Welcome to the Story Rules Content Hub – the second best resource to learn all about storytelling techniques for work (after ‘Story Rules‘, my comprehensive book on the topic!).
In this Hub, Here’s where you get rich storytelling examples, analyses, viewpoints, interview nuggets, visuals, quotes, and much, much more. To find out how you can make the most of this resource, please watch this 12-minute video.
You can explore this (for now free!) resource in four ways:
Today being the first Saturday of the month, it is time for my content recommendations – a book, a podcast, articles and videos. Let’s get started 1. Book a. ‘How to Make the World Add Up: Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers’ by Tim Harford In 1953, senior executives from the tobacco industry met at the Plaza Hotel in New York. They were meeting to discuss a recent study by a couple of British scientists. In the study, the scientists – after a painstaking randomised control trial – had come to a shocking conclusion which for the first time linked …
(This week’s a short one – but hopefully, enjoyable nevertheless!) Among the Hindu Gods trinity of Brahma (Creator), Vishnu (Preserver) and Shiva (Destroyer), devotees’ prayers are not distributed equally. While there are scores of temples to Vishnu and Shiva, poor ol’ Brahma has to contend with just a handful, with the most prominent one being at Pushkar, Rajasthan. Clearly something major happened at a very early stage of Hinduism such that the entire diverse community (and future generations) eschewed building temples to this member of the Trinity with a fairly critical job description. Why so? Predictably the answer is in …
Sometime in 2014, I was trying to figure out what to do next, after my 3-year stint at B-ABLE, a skill development firm. I eventually ended up co-founding Captivatour with Deepthi and Sid, but before that, I was exploring multiple options. Training and education were interest areas and one company I really admired was XSEED Education – so I wanted to find out if they had something relevant. A batch senior of mine was with that company and I sent my CV through him for a possible role. An interview was fixed. The interviewer was a leader called Anustup Nayak.Anustup is now a …
In today’s edition, I’m sharing my quick take on some storytelling elements used in the victory speech by the US VP-Elect Kamala Harris. (This being Diwali, I thought it’s appropriate to share a story about the victory of good over evil 😉 If you haven’t watched/ read the speech yet, you can do so here (video) and here (transcript). It’s a powerful speech – emotionally resonant and yet clear headed. A fitting articulation of a historically significant moment. In the address, Harris has used many storytelling techniques; I’m going to pick three interesting ones that caught my eye. 1. Begin …
Today being the first Saturday of the month, it is time for my content recommendations – books, a podcast, articles and videos. Let’s get started 1. Books a. ‘Narrative Economics’ by Robert Shiller On the 13th of September 1974, probably the most famous curve of all time was drawn on a table napkin in a restaurant in Washington DC. Here’s the scene. Four men at the table. A journalist (Jude Wanniski, who was the one who later wrote about it), two top White House officials (future VP Dick Cheney and future Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld) and the our main guy – …
Today I’m sharing an old article that I wrote – back in early 2015, when I was figuring out what to do after leaving my job at an NGO. I briefly flirted with blogging, but then moved on to co-found a startup focused on history storytelling. During that period of blogging, I wrote something about the role of probability and how our struggle with it defines such a large part of what we do. This piece is written from the point of view of organised religion – but it applies to a lot of aspects of life. Look forward to your thoughts …
My dad loves listening to talks and lectures on spirituality. He often shares little-known stories from the unending storehouse that is Indian mythology. Recently he shared a fascinating story about Goddess Saraswati – the Hindu Goddess of Learning and Music (about whom I hadn’t heard very many stories)! It is a little known side-story from the epic Ramayana. As we all know, Lord Rama was an avatar of Lord Vishnu, sent down on earth to vanquish and kill Ravana, the ten-headed king of Lanka. Now here’s an interesting theory in this version of the story: When God comes down on …
A few months back I had written the “3R” framework for thought leadership: Read, Reflect and (W)rite. I, ahem, reflected on it since then… and realised that it was missing a few key pieces. So here is my revised thought-leadership model, conveniently christened as the 5Cs Framework. In order to be a thought leader, you need to: Consume – Cerebrate – Confer – Create – Coach Let’s dive in. 1. Consume: Reading is, of course, critical. But just ‘reading’ is too narrow. Different people get their information in different ways. Some prefer visual inputs, while others like to listen to stuff. Do what …
Today being the first Saturday of the month, it is time for my content recommendations – a book, a podcast, articles and videos. Let’s get started 1. Books a. ‘The Psychology of Money’ by Morgan Housel Once in a while, you come across a book, that makes you think – damn, I wish I had read it when I was younger. A book that you’d like to gift to everyone you know. A book that takes a universal topic (money) and uncovers counter-intuitive wisdom, using data and some carefully curated stories. And a book, which makes for a fascinating …
“I think health advisories about eating and drinking are all made up. My uncle enjoyed having fried food, drank like a fish and smoked often. He lived to a ripe old age of 87. My aunt, on the other hand, was a teetotaler and used to go for her daily walks. And yet she passed away because of a heart attack at 62!” ”I don’t think we should invest in Madhya Pradesh. My cousin had a tough time getting his approvals for a factory in Jabalpur“ “Nepotism exists in all sectors. Have you not heard of doctor/lawyer families? And by …
