Circle of the 9 Muses

Chapter 6

Use these ideas when you want to build your team's capacity for directed listening and drawing meaning out of stories, while giving your storytellers an opportunity to think about their own stories in fresh ways through the perceptions of their peers.

For this exercise you will need:

• A context where your team can hear and talk about stories (I suggest integrating these activities whenever you host story circles, as described in Chapter 2, “Host a Story Circle.”)

I remember when my kids were young, and we saw the Pixar animated movie The Incredibles in a movie theater. We talked about the movie in the car on the way home.

“I like how all of the people in the family had different powers,” my son, Ollie, said. “I liked how Dash was super fast.”

I asked, “Why do you think the little boy's power was speed?”

Without missing a beat, Ollie said, “Because little kids are hyper!”

I sensed that we had stumbled on something good here. I pressed: “What about the daddy?”

“He was strong, because all daddies are strong and protect their family!”

“What about Violet, the teenage sister?”

He had to think about that one for a second. “She could turn invisible. Girls don't want anyone to look at them and they get embarrassed. That's why she turned invisible.”

“And the mom?”

“She could stretch! That's because moms have to do a lot. They have to do everything at the same time.”