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Thoughts and other writings by Clare Conroy

Book Review: Total Recall

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Total Recall: How the E-Memory Revolution Will Change EverythingTotal Recall: How the E-Memory Revolution Will Change Everything by Gordon Bell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The coming world of Total Recall will be as dramatic a change in the coming generation as the digital age has been for the present generation. It will change the way we work and learn. It will unleash our creativity and improve our health. It will change our intimate relationships with loved ones, both living and dead. It will, I believe, change what it means to be human.

This book is based heavily on Gordon Bell’s experience with the MyLifeBits research project – a prototype system to digitally record, store, and organise as many aspects of Bell’s life as possible. This involved converting all paper based information (bills, receipts, certificates, photos, letters etc) to digital format and also digitally logging a range of life information on an ongoing basis (location, financial transactions, photos/video, health information, exercise details etc). The book distinguishes between the practices of life blogging (publicly broadcasting details of your life through sites like Facebook and Twitter) and life logging. [Read more…]

Book Review: Improving your Storytelling

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Improving Your Storytelling (American Storytelling)Improving Your Storytelling by Doug Lipman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book is aimed at the reader who has already had some experience with storytelling and is ready to learn more. Given the authors professional background, much of the book is focused on ‘performance storytelling’ so may not seem all that relevant to those that are interested in storytelling in other settings (particularly business/organisations). However, I particularly enjoyed the chapters on ‘What is a Story?’, ‘Learning the Story’ and ‘Discovering the Meaning’. The information in these chapters is valuable and applicable to all storytelling, regardless of the context/environment. Compared to ‘The Story Factor’, ‘Improving your Storytelling’ is a more practically focused book and offers more ‘how-to’ type information.

My notes from Improving your Storytelling: Beyond the Basics for All Who Tell Stories in Work and Play

[Disclaimer: The notes below are rough, and may be a mixture of direct quotes, paraphrasing, and my own thoughts/ideas/reminders. They’re written here primarily for me (so they may not make much sense out of context, especially for those who haven’t read the book)].

(11) Whether you think of yourself as a ‘storyteller’ or not, you tell people what happened to you.

(13) The best assistance doesn’t ‘fix’ your story or tell you what to do. The best help improves your ability to make your own decisions. It doesn’t paint the screen. [Read more…]

Book Review: Making Ideas Happen

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Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and RealityMaking Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality by Scott Belsky

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Enjoyable read with some good ideas. A couple of the parts that really ‘stuck’ were:
– the danger of focusing too much on idea generation at the expense of the execution phase (becoming addicted to the ‘brain-spinning indulgence of idea generation’)
– the three types of people (dreamers, doers and incrementalists)
– importance of follow up and persistence
– need to share ideas (‘the more people who lie awake in bed thinking about your idea, the better’)

The book also goes into detail about the Action Method (personal productivity/project management/to-do system) which I found quite interesting, but it’s not a system that I’ve implemented or that I think could work for me (at least not at this point in time). [Read more…]

Book Review: The Story Factor

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The Story FactorThe Story Factor by Annette Simmons

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Anyone who has an interest in how storytelling can be used for more effective communication (in business as well as personal situations) should read this book. It makes an incredibly compelling and clear case for the use of story and highlights a range of potential applications and benefits from using a story-based approach.

As I made my way through the book I was hoping for some more ‘how to’ information. The new chapter in the paperback edition, ‘Story Thinking as a Skill’, was certainly the chapter I found most useful. While this chapter stops short of providing a step-by-step guide on how to elicit, structure and present stories, I realised, after making my way through the book, that this would be impossible. There is no one-size-fits-all formula or approach to storytelling, and as the author writes in the last paragraph of the book – ‘Agility improves with practice and coaching. This new chapter is my best shot at the coaching part. Now it’s time for you to go practice’. [Read more…]

Book Review: Gamestorming

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GamestormingGamestorming by Dave Gray

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is a really great resource to have on your bookshelf. It describes a series of different facilitation techniques/exercises or ‘games’ that can be used in a range of different organisational settings. While I was familiar with many of the games (or some variant of the games) but it is great to have them described in a single book. It was enjoyable to read the book cover-to-cover, but it’s more of a reference book that you’d keep on your self and refer to when facilitating meetings/workshops to get some ideas about certain techniques to use.

Experienced facilitators may find that they already have several of the games in their existing ‘toolkit’, but it is a useful reference source for stimulating new ideas.