The transformative power of story telling as a methodology for teambuilding and building a healthy organisational culture

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Last week I facilitated a teambuilding session in Harare, Zimbabwe with an international capacity building organisation with country offices in several countries. This session brought the team together in person - over 40 people gathering in a large tent which was set up in the beautiful gardens of their office premises. This was the ideal setting for several rounds of storytelling and sharing in small intimate groups. Coupled with an active listening exercise the group found that the qualitative listening helped to change the dynamic between them and those who shared their stories felt a deep respect from their colleagues as they were each given their space to be heard fully. Some were also surprised how much they learnt from each other - especially for those who were working in different departments of the organisation - the lesson being that we all have wisdom which can be revealed when the conditions are conducive. This set the tone and was a strong foundation to build the rest of the teambuilding retreat on - also helping this team to have courageous conversations when the time came. Most of the staff felt that they really needed to develop their listening skills as it was not something that comes naturally to all of us. The topic for sharing was about something they appreciated in their work - sharing a positive experience or a challenging experience. Each group then had to look at what was common across their stories and present it to the rest of the group in a creative way either through drawing or body sculpture. This then gave the rest of the team a sense of the themes emerging from across the organisation. As a first round to reveal some of the organisational picture and areas that were going well, as well as the tensions, this exercise managed to serve this purpose too!  This experience of connecting qualitatively was both empowering and healing as it gave space for voices to be expressed equally across the organisational system. Iyanla Vanzart's quote speaks to both these key elements and outcomes and perfectly captures what this teambuilding story telling session was able to achieve!

Below is a link to levels of listening exercise - an exercise that is an essential part of my facilitator toolkit. 

Listening at Three Levels - Developing Deep Listening Skills - an Exercise and a Reading - The Barefoot Guide Connection

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