Recently I was part of a live panel discussing some of the difficulties of agile in a more remote world. The conversation swung towards children’s stories following a question to the panel about how to create that bond when forming new teams in the workplace. The stories we read and hear as children tend to resonate deeply throughout our lives. While this can relate to the storyteller or the time and place, it is also because many of the best children’s stories are:

• Written around fundamental truths

• Cover universal human themes (e.g. directly relatable to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs)

• Teach strong moral lessons

• Conceptually easy to understand, regardless of reading level

The stories from your childhood are likely to become anchor points for your sense of purpose in life, but they can also serve as tools to help you adapt to change and build resilience to discomfort. 

fire-breathing dragons, Arabian princes, other-worldly spirits, and fantastical talking creatures in the office

The position of ‘knowledge worker’ (a broad label for so many career paths), in the modern world is increasingly unpredictable and turbulent, as businesses seek disruption or struggle to resist it. That leaves a place in our office worlds for fire-breathing dragons, Arabian princes, other-worldly spirits, and fantastical talking creatures. In the more liberated post-COVID remote work kaleidoscope, this could literally be costumes and character acting (please send me pictures if this is you). But for most, while we are so sensible and hard-working and feeling the need to be ‘normal,’ we still have the ability to dip into a comforting world where every evil must have a corresponding good, and every injustice demands a hero and their struggle towards the light.

The same stories can have different interpretations

Your workplace may include people from different cultural backgrounds, and of different ages. So, while the themes of their childhood stories have commonality, it is impossible for each team member to relate instantly based on character or story name alone. Even where your workplace has less diversity, perception is naturally diverse, and the same stories shared as children can have very different interpretations.

During 2020 one of my lockdown projects was to photograph each page and then record a voiceover for some of the books I loved reading repeatedly to my children when they were small. I also read and recorded newer stories that spoke similar truths or reminded me of my childhood. Those readings have since travelled the world, my virtual tourist selves, and have been shared with a variety of people (in work and outside). I know that there’s a 93-year-old grandmother in Italy that doesn’t know what I’m saying but still takes enjoyment and meaning from the pictures and inflections of my voice.

So, I propose this experiment: read your favorite childhood story aloud to your team (or record it and share). Ask them what about the story speaks to them. Tell them how you connect to it on the deepest level you’re willing to share. Then invite others in the team to do the same. Begin to understand each other’s stories and you will better understand the needs, objectives, and challenges you all face. You can create a shared landscape, a somewhat safer place where you can be small again, playing with friends instead of meeting quotas and expectations. 

Using Narrative Patterning for Facilitation

I’ve been speaking recently with David Nixon from Creative Edge about his work with business leaders and teams, using a technique called narrative patterning to facilitate the creation of a shared story-scape in the workplace; providing a navigator presence that can guide teams towards a deeper understanding of the problem space they inhabit and help them discover the tools they must create in order to succeed.

It is a beautiful blend of agile principles and childhood fantasy.

Imagine a whole new story that grows with your team; that expresses their shared identity and individual characters; that makes each new project a wonderful adventure. Take turns or collaborate writing chapters, fighting monsters, saving worlds, and falling in love. 

Stories are sometimes all we get to hold onto in the cold and the dark. They are the deepest form of history keeping we know, and they remind us constantly of where we have been; of what we have suffered and overcome. The stories we weave are the record keepers of our fractured souls. 

The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills – Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

Stories allow us to heal and become stronger by providing a safer place for us to re-live the hurt, to understand and to see the opportunities that exist despite the suffering. They help us see the joy that exists, even within desolation and despair. As I heard someone say recently:

Nothing is perfect, everything has cracks, but it’s the cracks that let the light in – (a slight misquote of Leonard Cohen)

So, let some light in. Write your own story and read it aloud if you can. Read the stories of others and come to know how close we all are; how superficial the differences we see when we don’t have the time or shared perspective to learn otherwise.

Want to learn more about our coaching practices and how they could help you and your organization?

Learn More

About the Author:

KYLE RICHARDSON

Connect with us