Appreciate why storytelling is such a valuable tool in helping you to

drive your change initiatives

Be clearer in your own mind about what you do and why you do it
Have begun building important relationships with your Story Team that
will enhance your learning experience
WELCOME TO
STORYTELLING FOR CHANGE:
By Greta Cowan and Richard Richards, The Ariel Group
This document contains the below materials you will need for Week 1:
Materials Checklist
Read through this on your own
before working on your
assignments and meeting with
your Story Team.
Estimated time: 1.5-2.0 hours
depending on your reading speed
Every week, you will be given a
check list. Please use this to see if
you are on track for this course.
Learning activities for Week 1
1
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Checklists
Welcome! Please make sure you have.
Reviewed the Home page on the Course website for this course
The page (http://bit.ly/19t7iob) includes the following:
(1) Jacqueline Novogratz, Founder and CEO of Acumen, 2005 TED Talk
(http://bit.ly/19QuhYi)
(2) Learning Outcomes of this course
(3) Course Logistics of this course
STORYTELLING FOR CHANGE Week 1 | Introduction to the Course
This week you should.. (individually)
Familiarize yourself with the Key Concepts of the week
- Please see Page 3
Complete the assignments (due Jan 19
th
)
- Please see Page 4
2
Schedule
Recommended
- Complete the individual pre-assignment by January 19th
- Attend your Story Team session during the week starting January 19
th
(Sun)
Watched the short video on Introduction to Storytelling
- The video can be found on the Lecture 1 page where this PDF was placed at
https://novoed.com/storytelling-change/lecture_pages/610
Filled out your profle on Novoed
- Your profle (location, primary language, bio, etc) can be updated at:
https://novoed.com/storytelling-change/profles/edit.
Filled out your pre-course Survey
- The link to the survey is here (https://novoed.com/storytelling-change/surveys/360)
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Why Storytelling is Important
For over 27,000 years, since the frst cave painting
were discovered, telling stories has been one of
our most fundamental communication methods
and researchers have said that our brains are
hard-wired to listen to and tell stories. Moreover,
storytelling is a skill that transcends language,
culture and geographical boundaries. It is
universal and relevant in almost every
communication situation.
Stories, Important to You and Your Change
Initiatives
Personal stories allow you to share something of
yourself with others and in so doing you:
Create a connection with your listeners by
showing you have things in common
Give others an insight into who you are and
your personal experiences
Demonstrate your vulnerability (chinks in
your armor) that make you more human
its diffcult to form a relationship with a
perfect person!
Capture the essence of your message in a
way that is personal to you and more easily
understood by your audience
What Sorts of Stories Can You Tell?
Tell Who I Am
Stories about moments that made you who you
are or that clarifed your values, i.e. what others
need to know to believe in you, follow your ideas
and/or work enthusiastically with you
Tell Who We Are
Stories about values of your organization or
community, i.e. what makes up the DNA of your
organization or community?
Teach a Lesson
Stories that show how you learned something
through failure or success, how you mastered a
social or work skill, or how you overcame
resistance to change
Motivate Change
Stories that shed light on whats wrong with the
present situation, i.e. share dangerous mistakes
from the past, establish the case for change,
create a vision for the future
Change the Frame
Stories that allow your audience to see a problem
through a different lens or from a different
perspective, that help to diffuse or change the
emotional climate of a situation
We will begin this course by exploring how to tell
personal stories your own stories of success
and/or failure, of triumph and/or despair.
Key Concepts
3
STORYTELLING FOR CHANGE Week 1 | Introduction to the Course
Stories are how we think. They are how we make
meaning of life. Call them schemas, scripts,
cognitive maps, mental models, metaphors, or
narratives. Stories are how we explain how things
work, how we make decisions, how we persuade
others, how we understand our place in the world,
create identities, and defne and teach social
values. Dr. Pamela Rutledge
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1: Create/submit Your Life Map
Please follow the instruction on this page
http://bit.ly/1hTZvlZ on the NovoEd platform
under Assignment tab. Estimated time for this
assignment is 15-30 minutes. Submission
deadline: Jan 19
th
.
2: Prepare yourself to lead or join a Story
Team
You will be expected to form a Story Team as
part of this course. If you joined this course with
a team in mind you could have them as your
story Team Member. If you have a good internet
connection, you could meet your potential team
online as well. We highly recommend forming a
team with people you can meet with in person
but if you could meet them online, that is fne
as well.
Story Team meetings are an important and fun
part of the course. This is where you will discuss
the material, practice with a friendly audience,
and learn from each other.
Please see P5-6 for more information on Story
Team formation. Same instruction and a tab to
Create New Team can be found at this page
http://bit.ly/1dnYJdj on the NovoEd platform
under Assignment tab.
Deadline: Jan 19
th

3: Identify a presentation you would like to
develop throughout this course
When learning any new skill, it is important to
practice the skill soon after learning how to use
it. Tomorrows success is todays practice! So
please take this course prepared by following the
below:
Identify a presentation you need to make in
the near future (ideally in the next 1-6 weeks)
Who would be the audience? It could be an
audience of one or of many people. Why
would they be listening to you and what
would they want to hear?
What is the key message of your
presentation that you could support with a
personal story?
What is the outcome you would like to
achieve as a result of this presentation?
What would your audience think, feel or do
differently as a result of your presentation?
You will revisit this and will be asked to have
your presentation materials (PowerPoint, fip
charts, visual aids or props) ready for Week 5 of
this course.
For this week, identifying the above and having
answers ready for the above questions would be
suffcient.
4: Schedule your frst Story Team Session
and follow the guideline
Once your Story Team agrees on a date, please
use the guide in P7-P12 to conduct your frst Story
Team Session.
Assignment
Please complete the assignments below and upload them on your own before meeting with your Story
Team.
STORYTELLING FOR CHANGE Week 1 | Introduction to the Course
4
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Teams are self-formed on the Create a
New Team tab
Anyone may create a team
When you create a team you are the Team
Leader. Once you create a Team, a new menu
item will be added to your navigation bar at the
top of the page.
The Team Leader can add new members by
entering their email address or by using the
invite button on their profle.
When creating a Team, use detailed descriptions
and information so that others will be able to
thoughtfully consider whether your location and
interests may be a good match.
As mentioned above, this Team Leader could
alternate among your team members later.
If you started a Team and are looking for
members:
Use the Students menu under Community to
recruit your classmates to join your Team.
If you are looking for a Team to join:
Use the contact button on the team page to
contact all team members or the team leader to
join the team. You can also use the Forums of
this course at
https://novoed.com/storytelling-change/forums
There is a discussion category titled Forming/
Joining a Story Team. Please feel free to initiate a
new discussion thread.
Story Team Formation
5
The instructions below describes how to form and join teams on the NovoEd platform. Although there
is one leader who manages the team through the system and throughout the course, you may choose
to assign a different team leader for each session, rotating through the team members each week. The
choice is yours.
STORYTELLING FOR CHANGE Week 1 | Introduction to the Course
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Team Notifcation under Conversations
Every time you get invited to a team, you will
receive a new invitation under your
Conversations, Team notifcation tab. The
invitation message contains links to accept or
reject an invitation. Note the team leader will not
be able to invite you again if you reject their
invitation
Open and dynamic structure
Team formation has a very open dynamic
structure. At any point of this course you can
decide to leave a Team and join a new one,
without penalty.
The Team Leader can decide to remove inactive
or uncooperative members from the Team. In
that case the member will receive a team
notifcation about this decision, and if you think
the Team Leader has made a mistake, you can
appeal the Team Leaders decision. If half of
Team Members agree with you; you will be added
back as a member of the Team.
If a Team Leader chooses to leave his/her Team,
he/she can assign Team Leadership to another
member.
You may only be a member of one Team at a
time.
Story Team Formation
6
STORYTELLING FOR CHANGE Week 1 | Introduction to the Course
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Appreciate why storytelling is such a valuable tool in helping you to
drive your change initiatives
Be clearer in your own mind about what you do and why you do it
Have begun to build important relationships with your Story Team that
will enhance your learning experience
WELCOME TO
STORYTELLING FOR CHANGE:
By Greta Cowan and Richard Richards, The Ariel Group
Please use the following guide to conduct your Story Team Session
Your Session should be approximately 2 hours (depending on your team size)
Learning activities for Week 1
7
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STORYTELLING FOR CHANGE Week 1 | Introduction to the Course
SESSION Approx.2 HOURS
Lab leader, please welcome everyone
to the very frst session meeting and
guide the team through the following
activity and discussion questions.
Appoint one of your team members
to be timekeeper for this session.
Agenda
1
2
3
4
Introductions and Course Logistics
15 minutes
Share Life Maps and Discussion
40-60 minutes depending on the group size
Reviewing Your Presentation
15 minutes depending on the group size
Ahas
10 minutes
5
Preparing for Week 2
5 minutes
Materials
! A printed or electronic copy of this Guide
! Something to keep time with
! Access to a computer and monitor/projector, with
sound and Internet access to watch videos online
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STORYTELLING FOR CHANGE Week 1 | Introduction to the Course
INTRODUCTIONS & COURSE LOGISTICS
1
15 minutes
Brief Introduction
Take a moment to do introductions by sharing
your name, organization, location, etc. You will
learn more about each other when you share
your Life Maps in the later exercise during this
session.
Estimated time required for this course
You will have about one to two hours of work
each week to prepare for your lab group. Each lab
is scheduled to take about two hours.
Calendar
You should plot your lab group meetings on a
calendar with your group. Can everyone commit
to attend all the sessions? If not, mark dates that
members might miss and plan accordingly or
reschedule.
Below are our recommended schedule for hosting
your Story Team Sessions. The updates will be
refected in the Google Calendar posted under the
course Home page:
https://novoed.com/storytelling-change/home
Session #1: Between Jan 19-Jan 25
Session #2: Between Jan 26-Feb 1
Session #3: Between Feb 2-Feb 8
Session #4: Between Feb 9-Feb 15
Session #5: Between Feb 16-Feb 22
Session #6: Between Feb 23-March 1
Story Team Leader
Although there is one leader who manages the
team through the system and throughout the
program, you may choose to assign a different
Story Team Leader for each session, rotating
through the team members each week. The
choice is yours!
The team leader will be responsible for reviewing
the guide before the weekly session so that they
can lead the lab discussion and activities. You
should coordinate with your team to schedule
who will be the leader for each week during this
frst session.
Your Team Norms
We recommend that your group takes a moment
to set a few rules or norms for how you would
like the weekly meetups to function Here are
some questions to get you going:
.
How can you structure the weekly meeting to
ensure that an environment of mutual trust
and respect is created?
How should feedback (both positive and
negative) be communicated so that each
individual and the team get the most out of it?
Are there other rules that you can think of
which will make the weekly meetups run
more smoothly?
There is a category on this in the Course Forum
if you would like to share your team norms in
the Forum and learn from others.
The lab leader should guide the discussion. This course has a group-guided learning structure and
will be most successful if you follow as closely as possible to the guidelines below. Discuss each of
these guidelines and determine if there will be any problems and map out potential solutions.
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Prepare to share (5)
Please have your submitted Life Map ready to share with your Team. Each person
will have 5 minutes to present the highlights of their Life Maps.
We encourage you to focus your description around the social cause that you are
currently most passionate about. You are all taking this course because you are
interested in creating change via storytelling. What change are you interested in
creating and why? What part of your Life Map is related to your passion and what
other emotions/behaviors illustrated in your Life Map would you like to emphasize
to the Team?
Share (30-50)
Each person gets to go in turn to share . Make sure someone in your Team keeps
track of time so everyone has enough time to share their Life Map. Those who are
listening could refect back what they heard as values and strengths based on the
individuals life experiences and choices. (5 minutes per person to share + 3-5
minutes for feedback from the Team)
Debrief exercise (5)
! How has this exercise changed the relationships in the group?
! What was the most powerful/surprising/useful aspect of this exercise?
! Was there any similarities you noticed among the Team members?
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STORYTELLING FOR CHANGE Week 1 | Introduction to the Course
SHARE LIFE MAPS and DISCUSSION
2
40-60 minutes depending on the Team size
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Refecting on your Assignment 1 from P5..
When learning any new skill, it is important to practice the skill soon after learning
how to use it. Tomorrows success is todays practice! So please take this course
prepared by following the below:
Identify a presentation you need to make in the near future (ideally in the next
1.-6 weeks)
Who would be the audience? It could be an audience of one of of many people.
Why would they be listening to you and what would they want to hear?
What is the key message of your presentation that you could support with a
personal story?
What is the outcome you would like to achieve as a result of this presentation?
What would your audience think, feel or do differently as a result of your
presentation?
It is important to make sure you have a plan before you move on to
the following weeks. Please use this time to discuss and make sure
that everyone has something to work with.
Please share your responses to below briefy to your Team.
1) When you are planning to make the presentation,
2) To whom that presentation would be for
3) The key message you wish to convey
4) The outcome you would like to achieve as a result of this presentation
If someone from your team is struggling to come up with one, please help each other
to brainstorm ideas!
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STORYTELLING FOR CHANGE Week 1 | Introduction to the Course
REVIEWING YOUR PRESENTATION
3
15 minutes depending on the Team size
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Refect on your AHAS, then Share
At Acumen, we have a practice of sharing ahas on a regular basis. It is a way to
refect on an experience and to gain more insight into the world and yourself. Take 1-2
minutes to think and write down your aha: a key take-away, a new perspective, a
memorable comment or questions, or a parting thought from this lab.
Then share your aha with the group. If you are struggling to come up with an aha,
heres a question to help you: If you were to tell your friend about this experience
tomorrow, what would you tell them?
Please feel share to post your ahas on the Course Forum after your Story Team
Session at: https://novoed.com/storytelling-change/forums/713 (Forum>Topics>Week1)
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STORYTELLING FOR CHANGE Week 1 | Introduction to the Course
AHAS
4
10 minutes
PREPARING FOR SESSION #2
5
5 minutes
Confrm with your Story Team
Confrm when you are holding your next session and who the lab leader is going to be.
Have a great week!
Materials for Week 2 will be posted under Lecture on January 21
st

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