Narrative Breakthroughs

We are very pleased to announce an in-house programme in partnership with Change Designs. Please be in touch to explore how this consciousness-embedding programme can be adapted to your unique requirements.


Narrative Breakthroughs

Breakthrough story-telling, listening and witnessing to change the person, change the organisation, and change the world.
We are all hardwired for story and metaphor, and we are all in the throes of continual change. Narrative Breakthroughs is a two-day experiential workshop that brings together

• story, anecdote, metaphor


• & change, transition, awareness
  

in order to raise consciousness and uncover new possibilities at three levels: personal,
organisational, world.
The workshop is offered as a customised in-house programme – so that the learning is directly related to the organisation and its people’s specific issues and challenges. The programme is competence-based. Enquiries to: centserv@iafrica.com

Module 1: Setting the scene

The power of stories
• Why and when stories, anecdotes, metaphor work
• What happens when a story is told
• How story differs from other communication techniques (cognition)

The elements of story
• Players and roles: teller, listener, witness, the story
• The story journey. Mindfulness and imagination
• Anatomy of story: pattern, process, shape
• Words and metaphors

The intention of story
• Ethics
• Expressing and impressing
• Raising consciousness

Module 2: Personal breakthroughs

Who you are and who you want to be?
• Motivational fingerprint, personality, roles, identities, relationships
• Developing your story confidence and competence

The heroic journey
• What is change? The transition cycle
• Types of changes that stories could help people though crisis, loss, confusion
• A call to adventure, the discovery of meaning

Writing your new story
• Choices and change resilience

• Reframing, midrash, active imagination and the archetypal hero within
  • Resonance and influence
  
  Being a character in another’s story
  • Listening, witnessing, story-catching
  • Assertiveness, emotional and social intelligence, charisma
  • Use of stories by coaches, team leaders, carers, friends
  
  Module 3: Organisational breakthroughs
  
  The Business Case for Story

Expanding usage via various types of story
• Effectiveness of springboard stories, scenarios, vision, war stories, personal stories, stories to enliven learning…..

Useful techniques that go beyond current practices
• Anecdote circle research
• Metaphor elicitation
• Observation, deepening mindfulness, consciousness - raising
• Sense-making
• Emotional connection in selling
• Sensory and dialogue branding

Impacts on performance
• Open culture (listening, questioning, sharing, innovating)
• Reinforcement of shared values
• Smoothing transitions
• Improved narrative competence
• Mindfulness and imagination stimulate innovation

Changing the World

Stories and metaphors that have changed the world
• Stories from business, religion, government, medicine………

How the change happens
• The nature of influence
• Butterfly effects
• Belief systems

Organisation challenges and possibilities
• Social, environment, business integration: people, planet, profits
• Change and responsiveness
• Being part of a bigger picture
• Becoming great

Enquiries to: centserv@iafrica.com

July 23rd, 2012 - ADVANCED CORPORATE NARRATIVE WORKSHOP

An experiential workshop for CEOs, Marketing Directors, HR Directors, and all who want to grow themselves and galvanise their organisations through the power of story.

Discover the psychology and pattern of narrative, and ways to make sense of issues using anecdote circles and appreciative inquiry, forge emotional connections to the brand, elicit metaphors as a deep research tool,developing emotional and social intelligence, promoting mindfulness and imagination within the organisation, and much more…

The event, facilitated by Graham Williams and Dorian Haarhoff, will take place at Eagle’s Nest Estate, Johannesburg.

Bookings: amrita.singh@gmail.com For more information telephone Amrita on 084 359 4527

Delegates will receive a free membership of The Halo and the Noose web resources, which include eBooks, Diagnostics, Articles and Multi-media (http://www.haloandnoose.com/) ; and copies of Management Today.

They will work on a diagnostic to determine the strength of their organisation’s current competencies and application of narrative

There is an optional hour of Herman Charles Bosman on the evening of the 11th, and a further option (the following day) of a free half-hour individual consultation regarding possible solutions to delegate’s specific organisational needs.

A 16 page special corporate narrative supplement, containing articles on the untapped potential of story in business, the brain and branding, engaging employees via story, collective sense-making and the ethics of storytelling – may be accessed at

http://content.yudu.com/A1wout/MTHN/

Halo and Noose Reviews:

“The Halo and Noose should be seen as an exciting further step in the long process of re-connecting business life to the mainstream of human history, experience and potential” Ralph Windle, founder/ director: The Creative Value Network

“This is the best book about leadership and business that I have seen in a long time. It is fresh, interesting, needed and written to reach out and touch the toughest part of each of us. This is not about story telling, but more importantly, about how we can all change our story and create a future distinct from the past” Peter Block author (Flawless Consulting) and consultant partner in Designed Learning, USA. Masters Degree in Industrial Administration (Yale)

“A great piece of work which stimulates one to look at life differently - very useful for consultants, trainers and coaches who can draw on the various aspects of storytelling in ways that traditional methods simply cannot”Angelo Kehayas, CEO Profweb, Fellow Certified Management Consultant, BSc, and MBA

“I can’t remember when last I was so impressed with something. Wow! This book needs to reach the USA and the mainstream of business and societal conversation there. I am SO excited about this publication and even more excited about having this kind of resource available………..”Louise Van Rhyn – BSc / MBA / DMAN (Doctorate in Organizational Change), MD of Syphonia, and lecturer at University of Stellenbosch Graduate School of Business

Workshop participants say:

“Dorian and Graham, you make a formidable team and the synergy is palpable. You focused perfectly on the aim of our week end: emotional connection. Well done and thank you"

"Our sincere thanks for running a very different workshop that gently accessed and dealt with deep responses""Thank you for the gifts you brought. You made us laugh, you made us think, and helped us to unbutton hidden and untold parts of ourselves. Your stories, warmth and wisdom touched us all and your gifts will continue to multiply and spread. We were all made richer for your presence"

"Thank you for a fascinating time with you. It has opened up a whole new realm of thinking for me as to how I run my life, and how we communicate our business"

"Your approach is brilliant. I'm expanding on these ideas at meetings now"

Our approach: http://astoriedcareer.com/graham_williams_and_dorian_haa.html

A Communal, Interactive Story

Help write a communal story.
Here is the way the game will work:
Everyone who participates is both reader and writer.
The opening few lines have been written.

The first person to "comment" adds a line or two or three as their comment. Maybe a paragraph.
And so we continue as the story unfolds. It may turn out to be long or short. There may be chapters. We don’t know what we don’t know.
And the title of the story will emerge somewhere along the way.
It's a 'novel' approach.

"Four am. I was sitting near the body. Doodling. Playing with a haiku.

Staring eyes. Frightened?
Stabbed, hit, kicked, abused. And blood…
Coagulating

‘Inspector Seymour, we need you over here……..’”