This is me in full flow up in Umeå on Monday. I was delivering a talk I entitled ‘Narrative Bound,’ to SUHF (Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions) members. These were all academics from many different fields including engineering, research, sustainability etc. When I told people I was doing this, a number told me it would be difficult as Swedish Academics are very ——- (insert any word you want here.) They would be a ‘tough audience’ and I would have to have my

Hi Everybody, The image is from a pub I found whilst I was recently in Dublin, called The Storyteller. Needless to say I had to go in and down a pint of my cultural heritage in honour of my grandmother who was from Cork. I was in Dublin for the Council for International Schools Global Forum as I was their keynote speaker and was also running a workshop for them. It was my largest live audience, 0ver 850 for the keynote and about 120 for the workshop and I relished the whole e

I am going to start with a story of compost. My husband and I moved to our wonderful house about 18 months ago and one of the reasons for moving there was the garden. (Well I say garden, it was mostly a messy lawn with a few fruit trees and a few very neglected raised beds.) I was desperate to get busy creating new vegetable beds, flower beds, arches and much more and to start composting all of our green waste. (You need to know at this point that I have never really had the

The image is from a workshop I delivered for SafeGrowth in New Orleans some years back. My work focused on re-storying communities and developing systems of support to make this happen. It is often the case that those who are directly affected by various systems are not involved in creating them. My work gave practical ideas for ensuring that the voices and stories of those impacted would be a vital part of any decision-making process - so that their stories could be shared,

The idea of 'success' has been buzzing in my thoughts and feelings. A constant awareness, pushing me into really reflecting on what it means to me and why that is. It started with the feed of a person who trains people in 'presentation skills.' This person is someone I admire from a distance, (I only know them as an online presence) and it seemed their work was very 'successful.' However there was something in the work that did not feel 'right' to me - it was like a piece of

The image on the left is of a birch tree that was cut a little too early. You can see the sap has poured out and become frozen. The internal life force of the tree has become visible, held in place for us to witness and marvel at. I offer this as a powerful metaphor for why we should work with story structures. I remember reading that when we share information using story structures, people experience the information almost as something that they had forgotten rather than som

Autumn is my favourite season. I find summer too demanding, especially living in Sweden where there is a pressure to fill those sun-filled days with activities. It is understandable as the darkness that is to come is heavy and long with only a few hours of sun in certain parts of the country and in the far north there is no sun at all. Yet I relish the onset of the darkness. I feel my body slacken, my shoulders drop and a deep exhale from my lungs; for me autumn and winter ar

I am often asked this question and I thought the best way to answer is to tell you about the work I have done in the past couple of months. I will share just two pieces of work that I was recently employed to do. The first was for Tussenland Festival in Netherlands. I worked there for 4 days and this is what I did: Day 1 - I gave 2 workshops to teachers on ´Building Learning Identities´ with their students, through using narrative based methods. (A positive learning identity

Before I begin I want to mention the writers whose work has enabled me to become aware of the racism that is an integral, and often unknown part of my identity. * Resmaa Menakem and his book, My Grandmother's Hands. * Ibram X Kendi and his book, How to be an Antiracist. * Lovette Jallow and her book Främling i Vita Rum which is only available in Swedish at this moment in time. So, to begin. I want to be as honest, uncomfortable and open as possible here. I am still and always

In Sweden the metaphor of the 'Red Thread' is used to denote the idea that pulls everything together; the meaning of it all, the story

This is what I strive to do in my work. I strive to enable people/organisations to become aware of the stories they carry and which shape their behaviour or the behaviour of their staff. I then help them deconstruct these stories and identify where they came from. They choose to keep those that aid them on their journey while casting off those which hinder them. I then facilitate a process that helps them stay on the path of the 'new story' that leads to their vision. Whilst

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" How many times did we hear that as children and how many times have we asked children that question? It seems to be simple enough but if you unpick what it contains, (or often does not contain,) it is in fact very complex. The same applies for your or your organisation. What do you want them to be when they grow up? So, let us look at this question a little more closely. In order to answer it, you must have some concept of your imag

Often, at the end of my training sessions, I invite people to create a circle and imagine that they each hold ribbons and threads in their hands, enough for each person in the group. I then ask them to think about who in the group they had known or worked with before and imagine a thread going to that person, across the circle and one coming back to them, from that person. I then ask others, 'who did you know or work with?' and I move around the circle helping them visualise

I have recently been involved in an organisation where the staff and the business have been split up into two separate companies. As I spoke to the people involved, it was interesting to hear what stories they were creating to make sense of this move and find a way to go forward. It also became very apparent that some people were carrying old stories forward into the new companies. Some of these were negative stories that could hinder them from developing, that carried anger

Let me begin by sharing part of a narrative training exercise that I have developed and often use. First the large group is divided into groups of about six who are seated around tables. I ask them to create individual representations of a successful student/employee they have known. They then share the stories of these people with the others on their table. The groups of six then identify any patterns or similarities in these successful people and create a composite represen

How often have we heard the phrase, "we need to change behaviour?" Whether in the classroom, office, community or even within ourselves. The phrase is often batted around like a shuttlecock, lightly and quickly. However if we took time to explore what it truly means, we would discover it is the opposite of a shuttlecock, it is a weighted thing that moves slowly, a complex thing with many layers that are mostly invisible to us. So how do we change behaviour? I believe it all s

In any training that aims to effect change I feel we have to start with the question, why? Why are you a teacher? Why are you a leader? Why do you believe what you do? Why do you want to change? If you look at these questions one can see the answers are essentially the start of a story - so the why gives the story and the story gives the why. In my recent work training educational leaders here in Sweden I have realised the importance of the question why. I use it at the star

In her article, 'Framing Uncertainty: narratives, change and digital technologies,´ (Maison des Sciences de l'Homme,) Lucia Garcia-Lorenzo states that "stories arise in the space between our experience of the world and our efforts to put that experience into language. Garcia-Lorenzo states that this is vital for sense-making and transmission of experience. Nora Bateson of the International Bateson Institute, in her article for Kosmos Journal talks of ´Liminal Leadership. In

I feel that there is an assumption that we can create a totally new future as leaders of organisations or of ourselves. Often I am asked to facilitate a process where companies can 'vision' a future and start to develop the story of how it will be; however I never agree to work at developing a future narrative without first exploring the present one and the past one. (Of which there are often many versions.) To ask people to leap with you into a future without first acknowled

I am back after a lovely holiday and I am now in the process of preparing 3 pieces of work for major educational conferences here in Sweden. They all focus on Leadership and the ability to develop and share the story of the differing organisations. The first conference is for SFI (Swedish For Immigrants) teachers. The irony here is that presently, I am an SFI student. I am the only native English speaker in my class with most being from Syria, and almost 97% having Arabic as