See Loren’s bio, photo, and Part 1 of this Q&A.
See Part 2 of this Q&A.
See Part 3 of this Q&A.
See Part 4 of this Q&A.

Q&A with Loren Niemi (Question 5):

Q: In your experience, how does storytelling help build community?

A: On the most basic level, storytelling builds community by identifying “us” as family, clan, neighborhood, village, religion, ethnicity, nationality, etc. The fundamental kinds of story that exist in every culture — myths, hero tales, trickster stories, humor/jokes and stories of the spiritual — offer us models of who we are, who “they” are, how we think, act, believe, live, etc.

Beyond that the four kinds of storytelling — personal stories, oral histories, metaphors and rituals — that exist in every organization from families to clubs to businesses, invite us to identify and share beliefs, values and behaviors with each other. The thing is the same stories and mechanisms for storytelling that bind us together can also exclude.

So once again I come back to the issue of consciously identifying, shaping and telling our stories. If we want to build strong inclusive communities, we need to be intentional in the stories we tell and the way we tell them. This requires more time, focus and resources than many of us are willing to commit without support from the “powers that be” and then we wonder why there is so much distrust and lack of understanding. Lakoff says that whoever frames the argument controls the argument, and I say that if we want to build a healthy community we need to expand the “us” without necessarily having to demonize “them” in the totality of the stories we tell.

Cynthia Kurtz, whose terrific book, Working with Stories, I blogged about here and who will be featured in a Q&A in December, is making a nice offer to story practitioners who might have case studies to share in a future revision of the book. She says:

I’m looking for some real community case studies to add to the Working with Stories (WWS) book, and here’s the deal.  If you are doing a small community project (i.e., not for a giant firm or government agency) and are using the methods I describe in WWS, I’ll spend some time giving you feedback on your plans or looking at your results or whatever (through email/Skype) if you give me a case study about your project when it’s finished. I’ll put your case study (anonymized or not, your choice) on the WWS web site with your name and link (or not, your choice) and the book will be better for it!! If you want to write a case study about a project you’ve already done instead, I’ll help you with another project (same deal, my time for your time).

The case study you provide should be at least one page long and should describe: why you did it, how it got started, what challenges you faced, what decisions you made, how people reacted, how you responded, what surprises you found, what you did with what you found, what other people did, how it turned out, what you might do in the future, what you would do differently the next time, and so on.

This offer is limited to the first several takers, and to the rest of 2008, and to a maximum of 4 hours of my time per project, and of course I reserve the right to choose whether a project fits the book’s audience. Email cfkurtz at cfkurtz.com

See Loren’s bio, photo, and Part 1 of this Q&A.
See Part 2 of this Q&A.
See Part 3 of this Q&A.

Q&A with Loren Niemi (Question 4):

Q: You teach storytelling at the college level. Do you find your students receptive, or is it difficult to attain “buy-in” to the value of storytelling?

A: There is always some initial skepticism — for two reasons: because they do not have the language to name what they already have experienced as storytelling and because the storytelling “brand” as they identify it has been so often associated with librarians reading books to children instead of rappers and hip-hop artists rhyming or scriptwriters framing television or movie narratives. The class I teach operates on two levels of learning — one identifying the forms and functions of story in business, education, media, culture and our spiritual lives; and the other in having them tell both personal and folk/ethnic/cultural stories. No one leaves the class without understanding why and how stories shape our world.

See Loren’s bio, photo, and Part 1 of this Q&A.
See Part 2 of this Q&A.

Q&A with Loren Niemi (Question 3):

Q: What’s your favorite story about a transformation that came about through a story or storytelling act?

A: This is a small one. Megan Wells, Nancy Donoval, and I did a project with DDB advertising focused on financial and wealth-management services. The creatives were skeptical that we had anything to offer them that they did not already know but as part of our metaphorical examination of wealth, I told “Rumplestiltskin” and described the challenge the Miller’s daughter faced (turning straw into gold) as “an impossible task needing to be done in an unreasonable time.” There was an audible gasp that went through the room which was confirmed when we talked about the story — that phrase described their situation, their feelings. They were the Miller’s daughter expected to turn straw into gold. From that moment on, the tone changed and everyone in the room was engaged in the same task for the same ends.