Sustainable Harvest

“Who is wise?  One who learns from everyone they meet.”
- Joel ben Izzy

Master storyteller and story consultant Joel ben Izzy listens to workshop participants at Let's Talk Coffee 2009.

Master storyteller Joel ben Izzy moves quickly across the stage, gesturing broadly, speaking and singing in turns, laughing, dancing.  Then he stops, and sits, and listens with rapt attentiveness to the stories of coffee farmers and importers, roasters and baristas drawn together at this year’s Let’s Talk Coffee conference.  As Joel describes the ways in which companies can find and share compelling stories, he spends more time–much more time–listening than speaking.  For a storyteller, this must be difficult.  For a storyteller who was unable to speak for more than a year because of a health condition, one suspects that it must be agony–but it’s not.  It’s essential to his stories, and another part of his lesson.

What happens to a storyteller who loses his voice?  Following treatment for thyroid cancer, Joel ben Izzy was unable to speak for a year and a half.  He spent that time listening, watching, achieving an awareness and appreciation of the present moment only possible when one is silent and observant.  Eventually his voice recovered, but in a sense, it had also been rediscovered.  He learned that every person, every company, has a story, but that it can only be discovered by listening.

A workshop participant from Colombia listens as Joel tells a story.

A company unable to communicate effectively with customers and stakeholders is like a storyteller without a voice.  Stories are what connect consumers to products and services, enhancing their perception and understanding of value.  But there is also a danger to speaking without hearing.  Joel’s words and his silence both carry a lesson to the audience: listen to the stories of your customers and stakeholders, and yours will be the richer for it.  A roaster sharing tales and photos from a visit to origin, a cooperative bringing members together to speak of their knowledge, a farmer standing at a conference to talk of the rich fragrance of earth and flowers as he walks through his fields at dawn.  Their stories are a part of your story.  Storytelling as the art of story-listening.  Joel’s example teaches us to learn from everyone we meet, share their voices, and others will see the wisdom in our stories.