Initial Thoughts on Stories

Here are some thoughts that give shape to some of the ways I have come to think about stories...

Stories are fundamental to how we communicate, learn and think.

The shortest distance between two people is a story.

Stories are less about telling and more about listening and eliciting.

The only reason to tell is a story is to trigger more stories and insights from within ourselves or draw out (elicit) the stories of thers.

We have all the story equipment to connect with yourself and others in rich ways. How often are we using it? Do we use it in conscious and purposeful ways? Do we create environments that encourage others to share their stories?

Stories go beyond the obvious ways that we use them to encode information.

Play with the counter-intuitive notions that stories are implicit in nature; encoding messages clear cut messages to move learning, emotions, ideas or values is only the tip of the iceberg and perhaps the least important capacity of stories.

To be called a story - a story does not need to have a clear beginning, middle and end or recognizable story trajectory. By accepting this we are neither negating story in its obvious forms or diluting the notion of stories.

Stories create spaces of trust and relationships. They are living entities made real and present by the reflecting, remembering, and imagining of people engaged with each other.

Stories achieve their greatest power in concert with each other.

Stories are emergent in nature.

Through stories we enact versus announce our intentions.

Our actions impregnate the moment with new stories creating possibilities and ripples of sense making and future sense giving of others.