Story Telling with large groups

Sun Mar 11 18:43:22 PST 2001

Hello all!

Thomas Herrmann wrote:

> >For OST I´m confident that the limit is far but I´m not that sure when it
> comes to storytelling.

I am emboldened to speak to your twice requested assistance, Thomas!  Thank you
for the invitation.  I somehow have been waiting to 'come out' with my
experience and belief regarding the use of storytelling.
Much like OST, the use of storytelling is limited only by our level of ease,
openness, and comfort.  It is one of the oldest methods of group learning and
yet is strangely amenable to the 'new science'.  I find it naturally aids
individuals and groups in a process of evolution.  Individuals are always
working from within a life script of their own choosing - regardless of what
occurs externally, we must select what to make or how interpret concrete
experience.  This has a pervasive effect on our ability to respond, and on our
overall behaviour.  Collectively, the great guiding stories of each era provide
richly encoded truths (albeit not always of the objective sort) that speak to
the subjective and intersubjective realms of culture, meaning, ethics, and
values.  These provide the undertone that influences the quality of what we do
and make out of the info at our fingertips.  Recurring, unsatisfactory, patterns
in storylines point to the natural disturbances occurring in our field and these
provide vital clues regarding potential ways of closing that gestalt.  The more
energy we free up through finishing our individual and collective business, the
more energy we have to consciously participate in cocreating our reality.  We
will have become skilled at one aspect of conscious evolution.

>  >In "the book" I read about making interviews to catch the stories of an
> organization. That might be an alternative but I wonder how the stories
> could be presented to the staff prior to the OST-meeting.
> Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

Primarily, I see three basic categories of story work:
1) elicit organizational stories (as is mentioned in 'the book').
2) tell stories
3) work within either of the above.
Each approach has merit in and of itself.  Each avenue brings different
information and awareness.

> Storytelling can be used to break a recurring unproductive pattern, align
> projects, services, and departments, communicate a compelling and shared
> vision, discover and harness existing energy and expertise, and aid in
> committment to new routes, strategies, and destinations.
> People are using story to convey an urgent business case through tales of
> internal and external challenge. They  work with feedback from stories in
> order to unify and move the whole system in a singular direction.  They track
> any current need and future stories, identify actionable stories, and continue
> developing new organization potential through recording and working with these
> tales.

Every time we open space we next look for a way to define or make meaning from
what we've done (encode it factually, emotionally, and spiritually in a story).
This is necessarily limiting - for a time.  The naturally occurring process is
that once you've made meaning - or learned - from an experience, you will open
to a new one.  I think we need to make room for a new, more positive, emerging
story.  That can only be achieved by consciously working from within the one
we're now living.  I firmly believe that we must go deeper into where we're at,
in order to know when and where and how to refine it.

Thomas, in considering this group and all you know about them, notice if any
story comes to you - factual, mythic, folk lore, etc...  If one does, tell them
about it.  With several well constructed questions, based on their stated goals
and your response, real ground concerning awareness and movement can be
achieved.
I'm getting lengthy here - I'd be happy to discuss further off list.
best wishes,
Glory Ressler
Director, Avalon Consulting & Associates
Associate, Face to Face Communications/TeamEverest

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>From  Mon Mar 12 10:14:37 2001
Message-Id: <MON.12.MAR.2001.101437.0500.>
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 10:14:37 -0500
Reply-To: lpasoc at inforamp.net
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Larry Peterson <lpasoc at inforamp.net>
Subject: Re: Story Telling with large groups
In-Reply-To: <MABBLBAPLGNPCLJFMPLEEEPNCAAA.thomas.herrmann at telia.com>
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Thomas:

I find that surfacing the stories in a large organization through interviews
is a great approach.  It can be done using some of the perspectives of
Appreciative Inquiry, looking for the energy and positive momentum.  The
stories that shape the culture as described by Harrison can also provide
important learning.  The feedback to the group can be done in a variety of
ways, if there is the time to prepare.  The key thing for me is to recognize
that they are the stories that are going around and shape perception.
Post-modernists would say that they are the only reality.  Others say that
they set the context for understanding what actually happened. In either
case, they shape the energy and culture of the organization.

On the evening before an OS event, I have sometimes enabled a group to
reflect on its context through a variety of ways of getting the story of the
organization out in relation to the theme at hand.  One approach has been to
get people to form groups in relation to how long they have been in the
organization and then tell stories as to how the issues at hand were being
dealt with at that point in the organization's history.  This surfaces a lot
of interesting information about the people and the organization -- like who
are the elders, these issues have come up before in different ways, etc.

Larry

Larry Peterson
Associates in Transformation
41 Appleton Ave.,
Toronto, ON, Canada, M6E 3A4
416.653.4829
Fax 416.653.0609

lpasoc at inforamp.net
www.inforamp.net/~lpasoc
www.openspaceworld.com

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