What to expect: topics

Yes finally it's a blog post related to the book. Does anyone remember that I said I was setting aside October to finish the rewriting of Working with Stories? Well, folks, October laughed. So many tasks came up unbidden that I was barely able to spend a few days on the book. But I did make some progress, slowly, in between things. After three attempts I managed to satisfactorily cluster the themes of about 250 stories gleaned from my notes from around thirty group sessions for storytelling and/or narrative sensemaking. The general outline of topics goes like this.

There are dynamics between the session facilitator and participants.

• People understand your goals, or they don't.
• People understand your methods, or they don't.
• People understand your instructions, or they don't.
• People understand storytelling, or they don't.
• People are motivated to participate, or they aren't.
• People feel it's safe to tell stories, or they don't.
• You understand the people well, or you don't.
• Things run smoothly, or they don't. 
• You get along with people or you butt heads with them.
• People work with you or pursue their own agendas.
• You find unexpected opportunities, or you don't.
• People try too hard to do things right, or won't try at all.  
• The timing is perfect or all wrong.
• You understand your own personality and skills and limitations, or you don't.
• People vary in their interpretations of what you ask them to do.
• People vary by personality in how they respond to your instructions.
• Groups and roles vary in how they respond to your instructions.
• Topics vary in what you can ask about and how you can ask.

There are dynamics among session participants.

• Storytelling has natural dynamics.
• Group conversation has natural dynamics.
• Group sensemaking has natural dynamics.
• Rooms with a few small groups of people in them have natural dynamics.
• People vary by personality in how they tell and listen to stories.
• Groups and roles vary in how they tell and listen to stories.
• Topics vary in how people tell stories about them in groups.

Running a storytelling or sensemaking session has physical requirements.

• The room works well, or it doesn't.
• Recording stories works well, or it doesn't.
• Getting people to come to the session works well, or it doesn't.

That's 28 topics, and I plan to start going through them a few at a time here, with most what I write ending up in the Supporting storytelling part of the book. This week I have only managed to put up the list itself, but next week I plan to start summarizing my experiences and giving some advice on each topic.

If you think there is a topic I should cover about collecting and/or working with stories in group sessions and you don't see it here, please tell me via comment or email.