Anecdote: Getting your anecdote circle started

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30/05/07 |

Getting your anecdote circle started

By Mark. Filed in .

There are several aspects to this posting. The first is that it can be good to start anecdote circles with something familiar and non-threatening. The second is about the additional meaning you get when you hear an anecdote rather to reading it.

Last week we were in an anecdote circle examining collaboration and I started by relating the story below (to give example of an anecdote) provided in an earlier anecdote circle.

“I work in Wing 5 of the building. For a long time I would walk all the way to the kitchen in Wing 3 to make my coffee because I would bump into all sorts of people along the way and find out what was going on…” Another participant then chimed in, saying, “We just thought you were stealing our milk”.

Another participant then described how he had inadvertently started ‘the milk wars’ in one office by using milk that didn’t belong to him.

In the spirit of good ditting (as Dave Snowden describes it) the two anecdotes in this piece of audio were then provided. One of the points, especially about the first anecdote in the audio, is that the story was told with passion, timing and humour, things that are absent when the anecdote is transcribed into the written word. Now, we just need a way to use large numbers of audio anecdotes in workshops…

Everyone seems to have a 'tea-room story'. Using something simple like this can help get an anecdote circle off to a flying start.

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