An Invitation to Re-Authoring Practices

There are a great many reasons to be curious about BEYOND STORYTELLING.

Besides the awesome program we are building with our hosts, contributors and key note speakers, we are also planning events before and after the conference for those who want to dive deeper into specific topics and refine their practices in working with stories.

Enabling individuals, organizations and communities to re-write and re-author the stories they live by is a key for transformation. The Re-Authoring Lens and Practices are powerful to uncover the influence of socially constructed and culturally inherited beliefs and ideas– and create new and empowering alternative stories to support these transformations.

With her book “Re-Authoring the World” Chené Swart has translated ideas from narrative therapy into the realm of organizational and community transformation and defined a set of concepts and practices for facilitating change in organizations.

In her post-conference Masterclass “Re-Authoring Practices for and within Organizations” she will introduce the narrative lens and practices in a two-day interactive workshop. The Masterclass will address and answer questions like:

• What do we do when we see conversations spiral into the same boring and divisive arguments and rhetoric?
• How can we transport a group with us into unknown territories of thinking, listening and seeing?
• How can we develop and hold alternative stories and exceptional moments long enough so we can ask questions of them and enrich them if they provide us with some clues about the future we want more of?
• How can we become surprised and fascinated with these alternative moments so that they become companions into our alternative futures as new narratives that guide our hands, hearts and minds?

The Masterclass runs from Sunday, May 21, 10:00 am to Monday, May 22, 04:00 pm. Tickets are available for € 650 + VAT. Participants to BEYOND STORYTELLING conference get 25 % discount. We limited the tickets for this Masterclass to 15 to enable a good working atmossphere – so be quick in securing your spot.
 

PS: Limited Super Early Bird tickets for BEYOND STORYTELLING are available until January 1, 2017. They offer a 200 € discount compared with the regular price!

Why go BEYOND?

After we send our our first newsletter last week, we got quite a few questions. Not only why the codes don´t work (they are sold out)*, but very prominently:

„Why BEYOND Storytelling?“

Let us take you on a short journey:

For us storytelling is an integral part of human life. We define ourselves and the world we life in through the stories we tell ourselves and others. Stories help us to make sense of the world and our place within it. They provide us with meaning and spark inspiration and action. Artfully crafted stories speak to our minds and hearts.

When a story is told, it develops a life on it´s own. It get´s re-interpreted and re-told by those who have been touched by it.

Stories move through conversations, leave traces and find their place in the collective mind – seeds are planted and ideas are spread. This is what makes the art of storytelling so attractive to leaders, marketeers and communicators.

And that is why we believe that working with stories must go beyond this artful craft. That stories are "in some deep sense are a joint product of the teller and the told.“** From this perspective, working with stories is a deeply dialogical process, that enables us to understand and create new accounts of who we are and where we want to go.

At BEYOND STORYTELLING we want to invite you to explore the many different ways of working with stories in organizations:

• as carriers of organizational cultures and crucial know-how
• as frameworks and dramaturgical guides for organizational change processes and brand management
• as starting points for the development new identities for our organizations and communities
• as vehicle to develop new approaches to leadership
• as key element in the development of e-learning programs

All these practices and approaches go BEYOND STORYTELLING. Their power has been applied in many organizations to guide them through change, inspire transformation and enable continuous learning.

Curious? Get inspired!***

* Ps: We released three more discount codes. Go to our registration page and use BEYONDSTORYTELLING (all caps) to unlock a 10% discount!

** This is a quote from Jerome Bruner, one of the most influential narrative psychologists. Thanks to Joanna Sell for this wonderful quote!

*** A big source of inspiration on narrative approaches and working with story is the new book from Wolfgang Tonninger and Udo Bräu: Wegmarken im Möglichkeitenland.

Welcome to Beyond Storytelling!

Dear colleagues & friends
 
we are living and working in turbulent times. The political, social and economic landscape is shifting and we need to make sense of it. We gather data and information to understand, but as the philosopher Byung Chul Han said: data and numbers are additive, not narrative. But meaning rests on narration.

In our lives and in our organizations, orientation and inspiration comes through narration: the ability to pattern our experience in stories and narratives that speak to our minds, hands and hearts. That provide meaning and inspiration for our colleagues, clients and customers.
 
At BEYOND STORYTELLING we want to invite marketeers, change agents, knowledge workers and learning & development professionals to explore and experience the potential of narrative approaches and storytelling in organizations.
 
Why attend?
We believe that the combination of topics and talents that will come together in Heidelberg is unique in the field of narrative work and storytelling. Here are some reasons to attend:

• Get to know best practices and case studies for the application of narrative methods in 12 + workshops
• Be inspired by leading figures in the field of narrative work and storytelling
• Familiarize yourself with state-of-the-art narrative approaches and methods for change, communication and learning in organizations
• Get to know a new perspectives on organizations that helps you to address the deeper layers of sensemaking, visions and beliefs
• Become part of a network of experienced storyworkers, consultants, communicators and change agents

We are so excited that we are live with the conference that we released discount codes worth 10% for the first 5 registrations. Just go to the registration page and use the code BEYONDSTORYTELLING (all caps). First come, first serve!

Curious? Get inspired!