Its that time of year again. I opened the post office box this morning and found it brimming with wishes for the festive season. Its a great time of year to reflect on the relationships we value and to reach out and connect with them.

Shawn and I want to thank all the great people we have worked with and had coffee and conversations with during the year. It has been a big year for Anecdote. We have welcomed Kevin Bishop into the Anecdote team. We have delivered projects with great people: Patrick Lambe from Straits Knowledge; Victoria Ward, Paul Corney, Philip Gibson and the whole team at Sparknow; Andrew Fookes from Phenomenology; Michael Craner at 2M4Ward; Tony High from Insight Learning; Josh Burns our talented video guy, Christian Dahmen - our trusted advisor (our thoughts are with you Christian); Peter Ernest from Values Journey; Helle Norgaard; Terrence Gargiulo at Making Stories; and Pat and Nathan at Inspire9. There are many others and I trust they will forgive us for not naming them specifically - but they have all contributed to a successful year for Anecdote.

We are very excited about the impending launch of Zahmoo, our 'story bank' application. We are using it internally already and once we finish user testing it will be available for use by our clients. We also see Zahmoo as a great way for every family to capture and store their family stories.

To all our family, friends, colleagues and clients...best wishes for a safe and happy festive season and we wish you all the best of health, happiness and success for 2011.

from the team at Anecdote

To register for this workshop visit http://anecdote-sbl-london-2011.eventbrite.com/

Wednesday 16th February 2011, 9am-5pm

Seats are limited. Last year we sold out quickly. Please register to confirm your seat.

"Last year when I ran this workshop in London two participants, Kevin and Greg, moved their families to Australia and Kevin is now working for Anecdote. So is the power of storytelling." Shawn Callahan

About this business storytelling workshop

We all need better ways to persuade, share what we know and help those around us make sense of the complex world we live in. Developing our innate storytelling skills helps build confidence, convey ideas clearly and effectively, and probably most importantly, present to our colleagues our humanity.

We all want to convey our ideas with impact, yet eyes instantly glaze the moment you beam your PowerPoint presentation laden with slide after slide of dot points. We know informally that stories are engaging; we tell them at dinner parties and people listen and they 'get it'. Yet few leaders systematically harness storytelling to communicate ideas, convey the organisation`s values or inspire and motivate people.

What the one day workshop is all about

Telling business stories is not about concocting events and delivering your tale to an enraptured audience. Rather, it relies on people retelling their own experiences in an authentic and empathetic way. Anecdote has developed a three-step process to guide you.

Prospecting

Everyone has stories to tell, but in many cases we are unaware of them. Prospecting involves creating a conducive environment for people to remember their stories. You need to become a story collector and we show you how.

Patterns

We can improve the way we tell our stories by understanding the many story structures and patterns available to us. During the workshop, we will explore a few key story patterns and help participants re-craft their stories based on these structures.

Performance

Effective storytelling comes from the knowledge that your story is authentic. People judge authenticity on how the storyteller delivers their story: how does it sound. Participants will learn ways to develop a comfortable delivery style and feel at ease at telling stories regardless of the setting.

This workshop is for anyone wanting to improve their ability to find and tell their own stories within a business context.

Who should attend

This workshop is for anyone wanting to improve their ability to find and tell their own stories within a business context. It is also for people wishing to improve their leaders' ability to communicate ideas and engage staff in developing new behaviours.

You should attend this course if you are interested in:

• communicating your organisation`s mission, vision and values
• helping leaders motivate and inspire
• conveying desirable behaviours
• sharing knowledge
• becoming a more effective leader
• sparking action
• having people really listening to your ideas.

What you will learn and leave with

• a better understanding of what makes an effective story in a business context
• a newly discovered story- re-crafted story from your own experience
• understanding of how to best craft questions to discover stories
• ways to interview people for stories and facilitate anecdote circles
• when to use what story pattern - build confidence in telling your story.

What attendees have said

'Shawn has a most honest, open and engaging approach which is what is shown to work best with this technique and creates an enjoyable workshop.'

'The workshop covered a lot of territory in a way that combined analytical rigour with a clear and informal delivery. I recommend it without reservation.'

'There's loads of value in the Storytelling for Business Leaders workshop, and it's been a useful part of my leadership development activities.

In my role as Chief Sustainability Officer I'm often using stories about how our clients thinking has shifted around sustainability... they're often very powerful. The workshop has given me ideas and tools on how to actively include stories into presentations to give a better sense to people of who I am and what I stand for, as well as to illustrate key messages. I know they're having effect because of the feedback I receive - that they reflect an authenticity that is engaging - and because I hear people sharing these same stories.'

For all our blog readers thanks for your patience. We realise we've been less active on our blog than usual. The thing is, there's been a little project on our plate called Zahmoo that's been keeping us busy.

Today we've released the first public viewing of Zahmoo. It'll soon be released into the wild--how exciting!. The place to get the very latest information and be the first to be invited to use Zahmoo will be those good folk who are following @zahmoo on twitter.

Zahmoo Sneak Preview from Zahmoo on Vimeo.