Influencing through stories (for Agile Coaches)

Influencing through stories

by Mosesraj R

BREAKING THE ICE THROUGH A STORY..

BOLT – AN INITIATIVE STORY

SELECTING, CONNECTING, RELATING

DEFINING COACHING THROUGH A STORY..

SELECTING – THE ANNECDOTES THAT MADE THE

STORYLINE..

CONNECTING – THE PRINCIPLE THAT THE FEW DEGREE BODY

ANGLE MATTERED THE MOST TO BECOME A WORLD

CHAMPION

RELATING – HELP SEE AND OVERCOME GAPS FOR EFFECTIVE

COACHING

A POWERFUL FEEDBACK

CAN YOU RELATE TO THE PRINCIPLE?

SELECTING, CONNECTING, RELATING

WHY TELL STORIES - 1

• Impact on mind – stories put whole brain to work..

• Stories help pass the your beliefs on the topic with the impact that it had on

you

• Holistic learning happens at multiple levels

• Principle level – Why we do something

• Concept level – what is the theory behind

• Practice level – How it is to be performed

WHY TELL STORIES - 2

• Most great teachers – both ancient and contemporary, pass

timeless truths through stories. It is part of our eastern culture

and especially Indian as well

• Jesus Christ – real life instances, objects

• Vivekananda – a story of old carpenter

WHERE CAN WE USE STORIES

• Training sessions

• Stories making things lively

• Retrospectives

• When Tsunami hit Indian coast, two key questions – why did we not predict, why are we not

prepared?

• Formal Individual interactions

• Reinforcing views

• Team sessions

PREPARING FOR STORY TELLING

• Observe real world and correlate to real life

• Thinking of outcome and picking the story

• Preparing the opening statements – invoking curiosity

• “Once upon a time” start

• Start from a middle

• Stating the end and starting

• Deciding how to derive the outcome

• A set of questions that would prompt people to tell the outcome

• Driven as part of the story itself

• Writing a narrative script, practicing

ACTIVITY – Story

session…

THINK OF STORIES FOR THESE..

Working product

Customer collaboration

Working together – pair programming

Collaboration

Stories breakdown

Feedback cycle

Visibility

Vision

Retrospective

Cultural change takes time

Don’t fret. Think of your problems first

Focus on what can be controlled

Being focused

SUMMARIZING…

• Principles are best communicated through stories

• Words well crafted communicate better than pictures. Stories touch the

deeper senses and stay longer

• Preparedness is key to get started. Get started with this art, it gets better

• Stories are not a supplement to thought leadership