Keywords

Starting with Personal Stories

We are writing this book as academic practitioners and co-founders of a consulting business, but our partnership started as a married couple. With all our social identities as individuals, we also have embodied the identity of members of a multicultural family. While this identity did not seem to matter when we first met, as our relationship grew, we sensed a shift of the existing narratives regarding who we were. This realisation led us to the stories we wanted to claim, to nurture, and ultimately craft together. The freedom of choosing one’s own story was a recurring theme that we did not want to take for granted.

In 2012, after the birth of our first child, Paulo started to wonder about his daughter’s social identity. He asked himself, will she be Finnish, Brazilian, or Canadian? Out of this question, he started to wonder about his own story, which also included stories about his family and Brazilian culture. One particular story that he recalled from his childhood was about his grandmother’s handmade doll. Solely by asking her the question, “When you were young, what did you play with?”, a story was told with the movement of her hands about a doll made with fabric and straw.

The story had evoked a sense of pride in the grandmother, which was manifested when she explained how she had creatively sewed the hands of the doll to give an illusion of fingers. The story also had a nostalgic feeling to it, as the doll would later be given to a younger sister, soon after she got married, leaving her family home at the age of nineteen, and migrating to the south of the country. That was her only toy.

As a child, listening to the detailed story, Paulo could also see his grandmother as a child. The nostalgic feeling was contagious as he imagined her embodied lived experience of creating this doll in a time and place. It was a “place” that she would never relive, and he would never experience and yet both of them found themselves there, through story. The generation gap suddenly seemed to be shortened and other differences became irrelevant.

The story of the grandmother’s doll was a reminder about Paulo’s cultural “treasure.” The story validated the importance of stories for one’s identity and it could be passed on to his children. He knew that everyone had a mining field that could be explored. Being a treasure hunter in this field means to explore the hidden stories that could be valuable for answering a question, reconnecting with one’s authentic identity, or building on a bigger purpose.

Motivated by our desire to make sense of our own stories, we started sharing our ideas with friends and others who were part of our social worlds at this time. What we discovered was that by holding space and actively listening to the storyteller, there was a physical and emotional response of pride, acceptance, and release of the teller for being witnessed and heard. By asking questions related to the story, rather than our own predefined questions, and then, on another occasion, validating the stories back to the teller, there was a shift which led to a new level of rapport. Many storytellers cried and/or listened with silent attention as they had their stories mirrored back to them, rediscovering multiple stories that make up their sense of identity. In this early stage of story mediation, we called ourselves “treasure hunters” as we explored and uncovered precious stories with the tellers.

Ever since we took the conscious path of working with stories, we have experienced the benefits of storytelling and story crafting in our professional life and as a multicultural family. Metaphora International, our company, is the result of the tools we have researched and developed over the years for enabling people to craft stories that speak to oneself and others. Our work as Story Mediators is an extension of our lifestyle, which values wellness, education, storytelling, and community.

While writing this book, the importance of sharing our own stories became clear because, as Story Mediators, we can only interpret the world from our own positioning and draw from our metaphorical stories to give meaning to what is going on (Cleland Silva 2021). This means that our research, writings, and storytelling are just mere reflections of our pre-existing understandings, which are created and maintained through our senses (Geertz 1972, p. 86). It also reveals a profound sense of power and responsibility as to how stories are told, received, and spread to larger audiences.

Regardless of the size of the audience, storytelling evokes emotions, and those emotions affect people in unique ways—the storyteller and the story receiver. By acknowledging the power afforded to stories and the potential effects of storytelling, we have established in our practice that for Collaborative Storytelling to happen, a conscious exchange must take place. Exchanging stories does not mean any story. The stories must come from a place of authenticity. Only then, they will carry value that others will appreciate.

Although personal stories can make the storyteller feel exposed and vulnerable, they also make him or her more relatable to others as human beings—with limitations and challenges, aspirations and dreams. It takes courage to share anything personal and that in itself does not go unnoticed by the audience.

On the other hand, tapping into one’s own vulnerability through personal stories does not mean to blindly trust the audience and hope for the best scenario. The storyteller must have clear intentions on what the story should communicate to a particular audience in a particular context, such as at work. Before sharing a personal story, the storyteller must also seek to empathise with the audience and take responsibility on how the story may land on others.Footnote 1

As Story Mediators, we facilitate story sharing activities around themes within a context and related to an original intention (of the individual, organisation, or a common interest of a group). Mediating the stories, we discovered dominant themes related to purpose and belonging to a community of family, friends, and co-workers. Indeed, people wanted to know that their stories mattered, but most importantly, they wanted their stories to connect with others and contribute to a larger, collective purpose. One specific place that connects people socially, physically, and materially is the workplace.

Entering the Workplace as Story Mediators

Story mediation is an intervention method for collaborative sensemaking at work during times of strategic change. Most often, strategic change is not about sensemaking of individual members, but rather sensegiving by the leaders through narratives (Logemann et al. 2019). Sensegiving is a process attempting “to influence the sensemaking and meaning constructions of others towards a preferred redefinition of organizational reality” (Gioia and Chittipeddi 1991, p. 442). Indeed, sensegiving can facilitate the construction of shared accounts among members (Mantere et al. 2012), fostering positive attitude towards change (Stensaker et al. 2008). And yet, leaders may mistake their sense-giving influence on the members’ sensemaking of the change (Kraft et al. 2018) as well as the emotional and material consequences when the sensegiving is contested (Maitlis 2005).

As Story Mediators, we begin the Collaborative Storytelling Activity with sensegiving actors to explore the present dominant narratives and metaphors at the workplace during the specific time of change. At this stage, from our social positions in the context, we are also sensegiving through our narratives as to who we are and what we are doing in the workplace. This sense-giving is an entry point for us to gain legitimacy, consent, and trustFootnote 2 to start the process of externalising individual members’ stories but also familiarise ourselves with potential dominant narratives and sensegiving of the decision makers. In this respect, we are sensegiving to Collaborative Storytelling Activity to build narratives in organisational change by starting with the dominant group of actors. Once we receive consent by the dominant sensegiving actors and have a general view of the dominant narratives, we can start Collaborative Story Craft as an intervention.

Nonetheless, as external consultants, it is of vital importance that Story Mediators be aware of their position of power, especially regarding the perceptions of workplace actors. Story Mediators are in positions of perceived expertise, authority, and status which stem from how workplaces are approached and accessed by the external world. Through our consulting experiences, it is very easy to get passionate about the actors’ stories or be charmed by a leader or a dominant actor in the group. We are not alone in this as power is fundamental to human existence and influences social interaction, interpretation, and behaviours, depending on the context (Diamond 2016, p.4; see Gherardi et al. 2007).

Self-awareness of power helps with understanding the force of narratives and metaphors in the workplace, but it also keeps us in check, so we do not misuse our authority and prevent marginalised or non-dominant stories from being included. There are two ways we strive to prevent the misuse of power when entering the workplace: (1) our mosaic of values called TILES, and (2) working with another Story Mediator who is outside the process of Collaborative Storytelling Activity with the organisation at that given time.

The mosaic of values (see at the end of book) is in Portuguese and English to reflect the co-founders’ mother tongues and social identities. It also reflects where we practice Collaborative Storytelling Activity.

TILES: A Mosaic of Values

Our code of conduct is formed by a mosaic of values , referred to as TILES. Those values are connected with our story and how we expect to relate with our community of clients, collaborators, and partners in practice.

TRADE

INCLUSION

LIBERTY

EQUILIBRIUM

SUSTAINABILITY

TROCA

INCLUSÃO

LIBERDADE

EQUILÍBRIO

SUSTENTABILIDADE

While “trade, inclusion, liberty, equilibrium, and sustainability” are the values we promote externally (to potential clients), there are other values we incorporate into our collaborative practices.

T

Trade, Time, Trust & Transparency

I

Inclusion, Intention & Information

L

Liberty and Leadership

E

Equilibrium (x 8 wellness dimensions)

S

Sustainable Stories

It is important that every person or entity collaborating as qualified Story Mediators using Collaborative Story Craft (CSC) understands our mosaic of values (TILES) in its entirety.

Conclusions

When embracing the role of Story Mediator, practitioners should understand that stories, although resourceful information, should be respected as personal property.

Story Mediation validates (with the storytellers) that the stories captured by the Story Mediator are afforded the meaning that the storytellers intended. Most importantly, Story Mediators should get consent that the themes selected to be worked on as a group reflect the storytellers’ contribution.

As receivers and witnesses of stories, Story Mediators are exposed to personal information and emotional manifestations of people’s experiences. It is important to differentiate and guide the storytellers in their sensemaking process to consider the original intention of Collaborative Storytelling within a context (of an activity).

With work as craft mindset, Story Mediators rely on well-defined values that can address the impact that their role may cause in a community of practice. In our collaborative practices with other practitioners, our values also communicate our expectations when initiating a joint effort to mediate, research, or consult on Collaborative Storytelling Activities.