Telling someone to change is one thing and teaching them how to change is another.
At the end of a my Storytelling Workshops there are two types of inner dialogues that take place.
My inner dialogue is,”I hope the participants change the way they communicate” and participant’s inner dialogue is “this time I am really going to change”
My inner dialogue is hope filled versus participant’s inner dialogue is filled with certainty.
I have always felt there is merit in leveraging this post workshop unstoppable energy in participants that you witness at the end of workshop.
So, I started looking at ways in which I can help my workshop participants change because saying, ” you should practice ” doesn’t change anything and guess what most post learning programs also fail because the motivation to change dies overtime. So, no matter how good the content, we fail to see the desired change.
Through my Change Management Storytelling work I have understood the behavioral science of change. Unlike a workshop, most of my Change Management Storytelling work is centred around working on real change inititaives with organisations. So, at the end of the project it is clear whether we have been successful or not in telling the change story. Basically, there it is not a practice ground, it is a performance ground.
Here is one of the Change insights on human behaviour learnt through my Change Storytelling work
Inertia to get started
There are things we dread. For example, I love the creative and content side of the work I do but do not enjoy the administrative part of running a business. So, I procrastinate and I am not interested in getting started.
In thier book Switch, Heath Brothers write about people who proscatinate with housecleaning and how there is a way out out of it. It’s called the 5-Minute Rescue, and it was proposed by an online housecleaning guru called the “Fly Lady.” You set a kitchen timer to 5 minutes. Then you rush to the dirtiest room in your house–the one you’d never let a guest see–and, as the timer ticks down, you start clearing a path, and when the timer finally buzzes, you can stop with a clear conscience. Doesn’t sound so bad, does it? But the trick, of course, is that you won’t stop, because by then, you’ll have some momentum going, you’ll have the satisfaction of seeing some progress, and you’ll keep trucking.
Getting started is always harder than staying going.
And the reason why getting started is the hardest is because the change feels too big. In my case, telling participants to go from talking a language of abstract which they have done for years to Storytelling seems like a big change. So, they never get started even though they have all the intentions to.
What is the solution?
The best way to manage this to make small changes happen and when people watch themselves progress with these little changes they remain motivated to keep going.
I have now use this insight to launch our post mobile learning storytelling program where I task participants to do simple things that utilise mobile functions. When participants see the progress they feel great and keep going.
Narrative’s Storytelling Work is designed to facilitate change via workshops, trainings and consulting programs.
"I attended your story telling course some time back. And I've enjoyed keeping up my knowledge with your blog. You may not have realised however, that the Whole of Government is implementing Internet Seperation. Hence I'm not able to access the links to read your articles. Could I suggest including a QR code in your emails so that I can use my mobile to scan it and gain immediate access to the article? It would be most helpful"
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