive. The authors also shared a lot of interesting insights. For example, memories are much more likely to be created when there is stress or other high emotion. There is biological evidence for this effect and we can use it to our advantage. They summarize stories as "facts wrapped in emotions" and successfully demonstrate the effectiveness of communicating through that type of support. There were points with which I didn't agree, and the attempts to tie their framework to Eastern philosophy (the 5 elements) only succeeded halfway for me. They open with a claim that previous generations didn't need to be storytellers to succeed as much as we do today, yet every single transaction then was a direct story, often involving trading and barter. The skills are different, but not new.… (mer)