Anecdote - Narrative Techniques Workshop

Narrative is ideal for revealing the rich complexities which emerge when people interact. Anyone involved in addressing the following types of issues will gain value from this workshop:

culture change;
trust;
change management;
mergers and acquisitions;
capturing the knowledge of retiring employees;
capturing lessons from projects;
occupational health and safety; and
risk management.

Practical and hands-on

This is not a workshop that deals with how to construct better stories to improve corporate communications. Rather, it focuses on collecting stories currently being told in your organisation. These stories provide insight that is unavailable through traditional analytical approaches. From this basis, innovative solutions can be designed.

Narrative techniques require practice, and are not something you can learn in theory. You must have practical, hands-on experience.

This workshop provides opportunities for you to use the techniques with other workshop participants, thus providing you with first-hand experience. After the workshop, participants will have access to an online forum to share what they have learned when they apply the techniques at work. It is also a great place to ask questions in context of the real issues that arise in practice.

In this workshop you will learn a range of techniques. These will enable you to elicit anecdotes, to use these anecdotes to make sense of complex issues, and, utilising this understanding, to design interventions based on ideas derived from the science of complexity.

During the workshop, you will learn:

when narrative approaches make sense and when to avoid them;
how many participants to involve and the characteristics you should look for in selecting participants;
how to elicit anecdotes using two effective techniques;
how to record and manage digital audio files;
how to use transcription services to best effect;
how to extract anecdotes from transcriptions;
how to extract meaning from a volume of anecdotes; and
how to design interventions for truly complex problems.

At the end of the day you will be ready to run a narrative-based project—such as collecting lessons learned, understanding the role of trust in your organisation, or enhancing occupational health and safety. These are just some examples of how I have used narrative techniques in other organisations.

Your facilitator

Shawn Callahan is one of Australia’s most experienced narrative practitioners with more than 5 years of hands-on experience in conducting narrative projects and over 15 years as a consultant and researcher.

These projects have tackled a variety of seemingly intractable issues—such as trust, understanding the cash economy, and workplace safety. Shawn is the former knowledge-management practice leader for IBM Australia and regional leader of IBM’s Cynefin Centre.

Shawn has had papers published in Knowledge Management and HR Monthly, and has recently had a book chapter published on the topic of communities of practice. Shawn’s views on complexity, narrative, and knowledge are posted frequently at www.anecdote.com.au.

Workshop Details

Date: 11 May 2005
Time: 8.30 am to 5 pm
Venue: University House, Canberra
Price: $875 including GST

What past attendees have had to say

"Indeed the very practical nature of this workshop is its greatest strength."
"I liked Shawn’s honesty and commitment to participants."
"Shawn has an open and engaging approach which is what is shown to work best with this technique and creates an enjoyable workshop."
"The method is rich as it is process of discovery and saying what has needed to be said. Narratives thus are often rich in themes and insights."

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Categories

Introduction to Narrative Techniques Workshop