Storytelling

[Robert.Chaffe at nre.vic.gov.au]

It seems to me that there are many stories at many different levels to be
told about the people, the organisation, the world etc.  If the space is
open we should allow the participants to choose how they share their
particular story(s) but the environment must be established where there is
time and space for this to happen.  For me this is an environmental issue,
ie an environment where people can just be!  Others have described how to
do this.

On the other hand there is a community story that needs to be captured.
This is the story that all the participants are part of.  I would use the
small groups 7 to 10 people to workshop the detail and then build the
community story from the small group contributions.  There are two
processes that I use.   I usually use these at the beginning.

1.    The wall of wonder.  This is where some strategic dates are defined
eg 5 years before the organisation formed, the year that it was formed then
every 5 or so years through the life of the organisation to the present and
then a date five or 10 years into the future.  At each date ask the
participants to explore and describe "the world", "the country or state"
and "the workplace or organisation including what they were doing".  On a
wall arrange the dates and then from each group get them to post A4 sheets
with their contribution to the story.  Work through each date including the
future date.  At this point the participants are forecasting what they
think the future will be.

When you finish you have the Community Story on the wall for all to see and
refer to.  Such a display can be the trigger that prompts people to talk
about "do you remember when?"

You can take it further by using coloured sticky dots to identify things
like the health wheels - leadership, vision, community, management.  What
you have just completed in a planning sense is the social, economic and
environmental conditions that prevailed or what the community think will
prevail.

2.    The WAVE.   This process uses the wave to explore (in small groups
and then as a large group) the things, processes, activities etc that can
be described as: DIEING practices, ESTABLISHED Norms, EMERGING trends and
BOUNDARY Issues.  The idea is to get the group to talk, discuss and tell
stories about their life and their organisation.  The picture that the
participants are asked to keep in their mind is that of a wave they are
riding, the dieing part of the wave is of no use to sustain the rider(s),
the established norms are carrying them now but will soon die, the emerging
trends will be where the individual or group need to position themselves to
sustain their "ride" and the boundary issues are where we will find new
waves to get a new "ride".

This again is posted on the wall with the headings or summaries of each
groups contribution posted on half A4 sheets.

Both these processes need to be followed by a time where the participants
can reflect - this sort of work can be done on the first evening before
dinner time, then the next day start the rest of the meeting.  The
community stories form a great background for contexting issues and
opportunities.  The processes encourage dialogue and get people talking to
each other.

regards
Rob

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