LinkedIn is a great way of connecting with others with similar business interests. I belong to 3 groups on LinkedIn that allow me to follow and join in on discussions around topics I find interesting. It is another good way of seeing ideas differently. On the LinkedIn group, "Learning, Education and Training Professionals" there has been an interesting discussion on "StoryTelling as a training tool", a particular interest of mine. Following the discussion is a good way of seeing how others use storytelling.
My addition to the conversation was as follows:
Facts and information without context provided as discrete bites of knowledge are not memorable but just add to the ceaseless stream of information that bombards our brains every day. With so much junk hitting our brain we filter out as much as possible, just like spam is filtered by my computer. But my brain sees a story and it stands out from the 'junk', our brains let it in, it has meaning, we remember it, learn from it.
Storytelling is an area of learning that deserves some more attention, so over the next few weeks I'll add to this with some further thoughts, ideas, links and readings on storytelling.