What’s in a story?
You might say storytelling is as old as the hills. For hundreds of thousands of years people have grouped together around campfires, down the pub, or on long walks to tell stories. Stories about their land, about the origin of life, and about our relationships with one another. For the great British public this might be settling down in front of the telly to watch their favourite soap; for the aboriginal communities it might be singing a story about the lay of the land; and for the Iroquois Nation it might be speaking the story of the children of the future.
Our stories make up the threads that run through the fabric of society no matter what political party is in power or what style of clothing is in fashion. They are weaved into our consciousness by playwrights, painters and singers and serve to keep us entertained as well as interested in our cultural make up. It is no coincidence that even an amateur storyteller can ‘spin a good yarn’ as they too contribute to the beautiful tapestry of life.
It is for these reasons that Casper ter Kuile and I decided to host a weekend about storytelling at the delightful West Lexham sustainability education centre. We also wanted to throw in a bit of a twist so the weekend focussed on how to tell a story about our vision for the future, and how we hope society will develop over the next few decades so that we can be proud of the legacy that we leave our children and grandchildren.
Earlier this Spring West Lexham teamed up with the Rambling Restaurant to host a series of supper discussions about the ‘Next Big Shift’ in society looking at how positive change can be brought about through grass roots organising in addition (and complementary to) top down policy implementation. The weekend workshop on storytelling brought together the essential elements of the Next Big Shift discussions and combined them with sessions led by writers and storytellers who offered inspirational presentations about the power of narrative.
To kick off the sessions Charlotte Millar, co-convener of the Finance Innovation Lab, introduced some of the work from the Art of Collaborative Leadership weekend retreat to frame the discussions and place the positive work of the participants in the wider context of systemic transformation. This helped people at the workshop to think about how they were playing an important role in bringing about positive change at the community level, especially for those involved in the West Lexham project.
Following on from this the writer Saci Lloyd (who has just published her third and we think absolutely brilliant book Momentum) offered a presentation on the role of story in a range of cultures such as people who live in the Amazon rain forest and people indigenous to Australia. The power of these stories and how they shape society’s thinking offered wonderful food for thought as we were then led by Saci to create a ‘Hollywood film’ about our work and our vision for the future. Key themes emerged from this session relating to the role of the hero in both factual and fictitious stories and how as a society we can shape our thinking through the stories we tell.
Finally the group was treated to hearing from the wonderful storyteller Adam Weymouth who both writes and speaks about the pilgrimages that he has embarked upon and his exploration of the relationship between walking, storytelling and offering examples of positive change. Adam is also an excellent orator and treated us to a rendition of The Lorax as well as sharing with us his reflections on the role of the hero in modern and ancient stories, and reflecting on the components of the ‘hero’s journey’ in powerful stories.
To complete the weekend we invited the participants to apply the learning from the three guest speakers to their own lives: to consider how they might articulate their own personal story in the framework of the hero’s journey, as well as how they might ustilise the power of narrative in their work, be it campaigning, journalism or running a social enterprise.
Even if it is just a technique for telling a good story hopefully everybody enjoyed thinking of themselves as heroes (or heroines) for the afternoon: and from what we could see from meeting them all it is clear that they are all heroes in their own right.
