« How can you become a better facilitator? | Main | How people perceive one another - a short film »
| 19/12/06 | | Questions to elicit stories |
The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation has produced an excellent little book called the Story Guide: Building Bridges Using Narrative Techniques. It’s filled with a range of techniques for collecting and using stories in an organisational setting. I’m a bit of a collector of questions so I was delighted to see their list of questions for finding stories.
“Tell me about a time when …” Tell me about a moment when …”
- you or your project faced a dilemma in a project
- you or your team experienced a significant turning point
- you dealt with a real crisis on a project. What happened before, during and after it?
- you felt really proud to be part of something
- you took a real risk and it paid off or didn’t pay off
- you were really inspired by what was going on around you
- you encountered an obstacle and overcome it
- you saw (one of your organisation’s values) really brought to life/being acted out
- your partnerships were working really well
- you saw positive changes happen as a result of your work
Colton, S., S. Ward, et al. (2006). Story Guide: Building Bridges Using Narrative Techniques, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
Send this entry to:
Email this entry to a friend
View the Technorati Link Cosmos for this entry
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.anecdote.com.au/cgi-bin/mt-tback.cgi/581
Comments
Shawn, this is a really great set of questions, but it got me to thinking (that's what that grinding sound is) - how about other settings?
The list above could apply to projects and/or business in general, but how about (for instance) a list of starter questions for different types of networking meetings: e.g., informal mixer, business contacts, etc.
Carry the idea on for as many types of personal contact situations as possible and publish it as a guide for those of us who are, shall we say, "less than comfortable" in those settings.
Posted by: Robert Hruzek at December 20, 2006 1:03 AM
Good idea Robert. Do you have any suggestions?
Posted by: Shawn Callahan at December 20, 2006 7:39 AM
Shawn, this looks really useful for my current research in international development but could not find it on the website - any hints?
Posted by: rhonda at December 21, 2006 1:23 PM
Hi Rhonda, unfortuntately they don't have an electronic version but you can request a copy by emailing them. I'm now looking around for my copy to find the email address, and do you think I can find it? I will keep looking. Perhaps someone else knows the email address? Ah, here it is: info@deza.admin.ch
Posted by: Shawn Callahan at December 21, 2006 5:09 PM
Shawn, I did search the SDC website but couldnt find a reference to the book. Nor could I find it on Amazon. Can I purchase this book from somewhere?
Posted by: raj at December 28, 2006 9:01 PM
In case you haven't found it....
Try:
http://www.infoagrar.ch/Informationcenter/mediadir.nsf/f2a8b6eeecdcf8cec12569e00039300c/256905b93b9be266c12572b100332937/$FILE/Story%20guide.pdf
Posted by: Jon Revelos at May 30, 2007 1:04 AM
Thanks Jon! and Thanks Shawn for posting a separate post re this. If not for it, I would have surely missed this.
Regards,
Raj
Posted by: Raj at June 1, 2007 10:40 PM