Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771
ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM
Monday, October 16, 2006 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium
Terrence McNally
"Storytelling as Best Practice"
ABSTRACT -- There's a maxim in public speaking that holds true whether you're addressing five people or five hundred: in a two-hour speech, people will remember a 2-minute story. As a species, we evolved in a storytelling culture: that's how each clan preserved its most important lessons and ensured they would be passed on to succeeding generations. Even today, we read stories to our children to help them make sense of life. In conversations with scientists and engineers, Terrence heard how stories and biographies inspired many in their choice of work. So when we become professional communicators, why do we so readily abandon storytelling in favor of jargon, factoids, pie charts, and fifty-page reports?
This speech will explore the reasons why storytelling remains so powerful and effective, including studies that reveal why it is such an integral factor in how humans learn and reason. It will also reveal the elements of good story and present ways to develop a storytelling culture.
SPEAKER -- Terrence McNally is a media host and a speaker, consultant, writer, and coach for foundations, corporations, public agencies, and non-profit organizations, His work focuses on the mastery of message and media and the power of storytelling.
A graduate of Harvard, where he won its highest academic award, McNally hosts interview programs on radio and television. Guests have included Ken Burns, Matt Ridley, Bill Joy, William McDonough, Jeremy Rifkin, Eric Schlosser, Andrew Weil, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Jared Diamond. His interviews also appear on the web at the AlterNet website (a non-NASA site). Having worked as an actor, writer, producer, and director, McNally's space-themed film "Earth Girls Are Easy" with Geena Davis, Jeff Goldblum and Jim Carrey is being developed as a Broadway musical.
It is Terrence's aim that all of his work, whether in the media or as a speaker, taps the power of compelling stories in pursuit of a world that just might work.