Story-Colored Glasses – Page 4 – A blog about organizational and community narrative

2018-08-09

Works in progress

This is not a here’s-something-to-think-about blog post; it’s a why-hasn’t-she-been-posting-anything blog post. Just so you know going in. Store-bought stories (yes, still) In between other things, I’ve been working towards finishing the book of essays I started writing almost ten years ago about how we don’t tell everyday stories as much as we used to.… Read more
2018-05-28

Underbutterflies are free

About a year ago I cleaned up my old “butterflies” blog post (one of the most popular) and submitted it to the Journal on Policy and Complex Systems. After acceptance, review, and revision, the journal volume is now out, and you can read and download the improved version of the paper (or read the stand-alone… Read more
2018-05-10

Mail bag: On transcribing storytelling

I’m deep in some intense (and fascinating) reading as I work on the last essays in the “Store Bought Stories” book. But the blog is hungry, so I went looking in my mail bag again. Here’s an anonymized (names and details changed) excerpt from some emails I sent recently to somebody who was working on… Read more
2018-03-07

Stories, narratives, and hasty generalizations

This blog post has been moved to (and revised for) The Working with Stories Miscellany. You can find it in Chapter 16. Read more
2018-02-13

Narratopia in Dutch!

Narratopia is now available in Dutch, in both boxed (ready to play) and print-and-play versions. The game was translated by Annemijn van Garderen with help from her dad, Harold. Many thanks to both of them for making it happen. If you are interested in helping me translate Narratopia to a language you know well, send… Read more
2018-01-31

Mail bag: Dimensional axes for sensemaking

I get emails pretty regularly from people looking for a bit of focused advice on some aspect of PNI work they are doing. I almost always respond (though usually not immediately). It occurred to me the other day that most of these responses would make good blog posts. So: this is the start of a… Read more
2018-01-12

Here I am talking about NarraFirma

I finally managed to update the NarraFirma introduction video. I’m sure I’ll hate it in a year’s time, but for now, this is as good as it’s going to get. If you have any questions about NarraFirma, be sure to send them along. Read more
2017-12-08

NarraFirma 1.0

I am finally ready to announce the release of NarraFirma 1.0. I’ve been working on it since the summer. I was able to give the software a nice solid overhaul in functionality and usability. The blog post on the NarraFirma web site describes the changes in detail. I’ll summarize just a few of the major… Read more
2017-11-14

Here I am talking about stories and complexity

Hello everybody. You might be wondering what I’ve been up to lately. To begin with, I’ve been busy visiting relatives, getting sick (then better), and having relatives visit. In October I attended my second NYSDRA (NY State Dispute Resolution Association) conference, where I showed another friendly group of people what it’s like to make sense… Read more
2017-07-18

Togetherness

A while back I was on a discussion list and people were talking about biological symbiosis as a metaphor for people communicating and collaborating. As a former biologist, I felt a responsibility to respond, so I wrote a sort of quick guide to sociality in the non-human world. Several people later thanked me for the… Read more
2017-05-19

Presentations, podcasts, plans

I’m cleaning my office again, so it’s time to catch you up on some presentations and podcasts I’ve been doing lately (outside of conferences). Last June I spoke at my very own local historical society on “Stories in your Family or Community.” In November I was interviewed by Bob Cudmore in his The Historians series… Read more
2017-05-12

Narratopia Revisited

Guess what? I’ve been working on Narratopia again. In case you don’t know: Narratopia is a game of conversational story sharing for 3-6 people. You build a web of connected stories about anything you like. You go on a journey of discovery by exploring experiences and connections. The game helps out by giving you ideas… Read more
2017-03-15

Conference report, part six: Stories and NVC

This is the sixth in a series of blog posts about two conferences I attended this fall (NCDD and NYSDRA). I started by describing the Red-Blue Dictionary and the exercise I designed for it (which I call “Ground Truthing with Stories“). Then I described a new conferences-and-meetings variant of the “Twice told stories” exercise, called “Bubble up stories,” I designed for… Read more
2017-03-06

Conference report, part five: NYSDRA and childhood trauma

This is the fifth in a series of blog posts about two conferences I attended this fall (NCDD and NYSDRA). Now I’ll finish the series with an account of some other meetings and conferences I attended and talk about what’s coming next. (Actually, this post was supposed to complete the series, but it turns out I will… Read more
2017-02-01

Conference report, part four: Cross method mapping

This is the fourth in a series of blog posts about two conferences I attended this fall (NCDD and NYSDRA). Now I’ll talk about Cross method mapping with the Group Works cards. As some will remember, I first started thinking about a way to connect the hundreds of methods and approaches that surround the practice… Read more
2017-01-26

Conference report, part three: Sticker stories

This is the third in a series of blog posts about two conferences I attended this fall (NCDD and NYSDRA). I started by describing the Red-Blue Dictionary and the exercise I designed for it (which I call “Ground Truthing with Stories“). Then I described a new conferences-and-meetings variant of the “Twice told stories” exercise, called… Read more
2017-01-24

Conference report, part two: Bubble up stories

This is the second in a series of blog posts about two conferences I attended this fall (NCDD and NYSDRA). I started by describing the Red-Blue Dictionary and the exercise I designed for it (which I call “Ground Truthing with Stories“). Now I’ll talk about the exercise I designed for the first plenary session of… Read more
2016-12-20

Conference report, part one: Red Blue Dictionary

When I started this blog post, it read: “This past weekend I went to the 2016 conference of the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation (NCDD).” That was in October. Many things have happened since then that prevented me from writing down my experiences about the conference: another conference just after it, the start of… Read more
2016-09-14

Liminal Thinking

So about a year and a half ago, Harold Jarche introduced me to Dave Gray, whom he met at a conference. Dave was writing a book about agility; Harold told him about my work; Dave wanted to talk. He was interviewing lots of people for his book. I said yes, and thus began a fascinating… Read more
2016-08-05

The neverending story of personal storytelling (part three)

This essay is in three parts, of which this blog post is the third. Click these links for parts one and two. What Mr. Coreander’s choices tell us about personal storytelling I said above that I was going to work my way through the significant choices made by each of six functional characters in The… Read more