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Preparations for the April 12 2003 Smithsonian event |
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[
Introduction ] [
Jumpstart Storytelling ] [
Values ] [
Putting Story to Work ] [
Future
Stories ] [
Springboard
Stories ]
[ Seth Kahan ] [ Alicia Korten ] [ Rob Creekmore ] [ Madelyn Blair ] [ Steve Denning ] [ Paul Costello ] [ Chronology of Storytelling ] [ Golden Fleece Group ] [ Dave's Story ] [ Preparing the story ] |
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| In preparing for the workshop, the six presenters met
a number of times. This was part of the discussion that took place on
March 7, 2003.
THE
PARTICIPANTS' STORIES |
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| You don’t respond to it. And then ideally, those become
threads that you weave into the rest of the day, so that down the road
those stories live on. Madelyn: We still need to have the right question to pose for the Jumpstart Storytelling, no? BEING
PART OF A LARGER STORY |
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THE
PICTURE OF THE DAY Seth: I’m almost thinking of those old overhead transparencies. We start off with something that shows the larger stream. It seems to be converging. We have all these vectors. We could identify what are the major vectors that are leading into this new way of looking at the world? That’s one slide. Then there’s a slide after we’ve heard a couple of stories. Then we could put all the participants and have their little things that would symbolize their contribution to the Smithsonian. Then as we go though “the now”, we could label springboard storytelling, jumpstart, the kind of things that are happening in the moment. |
| And then at the end of the day when we map out possible
futures, we could just layer on top. Madelyn: We can do it even more subtly than that and in a more sophisticated way. I don’t know what that is yet. Seth: This graphic comes from a classic from the philosophy on space and time…. Rob: It also ties in to the future search process, where you do the same thing. Steve: One thing that slightly bothers me is that maybe they aren’t all rockets shooting up into the sky. There will be some rockets falling back to earth. Seth: We’ll find a different image for that! (laughter) Madelyn: There’s another image – a strange attractor. It is going round and round but it never touches. Seth: Why don’t we create this picture as a group. This is the straw man. We’ll take it apart, and maybe it will look totally different when we’re done. But it at least captures the seed of the idea…. So what’s the story of the day? |
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THE STORY OF THE DAY Rob: Is there a logical progression from one of these modules to another? Alicia: Right! To me, the modules seem very much broken down into pieces. What I liked about Madelyn’s framework was that it felt more holistic. Rob: It felt more like a story. A logical progression of events…. Madelyn: Why don’t you read those to us? |
| Alicia: Culture, community building. creating identity
and linkages. Then sustaining ritual and value transmission. Then creating
vision for the future. Responding to self-selected changes… Seth: Jumpstart storytelling will make visible the values of the group, because the stories are chosen by the group. It’s based on which stories resonate with the most people…. It’s like the nursing story from last year’s Smithsonian. Or the Golden Fleece story. That’s a story that we should tell. I don’t know which version. But we need to get it in there. To me it’s one of the most powerful stories. Now that I’m building this website, I find that.Boston is using it. Amsterdam has requested it. I’m looking at what’s happening out there. It’s a powerful story…. You know, we have the boat! … and the scarves! (laughter) Rob: It’s also about having a progression. It would be nice if this did somehow connect with a story that we could weave through the whole day… Stories generate the culture. And telling the stories say what the culture is. It seems to me that a lot of what’s going on in management circles is an interest in culture. A great story around that is the GTE story in 1995. They needed a different culture. All of this is around this issue of culture formation and transition from one culture to another. It’s walking them through the story of the organization. |
| TELLING
OUR STORY Steve: The story we can tell is… our story. Take the movie, Adaptation. The movie is about the script writer who is given the impossible task of writing a movie about growing orchids in Florida. He ends up solving the problem by bringing his own story into it. I’m wondering whether we can’t weave our story into this. Maybe we start out with the participants’ stories. But then we tell our story as a way of drawing on this larger stream of which we are a part. Maybe even share some of our agonies here. I mean, how could we communicate this? We’re these six people. And you’re the participants, coming from all over, how could we do this? And so we thought about this, and we tried that, and what we’re going to do is, this! In this way, we bring everyone into our story. And maybe weave part of the values of the Golden Fleece group. Our visioning exercise. So they start to see our story as well as their own story. Madelyn: I think that will happen very naturally. Seth: I remember a men’s gathering I went to. There was a kick-off with a fragment of a tale. The unfinished story stirred the group. People responded to the fragment. It can establish threads that weave throughout the day. And it works (laugher) Rob: It related to an overarching theme of fathers and sons. |
| THE
THEME OF THE WORKSHOP Seth: We have the overarching theme, which is the blossoming of narrative as the legitimate toolset or process. Our story lies inside it. Maybe there’s a way that we could tell our story in pieces. I’m doing Jumpstart Storytelling. Maybe I could tell my story as |
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| part of setting that up. I might mention the Golden Fleece
group, working with Steve. I leave some loose threads. I don’t really
have to follow them up. Then later, Steve tells his story. The stories
hang together, but they are told at different points, like milestones
during the day. Then when you start to see them as one story, you start
to realize that this is not six unconnected individuals: this is something
that’s happening as part of a larger pattern. These six individuals
are now presenting a workshop at the Smithsonian that we are all attending.
Why are we doing that? Because we’ve been meeting together for more
than a year. And we’re all involved in these other activities that you
can be part of too. And now you’re story is part of this web of stories.
And we don’t know who’s going to be doing the next Smithsonian. It might
be you. Madelyn: And let’s pull some stories from last year. It would show that continuity. Those stories aren’t lost. Steve: We could have people who were here last year show how their work was affected by last year’s event! Seth: And other Golden Fleece members could share their stories as part of the day. This would show that it’s not just us! Madelyn: We just have to watch the time! |
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TELLING
THE LARGER STORY
Rob: We could also tell the larger story, not just the Golden Fleece story, how this whole interest in storytelling has come about, and where it’s going. So there was Golden Fleece that was bringing the people together. There was a springboard event, the original Smithsonian symposium. Then there was Paul giving us that initial process to help us form our initial identity and values. Then the values came in. |
| HOW
DO THE MODULES CONNECT?
Alicia: It’s nice to be able to keep the modules separate
but in fact you can’t. THE
MULTIPLE LAYERS OF THE STORY THE
CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER Bringing the people together |
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We’re expanding our impact, we’re becoming a benchmark
for other groups on organizational storytelling. Steve: Sparks are flying all over the country. San Diego. Boston. Amsterdam. (laughter) Rob: Today’s event is another example of that. Madelyn: And it’s because they heard a springboard story about this unusual group called Golden Fleece. EXPERIENTIAL COMPONENTS Alicia: What about ritual? Seth: That’s what the Jumpstart Storytelling is about. But that shouldn’t be the only experiential element. Rob: We need at least several. Seth: Jumpstart Storytelling is just the beginning. It’s just the foot in the door. There’s a long way to go from there. |
