Structured Storytelling (long)

Wed Mar 12 01:48:45 PST 2003

Hi Rob, Michael, Viv, Joelle, Robert and Joan
hi listening/reading listmembers

I am catching up slowly with some of the "old" postings on the list
"Old" meaning about three months ;-)

Thanks especially Rob  for your sharing the two methods "wonder wall" and "The wave"
Your first description of the Community Story Method on the Wall of Wonders reminds me of what I have learned from Marve Weisbord & Sandra Janoff's book on Future Search Conference.

Both of your stories brought me to remeber how I opened the work at the first Micro-Universe/stakeholder meeting for District Development two years ago. I have no name for it, its working-title ist
"Our personal envolvement & contribution to our common/community story".

It would like to share this now.
We did it before opening the space for the first one day OST event in Mozambique.
I will not describe it in an abstract way, but re-tell this part of the story of my consultancy for "District Development in the province of Sofala, Mozambique" (with stakeholder of the two Districts X and Y)
Here we go!

Imagine! Lets jump to the opening circle!...
Where each&every body sits together after  the presentation of all the external and internal context conditions (the givens). People are basically orientated and I feel the tension of expectations in the room

Facilitator:
"So here we are.
Everybody here in this room is part of the ongoing story of DD  in X or Y.
I am evidently the last one to become part of this story.
Let us look back how it came that we are here now.
Let us have a look how things started and then start to tell the whole story from its beginning.
To beginn with, please find out, who of all the present people was the first one
to be involved in the DD story of X or Y. ...."
(it was the oldest one of the chiefs/regulos)

"Would you please take your chair to the center of the circle and tell us,
how DD started and how you were involved into its story?"

(To the circle) "And I ask you to pay attention to the whole story from the beginning
and whenever one of you notizes that the story has developed to the point where you started to be involved, please take YOUR seat, go to the center of the circle and continue to tell us the story from your point of view.
And so on. This story telling will be finished when we have traveled from the beginning of the story
to our HERE & NOW, where each and every body is an acting-part of the story and where we will not have any longer the separation of story tellers and the circle of pure observers."

(Back to the chief in the center) "So please go ahead now Mr. Tambarare!"

.......(The chief starts with the comment that his District has Developed since old time, when nobody knew the word District Development, but that he started to be involved as the son of the old regulo of Tambarare...then one after the other guys from the outer circle took their chairs and met in the center to continue the story together)

There was only one moment, when I did some facilitation. That was, when the first difference in the perception, story of what had happened surfaces. (Even that was not necessary, I suppose, but anyway: The facilitator:)
" We have all the necessary time to hear all the different sides and personal perceptions of this complex story"

The story was finished after I had got my seat, changed my position and explaned how it came, that I was contracted to do the work I was doing.

I learned this technique at the start-up meeting of my advanced OD-training by the "Beratergruppe Neuwaldegg
and I loved it from the beginning and have used it very often since then.

It can be very strong: the people may discover that there had been a hidden part of the history, or never discussed different interpretations of what had happened; they "automatically" re-construct the line of historic seniority which has usually some quite healing effects on the group/organization, usually informal the old boys network surfaces, newcomers are "automatically" integrated  etc. etc.

Coming back to the story of the two districts: two inner circles of DD agents had been created.
The most important result for my job-relevant learning there was that we had a great ongoing and complex story in midst of which there was a time of NO DistrictDevelopment STORY. Years of pure destruction after which they had more or less to start from the beginning. That was the time of civil war in Mozambique, which only ended in '92 and was related with the (end of the) apartheit-regimes of South Africa and Southern Rhodesia->Zimbabwe.
And it was most important for me to learn, that these times have created deep fears of conflict escalation which are active until today. Which is relevantissimo for each seriously participative development approach.

Some further remarks about the method:

In general the stories are so rich, that it is worth to fully document them (acustically or by video) if this does not disturb the process too much. From re-analysing such documents, they can again learn a lot about their story.

The strategical point of indicated use: at new-beginning/after transformation when the new meets the old (e.g. team&org fusions/mergers). If you support it technologically you can do it with quite big groups (I never did it with more than 40). Do do it calmly including a reflective circle afterwards (realizing a nice gestalt-schluss), you need half a day for small groups and short stories and up to one day for big groups and long stories. The stories are always complex ones. I never did it without getting feedback of the type: Wow We have had no idea of A, B, C,....!

Very healing, grievework-producing and peace-making and freeing for next steps of collaboration and conflict.
Very much showing the richness of differences and resources

I thank you for hearing this story*

Bernd
---
P.S. *and your/my sheer (s)h(e)ar(e)ing

On Mon, 30 Dec 2002 10:10:51 +1100, Robert.Chaffe at nre.vic.gov.au wrote:
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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>From  Wed Mar 12 11:20:16 2003
Message-Id: <WED.12.MAR.2003.112016.0100.>
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 11:20:16 +0100
Reply-To: thomas at openspaceconsulting.com
To: OSLIST <OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU>
From: Thomas Herrmann <thomas at openspaceconsulting.com>
Subject: SV: Inviting the Competition ?
In-Reply-To: <3E6E67BE.3E416C24 at openspace.dk>
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Thanks for sharing your very interesting story, Gerard.
I find many managers hesitating about this opportunity.
About a month ago I facilitated an OST where 6 public organizations got
together to work out new areas of cooperation. Although not that kind of
competitors, one of the areas they want to cooperate in is staff
development/training and also possibilities to have a broader spectra for
professional careers through having the opportunity to work in other public
workplaces.
Greetings
Thomas Herrmann

> -----Ursprungligt meddelande-----
> Från: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]För Gerard Muller
> Skickat: den 11 mars 2003 23:48
> Till: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Ämne: Inviting the Competition ?
>
>
> Dear All,
>
> I had an interesting Open Space last week that I would like to share
> with you.
> It really started almost a year ago, when an association of small
> companies (a cooperative) asked me to facilitate a seminar to discuss
> their strategy for the next five years.
>
> They made the previous one three years ago, and were ready
> implementing
> it ahead of time.
> Participants would be all Board members and all employees, some 20 in
> all.
>
> I discussed their situation and wishes with the director, and
> he agreed
> to an OS.
> So I had a preparation meeting with him and 4 Board members
> to prepare.
> Good people, and a very constructive team
>
> After having made a draft of the invitation, I asked them who
> else would
> have important knowledge relevant to their meeting. And we made an
> analysis of the network around the central theme.
>
> They agreed to invite all the key persons - except of course the
> competition: two main competitors in Denmark, and one in Sweden. But
> somehow I felt it would be more beneficial than dangerous,
> and we ended
> with a model where all “guests” were invited during the day, and the
> original 20 would continue.
> That way - was the reasoning - they would get the input but limit the
> :risk”.
>
> All three competitors sent their directors as well as the chairman of
> their Boards.
>
> During the Open Space it was not visible to me these people were
> competitors.
> And one of the main conclusions of the first day was
> something like “The
> main issue is not how to grow a little in Denmark, but how to
> enter the
> German market with our superior product - none of us alone would have
> the resources to go in succesfully, but together we could”.
>
> The Open Space last week was for one of the competitors. And they
> invited their competitors - who all came.
>
> Any other stories about inviting the competition (or working for the
> competition) ?
>
> Greetings from
>
>
>
>
> Gerard
> Open Space Institute Denmark
>
> *
> *
> ==========================================================
> OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
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> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
> view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
> Visit:
>
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>

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