Author Archives: KatHansen

Svend-Erik Engh, who appeared at the 2007 Golden Fleece conference, offers guidelines (which I’ve adapted/edited below) for giving feedback when listening to stories:

There are four steps in “interactive response:”

After you hearing a story the listener should:

1. Tell about the clearest picture in the story. When the storyteller is rewarded with an clear answer, he/she feels: I heard you and you gave me something.
2. Tell about the theme of the story. What have you heard and understood from the story?

These two are closely connected, so start with 1 and 2 together and then go to:
3. Say something nice about the way the story was told
4. Ask if the response was useful

Engh says: “A task for us now is to link this experience to the world of organisations. How does this influence managers?”

In another exercise, Engh asked participants to:

Tell of a time where you heard a story that had influence on your life. That you can remember. Focus on what happened before the story was told and after. How can we make sure that our story is heard and remembered? Is there something in the preparation of the situation that reflects the impact of the story? Can you prepare the room? Is it how well you know the story? Is it remembered because it is personal ˆ that it deals with something that matters both for the listener and for the storyteller? In a business setting: Can you prepare by telling it to a colleague? Can you prepare your listener? Can you adjust the story, so it hits the listeners?

Engh is curious about finding stories in conversation. “A story connects the two sides of the brains (again: Interaction),” he says. Engh wonders whether a conversation does the same thing. “Of course a conversation is more interactive and therefore more useful than one way communication, but does it stimulate both heart and brain? And can you look at body of a person involved in a conversation and observe the translation, when the conversation changes into a story.”

Similarly, Sandor Schuman offers a procedure for Listening and Giving Feedback to Stories adapted from “Toward a Process for Critical Response” by Liz Lerman here.

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[ Disclaimer: Some of these books I’ve read and some I haven’t. I announce books about storytelling that look interesting. ] The Amazon description of this book, primarily about public speaking, says it “will show you how to express the full range of the magnificence within you as you learn … Continue reading →

In a recent entry, I mused about whether pictures or words do a better job of telling a story. I’m seeing more and more in the storytelling realm about digital storytelling, and while I think that some aspects of digital narrative are a bit far afield from my interests in … Continue reading →

The Transformative Language Arts (TLA) Network, focused on networking and right livelihood for those who use the written, spoken and sung word for social change and personal growth, holds a conference September 12-15, 2008, at Goddard College, Plainfield, VT. The organization also offers a book called The Power of Words.

Storytelling … is one of the most powerful tools for achieving astonishing results. For the leader, storyelling is action oriented – a force for turning dreams into goals and then into results.– Peter Guber in Harvard Business Review Storytelling is an amazing tool because it is holistic, engaging the whole … Continue reading →

The Department of History of Art and Architecture of University of Pittsburgh in collaboration with the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Film Studies Department announces the 2008 edition of its graduate student symposium. The topic of the forthcoming event is “Storytelling: Playful Interactions and Spaces of Imagination in Contemporary … Continue reading →