Introduction: Significance of Story: Gifts, New Techniques
and Inspiring Examples

 

by Natalie Shell

When I sat down to write this introduction, the storyteller in me and the change agent in me both wanted the ‘perfect’ story. I searched for it:
against what I have learned from Storytelling, I tried to push for it; I waited (albeit impatiently) for it; I even tried to write it…and I failed.
Many stories came to mind, but none felt like the ‘one’. And then I realised – like this edition, there will be no single story. Story is a multiverse,
a multi-world, best realised through the multiple…

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This article describes four gifts of storytelling – Real Listening, Relationship, ‘AHA’ and
Healing – and includes for each a brief story that illustrates and illuminates. The article then outlines five gifts a good storyteller brings to his or her listeners – Heart Space, Voice, Music, Listening and Humour. Sharing of stories in a way that incorporates these nine gifts brings with it the most precious gift of all – transformation of both storyteller and listener.

STORY SPACE ABOVE AND BELOW

Co-evolving Our Story Field:
Exploring Conditions for Living a New Story

by Peggy Holman

In August 2007, we convened in Colorado to ask what it takes to create a ‘story field’ that can shift society into greater aliveness and wisdom. We intended, and got, a diverse mix of storytellers. Four threads wove together to shape the conference. How the story is told is as critical to its effectiveness as its content. Most people said they were changed by the experience. We opened the way for story workers to become more conscious of their power to shift our cultural story.

STORY SPACE ABOVE AND BELOW


Using Story to Carve Out Spaces in Which the Organisation
Can Start to Breathe

by Victoria Ward

Stories give, rather than take, time. This is a special attribute, much neglected, but to be
treasured, in a work world where we're inclined to finish each other's sentences, competing for time and space in the organisational agenda and politics. This short essay explores some different ways of opening up the neglected or squashed breathing and story spaces in organisations – invitation, corridors and stairs, journeys, exhibits and objects, silence and empty spaces, importing the story spaces crafted by others, as a lens through which to view the organisation. All of these, and many others, are ways to reorganise time, space, rhythm, relationship and perspective at work.

ANCIENT ECHOES - MODERN TWIST

 Appreciating the Five Elements of Successful Stories

 
by Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman

Five organizing principles inherent in every successful story – the passion with which it is
told, the hero, the antagonist, the moment of awareness it contains and transformation that results – lie at the heart of our culture and are direct analogues of the psychological states described by the five elements of the pre-Socratic philosophers. Examples from the corporate, academic and political arenas are given to demonstrate how analysing stories using this model can aid in creating complete and compelling stories that are meaningful, memorable and transformative.

ANCIENT ECHOES - MODERN TWIST

Visual Co-Creation

 
by Eileen Clegg

Having a metaphorical image helps catalyze conversations. Everyone has the ability to
communicate visually. Being ‘an artist’ is not the core capability of the visual journalist.
Visual communication involves images and words, entwined in an intuitive yet intentional way that makes more of each. Visuals work. They are archetypes. We see not only our own point of view: we also make a picture of the connections. Everyone sees something different while agreeing that it looks the same.

LAYERS OF STORY – INQUIRY AND
PRACTICE

Stories as Life Support - Enlivened Elders

 
by Joan Chadbourne

Years of asking my elder aunts for life stories and listening to their responses has created something I call a ‘listening field’. It is a web of connections, intentions and appreciation that supports and enlivens. In the listening web my aunts told vibrant, fresh stories that prompted them to reflect and reframe their lives while enhancing my personal history. It allowed for their appreciative life review and for me to resolve issues. This article tells the story of creating a listening field.

LAYERS OF STORY – INQUIRY AND
PRACTICE

The Fairy Tale – A Form of Organisational Inquiry

by Andrew Rixon

Having started working with fairy tales by inviting groups of facilitators to use them as a way of chartering their journeys and learnings, we have also found the fairy tale to be powerful within organisational contexts. After describing the genre, its characteristics and reviewing where fairy tales fit into the wider management literature, the article will provide as a case study a practical example of how fairy tale has been used. The article
concludes with reflections on the fairy tale genre and how it provides opportunities for safe, humorous and appreciative frames of inquiry within as short a time frame as 45 minutes.

LAYERS OF STORY – INQUIRY AND
PRACTICE

Integrating Appreciative Inquiry with Storytelling: Fostering
Leadership in a Healthcare Setting


by Lani Peterson

During a two-day leadership conference, employees of a large urban medical center integrated Appreciative Inquiry and storytelling. As participants opened to each others’ stories (why they had chosen the medical profession, what was the best of what they did and what the underlying values that supported positive outcomes and experience were)
perspectives shifted. Participants worked towards a shared vision, motivating them toward a renewed sense of purpose, a deeper connection to colleagues and a sense of mutual empowerment.

LAYERS OF STORY – INQUIRY AND
PRACTICE

Success Stories: Video brings Brand Values to Life


by Randy Woolgar

The basic ingredients of a good story have not changed in a hundred thousand years. Video
is multi-sensory and immediate, and breathes life and context into the storytelling experience. Video stories are remarkably flexible and adaptive, bringing Brand Values to life.