International Association of Facilitators
1999 Annual Meeting
Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
January 14-17, 1999
Thread #3: Team Building and Communication
Lisa J. Marshall
SYNTAX Communication Modeling Corporation
1365 Hamilton Street NW
Washington, DC 20011
202 829-0795
202 829-5324 (f)
lisa@syntx.com
Sandra Ann Mobley
The Learning Advantage
4404 South Pershing Court
Arlington, VA 22204
703 979-2133
703 979-2134 (f)
lrngadvg@aol.com
Storytelling is as old as the language gift in humans, and may, indeed, be one of the things that differentiates us from the rest of the primates. It is also a key tool for learning, inspiring and transmitting culture. This article looks at the power of "the Living Story" ' the story that is each one of us living our lives, right now ' to create meaning and move people to action. We look at the facilitator's role in surfacing and articulating the living story so that its power can work in an organizational setting, and explore the dynamics and structure of stories and storytelling.
For the million or so years before human beings settled onto farms and began lives of relative predictability, they gathered at night around campfires and told stories. Through those stories they learned from one another. They learned the signs others had seen that might tell them where game hid, they learned of places where roots and tubers might grow, they learned where fresh water was to be found and where the honey bees hid. And they learned, as well, of triumphing through cunning and courage, of sacrifices made by parents for children, of the power of love, of overcoming fear. They learned what behavior benefited the tribe and what behavior endangered it. They learned of the past and learned for the future. "From stories, a child learns to 'imagine a course of action, imagine its effects on others, and decide whether or not to do it.'"(Scientific American, October, 1994.) Thus, the human brain became hardwired for holding complex information through stories and for learning through stories. Think about it: what happens physiologically for most people when they hear the words "I'm going to tell you a story?" They relax. They open up. They listen. They become neurologically receptive to new information and new possibilities. The result of such a state is that people retain more of what they hear, and they internalize it, take it to "usability" more effectively. In a recent Harvard Business Review article on "Strategic Stories," the authors note that:
"A good story (and a good strategic plan) defines relationships, a sequence of events, cause and effect, and a priority among items ' and those elements are likely to remembered as a complex whole."
Harvard Business Review, 5-6/98, p. 42)
Even today, any human endeavor is a web of such stories. The stories tell of successes and failures, of heroes and villains and ordinary folk who were able to do extraordinary things. They tell what behavior benefits the tribe and what behavior endangers it. This is as true in the workplace as in any other setting in which people gather. "Stories are powerful because they bind information and understanding over time. In fact, there is strong reason to believe that organization of information in story form is a natural brain process. ... In essence, each of us is living a story, and one way in which we relate to others is through empathizing with their stories." (Caine & Caine, Making Connections: Teaching and the Human Brain, pp. 121-2.))
Just as each of us is living our story, the work we do together becomes a living story. As consultants, our ability to recognize and articulate that Living Story -- often invisible to those who are living in it -- is often one of the greatest gifts we bring to our clients. It is the reason we need to be able to Tell the Living Story.
Before defining the Living Story, let's look for a moment at Arie de Geus's definition of the "living company," drawn from his study of companies that are long-lived. "Like all organisms, the living company exists primarily for its own survival and improvement: to fulfill its potential and to become as great as it can be." (The Living Company, p. 11). The Living Story is related. It is the articulation of the past, present and future of a group or organization in story form, so that it expresses their identity, their current reality and their hopes and aspirations. It is the story of the path the organization takes "to fulfill its potential and to become as great as it can be". The Living Story is also a form of language as action. In other words, in telling the story, you are not simply "talking about;" you are being and doing the story. It not only expresses motivation, it motivates. It not only describes learning, it embodies, reflects and causes learning, As the group's Story naturally evolves and grows, it becomes the vehicle through which the group can act "as if" and bring new ideas and worlds into being.
"What is a story? A beginning, a middle, and an end. Characters. Mood and movement. Conflict, climax, resolution. Meaning. Perspective. All of this can happen in one sentence.
"Stories exist all around us. We might be more used to thinking of them as novels, anecdotes, fairy tales, folk tales, opera, drama, movies, history, biography, science, articles, and so forth. But they are also found in the form of paintings, photographs, , dance, song, sculpture, meals, clothes, buildings, and gardens. Stories are both tangible and intangible." (Cary & Underwood, Learning Organizations, p. 130.)
Ultimately, every good story is a variation on what Joseph Campbell called "The Hero's Journey." The individual or the group leaves the known world -- their past -- for a variety of reasons and, on the journey, enters the "pit" where he, she or they encounter(s) a monster -- in actuality, a reflection of what the person/people need(s) to learn to grow and develop. This is the pivotal point: They may stay stuck in the pit, or they may win that battle, confront the monster and climb back out, to new heights, and on to the next story. In their chapter in Learning Organizations, "Stories for Learning," Cary & Underwood say that:
A story needs to be complete in itself. Rather than having only a beginning, a middle and an end, a story can be seen as a circle, a design that begins and ends, but, like a circle, a design which implies future possibilities and future decisions. Each story circle then, effectively done, expands our awareness....Each completed circle is an expansion of that circle, an expansion in awareness, in understanding, and, as the circle expands, it becomes a spiral -- a spiral of growth and greater creativity. (p. 133)
Another way to say this is in terms of Robert Fritz's creative tension: that where the heroes and heroines start out is different from where they want or need to be. When people you care about perceive that difference and resolve that tension by traveling the difficult path and slaying or confronting the monster, you have successful resolution of the creative tension, and something wonderful and new has been created. When they resolve the tension by letting go of future possibilities and staying stuck in current reality, there basically is no story, or a story of failure.
Telling the Living Story
First, the "What:"
Corey and Underwood say an effectively told story has these four elements:
Each of those elements has implications for how we tell a story. Good storytelling encourages the listener to be in support of the story as well as the teller to be fully present to the listener.
Completeness allows us all to pause and notice where we are on our journey for a moment, allows us to reflect on having completed some distance on the path. It allows for a sense of accomplishment, along with knowing we're part of the bigger pattern. It reminds us that while the specifics may be new, this struggle for identity, security and stimulation, the passion to be effective is as old as the species.
Wonder allows us to savor the moment, to appreciate its possibilities to the fullest. It also creates the space for learning, for considering other paths and what their implications might be. It makes us aware of the vast array of choices that always face us when we stop to consider them.
Touching is best described in Hyemeyhost Storm's Seven Arrows:
"To Touch and Feel is to Experience. Many people live out their entire lives without ever really Touching or being Touched by anything. These people live within a world of mind and imagination that may move them sometimes to joy, tears, happiness or sorrow. But these people never really Touch. They do not live and become one with life....
"According to the Teachers, there is only one thing that all people possess equally. This is their loneliness.....This is the cause of our Growing, but it is also the cause of our wars. Love, hate, greed and generosity are all rooted within our loneliness, within our desire to be needed and loved.
"The only way that we can overcome our loneliness is through Touching. It is only in this way that we can learn to be Total Beings. " (p.20)
Stories are one of the primary ways we can touch each other.
Silence is time. It is going slow in order to go fast. It is clearing out the clutter we create when we do not pause to listen, to absorb, to truly learn from a story. Despite our fear that silence means failure, sometimes a roomful of profoundly moved, silent people is the highest accolade the storyteller can receive. At the Bretton Woods conference, Joe Jaworski told the story of his father conducting the first war crimes trials at the end of World War II. The story was Completed by a woman whose father died at Auschwitz. Everyone there was Touched. Then there was Silence: "We all sat there in that large room, all 350 of us. Not a sound was to be heard. Not a movement in the entire room. But the power of what was happening filled the space. It was one of the most compelling moments of my life." (Synchronicity, p. 196.)
Then the "How:"
Good storytelling starts with good listening. What, specifically, are you listening for? You're listening for starting points ' which are often ending points as well. (Every new beginning requires the ending of something else.) You're listening for markers. Markers that indicate progress on the journey. These markers may be clear milestones or they may be encounters with the monster. That monster can be truly monstrous ' a public humiliation, a plant that is closed, a death in the family. Or it may be subtle, sneaky, snakelike ' the appearance of apathy, indifference, cynicism, victimhood. You want to know how it was handled, what worked and didn't work. And finally, you're listening for victory, completion, movement toward new possibilities.
And, of course, you're listening for a clear statement of aspiration and purpose, enriched with everyone's deepest motivations and exquisitely detailed with evidence. Not that you'll hear it in that jewel-like form, each facet neatly polished. Your job is to detect the diamond-in-the-rough and do the cutting and polishing for the group.
All of this requires listening for both the words and the non-verbals that indicate "here lies mineable treasure" ' here is this person or this group's Living Story. The beauty of a group's Living Story is that you build it out of the details of the members, and in doing so, you create a wonderfully detailed tapestry of that experience that draws everyone in, makes the story theirs as well, makes it a story of which they want to be a part and want to see the outcome.
Storytelling takes practice. As you're telling it, you're watching for what's working, what's resonating, what's stirring people. Even though you may be telling them their own words, they're learning as they listen, learning about what is most deeply meaningful to them about their own story. Like the fish that can't see water, we don't always know our own story. We don't always know where our deepest motivations lie. And there is a profound deepening of our own experience when we hear it as a story, a deepening that enables us to move more purposefully, to engage our passion and focus and bring ourselves more fully into our lives when we hear and recognize our own Living Story.
Underwood & Carey say this about beginning the act of telling a story:
"Say or imply that you are about to tell a story.
"Stop.
"Be silent.
"Feel yourself in that story. Center yourself in the images the story creates for you.
"When I am comfortable in that place, I bring my hands together to remind me of focus, of the need to stay where I am; then I outstretch my hands to include everyone there as witness to the story, as the _Listening Ears' without which story cannot take place." (Learning Organizations, p. 139)
As we listen to and for stories, we may begin to see that not all stories come to a satisfying conclusion. In fact, some become sagas of the same unsatisfying conclusion, repeated over and over in different forms or contexts. When we can't even see or hear or feel our own stories, how can we know that we keep doing the same things, hoping for different results? Sometimes, just hearing the story, being witness and letting the tellers know they are heard is enough to change the story.
Other times, one of the gifts of the Master Storyteller is that he or she can, with a subtle shift in the details of the story, sometimes open up vast worlds of possibility. By offering a new word, a new feeling, a new action, a new road to travel, the listener may suddenly find names for fears he or she didn't know were there, as well as previously unknown tools for resolving those fears. Indeed, sometimes the listener may hear the story without even recognizing it consciously as her or his own, yet somehow be freed to take actions not previously thought possible.
This subtle shifting must be done with the utmost respect and a complete lack of attachment as to how or if the listener will change. The Storyteller must first honor current reality by telling that part of the story accurately. Then a word, an action, a resource can be introduced or changed. The change allows listeners to move closer to a different, more positive outcome or helps them name and confront a monster that had previously held them too scared to even open their eyes and breathe. Since the listeners are the ultimate judge of the story, the Storyteller must hold their intentions lightly, amplifying those details which elicit a positive response and relinquishing easily those which do not. The skillful Storyteller is always a learner, taking action and getting feedback and adjusting her/his actions (word choices) based on the feedback.
Often when telling or retelling a Story for Change, the story needs to be set in another context in order for the listener to have enough detachment to hear new possibilities. The choice of context influences what possibilities will exist in the new story. For example, a machine or sports analogy has certain assumptions and limitations which are different from those in an analogy from nature or family life. Much of the power of Meg Wheatley's work on the new sciences and their application to organizations lies in shifting from a machine metaphor for organizations to an organic metaphor. Both offer ways of understanding organizational relationships. Each has very different possibilities for learning embedded in it.
Consumer Protection Warning: The Storyteller with only a passing knowledge of a context needs to take care using it with listeners with deep knowledge; the amateur may say things that are not accurate and thus distract the knowledgeable listener from the story. On the other hand, directing listeners to a context which is rich for them may allow them to find their own answers.
Of course, the more rapport the Storyteller has with her or his listeners, the more likely the listeners will accept the lead to a new possibility for the story and for themselves. By being fully present with the Living Story, sensitive to words, feelings, values, posture in the world, as well as tone, tempo and volume, the Storyteller inevitably enriches, deepens and strengthens the story. The more compelling the details, the more vivid the vicarious learning and experience each listener will draw from the Story.
As we practice developing and telling Living Stories, we find that the Stories take on a life of their own. As the Tellers, we're simply the conduit, the vehicle through which the stories come. Like Michelangelo removing everything that wasn't the sculpture to create the David, we may discover that we simply need to recognize it, get out of the way and the Story will tell itself. In written form, we've done a little of that by capitalizing words of importance, much as a Native American storyteller would, in order that what matters will be clear to you without the writer getting in the way. The choice of which words to capitalize had that "life of its own."
The storyteller can do that in part because the human story always has certain fundamental or archetypal elements, the elements Campbell describes in the Hero's Journey. Similarly, there are archetypal family patterns at play in those stories ' the need for nurturing during childhood, be it a person or a project, the period of adolescent rebellion, testing the boundaries and oneself, and then maturation into productivity and generativity. The dynamics of groups tell another archetypal story through forming, storming, norming and performing. These deeply embedded patterns of human behavior reflect the syntax of our growth and development. They are the fractal patterns of every Living Story.
And when we tell these stories, we learn and our listeners learn. We
"intuitively recognize that stories engage us more wholly and completely than a linear presentation of facts. Stories breathe life into our learning; they require us to bring our spirits, our souls, our emotions, our imagination, our reasoning, our analysis, our creative juices.
"How do stories help us learn? They engage our mind/bodies completely rather than just our intellect. The cells of our skin, lungs, and liver are just as curious as those of our brain. And they process learnings differently, in ways we need just as much as those of the brain.
"Stories are capsules of time-released learning. They release possibilities slowly and with impeccable choice when we need the learnings, regardless of whether or not we think we are ready, willing, and able. The same story can and will release new learnings every time we hear it ' matching the learnings to our emotional and mental states with the precision of cell replication.
"Stories are alchemy. They are medicine, healing, mystery, paradox, power, and many other things, allowing us to feel, taste, touch, hear and see the stories around us. They are chaos, order, complexity. Stories are fractals. They are necessary, basic and dangerous in that they can't be controlled by our striving intellects. They are the container, the elements, the process and the trigger of transformation." (Learning Organizations, p. 129.)
A story which does not help us learn is not a Living Story. The stories that do help us learn are among our best tools as facilitators!
Lisa Marshall is Senior Vice-President of SYNTAX Communication Modeling Corporation, focusing on collaboration, change management, leadership development, and team building. She was an educational and documentary film-maker for twelve years. She is the co-author of Smart Work: The Syntax Guide for Mutual Understanding in the Workplace (Kendall/Hunt, 1995).
Sandy Mobley is Managing Partner of the Learning Advantage, specializing in organizational diagnosis and intervention, executive and team coaching, and customized training design and delivery. She has been a Training Director at McKinsey & Company and Watson Wyatt, as well as Manager of Executive Development at Hewlett Packard. She co-authored a chapter in Learning Organizations: Developing Culture's for Tomorrow's Workplace. (Productivity Press, 1995).