Annette Simmons

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October 19, 2018 by Annette Simmons 25 Comments

Who Controls the Truth?

Who Controls the Truth?

Who Controls the Truth?

I think there are two kinds of truth, little “t” truth and Big “T” Truth.  If anyone walks up to you wagging their finger and says,

“You want the truth…I’ll tell you the truth!” …

…they are about to share their opinion with you.  Big T Truths are timeless and transcend the small snapshots of little t truths we call facts.  Big T Truths were true before you and I were born, and they will be true long after we are gone. Little t truths are context dependent.  The difference is embedded in the old saying, “Do you want to be right (little truth), or do you want to be kind?” (Big Truth: we need to be both.)

Long before The Story Factor, I wrote Territorial Games – about people gaming the truth – and A Safe Place for Dangerous Truths – how to get a group to tell themselves the truth. So, it’s always been about truth for me.  That is why I got interested in storytelling.  I found a Big T truth in the story that naked Truth was turned away until Parable dressed her in story so people invited her to sit at their table.

My hope is to journal “out loud” and find people (like you?) who are interested in having a dialogue about the idea of Big T Truths and the norms that keep our eyes and hearts wide open to supposedly dangerous truths that if ignored, will threaten our collective survival. In fact, it seems that some our algorithms now gamify truth in ways that lead to infighting, withholding information, and excluding certain narratives.

Big T Truths embrace the paradoxes we cannot avoid if we want to live a meaningful life by balancing both love and power.  Honestly I think some of the recent efforts to “science the shit” out of storytelling lead to smaller either/or truths and skip the “art part” necessary to retain paradoxical Big T Truths.

As a kid, I learned certain kinds of truth telling were dangerous to my survival. These experiences spring-coiled me to jump out of my skin when it feels like it is happening again.

It’s happening again.

Trauma made me hyper vigilant specifically for abuses of power and hypocrisy. I’ve learned to lighten up, but it’s still there. And I think it makes me useful.

If enough people are interested, I’ll post about the games I see people playing with truth. Please leave a comment if this sounds interesting to you.

Filed Under: Annette's Blog, Big T Truths Tagged With: algorithmic bias, Annette Simmons, Big T Truth, brand story, business storytelling, storytelling, true stories, truth telling, truthiness, Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins

September 25, 2013 by Annette Simmons 2 Comments

More Experiments!

I think we spend  too much time looking for the “right” story. We can’t know a story is effective until we try it out because stories are co-created. I have suggested we expect a 30% fail rate – a percentage I made up – so people won’t craft a story to death before they try it out.  I thought increasing tolerance for failure might lighten things up.

 

How can we know a story is effective until we try it out? Stories are co-created.

 

Now I see  at least one corporate giant has found there is no substitute for experiments. They have completely removed qualitative research in favor of telling new stories straight to consumers to see what flies.

Coke found, according to their Content Strategy Video (at 4:28), that recently their best stories were not pre-tested (ex: Old Spice Man). Coke  shifted 30% of their money away from conducting research on customers to support hanging out with customers for inspiration.

Steam

 Qualitative research can evaporate ideas!

Coke killed qualitative research on story ideas altogether because it “evaporates” ideas or solidifies them too soon.  They put their money behind generating lots of ideas and taking these story ideas straight to consumers to see what catches their imagination. Coke cut their budget for link testing (eye movement tracking, likert scale ranking, etc) in half from 60% to 30%. Twenty five percent of their money is now used for real time testing and adapting stories as they are co-created with real live Coke drinkers.

Stories arise from unpredictable experiences.

 

I may be jumping to conclusions but I think this validates the idea that we can’t research our way into great stories. Stories arise from unpredictable experiences in real time with live people and grow when given space and protected from reductive scientific research. It is about experience, not examination and feelings, not facts.

 

Speaking of experience, I have been interviewing people with practical storytelling experience to tell me: Who is using storytelling? to do what? and how do they measure success? You can hear edited podcasts (about 20 minutes) starting next week.  I’ll send you more info, then.

Filed Under: Q & A Tagged With: Annette Simmons, brand story, business storytelling, coca-cola, Coke, global marketing strategy, interview, marketing, narrative, story, storytelling

Storytelling 101

Ray, Rosa, Ted and me sharing dinner and stories.

Stories with a Moral Blueprint – part 8 of 8

May 14, 2020 8:43 am

  We need a Magic School for Storytellers Thirty years before J. K. Rowling created Harry Potter, Ursula Le Guin’s... Read more →

Posted in: Annette's Blog, Big T Truths
BIg T Truths make stories come alive.

Stories with a Moral Blueprint – part 7 of 8

May 13, 2020 7:37 am

  Truth in Storytelling When I wrote the first edition of The Story Factor twenty years ago, I began with the... Read more →

Posted in: Uncategorized
oz

Stories with a Moral Blueprint – part 6 of 8

May 12, 2020 6:48 am

The Moral Dilemmas of a Lion, a Scarecrow, and a Tin Man Frank Baum’s original introduction to The Wizard of... Read more →

Posted in: Annette's Blog, Big T Truths
We need trust to survive and thrive.

Stories with a Moral Blueprint – part 5 of 8

May 11, 2020 8:38 am

  Blueprints for Building Trust Learning to drive was fun until I hit the mailbox. I burst into tears, blaming... Read more →

Posted in: Annette's Blog, Big T Truths
"Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything."

Stories with a Moral Blueprint – Part 4 of 8

May 8, 2020 8:13 am

  Brand Stories: Trust Based on Trustworthy Behaviors Nike has employed corporate storytellers since the 1990s. Their decision to illustrate... Read more →

Posted in: Annette's Blog, Big T Truths

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