Speaker - December 2011

Casting a reality check on real-world conundrums
Storytelling or Story Stealing?

Speakers are storytellers. Good speakers tell their own stories. Great speakers enable you to live their stories with them. You remember stories from amazing speakers, understand the lessons, tell other people about them, and you hear other speakers quote them!

You cannot risk your credibility as a speaker. Use the story, but do not claim it as your own or even adapt it in a way to make it seem as if it happened to you. We don’t always have our own stories to tell stories, but some of the best stories are ones we hear or read about. Feel free to retell them to make a point or deliver a message.

Paul Bridle, CSP, FPSA, FIBC —Toronto, Ontario, Canada

I don’t see anything wrong with saying,“I once heard a story that I value a lot …” unless the details of the story contain something of material value (in terms of Intellectual Property). If it’s a harmless little story, it’s just a neat tale to tell. Have courage and spread the love or adapt it to your own personal experience. If there is material value, depending on what IP it contains, it may be off limits. Who knows? Use your best judgment.

Many years ago, you heard a great
story that has continued to resonate with
you. You cannot remember where you
heard it, but you want to use that story in
something you’re writing because it fits
perfectly. What would you do?

Stephen Grant

—Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The story can be used partly because you said ‘many years ago.’ It’s quite possible that the originator of the story is no longer telling it, and most people have not heard it before. If you heard the story last month and can’t remember the source, doesn’t it warrant a different response? I think it would for me.

Intellectual property is one thing, and it’s a criminal offense to ‘pass it off’ as your own. But stories? Nobody owns a story. It’s a criminal offense to steal precise words but it’s not criminal to retell it. It’s human nature and the source of all learning. Ethically speaking, you’re covered if you say you don’t know the origin.

Jim Harvey
—Oundle, UK
Disa Johnson
—Chicago, Ill.

If you don’t claim ownership of the story and start the tale by admitting you don’t know the source, I think it is OK to use it. Often, these stories become folklore and turn up in many guises and places.

Philippa Gamse, CMC
—Capitola, Calif. What Would You Do? is a regular column
that presents a real-life dilemma faced
by professional speakers. NSA members
are encouraged to submit a dilemma
for possible discussion in this column.
Please submit dilemmas to ethics@nsa-
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uted. Opinions expressed are those of
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For many years, I thought my late father originated the phrase ‘People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.’ He said it so many times that I believed he came up with it himself. Even if you remember where you heard a story, it may not be the original source. If you make a good-faith effort to track down the source, it is OK to simply say, ‘Many years ago, I heard a story that made a great impact . . .’