Feb 20222

Tell Stories to Build a Strong Community - A Quick Tip

by Jon Grannis, 2 years ago

Storytelling - Sollah Interactive

Guest Contributor - Kari Heistad

Across the globe, cave drawings thousands of years old have preserved the remnants of ancient civilizations. While the drawings may be scattered over great distances and originate from different cultures, they all have one aspect in common: they tell stories. The drawings recount stories about successes, hunts, trials, and daily life.

Storytelling is at the heart of what makes us human and is a universal tool used by groups of people to explain who they are and the experiences that shaped their history. While we might not use cave drawings anymore, we still use storytelling to capture collective histories and lessons learned.

On our work teams, we use stories of past successes and failures to improve our current and future work plans and also to strengthen our sense of community. As work teams become more diverse, their stories will evolve to include new perspectives

Action Step:  Share team and company stories with new employees to help them get adjusted more quickly and to feel like a welcome addition to the group.a list of diversity goals in a visible place. Under each goal detail the action and communication plans and tasks that must be worked on in order to achieve that goal.


Discussion Questions:

  1. What are the team stories that we tell? Why do we tell those particular stories?
  2. Are there any team stories that we need to retire or tell in a new way?
  3. Both the type of story chosen and the way a story is told influences how people perceive us as individuals and a team. With this in mind, what are important guidelines for team stories?
  4. What ways can we shape the team stories we tell to others? What message(s) are we trying to send about our team when we tell these stories?
Interested in learning more? Drop us a line. clientservices@sollah.com or 800-300-8880.

 

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