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The Pull of Narrative – In Search of Persistent Context

The Pull of Narrative – In Search of Persistent Context | Just Story It | Scoop.it

Thanks janlgordon from Storytelling, Social Media and Beyond Scoop.it for this article & review:

 

Got a few minutes? Do you like something thought provoking?

 

In this excellent article, John Hagel for Edge Perspectives, starts off by saying that we all need context in a world where there are so many available options it can be disorienting. Ultimately however, he talks about the importance of narrative: defining it, giving examples of it and expressing its importance to us now, in a world where so many no longer resonate to the narratives that took us from what they replaced to the here and now.

 

He differentiates between personal, institutional and societal narrative, suggesting that the 2nd of these has particularly lost its way in recent years. My takeaways, which couple with my prior thoughts on the subject, are that personal narrative is going through a rebirth, as is that of smaller institutions. There is evidence of where larger institutions fails when they give up on narrative, and succeed when they create or embrace a new one. Unfortunately the area that we are furthest behind in is the most difficult area of all. Whether we agree or disagree with the societal narratives that got us this far, creating new unifying forces for us in this area is the real challenge. The context is in how we relate to the broader narrative.

 

There is a reason that stories which can unite people in their tens or hundreds of millions come around so rarely In an age of so much information, the task of creating the new narratives through which we can move forward in unison, is the most difficult it has ever been. And herein lies the challenge with which the article ends.

 

To quote:

 

"The role of a narrative is ultimately to attract, engage, motivate and call people to more fully achieve their potential. Narratives represent a powerful pull mechanism that can shape the world around us.


Who will craft these broader social narratives? Who even understands the need and power of a new set of social narratives? What would such narratives look like?"

 

Intro:

 

"We live in a world of ever more change and choice, a world where we have far more opportunity than ever to achieve our potential. That kind of world is enormously exciting, and full of options. But it is also"...

 

http://edgeperspectives.typepad.com/edge_perspectives/2011/05/the-pull-of-narrative-in-search-of-persistent-context.html


Via janlgordon
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The One Conversational Tool That Will Make You Better At Absolutely Everything (Evoking Stories)

The One Conversational Tool That Will Make You Better At Absolutely  Everything (Evoking Stories) | Just Story It | Scoop.it
Ask yourself: If you could interview like Walter Cronkite, would you get more value from your meetings? Would your mentors become more valuable?
Karen Dietz's insight:

In the biz story world, storytelling is only half the game. In fact the game DOES NOT start with storytelling, but with 2 other steps before that:

  1. listening
  2. asking the right question


I've curated some really great articles on listening so go grab those when you get a chance (use the Filter tab near the top on the left).


I find very few articles however on the Art Of The Question -- which is how to evoke stories in others.


Why would you want to evoke stories? For engagement, research, leadership, innovation, etc. Here's a good article about why we need to focus on crafting great questions: http://www.fastcompany.com/3005979/crowdsourcing-your-way-more-effective-leadership 


In my work with clients, I often spent quite a bit of time training them on the art of the question so they can move their projects forward.


What I like about this article on The One Conversational Tool is that it gives us examples of really rotten questions, and how to restate those into really awesome questions.


In the practice of evoking stories, we typically fall back on the tried and true: "Tell me about a time when ..." "Tell me what happened ...", etc.  


But this article comes up with a few other questions to evoke stories that are just as good. Just a quick FYI -- some of the questions posed will gain you flat-out opinions, but could then lead to a story.


So craft and practice your story evoking questions. Game on!


This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling atwww.scoop.it/t/just-story-it

corneja's comment, February 21, 6:08 PM
Thanks a lot!
Karen Dietz's comment, February 21, 8:07 PM
You are welcome! Have a wonderful day.
streetsmartprof's curator insight, February 28, 9:25 AM

How many of your customer facing people are trained to be able to ask the right questions to get the whole story before we jump in and state our "opinions" of what is going on.

 

Whether in sales and/or technical support, one of the worst things we can do is "tell" a customer where they are at. We do not know without asking questions first. Remember the saying, "There is more to the story than meets the eye".

 

NOTE: Read the input from Karen Dietz on how using questions helps to "evoke the customer's story". http://sco.lt/6wO3QP