UTSATT: Interactive Workshop in Storytelling with Dr. John Potter

In ´Dead Poets Society´, Robin Williams says that “language was invented for one reason, boys – to woo girls”.

Language, among the most fundamental of intelligent traits, deeply rooted in our culture and development as a species, was invented to tell stories.

Storytelling was the way cultural learning and history were passed down through generations, repeated endlessly around the warmth of campfires, long before writing was invented.
Storytelling is such a basic, primal skill, so deeply ingrained in what it means to be human, that we do it every day, every moment. In every choice we make we tell ourselves a story about how that´s OK. Yet it is rarely taught as a skill, and its power barely appreciated.

When my kids were small, we had a bedtime game. They would name three things, any three things, and I had to weave a story on the spot that strung these three things into a tale. Obviously, they tried to dream up the most unlikely combination of three things. It was fun for all of us and great training for me. Stories are how we hang apparently disconnected events, experiences, ideas, onto familiar hooks that allow us to string them together into a meaningful whole, weaving the fabric of our lives from threads of connection. The ability to tell stories is nothing less than the ability to explain and give meaning to our lives, to ourselves and others.

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This events trainer will be Dr. John Potter

John Potter is an award-winning marine scientist & Associate Professor at NTNU.

He has 20 years’ experience in senior management and leadership roles, focusing on strategic and business development with 10 years’ facilitating, coaching & training personal performance & leadership courses.

He is an exceptional communicator and accomplished at building & leading diverse teams, evidenced by a track record of recognising and developing novel opportunities with award-winning outcomes across three continents.

He is also an explorer who has spent four seasons in the Antarctic and has sailed across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.

It is no longer true that he neither owns nor operates a television.

Venue: Trondheim Næringsforening, Dronningens gate 12