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Share Your Story Storytelling is one of most powerful methods to inform your audience while increasing participation and trust.
As pace quickens in our high-speed society, it's increasingly important to turn at times, to good old fashioned story-telling--an ancient art that feeds hungry soul. Coupled with pace is fact that facilitators, being in front of room as they are, tend to be viewed as authority figures by many participants, even if only subconsciously. While we tend to ascribe lofty characteristics upon authority figures, it can be valuable to your group to dissolve these potential misconceptions with mild doses of reality from time to time.
Telling a personal story to your group, that is of course relevant to topic at hand, can be a fun, informative, and interesting way to move your group. While at same time, introducing your humanity more fully into room, and increasing participants' trust in you.
What are elements of a good story? Off top of my head, I'd say that most stories that support group process would have some of following characteristics:
- Stories relating personal experiences are best for engendering trust. - Stories should be succinct and interesting. - Stories should contain some deeper message or meaning. - Stories should be told well with appropriate emotional engagement by storyteller. - The story should somehow relate to what you're trying to do as a group and should ideally move group forward. - The story should not be used to avoid or dance around what's up for group. - The story should not involve anyone who would take offense to it being told publicly.
Now, let me tell you a story...
Long, long ago, when I was home for summer after my freshman year of college, I secured a job with a pear-packing plant in an adjacent town. This was a manual labor job but involved a lot of variety. On any given day, I might be finishing metal parts in machine shop, repairing fruit bins, doing light carpentry, general cleaning, etc.
Then one fine day, out of blue, boss strolled up to me with a push broom, a sweeping broom, and a dustpan in hand. This was big boss of whole plant I might add. Big John Bar was his name. He was a huge hulk of a man, with a brusque temperament that didn't exert much energy on pleasantries and could be just plain intimidating most of time.
He handed me brooms and said, "I want you to sweep out factory." I looked around at this huge factory that was around 50,000 square feet, and covered with machinery...conveyers, movers, shakers, and contraptions of every conceivable type, all bolted solid to dirt and dust covered floor.
I replied, "Which part of factory?" Hoping against hope that this question would have some relevance. He replied with response I had most feared, "All of it." I took tools reluctantly and slowly began to survey what seemed like an impossible job of endless drudgery for a mere 19 year-old home for summer.
I seriously considered quitting at this point, but something inside prompted me to at least give this a try. So I began pushing broom. Stroke after endless stroke...stooping under machinery...clearing dust...sweeping it into my dustpan... dumping dirt into garbage can....hour after hour....day after day....sweeping and sweeping...nothing but sweeping. Just broom and I in an endless dance.
