Circle of the 9 Muses

Chapter 3

Use story prompts when you want to create an intentional experience that draws the right stories out of your team … and in a way that lets them share freely, naturally, and unselfconsciously.

For this exercise, you will need:

• An upcoming event (either formal or spontaneous) where you are planning on asking for stories.

“If I were given three hours to tackle the world's most challenging problem, I would spend the first two and a half hours defining the questions.”

Einstein is credited with saying that. I couldn't find any confirmation that he actually did, but quotes just take on an air of gravitas when attributed to Einstein. Regardless, it contains much wisdom about the sensitivity of questions in framing our understanding of the world.

Questions are especially sensitive in story work. A colleague of mine is a leader in a nonprofit organization here in Nashville. She recently told me that she tried to put some of these ideas to work by hosting a story session with her staff. “It didn't work,” she said. “I asked for stories and everyone just sat there.”

Stories happen naturally all the time, but eliciting them can be like calling a shy child who doesn't want to come out of her room. The paradox of this work is that story is a universal, ubiquitous, and ageless phenomenon—and yet it withers under the harsh glare of self-conscious awareness, demanding expectations, ...