True Storytelling - Help stories along - You must be able to help stories on their way and be open to experiment

Principle 5 “You must be able to help stories on their way and be open to experiment”* is the core of the True Storytelling principles. Principle 1-4 is about planning and making room for the story, for the process, for the intuition, for the flow. Principle 5 is lifting all these factors to pure manifestation.

We can get caught up in our story and in our plot especially if we control it all with our mind. We wish to be in control and to control the outcome of investment. You reap what you sow – but if you think of planting a seed you don’t sit next to it and sit there every day to watch it grow. You give it water, you nourish it, perhaps you even talk loving and nicely to it and then you let it go.

And this is the core in principle 5 - the best way to help a story along is simply to let it go. Set an intention of what you wish to see come to fruition and then let it go. Magic happens when you no longer control, not with your emotions, not with your thoughts or actions and by letting go you bring the opportunity of restorying.

You take a stand back and you look at your old story without any attachment and you create a new story based on the old ones experience.

The way that I look at restorying is asking myself this question. Was it a lesson or was it a blessing? Did I grow as a person in anyway – I sometimes just look for the smallest positive thing I can possible find and when I find that thing, which I always do I am grateful for that small, small thing. Then I build up a new story from that small thing I am grateful for and a new and grander story emerges.

I simply make a promise to myself. To progress – to move forward. Stagnation will lead to a fall and nothing is fixed. Everything is in movement a thing we often tend to forget in our fast-paced lives. But I promise you, when you sit there on next to the side of a dying loved one. It is not all the hours spent on a business, or looking at your iphone that you will share. It is the beautiful memories, you have created together. The shared experiences, the laughter, the joy, the challenges, you have overcome and how you have always had each other.

In business how do you help a story along?

You need to start with the facts, the data, the outcome of the old story. Where did it bring us, what was the feedback I received from Stakeholders? I am absolutely sure you have heard the saying “Kill your darling” – but when you are in a stagnant phase in your business that is exactly what you have to do.

Then gather all the information and analyze it and find the new story. Find people engaged in your project and hear their story and suddenly you will find resonans in what is being said and a new story emerge.

It is the art of questioning the past, asking into details and reflecting, without a shed of judgement.

The way I work with my clients is that I gather all their input, arrange a workshop, where we draw their experience on a board. Then let them see for themselves how the story unfolds and step back for a while, just for the participants to reflect.

The silence here is the key. Not saying anything, not showing a direction or guidance. The only guidance is for them to feel safe in the sacred place of silence.

Then I encourage them to find back to where the passion lays in their project. I look for the twinkle in the eye, that extra big smile and when I see that, then I know I have hit the creative nerve again and we can start to innovate.

The project then grows out from inspiration and flow and the stagnant phase vanishes and develops into a growing progress again.

This is an ongoing process that everybody should embrace just like the infinity-symbol – It moves constantly. There is no end-result but only an endless movement of energies.

I heard from a company that had participated in an accelerator programme, that when they entered they were so focused on what the outcome should be. But when COVID came everything in the accelerator-programme changed and their biggest outcome which was to participate in an exhibition was not possible any longer. They then decided to let completely go and just see what came along. They decided to say yes to all that they were offered during the programme and see where it would lead them.

They ended up meeting one of their biggest customers through a completely different activity offered in the accelerator programme. A situation occurred, which they never could have predicted. But they were ready for an opportunity and when it came they were prepared to grab it.

As principle 5 illustrates they were open to experiment, see what came along, while communicating their true story.

*The 7 principles are from the book True Storytelling, Seven Principles For An Ethical and Sustainable Change-Management Strategy by Jens Larsen, David M. Boje and Lena Bruun.

Anne-Marie Hall became a certified Trainer by the True Storytelling Institute in February 2021.

Amazing Hall helps Healthcare Entrepreneurs and Executives through a mixture of storytelling and strategic marketing guidance to navigate in their journey.