Tell Me Something Good

Storytelling at the Westward Ho by Stacey Gandy

When I started working with the residents of the Westward Ho, I quickly saw the need for residents to be seen and heard. I recalled attending a storytelling event during the holidays and remembered how connected I felt to the tellers on the stage even though I had never met them. That is what the residents needed! They were hungry for connection. Liz Warren responded enthusiastically when I emailed her asking if she would be interested in exploring a collaboration between the Storytelling Institute and the work we were doing at the Westward Ho.

When the new school year started, Liz trained me and the social work students on using storytelling for advocacy. We met Carly Davis who would be our guide through our storytelling adventures. We learned story structures. We crafted stories. We participated in story circles. We learned how to give affirmative feedback. We told our stories. We were storytellers. We talked about how we would use this with the residents of the Westward Ho. We would offer a storytelling workshop to residents once a month so they could craft stories and practice telling them in small groups of 2-3 people. We would offer a story circle weekly so residents could respond to prompts on various themes. We would also hold a storytelling event once a month if students and residents wanted to tell their story in front of a larger group. We had a plan.

The next month, Carly facilitated our first storytelling workshop. Residents learned story structures. Residents crafted stories. Residents participated in a story circle. Residents learned how to give affirmative feedback. Residents told their stories. The residents were storytellers. It was exciting to see the residents engage with each other and us through their stories. Attendance at this first event was smaller than we wanted, but we knew that word of mouth would help it grow. We also discovered that some residents didn’t attend because they thought someone was going to read them a book and they were not interested. We changed up our advertising and continued! We started student-facilitated story circles and the monthly storytelling events as well as continuing the storytelling workshops. As time went on and we held more and more of these events, the impact of storytelling was beyond what we had hoped.

Residents that normally did not talk with one another were talking. They were able to listen to each other without interrupting or changing the subject. Residents were fondly sharing memories from their past, noting that they had not thought about these events or places for quite some time. Some residents started processing difficult events in their lives and we were able to transition them into needed services to help with this processing. This was more than we were originally hoping for!

We are now in our third year of the storytelling program with the residents from the Westward Ho. We have made some tweaks here and there to continue to improve the experience. Carly is still our guide and Liz our leader. I am so grateful Liz said yes to a cold call email and embarked on this incredibly beneficial journey.

Recognizing the Other Through Story by Kate Helm

You can’t hate someone when you know their story.

I remember reading that line in one of the texts for our Personal Stories class and it has stuck with me ever since. It assumes that humans are inherently bound to each other. Many times we forget about that connection and hate and suspicion grows. When that happens, we can turn to stories to find our way back to each other again. Once I know your story and you know mine, it’s as if we recognize each other once more.

I witnessed this directly just a few months ago. In my work as an interventionist at a local high school, I was recently brought in to mediate a conflict between two teenaged girls. Both girls are highly explosive and had been suspended multiple times for fights. For this particular incident, instead of being suspended off campus, I brought them to an intervention room on campus to serve out their consequence together over three days. I monitored from afar as the two of them slowly opened up to each other. I stayed out of their way as they shared stories about their families, their homes, and their lives. Their stories were both heartbreaking and heartwarming. At the beginning of their stint in our intervention room, they were sworn enemies. By the end, they found that their stories were the same and could no longer hate the other. How can you hate a person whose pain is the same as yours?

Storytelling helped the two of them find the best in each other when they had been hell bent on finding the worst. My mind continues to spin with what I witnessed and with all the possibilities that the simple act of sitting with one another can bring. I find myself seeking others out just to listen to their stories and hope that they ask me for mine. I believed that storytelling was powerful even before I took this class. I know it now.

The image at the top of the post can be found here.

Budding Entrepreneur Storytellers by Lauren Besich

I was asked to give a storytelling presentation to entrepreneurship students at ASU in October.  The instructor wanted his students to learn storytelling skills that would serve them through their careers in business, because ultimately, they are in the business of people, and people connect to stories.  He had spent some time earlier in the semester covering Joseph Campbell's "Hero's Journey" in class, and wanted them to apply this to their experience in business.

To bring them to story, I gave them a core value exercise.  From a list of 75 core values (i.e. social connection, honesty, advocacy, courtesy, etc.) they narrow it down to a list of ten.  I invited them to share their Top Ten in small groups. As I walked around the groups I saw mini-stories start to form as they explained their choices.  From there they brainstormed memories sparked by their Top Ten core values.  After sharing some techniques and structures for story crafting, they each took a turn telling their story to their small group.  My favorite part of the class was when four students told their stories to the whole class. What ensued was incredible.

One student who, to the chagrin of the instructor, arrived 45 minutes late, told a story about his mother battling cancer, and working a full-time job selling pest control while attending school full-time.  Even though his life is hard he sees the blessing of being healthy and able to do the things he enjoys.  Because of this story, the instructor had a better understanding of how this student's inability to sleep at night causes him to be late to class in the morning.  His perspective of this student completely changed.  As the other students told their stories their classmates saw them on a deeper level.  They experienced the power of storytelling.

According to an article on the Berkeley ExecEd website, storytelling in business is effective because it creates an emotional connection for customers, and customers make decisions based on how they feel.  Stories are also easier to remember than data.  I've seen a few great stories in class that told a story with a data set, and I STILL remember them (one was about the "O" ring failure that was responsible for the Challenger explosion).  Stories also encourage action.  People who buy TOMS shoes know that for every pair of shoes they buy, a pair is donated to someone in need.  I had a strong TOMS shoe era a few years ago. 

This ASU professor understands the power of storytelling in the business world, and sees the importance of intentionally including it in his curriculum.  Budding entrepreneurs can apply storytelling skills to all aspects of business life.

Storytelling in business. Berkeley Exec Ed. (n.d.). https://executive.berkeley.edu/thought-leadership/blog/storytelling-business

The image at the top of the post can be found here.

The risks are worth it, all the time! by Donna Martin

It is the end of the fall semester - the last class meeting of STO 297: Creating and Telling Personal Stories. We gather eagerly to hear these last few personal stories thoughtfully crafted by our classmates. They do not disappoint.

I have avoided telling personal stories since 1999 when I earned my storytelling certificate. I found that sharing all the other types of stories – folk tales, tall tales, myths, historical stories, fact-based stories – far easier, more enjoyable, and less scary. To tell a personal story well you need to open yourself up and be vulnerable –scary stuff! This being vulnerable does not come to me easily.

My classmates embrace the process and share amazing stories with humor and pathos. I know more about their formative years, their families, their beloved pets, and adventures because of their honest, authentic storytelling. I am in awe of their personal courage.

Any time a teller crafts a story, certain choices are made – how to structure the story, which perspective to use, what imagery works best to evoke the setting and the characters and weighing the risks of telling the story in a particular way to a specific audience. This is especially true when crafting a personal story.

The best way to conquer fear is to face it. I enrolled in the personal story telling class to face down my fear of being vulnerable while telling stories. We were asked to craft and tell three personal stories – themes and topics were left up to us. I did not disappoint.

Yes. It was challenging, scary, and risky. I was anxious about the way I crafted the stories. Was it relatable? Was it funny in the right places? Could I keep the audience safe? Should I play it safe, or take the risk and be as vulnerable as needed to deliver a well-told story? These questions and more bounced around in my head right up until the moment I started telling the story.

What I learned is. . . the risk is scary, and then you take the risk, and it works. The next time you take the risk, it is still scary, but you remember how well the last time turned out, so you take the risk again, and again, and again. For me, it does not get easier – it becomes a learned habit. Take the risk. Enjoy the outcome.

The risks in storytelling are worth taking. The risks in personal storytelling are worth taking every time.

The image at the top of the post can be found here.