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How do you use story to create connection, trust and understanding?
As part of The Staff College’s Aspirant Directors Programme, I worked with a cohort of senior leaders to explore the role narrative plays in leadership, communication and organisational culture.
As part of The Staff College’s Aspirant Directors Programme, I worked with a cohort of senior leaders to explore the role narrative plays in leadership, communication and organisational culture.
A central part of the session was a Story Exchange.
A central part of the session was a Story Exchange.
Participants worked in pairs, sharing a personal story before listening closely to someone else’s. They then returned to the wider group and told their partner’s story in the first person, as though it were their own.
Participants worked in pairs, sharing a personal story before listening closely to someone else’s. They then returned to the wider group and told their partner’s story in the first person, as though it were their own.
It is a deceptively simple process, but it changes the quality of attention in the room.
It is a deceptively simple process, but it changes the quality of attention in the room.
For a short period, participants are asked to move away from professional roles, status and organisational language and encounter one another through lived experience. They have to listen not in order to respond, advise or solve, but in order to understand someone else’s story well enough to carry it.
For a short period, participants are asked to move away from professional roles, status and organisational language and encounter one another through lived experience. They have to listen not in order to respond, advise or solve, but in order to understand someone else’s story well enough to carry it.
Retelling that story creates another shift. Participants temporarily step outside their own perspective and attempt to see the world from somebody else’s position.
Retelling that story creates another shift. Participants temporarily step outside their own perspective and attempt to see the world from somebody else’s position.
The result is not simply that people learn more about one another. The exchange can create a different kind of relationship within the group: greater openness, curiosity and trust, alongside a stronger sense of the experiences and values that sit behind the professional identities in the room.
The result is not simply that people learn more about one another. The exchange can create a different kind of relationship within the group: greater openness, curiosity and trust, alongside a stronger sense of the experiences and values that sit behind the professional identities in the room.
For a leadership cohort, that matters.
For a leadership cohort, that matters.
Programmes like this necessarily focus on knowledge, skills, challenge and development. But the quality of learning is also affected by the quality of the relationships between the people taking part. The more able a group is to listen, communicate honestly, tolerate different perspectives and trust one another, the more they can make use of the programme itself.
Programmes like this necessarily focus on knowledge, skills, challenge and development. But the quality of learning is also affected by the quality of the relationships between the people taking part. The more able a group is to listen, communicate honestly, tolerate different perspectives and trust one another, the more they can make use of the programme itself.
The Story Exchange created an opportunity to establish some of those conditions.
The Story Exchange created an opportunity to establish some of those conditions.
The response to the session was strong enough that I have subsequently been invited back to work with future cohorts. Significantly, the intention is now to place this work earlier in the programme, using narrative and Story Exchange near the beginning of the cohort’s journey rather than later on.
The response to the session was strong enough that I have subsequently been invited back to work with future cohorts. Significantly, the intention is now to place this work earlier in the programme, using narrative and Story Exchange near the beginning of the cohort’s journey rather than later on.
That reflects one of the most useful lessons from the original session: story does not only help us communicate an idea.
That reflects one of the most useful lessons from the original session: story does not only help us communicate an idea.
Used well, it can help create the relationships in which meaningful communication becomes possible.
Used well, it can help create the relationships in which meaningful communication becomes possible.
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