NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE
Here are a few reflections on a session held at the 2012 North American IAP2 Conference in Halifax.
Our analytic brain gets a workout these
days. Factual information flow is all around us, demanding our grey matter to
process, process, process. This doesn't always work in favour of us looking at
things from another angle, appreciating another perspective, and understanding
complex issues. We can, however, help our brains to begin to consider
information in a different way by introducing narrative techniques to our
engagement processes. Pattie La Croix from Catapult Media took the time to introduce
a few of us to the "Narrative Room" technique on Day One of the IAP2
North American Conference. In small groups, we listened to Pattie's ideas about
story, and then were given the time and space to work through a narrative room
process of our own.
Pattie’s work rests on her favourite
definition of story – “A story is a fact, wrapped in emotion that provokes us
to take action”. It is the broader narrative context and resulting emotion that
takes us from reflexive thinking (our default), to reflective thinking.
Reflective thinking supports us in processing complex problems and possibly
seeing them in a new way. According to Pattie, narrative techniques also help
to build relationships, as we can begin to understand appreciate fellow
participants’ deeper personal context, perspective, and emotion with respect to
an issue.
Following the small-group practice of the
narrative room technique, Pattie reminded us two of the most important points
about the ethics of narrative technique – 1) the story that is told should be
able to be told in front of the people that it is about and 2) don’t story over
someone else’s story. Pattie made great
use of our short time together, and I’m sure many of us will be looking for
more information about how to properly use this technique in our processes.
Guest Blogger
Great post, Jane! I was wondering if you can explain more about what Pattie means by "don't story over someone else's story."
ReplyDeleteThanks! I just saw this, so sorry for not responding earlier. My understanding was that it is important to let everyone have their version of events and not try and summarize or add or alter another's story.
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