Working with stories part 5

Storytelling Practices

As an addendum to the series on storytelling, here are some specific facilitation practices I use in working with stories with groups.

In order to learn about the organization I am working with I ask for stories from people one on one using appreciative questions designed to draw forth the best of the organization or community. Often I ask people to tell me stories that reflect the spirit of the organization or describe moments of flow, compassion, and collective or individual excellence. You can find some of the questions I use here and here. This helps set the stage for process that “grow more of what works.”

To work with organizations experiencing grief, I often hold a storytelling circle. Depending on the organization this usually takes the form of a talking circle whereby we use an object like a stone or an eagle feather as a talking piece. This is either circulated or placed in the middle of the circle, and people are invited to retrieve it and speak, telling a story about themselves or the organization, or whatever is relevant to the situation at hand. Often, working in Aboriginal organizations and communities, I work with local Elders who can hold space for grief in a deeper way while I hold space for the process.

In scenario planning and future-oriented strategic planning, I ask people to create the stories of their futures. For scenario planning, this process can be very intensive and occur over a long period of time as we consider possible scenarios facing the group. In other formats, especially where we are working with appreciative processes this can be as simple as asking people to put themselves 10 years in the future and telling the story of how they got there.

When facilitating Open Space Technology meetings and depending on the context I invite people to record stories in their notes from the sessions. I often refer to these stories at the opening and closing points of the gathering, in order to point to some of the key things that are holding the group’s attention as a way of focusing the event.

When working with diverse stakeholder groups, I invite the non-technical participants to share stories and ask the technical participants to reflect these stories back in terms they can understand. This real-time translation process helps people to come to a meeting from equal positions of power (you have the technical expertise, I have the story) and it encourages people to see the world through different eyes. It also ensures that technical people capture the spirit of the information in a way that makes sense for the non-technical participants. Storytelling in this context moves people into a human space where they are jointly making meaning of the world rather than one group using its own language and jargon to dominate the other.

Of course by keeping a weblog, I engage in personal storytelling almost every day.

Feel free to add your own storytelling practices in the comments, or at the storytelling page on my Open Space Wiki.

And for more storytelling resources for group process work check out the resources at StoryAtWork.com