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Beyond Storytelling: Why, When, and How to Work with Stories
Original Program Date :
Length: 58 minutes
You know that stories are an effective way to broadcast information to an audience. But did you also know that real, everyday stories provide unparalleled insight into organizational and community cultures? The process of collecting and working with real, everyday stories is called Narrative Inquiry. There are various approaches. In this session, we'll provide a step-by-step overview of our approach, and describe how narrative inquiry can be used to identify and change patterns of organizational behavior. As we share non-confidential learnings from collaborations with research partners in the US and Australia from different institutional contexts, you’ll learn best practices for collecting, analyzing, and interpreting relevant stories. Our session will end with an interactive simulation of the core step in our narrative inquiry process: Story Listening. You will leave with an understanding of the principles and methods of narrative inquiry and how you can use them –– especially Story Listening –– to design culture change, employee engagement, and diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Criscillia Benford, BA, MA, Ph.D., Co-Founder, Pier Consulting Group
Criscillia Benford is a co-founder of Pier Consulting Group, a boutique consulting agency that helps organizations leverage internal communications to improve employee experience and increase employee engagement. Criscillia studied narratology, rhetoric, and Victorian Literature at Stanford where she received her PhD. She has been helping people hone their communication skills for over 20 years, and has taught literature and humanities courses at the University of Chicago, Duke, and Stanford.
Ana Marie Trester, PIER Consulting
Anna Marie Trester is one of the co-founders of Pier Consulting Group, a boutique consulting agency that helps organizations leverage internal communications to improve employee experience and increase employee engagement. Anna Marie studied sociolinguistics at Georgetown where she earned her PhD. The author of Bringing Linguistics to Work, Anna Marie has taught courses in improvisation, storytelling, and linguistics at a variety of institutions including Washington Improv Theater, Better Said Than Done Storytelling, Howard University, Georgetown, and University of Alberta.
