Hello Friends!

Greetings from Barcelona☀️. Many thanks for your feedback on the last edition and for reaching out. A special shout out to the following people: Sue in Mansfield, Allegra in Seattle, Rachel in Barrowford, Monica S. in Barcelona, Robin in Sydney, Connie in Toronto, Delia in London, Ricky in San Francisco, Michaele & Barry in Bracebridge 🙌. 

If you are joining The Quest for the first time, welcome to our weekly exploration of creativity, facilitation, and learning. You can catch up on past editions here.

This week: have you ever noticed how the most inspiring facilitators, teachers, and change-makers really know how to tell their own stories?

What is it about telling our story that is so powerful?

How do we get better at telling stories, and facilitating others to tell theirs?

Let Amanda Gorman and others help us shed some light on this, the focus of this weeks edition: telling our stories.

🧭Telling Our Own Story

Let’s get started with a story.

A few weeks ago, I was invited to facilitate an online session on telling our personal stories for a group of teaching students at Blanquerna University in Barcelona. My partner for one of the exercises was a 20-something sporty-looking male student. We had 3 minutes each to tell each other what motivated us to get into education.

He started to tell me about what motivated him to become a teacher. He told me about his challenges with ADHD as a child, and how it had made learning difficult for him. He couldn’t sit still in class. He was constantly getting punished for his apparent lack of focus. He grew up thinking that there was something wrong with him. That he was stupid. And yet he loved learning.

As he grew older he started to understand his condition. He discovered that he could increase his focus by doing sports. He then turned his focus toward finishing school to get the grades to get into teacher’s college. He told me that he was studying to become a teacher because he didn’t want other kids to have the experience that he had. He wanted to make learning inclusive for all learning styles. And then the 3 minutes were up.

In those few minutes my partners’ story stirred my compassion for that child struggling in the classroom. His story also sparked admiration for the future teacher on the screen in front of me committed to making education more inclusive.

What is it about telling our stories that is so powerful?

• It’s universal. It’s one of the few human traits that is truly universal across culture and through all of known history.

• It’s empowering. Telling our stories helps us to reclaim our identity and make meaning.

• It’s human. Stories help us build empathy and create connection. They help us to understand our own stories in connection with others.

Last week I heard another story that moved me – along with several million other people around the world. You may have heard it too…

🌅The Light in Amanda Gorman’s Story

When 22-year old Amanda Gorman recited her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the US Presidential Inauguration last week, one of the most powerful moments came when she told her own story. It came 51 seconds into her poem when she said, “… we the successors of a country and a time where a skinny black girl descendant from slaves, and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president, only to find herself reciting for one.” Was anyone else covered in goosebumps after that line? Watch her entire awe-inspiring performance here.

Amanda Gorman reciting “The Hill We Climb” at President Biden’s Inauguration

I knew that Gorman’s poem told a story whose larger significance I could not fully grasp. I was grateful to come across this article by American journalist and author Andrea Collier on “Why telling Our Own Story is so Powerful for Black Americans.” Collier’s experience of telling her story gave me a deeper appreciation for the ages-old aural tradition and craft of telling your story honed by African American storytellers.

What is Public Narrative: Self, Us & Now

Amanda Gorman’s poem is an extraordinary example of a powerful public narrative. Telling your story to inspire others to join you in action on behalf of a shared purpose. We may not all have Amanda Gorman’s poetic gifts, but we can work on our public narrative. Enter the Public Narrative framework. It was created by Harvard Professor Marshall Ganz, drawing on his experience in the Civil Rights Movement and community organizing. The framework is a “how-to” for connecting with your story to make a difference.

Source: https://trove.onsubject.eu/public-narrative/

🔬Understanding the Science of Storytelling

If you like to geek out on neuroscience, I’ve got some good news for you. There is a growing universe of scientists studying what happens to our brains when we hear stories.

Source: https://www.cfx-inc.com/blog/2018/2/14/the-science-of-storytelling

Here are 3 articles that gave me a few new insights:

• Why Your Brain Loves Good Storytelling, Paul J. Zak, Ph.D. Harvard Business Review (you can read a few free HBR articles per month), and Why Inspiring Stories Make Us React: The Neuroscience of Narrative, by the same author in Cerebrum.

  Insight: A good story releases oxytocin in our brain that increases empathy.

• The Secrets of Good Storytelling: Why We Love a Good Yarn. Our Love for Telling Tales Reveals the Workings of the Mind, Jeremy Hsu, Scientific American (you need a paid subscription to Scientific American to read the article but I found this link that re-produced this article).

  Insight: Good stories can result in “narrative transport”, where the audience’s emotions become linked to the story’s characters.

• The Art of Storytelling: Researchers Explore Why We Relate to Characters. Science Daily on research from McMaster University.

  Insight: Regardless of how the story is delivered, our brains relate best to the thoughts and feelings of the characters.

🛌Storytellers Wanted

Do you have a favourite bedtime story that you loved as a kid? Or a story that gives you immense joy reading to your kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, or young neighbours? This is your opportunity to record it and share it with more kids.

A few years ago I met Rachel Tomlinson, the wonder woman Head Teacher of Barrowford Primary School in Northern England (hi Rach 👋). She is launching a storytelling project so that children from anywhere in the world can access bedtime stories read by a range of voices, accents, faces, and experiences.

If you would like to contribute please record a video of you telling the story, and send the link to Rachel: head@barrowford.lancs.sch.uk. Here’s a story she shared about reading a story on Twitter recently:

Thanks for reading. I always love hearing your feedback and suggestions. Feel free to email me at gwyn@gwynwansbrough.com. Visit my website for ways we can work together here. 

If you are enjoying The Quest, I’d appreciate it if you shared it with anyone you think might like it. 

Until next week!

Gwyn

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